<P> While Johnny Depp was Burton's first choice for the role of Ichabod Crane, Paramount required him to consider Brad Pitt, Liam Neeson and Daniel Day - Lewis . Depp was cast in July 1998 for his third collaboration with Burton . The actor wanted Ichabod to parallel Irving's description of the character in the short story . This included a long prosthetic snipe nose, huge ears, and elongated fingers . Paramount turned down his suggestions, and after Depp read Tom Stoppard's rewrite of the script, he was inspired to take the character even further . "I always thought of Ichabod as a very delicate, fragile person who was maybe a little too in touch with his feminine side, like a frightened little girl," Depp explained . He did not wish to portray the character as a typical action star would have, and instead took inspiration by Angela Lansbury's performance in Death on the Nile . "It's good," Burton reasoned, "because I'm not the greatest action director in the world, and he's not the greatest action star ." Depp modeled Ichabod's detective personality from Basil Rathbone in the 1939 Sherlock Holmes film series . He also studied Roddy McDowall's acting for additional influence . Burton added that "the idea was to try to find an elegance in action of the kind that Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing or Vincent Price had ." Christina Ricci, who worked with producer Scott Rudin on The Addams Family, was cast as Katrina Van Tassel . Sleepy Hollow also reunited Burton with Jeffrey Jones (from Beetlejuice and Ed Wood) as Reverent Steenwyck, Christopher Walken (Max Schreck in Batman Returns) as the Hessian Horseman, Martin Landau (Ed Wood) in a cameo role, and Hammer veteran Michael Gough (Alfred in Burton's Batman films), whom Burton tempted out of retirement . The Hammer influence was further confirmed by the casting of Christopher Lee in a small role as the Burgomaster who sends Crane to Sleepy Hollow . </P> <P> The original intention had been to shoot Sleepy Hollow predominantly on location with a $30 million budget . Towns were scouted throughout Upstate New York along the Hudson Valley, and the filmmakers decided on Tarrytown for an October 1998 start date . The Historic Hudson Valley organization assisted in scouting locations, which included the Philipsburg Manor House and forests in the Rockefeller State Park Preserve . "They had a wonderful quality to them," production designer Rick Heinrichs reflected on the locations, "but it wasn't quite lending itself to the sort of expressionism that we were going for, which wanted to express the feeling of foreboding ." Disappointed, the filmmakers scouted locations in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and considered using Dutch colonial villages and period town recreations in the Northeastern United States . When no suitable existing location could be found, coupled with a lack of readily available studio space in the New York area needed to house the production's large number of sets, producer Scott Rudin suggested the UK . </P> <P> Rudin believed England offered the level of craftsmanship in period detail, painting and costuming that was suitable for the film's design . Having directed Batman entirely in Britain, Burton agreed, and designers from Batman's art department were employed by Paramount for Sleepy Hollow . As a result, principal photography was pushed back to November 20, 1998 at Leavesden Film Studios, which had been recently vacated by Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace . The majority of filming took place at Leavesden, with studio other work at Shepperton Studios, where the massive Tree of the Dead set was built using Stage H. Production then moved to the Hambleden estate at Lime Tree Valley for a month - long shoot in March, where the town of Sleepy Hollow was constructed . "We came to England figuring we would find a perfect little town," producer Adam Schroeder recalled, "and then we had to build it anyway ." Filming in Britain continued through April, and a few last minute scenes were shot using a sound stage in Yonkers, New York the following May . </P> <P> Responsible for the film's production design was Rick Heinrichs, who Burton intended to use on Superman Lives . While the production crew was always going to build a substantial number of sets, the decision was taken early on that to fulfill Burton's vision best would necessitate shooting Sleepy Hollow in a totally controlled environment at Leavesden Film Studios . The production design was influenced by Burton's love for Hammer Film Productions and Black Sunday--particularly the supernatural feel they evoked as a result of being filmed primarily on sound stages . Heinrichs was also influenced by American colonial architecture, German Expressionism, Dr. Seuss illustrations, and Hammer's Dracula Has Risen from the Grave . One sound stage at Leavesden was dedicated to the "Forest to Field" set, for the scene in which the Headless Horseman races out of the woods and into a field . This stage was then transformed into, variously, a graveyard, a corn field, a field of harvested wheat, a churchyard, and a snowy battlefield . In addition, a small backlot area was devoted to a New York City street and waterfront tank . </P>

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