Tim Burton said his working relationship with Disney has likely come to an end.
Burton shared his thoughts during an interview with Deadline's Melanie Goodfellow in an interview published Saturday. Burton, 64, told the outlet that he doesn't plan to work with Disney in the future after directing the 2019 "Dumbo" remake.
The "Dumbo" remake included the star-studded cast of Danny DeVito, Colin Farrell, Eva Green, and Michael Keaton.
"My history is that I started out there. I was hired and fired like several times throughout my career there," Burton told Deadline. "The thing about 'Dumbo' is that's why I think my days with Disney are done, I realized that I was Dumbo, that I was working in this horrible big circus and I needed to escape."
"That movie is quite autobiographical at a certain level," Burton added.
Burton told IndieWire in March 2019 that he resonated with the film's main character.
"It's my story as an animator, it's my problem as well. It's a two-way street, right?" he told the outlet. "At Disney, they like me, but I get paid to be the slightly accepted weirdo."
The "Beetlejuice" director also said that Disney is currently focused on Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars content, meaning there's less attention given to individual projects.
"It's gotten to be very homogenized, very consolidated. There's less room for different types of things," Burton told Deadline, adding that he would not work on a Marvel film. "I can only deal with one universe, l can't deal with a multi-universe."
Representatives for Disney did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
According to the AMC Theatres website, Burton worked at Disney as an apprentice in the early 1980s and was fired in 1984 after creating 'Frankenweenie" because he used studio money to make a film that was too scary for kids.
He reconnected with Disney in 1993 for "The Nightmare Before Christmas," and went on to direct several other projects with the company. Films like "James and the Giant Peach" and "Alice in Wonderland" are among his more notable projects with Disney.
