Edward Scissorhands was originally supposed to be a musical


Moviegoers in 1990 did not take kindly to Johnny Depp as the soft-spoken, scissor-wielding boy born in Vincent Price's lab. But with all the love for Edward Scissorhands 25 years after its Dec. 7 premiere, it's hard to remember the Tim Burton classic started off on shaky footing at the box office.
The bulk of the iconic story, which marks Vincent Price's final appearance on screen, came together in just a few weeks, screenwriter Caroline Thompson told Variety.
"One night over drinks, Tim told me about this drawing he'd made in high school of a character who had scissors for hands, and I instantly knew what to do with that image," Thompson said. "So I wrote a 70-page treatment in about three weeks and gave it to him. And that's basically the movie we ended up with."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
He and Burton met at the suggestion of their agents, and hit it off.
"They correctly assessed that we had strange ideas about the world," said Thompson, who went onto work with Burton on The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride.
Edward Scissorhands did change in one pretty key way after that initial treatment, though. Burton originally wanted the film to be a musical. He had thought, Variety notes, that audiences might not otherwise find the quirky storyline palatable.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
-
October 5 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailout
Talking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?
Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91
Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle