Tim Burton’s frequent collaborator Danny Elfman recalls the terrifying early trials of Edward Scissorhands. After turning in a directorial success with 1989’s Batman, Burton returned to his roots in screwball cinema with his next film, released in 1990. Starring Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder, Edward Scissorhands tells the strange story of an incomplete prosthetic man with scissors for hands, who is taken in by a suburban family and experiences an unlikely romance with their teenage daughter.
Burton’s Edward Scissorhands was a modest box office success, grossing $86 million worldwide on a $20 million budget, but at first it seemed as though the film might be doomed to disaster, at least for the film’s composer Elfman. According to. Speaking to GQ recently, Elfman recalled the terrible reaction to early screenings of the film, which made him think back to Beetlejuice’s first rehearsals. Hear what Elfman had to say in the space below (around 12:26 of the video):
And as is often the case with Timm’s films, it did poorly in previews. …and I remember being there. And the public… had no idea what to do with this thing. This guy was, I can’t remember what the character’s name was, Anthony Michael Hall. He is against the film. And this person stands up in the focus group and says, “I feel sorry for her.” And I remember oh my god. And Tim said, Oh, that’s not good. It actually made me think even more about the fact that no one is going to see this movie, and I really love it, but it’s just one of those movies. People don’t understand it and they won’t go to see it. But I felt the same way about “Beetlejuice”. In fact, the studio tried to re-brand the film “House Ghost” at the premiere because they said no one would come to see a film called “Beetlejuice”. … Finally he said, uh, this is going to be a disaster, let’s stick it out. And obviously, you know, it’s been very successful. And “Edward Scissorhands” found its audience, and that was really cool because while I was working on it I had the sad realization that it was going to be one of those really cool movies that only 10 people would see.
Edward Scissorhands would undoubtedly have been a very different film without contributions from Elfman or Depp, and it would have been odd with Cruise in the lead. But things came together in the best possible way to make the film a jewel in Burton’s long filmography. Those early screening audiences who didn’t get Edward Scissorhands were clearly wrong, much to the relief of Elfman and Burton fans everywhere.