One of my all-time favorite movies is Tim Burton's 'Edward Scissorhands.' Here, you will find all sorts of useless information, ranging in triviality from the likes of which Backstreet Boy was in the film, to why it's release on DVD has been delayed for so long. Most of the information on this page is of a decidedly obssessive / collector flavor. So unless you're really interested in all sorts of boring crap, feel free to go back now.

Apparently Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys fame played "Kid on Slip n' slide" in 'Edward Scissorhands.' This shows up on Carter's filmography in the IMDB, and is verified in an interview found at backstreet.net:

"It would be going too far to say I was actually in Edward Scissorhands because I was so far in the background that you can't tell it's me. It would be better to say I was on the set of the film... I was in the scene when Edward looks out of a window to the neighbourhood. For a split second he sees some kids playing - one of them was me. I was sliding on a yellow piece of plastic we used to call a Slip n' Slide. They were long flat sheets with water coming out of holes and were really popular with kids at the time. I had to slide on one in the background of a shot. It was great fun being on the set but it was really cold and they made us do it a lot of times"

Next up is Johnny Depp's recounting of the casting process for Edward Scissorhands. This is taken from the introduction to a book called 'Burton on Burton.'

   In the winter of 1989, I was in Vancouver, British Columbia, doing a television series. It was a very difficult situation: bound by a contract doing assembly-line stuff that, to me, was borderline Fascist (Cops in school...). My fate, it seemed, lay somewhere between 'Chips' and 'Joanie Loves Chachi.' There were only a limited number of choices for me:

1. Get through it as best I could with minimal abrasion
2. Get fired as fast as I could with slightly more abrasion
3. Quit and be sued for not only any money I had, but also the money of my children and my children's children (Which, I imagine, would have caused severe chafing and possible shingles for the rest of my natural days and on through the next few generations of Depps to come).

   Like I said, this was truly a dilemma. Choice 3 was out of the question, thanks to extremely sound advice from my attorney. As for choice 2, well, I tried and they just wouldn't bite. Finally, I settled on choice 1: I would get by as best I could.

   The minimal abrasion soon became potential self destruction. I was not feeling good about myself or this self-induced/out-of-control jail term that an ex-agent had prescribed as good medicine for unemployment. I was stuck, filling up space between commercials. Babbling incoherently some writer's words that I couldn't bring myself to read (thus having no knowledge of what poison the scripts might have contained). Dumb-founded, lost, shoved down the gullets of America as a young Republican. T.V. Boy, heart-throb, teen idol, teen hunk. Plastered, postured, patented, painted, and plastic.

   And then, one day, I was sent a script by my brand new agent, a godsend. It was the story of a boy with scissors for hands - an innocent outcast in suburbia. I read the script instantly and wept like a newborn. Shocked that someone was brilliant enough to conceive and actually write this story, I read it again right away. I was so affected and moved by it that strong waves of images flooded my brain - dogs I'd had as a kid, feeling freakish and obtuse when I was growing up, the unconditional love that only infants and dogs are evolved enough to have. I felt so attached to this story that I was completely obsessed. I read every children's story, fairy-tale, child-psychology book, Gray's Anatomy, anything, everything… and then, reality set in. I was T.V. boy. No director in his right mind would hire me to play this character. I had done nothing work-wise to show that I could handle this kind of role. How could I convince this director that I was Edward, that I knew him inside and out? In my eyes, it was impossible.

   A meeting was set up. I was to see the director, Tim Burton. I prepared by watching his other films - Beetlejuice, Batman, Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Blown away by the obvious gifted wizardry this guy possessed, I was even more sure that he would never see me in the role. I was embarrassed to consider myself as Edward. After several knock-down drag-outs with my agent (Thank you, Tracey), she forced me to have the meeting.

   I flew to Los Angeles and went straight to the coffee-shop of the Bel Age Hotel, where I was to meet Tim and his producer, Denise Di Novi. I walked in, chain-smoking, nervously looking for the potential genius in the room (I had never seen what he looked like) and BANG! I saw him sitting at a booth behind a row of potted plants, drinking a cup of coffee. We said hello, I sat down and we talked… sort of - I'll explain later.

   A pale, frail-looking, sad-eyed man with hair that expressed much more than last night's pillow struggle. A comb with legs would have outrun Jesse Owens, given one look at this guy's locks. A clump to the east, four sprigs to the west, a swirl, and the rest of this unruliness to all points north and south. I remember the first thing I thought was, 'Get some sleep', but I couldn't say that, of course. And then it hit me like a two-ton sledgehammer square in the middle of my forehead. The hands, the way he waves them around in the air almost uncontrollably, nervously tapping on the table, stilted speech (a trait we both share), eyes wide and glaring out of nowhere, curious, eyes that have seen much but still devour all. This hypersensitive madman is Edward Scissorhands.

   After sharing approximately three to four pots of coffee together, stumbling our way through each other's unfinished sentences but somehow still understanding one another, we ended the meeting with a handshake and a 'Nice to meet you.' I left that coffee shop jacked up on caffeine, chewing insanely on my coffee spoon like a wild, rabid dog. I now officially felt even worse about things because of the honest connection I felt we had had during the meeting. Mutually understanding the perverse beauty of a milkcow creamer, the bright-eyed fascination with resin grapes, the complexities and raw power that one can find in a velvet Elvis painting - seeing way beyond the novelty, the profound respect for 'those who are not others.' I was sure that we could work well together, and I was positive, if given the chance, I could carry out his artistic vision for Edward Scissorhands. My chances were, at best, slim - if that. Better-known people than me were battling, fighting, kicking, screaming, begging for it. Only one director had really stuck his neck out for me and that was John Waters, a great outlaw filmmaker, a man both Tim and I had huge respect and admiration for. John had taken a chance on me to spoof my 'given' image in Crybaby. But would Tim see something in me that would make him take the risk? I hoped so.

   I waited for weeks, not hearing a thing in my favor. All the while, I was still researching the part. It was now not something I merely wanted to do, but something I had to do. Not for any ambitious, greedy, actory, box-office-draw reason, but because this story had now taken residence in the middle of my heart and refused to be evicted. What could I do? At the point where I was just about to resign myself to the fact that I'd always be T.V. boy, the phone rang.

'Hello?' I picked up.
'Johnny…you are Edward Scissorhands,' a voice said simply.
'What?' flew out of my mouth.
'You are Edward Scissorhands.'

   I put the phone down and mumbled those words to myself. And then mumbled them to anyone else I came into contact with. I couldn't fucking believe it. He was willing to risk everything on me in the role. Head-butting the studio's wishes, hopes, and dreams for a big star with established box-office-draw, he chose me. I became instantly religious, positive that divine intervention had taken place. This role for me was not a career move. This role was freedom. Freedom to create, experiment, learn, and exorcize something in me. Rescued from the world of mass-product, bang-'em out TV death by this odd, brilliant young guy who had spent his youth drawing strange pictures, stomping around the soup-bowl of Burbank, feeling quite freakish himself (I would later learn). I felt like Nelson Mandela. Resuscitated from my jaded views of 'Hollyweird' and what it's like to not have any control of what you really want for yourself.

   In essence, I owe the majority of whatever success I've been lucky enough to have to that one weird, wired meeting with Tim. Because if it weren't for him, I think I would have gone ahead and opted for choice 3 and quit that fucking show while I still had some semblance of integrity left. And I also believe that because of Tim's belief in me, Hollywood opened it's doors, playing a strange follw-the-leader game.

… I have never seen someone so obviously out of place fit right in. His way.
Johnny Depp
NYC
September 1994

Here is Roger Ebert's original review of the film (He didn't like it very much).

The entire script, (minus scene description and camera movements) is available in a printer-friendly format here. It looks as though this was transcribed by someone as they watched the movie.

It appears as though someone successfully (?) translated 'Edward Scissorhands' into a ballet, which is intrinsically funny. An article on this interpretation can be found here.

A once-great collection of resources for all things Scissorhands are 'The Edwardian Page,' and 'The Edwardian Page 2.' They're a bit out of date now, though, and have several broken links.

Another site specifically dedicated to 'Edward Scissorhands' can be found here, though it doesn't seem to have been updated in over two years. It does have a few sound and video clips, as well as a pretty good collection of articles.

A frightening peek at the prosthetics process used to age Winona Ryder for the introduction and conclusion of the film can be found here.

During the sequence where Vincent Price's character is creating Edward, a set of 'plans' blows by the screen. Someone actually took screen grabs of them, just in case you wanted to be a really huge dork and look at them carefully.

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A very good general (though severely out of date) Tim Burton resource can be found here. Most of the sites they link to don't come up in the search engines.

If you want to delve even deeper into triviality (ie budget, box office figures, etc.) then the IMDB listing for the film is a great starting point.

'Edward Scissorhands,' and Tim Burton's work in general is extremely visual in nature. It should be no surprise that artwork from what many consider to be his finest film is prized among collectors. There were several different official release posters, the first of which featured Edward's topiary work rather than Edward himself. The reasoning behind the artwork selection for these 'teaser' posters is illustrated in the following quotation, from "Tim Burton : An Unauthorized Biography of the Filmmaker" by Ken Hanke.

"When the film was completed, Fox was pleased with what they saw, though not entirely certain how to best market it. The tone of Edward Scissorhands is certainly comic, but it never goes after the big laughs. It has an ending that is at best bittersweet, and at worst tragic. One thing the studio was certain of: they did not want prerelease posters featuring Edward, for fear that the public would think it was a horror film."

 

Once the film was in theatres in the U.S., Fox released two posters depicting Edward. One would be adapted for virtually all of the video releases (the 'profile' poster), while the other would be used for all foreign theatrical releases of the film.

Video promo variation German variation Japanese variation British variation Austrailian variation

The last poster that exists is of the 'found in stores that reek of incense' variety. These are still produced and perpetually available on eBay.

Home availability:

Edward Scissorhands is currently only available domestically in the VHS format. The film was released on DVD in Japan in the fall of 1998, but this dvd version has yet to see a U.S. Release. Above, from left to right, are the U.S. video cover, the Japanese DVD cover, the Japanese VCD, the U.K. video cover, and the domestic laserdisc cover.

In addition to the difference in cover art, the U.S. and U.K. videos also differ in content. In order to secure a PG certificate in the UK, 15 seconds of violence was removed from the climactic fight between Edward and Jim. This applies to cinema versions as well as video. The Japanese DVD offered no special features other than superior quality and a dubbed Japanese language track. Here is the IMDB technical listing for the Japanese DVD. At this time I am unsure whether this is the U.S. or the U.K. version of the film. A review of the DVD can be found here.

Why hasn't 'Edward Scissorhands' been released on DVD in the United States until now? Apparently, the answer lies in the ruins of a now obsolete technology: DIVX. Don't remember DIVX? It was the ill-fated also-ran in the early days of digital video, ultimately losing out to DVD. A great Wired article explaining what happened with Divx can be found here, and an extensive list of reasons why Divx didn't last can be found here. Fox chose to grant the exclusive license for digital release of 'Edward Scissorhands' to DIVX, which promptly disappeared. The license lapsed in 1999, however, and Tim Burton has recently been digging through his back-catologue and releasing special edition DVD's. 'Edward Scissorhands' will finally see a U.S. DVD release on September 5th, 2000.

'Edward Scissorhands' was also available on Laserdisc and something called a 'VCD' (Not DVD, but playable on most computers), though there are no additional special features.

Soundtrack

The orchestral soundtrack to 'Edward Scissorhands' was composed by frequent Burton collaborator Danny Elfman. Not much to say here, other than it's great 'study music.' A review can be found here. The picture below is of a promotional LP from 'Armed Forces Radio,' with an inset of the actual cover artwork.

Toys

There have been several attempts to immortalize Edward in toy form. The first, and by far most desirable is the Medicom tin robot, only made in Japan in a limited run (1000), this wind-up toy frequently sells for upwards of $200.00 on eBay.

  

Another Medicom (and therefore also Japanese) Item is the smaller wind-up Edward, which is much more affordable - usually available for under $20.

McFarlane Toys has a forthcoming Edward figure, pictured below and to the left. It is part of McFarlane's 'Movie Maniacs' series 3, which should be available in the US in late 2000. Whether or not they will ship on time may be affected by a recent $24.5 million ruling against McFarlane, on charges brought by a former NHL player. Click here to read up on the story. The picture at right is yet another Japanese Item, manufactured by a company called Yellow Submarine. These were released recently, and are currently going for around $30 on eBay.

 

Edward Penishands

  

A company called 'Video Team' made a few porno movies based on 'Edward Scissorhands,' with an amusing plot twist. Here's the plot summary from the IMDB listing:

A door-to-door dildo saleswoman stumbles across Edward, and upon discovering the...advantages of his hand-substitutes, brings him home, where he falls in love with her daughter.

The only other information I could find on the series was the following bit from this interview:

MS: I actually love Danny Elfman's work. This is Maurice talking. What he did with a lot of the Tim Burton stuff is brilliant. The...(?).. is an amazing thing. I'm very happy to see that he got two nominations for Oscars this year. If there's justice in the world it is the fact that he should get those nominations. Fair play to him.

GF: I think the best thing about Danny Elfman is that he encaptured the world of Tim Burton so much. My favourite thing he's done is the soundtrack he's done for Edward Scissorshands, that's brilliant. I think, the most interesting thing about the score is the relationship with the director and Elfman and Burton are classic.

MS: Apparently there is a porn remake of Edward Scissorhands called Edward Penishands. And they used Danny Elfman's music for that as well, I think he's very proud of that.

RG: Really?

GF: Seriously, check it out.

All three 'Edward Penishands' movies are available for $12.95 from Excaliber Films.

• Order 'Edward Penishands.'
• Order 'Edward Penishands 2.'
• Order 'Edward Penishands 3.'

eBay

All sorts of promotional crap for the movie can be found on eBay. I could have made this site even more obsessive than it already is by putting up pictures of all the watches, T-shirts etc, but here I'll stick to some of the more interesting stuff.

By far the most desireable Edward Scissorhands Collectable is the limited edition sculpture Edward pictured below. The sculpture was designed as a special "thank you" gift to a very small handful of above-the-line cast and crew members, and was sculpted by one of the key make-up artists from Stan Winston Studios who applied Depp's make-up during production in Florida.

Another interesting promo item is the pop-up folder that was given away at advance screenings, seen below.

Click here to search eBay for 'Edward Scissorhands' junk.

I think I'll stop now, before the extent of my dorkiness becomes even more apparent.