By Matthew Pejkovic
What Happened? Ever wondered how Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” would fit in a Tim Burton movie? Ever thought that Edward Scissorhands should have grown a pair and sliced up Anthony Michael Hall’s smug face? Well, look no further than this piece of could-have-been casting news because, believe it or not, blockbuster king Tom Cruise was at one stage attached to play shy freak Edward in Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands. “20th Century Fox were interested in me for the part, but they had someone else in mind too,” recalled Depp in a recent interview. “A few days later, they called me to say that the studio preferred the other actor. It was Tom Cruise.” When the high profile movie star – then riding the success of the likes of Top Gun, Rain Man, Cocktail, The Color Of Money and Born On The Fourth Of July – insisted that Edward be more masculine, and that the film end on a happy note, Burton decided not to go any further with the most unlikely of pairings. “He certainly wasn’t my ideal, but I talked to him,” Burton remembered. “He was interesting, but I think that it worked out for the best. A lot of questions came up.”
Would It Have Worked? Sure, you could recite the furore over Cruise being cast as Lestat in Interview With The Vampire, but Edward Scissorhands is a different monster all together. In Cruise’s hands, it’s difficult to see the film becoming a success, mainly due to the fact that Edward was an alter-ego for Burton, with Johnny Depp fitting that role much better. Edward Scissorhands was the then 21 Jump Street star and teen heartthrob Johnny Depp’s breakthrough film role, and it proved to the world that he was a major new talent. Without this film, Depp would not have landed the roles in Ed Wood, or Pirates Of The Caribbean…namely, the ones that really made him famous.
