Later at this time, at 6:50pm, Edward Scissorhands will hit BBC 2 screens. The horror-fantasy film from Tim Burton options Johnny Depp because the titular creature who's found in a derelict fortress and assimilated into "normal" life.

But lengthy earlier than the Pirates of the Caribbean star was introduced onto the image, he needed to beat Tom Cruise to the end line.

The film's screenwriter, Caroline Thompson, revealed Depp was not the one actor initially eager to leap within the latex-clad function.

Depp went up towards the likes of Jim Carrey, Tom Hanks and even Michael Jackson. But it was Cruise who ultimately got here out on high. However, he rapidly made issues troublesome for Burton when cameras had been about to begin rolling.

Thompson recalled: "[Cruise] wanted to know how Edward went to the bathroom."

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That wasn't all for the Mission: Impossible star. He was reportedly stuffed with incessant questions through the pre-production interval about how Edward Scissorhands survived from each day.

"He was asking the kind of questions about the character that can’t be asked for this character!" Thompson stated. "Part of the delicacy of the story was not answering questions like: ‘How does he go to the bathroom? How did he live without eating all those years?'"

The screenwriter added that Cruise was "certainly unwilling" to be in the film after Burton could not answer his questions, adding that he "needed" the questions to be answered to carry on with the job.

Before long, Cruise and Burton amicably parted ways, and Depp was brought onto the picture instead.

But Depp was just as obsessed with the blade-handed character. During a TV special in 1999, the Chocolat star looked back on bringing Edward to life.

"I just used to put [the hands] on in my house," he admitted. "And I can remember trying to go to sleep with the hands on, you know, to see what it would be like when I woke up having forgotten that they were on."

Things went badly for him, though.

Depp went on: "I woke up and the hands were completely across the room! I’d flung them off through the night time sooner or later."

The actor's obsession with the function doubtless began as a result of he liked it a lot.

He later went on to admit how he felt when he first learn the script: "I can bear in mind studying the script and… It’s embarrassing - weeping! I imply, I cried. I learn the factor and I cried. I believed it was one of the crucial lovely issues I’d learn in my life.”