Tim Burton has always been an outlier in Hollywood. He's a filmmaker with a distinct, peculiar aesthetic and set of interests, yet his movies have broad appeal and are remarkably consistent in the way they perform financially. (To quote veteran screenwriter Zack Stentz, "It's as if Wes Anderson had Michael Bay's box office record.") Even Burton's weakest franchise films bear the sort of directorial hallmarks that are often missing from tentpoles in the 21st century. Indeed, say what you will against his "Dark Shadows," but only Burton could have enough pull to get a $150 million movie reboot of a cult '60s soap opera oddity green-lit in 2012 while also making it precisely the way he wanted. It's the same reason the critically-derided horror-comedy has found its share of defenders.
Be that as it may, having to deal with the relentless friction between creativity and commerce has taken its toll on Burton in the past. His 1996 sci-fi comedy "Mars Attacks!" might be celebrated in certain circles as one of the most blatantly bizarre blockbusters of the '90s, but actually realizing his uncompromising vision left Burton so exhausted that he apparently, very literally, fled the country for an extended hiatus from Hollywood afterwards. It's also been said (by certain parties in the know) that Burton's clashes with Warner Bros. over "Mars Attacks!" -- combined with the film's disappointing commercial returns -- was quite likely a contributing factor in the studio's infamous decision to axe the director's Nicolas Cage-led DC Comics movie "Superman Lives" just a couple of years later.
"After 'Superman,' I didn't know what to do," Burton admitted in the book "Burton on Burton" (which was edited by Mark Salisbury). It was only then that he received the script for a horror film inspired by Washington Irving's famous 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Almost right away, Burton knew he'd found what he was looking for.