Tim Burton stating, "I basically wasted a year. A year is a long time to be working with somebody that you don't really want to be working with." "Sleepy Hollow", released in late 1999, had a supernatural setting and contained another offbeat performance by Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane, a detective with an interest in forensic science rather than the schoolteacher of Washington Irving's original tale. With "Sleepy Hollow", Burton paid homage to the horror films of the English company Hammer Films. Christopher Lee, one of Hammer's stars, was given a cameo role. A host of Burton regulars appeared in supporting roles
Johnny Depp was in the horror film "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984), in which he played the boyfriend of heroine Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) and one of Freddy Krueger's victims. After a starring role in the comedy "Private Resort" (1985), Depp was cast in the lead role of the skating drama "Thrashin'" (1986) by the film's director, but the decision was later overridden by its producer. Instead, Depp appeared in a minor supporting role as a Vietnamese-speaking private in Oliver Stone's Vietnam War drama "Platoon" (1986). Depp became a popular teen idol during the late 1980s, when he starred as a