Tim Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow' Is 20! 6 Facts That Will Make Your Head Roll

The movie is based on the 1820 gothic short story by writer Washington Irving. The adaptation actually began development in 1993, six year's before the film's release.

Producer Adam Schroeder talked about the roadblocks the film hit when it was first being shopped around due to Hollywood's then-limited idea of literary adaptations. "They never really saw it as a commercial movie," he said. "The studio thinks 'old literary classic' and they think 'The Crucible.' We started developing it before horror movies came back."

Unsurprisingly, Burton is a horror film buff, but his influences for "Sleepy Hollow" in particular run deep. The director cited his love for Hammer Film Productions, an English production company best known for its run of gothic horror flicks between the 1950s and '70s. He also pointed to "Black Sunday" in particular, a 1960 Italian vampire flick known for the supernatural feel it evoked as a result of being filmed on sound stages.

Nothing brings the nightmare to life like the details. Since Burton opted to use as little digital effects as possible, every actor who got beheaded in the film had a plaster mold made of their heads, with silicone paint, fake eyes, acrylic teeth, and fake hair added afterwards. Enjoy this supercut of every decapitation in the movie.

This is truly a dot-com era film. The movie's digital promo was ahead of its time. The website, which launched in October 1999, was heralded as "the most ambitious online launch" of a motion picture to date. The site (sleepyhollowmovie.com -- and no, the site isn't live anymore) offered fans live video chats with some of the filmmakers, extensive set tours, and even the chance to share postcards and view photos, trailers, and a six-minute segment about the film that aired on Entertainment Tonight. Which doesn't sound like much today, but in 1999, was just one step below riding around in a spaceship.

In case you forgot how long ago 1999 was, here's a reminder that Johnny Depp was not yet Captain Jack Sparrow. "Sleepy Hollow" may have primed Depp for his "Pirates of the Caribbean" on-screen gusto and daringness. In a mini feature about the making of the film, Depp joked that while he didn't have a lot of action experience in films, action sequences were easier than memorizing lines.