Depp and Burton struck up a friendship after the Hollywood hunk appeared in 1990's Edward Scissorhands, and they have made a series of movies together over the last 20 years, including Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

And Depp insists he would have played Alice in Burton's take on the Lewis Carroll classic just to get the chance to work with his pal again.

He tells Parade.com, "To be honest, he could have asked me to play Alice and I would have said yes - I would have done whatever character he wanted. The fact that it was the Mad Hatter was a bonus because it was a great challenge.

"There is some kind of connection, some sort of understanding that Tim and I have that is at most times unspoken. I do feel a certain amount of pressure like, 'Will this be the film where I disappoint him?' I try really hard just to come up with something that's very different and we haven't experienced together before."