True to his image, Tim Burton is not a man who thrives on success. In town to plug his remake of Planet of the Apes, the oddball illustrator turned blockbusting Hollywood director should be proud as punch, basking in the news that the film is already a hit (breaking box-office records on its recent release in the US). On the contrary, he seems positively de-boned by the whole experience, lolling distractedly on the couch and wriggling under the simplest questions. His face is grey and undernourished; his hair looks like a crow made a nest there. "I feel like I'm in rehab," he drawls. "Anyone have any methadone?"

But then Burton has always been a most unusual breed of Hollywood film-maker; always just that bit too much of a loose-cannon to entrust with the biggest stars and budgets. Having given Warner Bros a mammoth hit with Batman back in 1989, he took the road less travelled, directing his curious black-and-white biopic Ed Wood and his B-movie pastiche Mars Attacks! (which lost a bundle). It was only the solid box-office success of Sleepy Hollow which led 20th Century Fox to take a gamble on him directing Planet of the Apes, a flamboyant reimagining of the 1968 classic.

Even then they seemed to be wavering. Burton agreed to take on the project in the spring of last year but had to wait until the end of October before the project was finally rubber-stamped. "Here's what I'd do differently," he says when asked if there's anything he'd change about the film. "Give the fucking green light at the goddamn beginning so we're not spinning out wheels for six months where there is no positive work being done."

Burton is pleased with the finished product and fascinated by the issues it raises. He is happy to discuss his views of simian nature, and playfully evasive when questioned about the movie's baffling ending. But the production has clearly exhausted him. If there is to be a Planet of the Apes sequel, he says that while he may provide some ideas he would not be the one directing it. "The idea of me doing it - I'd rather jump out the window. I swear to God."