Biopic of legendary bad director Edward D. Wood Jr. follows him from the production of his first film Glen or Glenda? until the premiere of his magnum opus Plan 9 from Outer Space. The film concentrates on the friendship between Wood and former horror movie star Bela Lugosi, who by that time was an unemployed old man addicted to morphine. The other main focus of Ed Wood is the small and unusual group of people Wood attracts around himself and his projects, ranging from Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson to failed transsexual Bunny Breckinridge. Rather than charting the misery, alcoholism and despair Wood's life ended with, the film closes shortly after Lugosi's death with the gala opening of Plan 9, and Wood's somewhat ironic words "Yep, this is it... This is the one they'll remember me by..."

In Tim Burton's only commercial failure so far, many of his usual themes are included once more, albeit in a slightly different format than usual. One key element from his other work is missing though: Ed Wood, unlike Burton's other films, is not a cartoon. Whereas all his other productions, from Vincent to Batman Returns created a completely stylized, cartoonish reality, Ed Wood is a fairly realistic reconstruction of Hollywood in the fifties. For the first time Burton is showing a historically and geographically specific version of reality. Within this reality the world of Wood and his friends/colleagues/weirdos is created, and there is some fantastical set design in the recreation of the scenes from Wood's films, but the whole film is less visually flamboyant than his earlier work. The main difference is made by the characters: Ed Wood, Bela Lugosi and Dolores Fuller represent Burton's first attempt to portray real people in his film instead of flat, cartoon characters.
Yet other familiar Burton themes like that of the outsider, split worlds, and of course his love for old horror movies and fifties B- movies are on prominent display throughout.