Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

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Burton & Depp to Reteam for Sweeney Todd?
Source: MovieMusicals.net January 7, 2006

MovieMusicals.net is reporting that director Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, who have teamed up five times already and most recently for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, will reunite once again for the adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical Sweeney Todd.

This would be the second time Burton will try to get the film made - his previous incarnation at Warner Bros. fell apart years ago. Since then, Jarhead director Sam Mendes has had talks to make the movie as well.

The site says that Depp will play the title character Sweeney Todd, the demon barber or Fleet Street. Here is the official description:

The legendary barber, hell-bent on revenge, takes up with his enterprising neighbor in a delicious plot to slice their way through London's upper crust. Justice will be served - along with lush melody, audacious humor and bloody good thrills.

The musical premiered in 1979, when it won eight Tony Awards including Best Musical. The show is currently on Broadway in its second revival. You can learn more about the musical at the official website.

[polkablues]

That sound you just heard was me shooting myself in the face.

I don't know what would be worse; using the original songs, or having Danny Elfman pull something out of his ass like he did in "Chocolate Factory"?

Can't we just leave stage musicals to the stage, where they're so much easier to ignore?

[MacGuffin]

Burton goes from Ripley to 'Sweeney'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Paramount Pictures chairman Brad Grey has exchanged one big-budget Tim Burton project for another: He has sent "Believe It or Not" back into development while Stacey Snider, CEO and co-chairman of Paramount's DreamWorks, is putting "Sweeney Todd" on the fast track with Burton at the helm. DreamWorks will now need to assemble and cast that movie, which is a project adapted by John Logan ("The Aviator") from the Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical. Burton already is talking with Johnny Depp for the lead role as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Paramount sources said. Burton and producers Richard Zanuck, Sean Daniel and Jim Jacks had been fighting the battle of the budget bulge on "Believe," starring Jim Carrey. But Grey refused to give the project a green light until the ambitious production, based on the adventurer Ripley, fell into the $150 million range, co-president of production Brad Weston confirmed.

[Ghostboy]

Yes!!! He's been wanting to do this for well over a decade. This is something worth looking forward to, rather than another director-for-hire thing.

[ShanghaiOrange]

Johnny Depp should be Ripley and should grin like Ed Wood through the whole movie. Anyway, Ripley is much more a Burton character than Todd, as he's a innocent naive white guy who goes into some foriegn situation and has crazy experiences! Just like most of his other characters! Think about it!

[MacGuffin]

Source: MTV

When they first collaborated for "Edward Scissorhands," Tim Burton was an up-and-coming director and Johnny Depp was looking to sidestep his burgeoning hunky heartthrob image. A decade and a half later, the A-list "Pirates of the Caribbean" star and the director of "Planet of the Apes"-type blockbusters are making plans to reunite yet again. "It's something Tim and I have talked about," Depp said recently of "Sweeney Todd," a big-screen adaptation of the grisly Broadway musical. "We've sort of talked about the idea since years and years ago. We've been speaking about it here and there recently, and it looks like it's looking very good." The flick will feature Depp in his first major singing role, but the actor thinks that nervousness won't be a problem since he'll be working under the trusting eye of an old friend. "I sure hope it happens because, God — just to go back to work for Tim again, it'd be our sixth movie together," Depp grinned. "It's looking very good."

[MacGuffin]

Sweeney Todd Set
Depp, Burton reteam for musical.

It was officially announced today that Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton are set to reunite for Sweeney Todd, the big-screen version of Stephen Sondheim's musical thriller. It will be their sixth time working together.

Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald will partner with Richard Zanuck and John Logan to produce the screenplay adaptation which was written by Logan.

The film will be a co-production between DreamWorks Studios and Warner Bros. Paramount will distribute for DreamWorks domestically and Warner Bros. internationally.

Depp will portray Sweeney Todd, the so-called Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The award-winning musical's plot follows a wrongfully imprisoned barber in Victorian England who sets out to seek revenge on the judge who imprisoned him. The Broadway production, which opened in 1979, was based on the play by Christopher Bond.

Its mix of the comic, the dramatic and the macabre held together by Sondheim's movie-like score has had hundreds of productions throughout the world. A highly acclaimed revival is now playing in New York.

[MacGuffin]

Cohen may join Depp in Burton's 'Sweeney Todd'
Source: Production Weekly

Sacha Baron Cohen is in negotiations to star opposite Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's film version of the musical "Sweeney Todd." Stephen Sondheim musical thriller revolves around Benjamin Barker alias Sweeney Todd, (Depp) who returns to London after being deported to find out what happened to his wife and child at the hands of Judge Turpin. When he learns of their terrible fate he joins fortunes with Mrs. Nellie Lovett, the baker downstairs from his barbershop, and sets out to seek revenge. Cohen will play Signor Adolfo Pirelli, Todd's competitor in the haircutting world.

Production set to begin shooting in early February at Pinewood Studios near London. Pre-recordings will begin in November and December. Burton also has a history with the complex in which he filmed "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "The Planet of the Apes" and "Batman."

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Carter Cast in Burton's Sweeney Todd
Source: Variety

Helena Bonham Carter will play the diabolical meat pie-maker Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, says Variety.

Director Tim Burton tapped Carter to co-star with Johnny Depp in the DreamWorks Studios and Warner Bros. co-production of the Stephen Sondheim musical. John Logan wrote the screenplay.

Mrs. Lovett, a role originated onstage by Angela Lansbury, is a murderess who dispenses her victims' bodies in meat pies and becomes the amorous accomplice of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In most stage productions, Mrs. Lovett has been about a decade older than the Demon Barber and is usually someone in her 50s; Carter and Depp are about the same age and in their early 40s.

Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen is rumored to be circling the role of rival barber Signor Adolfo Pirelli, but the studio would not confirm whether he'll be part of the mix.

Shooting begins in early next year for a late 2007 release, with Paramount distributing domestically for DreamWorks, and Warner Bros. handling international territories.

Carter, Burton's longtime off-screen partner, has been a regular collaborator onscreen. She has starred in the Burton-directed films Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Big Fish and Planet of the Apes, and provided the title voice for Tim Burton's Corpse Bride.

Carter, who will sing in the film, just wrapped Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

[MacGuffin]

Source: MTV

Maestro of the macabre Tim Burton is almost ready to begin rolling on "Sweeney Todd," a bloody barber tale he envisions as a hard R-rated horror flick. "You can't really skimp on that stuff — it's got to be what it is. It's not going to be a G-rated movie, no," he laughed. "It's kind of like doing 'The Sound of Music' but with lots of blood, so I don't know how that's going to work out. We'll see. I'm excited to try it." Burton's also excited to unveil the vocal work of frequent leading man Johnny Depp, who'll take on his first singing role in his 20-plus-year career. "It's going to be the [actors singing]. That's important. It's a movie, it's not a Milli Vanilli record," the "Nightmare Before Christmas" mastermind insisted. So is Burton concerned about gambling his multimillion-dollar movie on a singing voice he's never even heard? "No. I go over to his house and we sing show tunes every night. It's a ritual with us," he laughed. "Johnny is great. ... I'm always looking for some new kind of challenge, and this certainly is that. We are laughing about it already, and we haven't even started yet." Another actor who'll be exercising her vocal cords is Burton's girlfriend, Helena Bonham Carter. But the director insisted — contrary to reports — that "Borat" star Sacha Baron Cohen is not on board. "We don't know that for sure yet," he said of the chameleon-esque comedian. "We're still in the early stages of talking to people."

[MacGuffin]

Cohen to cut chops on 'Sweeney Todd'
Thesp signs on for role in Burton pic
Source: Variety

Sacha Baron Cohen has firmed plans to follow "Borat" with some barbering in "Sweeney Todd," the screen version of the Stephen Sondheim musical Tim Burton will shoot for DreamWorks and Warner Bros.

Cohen will play Signor Adolfo Pirelli, a barber who becomes the nemesis of Sweeney Todd. Todd's the barber who teams with the murderess Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) to kill people, grind them up and use them in her meat pies.

Cohen will be putting in only a couple weeks of work.

Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald are producing with Richard D. Zanuck and John Logan. Logan wrote the script.

Since "Sweeney Todd" shoots in London in February, the picture is the next up for Cohen. The musical offers him the opportunity to create another eclectic character, as he did when he played the race car driver Jean Girard in "Talladega Nights."

As "Borat" continues to establish itself as a box office juggernaut, Cohen has just begun working out the story beats of "Bruno," the feature he'll make for Universal, playing the Austrian fashion reporter character he created for "Da Ali G Show."

"Bruno" is on course to shoot next year. Also looming for Cohen are two longstanding acting attachments, in the Tina Fey-scripted "Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill" at Paramount, and the remake of the Francis Veber comedy "Dinner for Schmucks" at DreamWorks.

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Johnny Depp's 'Sweeney Todd' Role Upsets Girlfriend
Source: Starpulse

Johnny Depp is terrifying his long-term partner Vanessa Paradis by going to extreme lengths to get into his new role as Demon Barber Sweeney Todd. Depp starts rehearsals for the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical in London next month, but he's preparing for the part already by slitting imaginary throats to the soundtrack of Dies Irae (Day Of Wrath) - the 13th century Latin Hymn traditionally used in the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass.

A source tells British newspaper the Daily Express, "Johnny is always very conscientious in his roles. Now he says he has to get into the mind set of a serial killer. He wants to feel adept with the razor blades, to feel as if they were an extension of his arm. But he's terrifying everyone by walking around his home booming out the song - making an arc with his arm when he slits a person's throat. Sweeney calls his razors his 'friends' and in this song the Demon Barber pours out his love to his blades."

[Kal]

Thats hilarious... can you imagine Johnny Depp walking around the house in his underwear singing that and making those gestures?

[MacGuffin]

Alan Rickman Joins Sweeney Todd
Source: Screen Daily

Alan Rickman will play Judge Turpin in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd, reports Screen Daily. He joins Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in the DreamWorks Studios and Warner Bros. co-production, based on the award-winning Stephen Sondheim musical thriller.

The story of Sweeney Todd is of a wrongfully imprisoned barber in Victorian England who sets out to seek revenge on the judge who imprisoned him. The plot is foreshadowed in the first lines of the opening number: "Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd./His skin was pale and his eye was odd./He shaved the faces of gentlemen/Who never thereafter were heard of again."

Production is planned to begin early in 2007 for release late that year. Paramount will distribute for DreamWorks domestically and Warner Bros. internationally.

[MacGuffin]

Borat Raps Burton's Todd
Sondheim musical to get hip-hop infusion.

According to The Sun, Sacha Baron Cohen's singing voice is so bad that director Tim Burton has had to resort to the proverbial plan B for his feature version of Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical hit Sweeney Todd.

Cohen plays Italian tonic salesman and barber Adolfo Pirelli, the hairdressing rival of Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp), the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

The report says Cohen simply couldn't perform the operatic tunes required for the role. "There was never any question of Sacha being axed from the movie," an alleged insider advised the paper. "He is going to do a fantastic job. But he couldn't cut it with the singing. His voice was too low."

So the filmmakers have decided to let Cohen perform Pirelli's songs a little differently. "Sacha has been told to go for a rap style," claimed the source. "It will be a bit like Jim Broadbent's performance in Moulin Rouge."