Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's "Sweeney Todd"
 

Sounds interesting...

Dreamworks' Pictures Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, stars Johnny Depp, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Laura Michelle Kelly, Timothy Spall and Anthony Stewart Head.

The Stephen Sondheim musical thriller, which is helmed by Tim Burton, revolves around Benjamin Barker alias Sweeney Todd, 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.

Releasing on December 21, 2007. Its a date!

You can see the official poster here.

Sacha Baron Cohen. :)

Yet another Burton/Depp lovefest. Hope it's better than Willy Wonker.

sounds interesting, tha cast sounds pretty solid. VERY NICE.:)

Nice cast, but as good as the Sondheim musical is, I'd rather see a straight retelling of the story.

http://services.windowsmedia.com/dvd...28770supb6.jpg

I highly enjoyed the BBC adaptation. Ray winstone performed great as "Sweeny Todd".

Hope to see something better from Burton & Depp's presentation.

Definately worth a watch.

I think Burton could do a rather nice horror flick

Looks like gory fun! I hope they don't make him cut it...

"London, August 26: The set of Johnny Depp starrer 'Sweeney Todd' seems to have been turned into a gruesome slaughterhouse.






Award-winning director Tim Burton has been asked to tone down the horrid scenes in his film, in which Depp plays the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd.

Studio executives became a bit squeamish when they saw shocking footage of Depp slitting the throats of his customers in the movie, based on Stephen Sondheim's stage musical.

According to sources, during filming at Pinewood studios, the prosthetic look-alike limbs were so hideously realistic that some of the crew became queasy and had to take fresh air breaks.

Those on set were further disgusted because there were heaps and heaps of sliced-up 'corpses', along with several spare 'necks' for the reason that Burton might want to shoot several takes of the same throat-cutting scene.

In the movie, Todd's victims are seated in a mechanical chair; their throats are cut and as Johnny flips a switch, the floor opens and they fall down a channel into the den of Todd's mistress, Mrs Lovett, played by Helena Bonham Carter.

One scene that principally disturbed the studio bosses was when they saw a ten-year-old boy cutting up body parts, which were then thrown into a meat grinder and turned into mince.

"Tim's not happy that the studio is asking for so many cuts to the cutting, as it were," the Daily Mail quoted an insider, as saying.

"The thing is, the studio really likes the film and they want to make it accessible to as big an audience as possible - which means stemming the blood flow. But that's a bit difficult for a story involving a guy who gets high slitting throats," the insider added.

The movie also stars Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen, Laura Michelle Kelly and Peter Bowles."

New International poster.

i saw the poster a while ago...... anything tim burton is fine by me

burton can be awesome - and this seems so Burton-y

The trailer's here!

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/180983...tandardformat/

Short chat with Tim Burton -


What can horror fans can expect from Sweeney Todd?

Burton: The goal was to make a good, old horror movie. One of the things Johnny and I talked about was the good old horror movies and horror movie actors, like Peter Lorre or Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, the kind of acting style you don’t really see much anymore. This seemed like the right material to kind of do that, a real old horror movie.

In addition to the general challenges of adapting a stage production into a film, how are you handling the play’s humor/horror balance?

Burton: I tried to follow the same [format]. That’s what I loved about it, is that it had a mixture of horror and humor and emotion and sadness, beauty, that’s what I love about it so we tried to keep it all in there.

What are you working on next?

Burton: Just this [Sweeney Todd]. I’ve enjoyed making this and I’m going to try and savor it for awhile.

Your thoughts on the horror genre in general?

Burton: It’s always been around, it always will be around, it’s great. I grew up watching it, all forms of it so I’m a fan of pretty much all horror.

What keeps horror fans coming back for more?

Burton: It’s a catharsis. It lets it out of their system, it’s good.



SWEENEY TODD hits theaters everywhere December 21.

I am excited but skeptical... Oh, so so skeptical... I like Burton when he's gothic (Nightmare, Batman, Ed Wood), but I thought that Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was so incredibly abysmal...

I was veritably THRILLED when I saw a poster for the film... But the ad has turned me off a wee bit... I just hope it isn't too over the top (I seriously hated Big Fish)... Please don't muck up, Burton.

Some footage of Johnny Depp singing in this flick has started circulating. I posted the video on my blog today:

http://thevaultofhorror.blogspot.com

Plenty of clips, featurettes and behind the scenes clips...enjoy!

http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option...3789&Itemid=99

This looks like it will be a good film. Johnny Depp is a favourite actor of mine. Also, i love Tim Burtons movies and how he shoots his films all dark and atmospheric.

tend to agree - Burton creates a great gothic atmosphere and this is a classic tale. As long as he and Depp do not go over the top!
Will be interesting to see how Sacha plays in a genuine horror.
Will have to go some to compete with the Ray Winstone version that almost had you feeling sorry for Sweeney!

Yeh, this should be a fun watch. And that chair thing looks good. But I'm not a big fan of musicals and hope that they don't fill it out too much with songs.

It was excellent. The acting was great, the singing was appropriate, and the whole thing was just damn dark and bloody :)

I hate to tell you this, but if you don't want it filled out with songs, you might as well walk away. They sing most sentences.

88% Musical/Singing
12% Normal/Speaking

Oddly enough, I enjoyed it, though I rather hate musicals. I'd watch it again, though I can tell it wouldn't be as good the second time around.

I usually hate musicals too, but if Rent or West Side Story had throat siting, gushing geysers of blood, and every last one o fthe ending with a corpse dropped violently on it's head, i would watch them over and over :)

I would have loved to slit a few throats in RENT!

Ditto THAT, my brother...

...

Re: Sweeney Todd - TOTALLY enjoyable. Very bloody. Very Johnny Depp. And a side of Burton that I haven't seen in a while. Excellent direction, amazing costumes, and I thought that the singing was incredible.

...

But don't take your mother. :o

This made me think of 2 things:

I forgot that you toured in rent

I think they should make a broadway musical out of the :Lease: segment in Team America. I think broaday is ready for "Eveyone has AIDS!"

I'd do it in a heartbeat!

I'd rock that shit hard!
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k1..._2006/rent.jpg

I think Burton was a lot less Burtonish with this movie and showed a lot of restraint in some ways. The obnoxious whimsy wasn't really present, and Depp wasn't acting irritatingly ingenuous. It felt about as perverse as the Raven and Mad Love and such were.

Urge to throw in "Pearl Harbor Sucks" is too strong...

It's funny to me how many people were unaware this was a fullon musical. The Sondheim version of Sweeney Todd has been around for 50 years, it's not like it was some big secret.

Since when is Urge back!?

:D

If Johnny Depp ever gets around to making his version of "Dark Shadows", he should get Tim Burton to direct. It would be perfect.

Has Depp talked about wanting to do Dark Shadows?? I had never heard that, sounds fascinating.

Has anyone seen the Ben Kingsley/Joanna Lumley version of Sweeny Todd? I recorded it on VHS years ago when it aired on TV but never got around to watching it. Wondering if it's worth fishing it out of the closet to watch now...

just checked on imdb. There's quite a few versions of this film, some 80 years old :)

i am just going to see this film now. and probably the other versions too, if i like the story.

Yes, I watched it recently, as a matter of fact. It was a British TV production, so if you are looking for gore, you're not going to find it here. The plot is servicable and most of the cast do a creditable job, the best being Kingsley & Lumley, of course.

There are some interesting glimpses into British society of the time, as well. It's worth a watch.