Tim Burton & Johnny Depp Team For 'Sweeney Todd'

[Catman]

If it wasn't brutal and dark I don't think WB wouldn't have this talk about cutting it into PG-13.

Don't forget that DreamWorks and Paramount are ALSO involved. Maybe its one of them! Heck...its probably Paramount! I don't see why WB and DreamWorks would have a problem.

 

[Road Warrior]

Todd is too Sweeney

Ah, Tim Burton must be having a ball working on SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET. Because I'm pretty sure there's nothing he loves more than studios making him compromise on his artistic vision. Apparently the early footage of the movie has been so extremely graphic (read: bloody) that execs are requesting the film be re-cut. As it stands, the film would currently receive an R-rating, whereas the studio would prefer a PG-13:

“Tim’s not happy that the studio is asking for so many cuts to the cutting, as it were,” someone connected to the film told the Daily Mail. “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.”

All we need now is for Kevin Smith to claim he has read Burton's ending and that he actually had the idea first. That should be enough to send Burton into a mega meltdown and some years later, an entertaining VH1 special.

If you don't know, the movie is based on an old 19th Century legend about a man who uses his front as a barber to kill all the people that have ever done him wrong, while his mistress Mrs. Lovett uses their bodies to make 'the worst pies in London'.

Thats horrible!

 

[Rac]

Don't forget that DreamWorks and Paramount are ALSO involved. Maybe its one of them! Heck...its probably Paramount! I don't see why WB and DreamWorks would have a problem.

Good point.

 

[Catman]

From Variety
August 24, 2007
Burton gives blood to 'Sweeney'
Film is first musical for helmer
By ROBERT HOFLER

One day he's splicing together a mutilated corpse, the next day he's picking up a Golden Lion. Such is life for Tim Burton, who briefly interrupts his post-production chores on "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" in London to wing to Venice to receive his latest award, on Sept. 5.

This Golden Lion honors a body of work, which in Burton's case includes such contempo classics as "Batman," "Edward Scissorhands," "Ed Wood" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

But at the moment, Burton has his hands full putting together not one but the many bodies strewn throughout the upcoming "Sweeney Todd," which just happens to be his first stab at helming a musical.

Like almost any director in his position, he calls it "his favorite musical." The difference with Burton is that he probably means it, since he doesn't much care for tuners either onstage or onscreen.

"I do remember liking 'Guys and Dolls,'" he recalls after much prodding. "In that one, they don't burst into song. There's a design in the language that fits together with the music and they work together. I don't think that's the case with a lot of musicals."

And so "Sweeney Todd" really, really is Burton's favorite musical, and he's no stranger to it. "I saw it in London when it first played here. In fact, I saw it several nights in a row."

For various reasons, he didn't pursue it immediately as a film project: "Things happen and you drift into other things. But it is strange; I was looking at some sketches I did many years ago, and the sketches looked like Johnny and Helena in the film. Not that this would have happened several years ago. They weren't old enough."

Even today, Depp and Bonham Carter are a decade or two younger than most Sweeneys and Mrs. Lovetts who've trod the stage. Burton likes it that way, saying his two serial killers convey a "weird, faded hopefulness. It somehow clicked strongly for me."

In legit chatrooms, aficionados of the original Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler tuner have voiced concern about the vocals of nonprofessional singers in the film version. These crix might get even testier when they learn that Burton very much likes that nonprofesh approach to Sondheim's hallowed score. "When they talk and then sing, it is not two different things," he says in praise of his actors' perfs. "Hopefully, it feels of a piece."

The late Beverly Sills once went so far as to call "Sweeney Todd" an opera. Intriguingly, Burton says that "it doesn't seem like a musical," much less an opera. "In fact, it's like a silent movie with music. Like an old horror movie. The emotions come through. Johnny enjoyed that silent-actor style of acting. It was liberating."

But it's also "scary risky," as he puts it. Here are two musical novices, Burton and Depp, bringing Sondheim's masterpiece to the screen.

The helmer recalls telling the maestro not to worry: "I told Stephen: 'I know Johnny. I know he wouldn't say yes if he couldn't do it.' "

Sondheim bought that argument, and Burton's bet is that movie auds will, too, when "Sweeney Todd" is released later this year. "Everybody went on that faith," he adds.

 

[Catman]

Some sequences of Sweeney Todd and the Digital 3D version of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas are the special events of the “Tim Burton Day”. The 64th Festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement is to be awarded to Tim Burton by his long-standing colleague, Johnny Depp.

http://www.labiennale.org/en/news/cinema/en/77865.html

 

[JP]

That interview put me a bit off. Like Burton doesn't much understand musicals or Sweeney for that matter. Huh.

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

musicals for the part is a turn off to me. so im kinda hoping burton plays that aspect down.

 

[JP]

Then what is the point?

There is very little spoken dialog in the play.

 

[Mr. Socko]

Wow, Burton doesn't have final cut in his contract!?!

 

[Mattchew]

musicals for the part is a turn off to me. so im kinda hoping burton plays that aspect down.

this is a musical no matte how you slice it... so you might wanna skip this one.

 

[danoyse]

musicals for the part is a turn off to me. so im kinda hoping burton plays that aspect down.

Uh yeah...no, don't count on that.

That interview put me a bit off. Like Burton doesn't much understand musicals or Sweeney

I'm thinking if there's any musical perfect for Tim Burton, it would be Sweeney Todd. Technically Nightmare Before Christmas is also a musical, and he did a great job with that.

 

[Mattchew]

I'm thinking if there's any musical perfect for Tim Burton, it would be Sweeney Todd. Technically Nightmare Before Christmas is also a musical, and he did a great job with that.

i tend to agree... hope you're right.

 

[JP]

Uh yeah...no, don't count on that.




I'm thinking if there's any musical perfect for Tim Burton, it would be Sweeney Todd. Technically Nightmare Before Christmas is also a musical, and he did a great job with that.

Yeah, I always thought that myself. Well, my choice for Burton has always been Little Shop Of Horrors, but that has already been done. I just found that interview to be odd. We'll see.

 

[green]

second poster.

 

[Bastila]

Really is that a real poster, looks fan made?
You can really tell it's kind of badly made lol but some fan ones are good, this looks fake.

 

[Agentsands77]

I'm thinking if there's any musical perfect for Tim Burton, it would be Sweeney Todd.

Indeed. His expressionistic style goes perfectly with the material (the original production itself feels, in some respects, Burtonesque anyway).

Technically Nightmare Before Christmas is also a musical, and he did a great job with that.

Burton wasn't directly involved with Nightmare. It was his ideas, but the film was handled by others.

Corpse Bride, however, was his baby. That was a musical, too.

 

[Apollo]

i'm surprised there hasn't been an teasers yet

 

[green]

Really is that a real poster, looks fan made?
You can really tell it's kind of badly made lol but some fan ones are good, this looks fake.

Im pretty sure it's legit, you can never be too sure though.

 

[Mr. Socko]

I don't think I'll see this in theaters, especially if it's not even the cut Burton wants.

 

[Catman]

Wow, Burton doesn't have final cut in his contract!?!

With Spielberg paying the bills I don't see how anyone can have final cut.

 

[danoyse]

Burton wasn't directly involved with Nightmare. It was his ideas, but the film was handled by others.

Corpse Bride, however, was his baby. That was a musical, too.

That's right, I'd forgotten Nightmare was directed by someone else. I loved Corpse Bride too. Again, it's the right atmosphere for Sweeney.

 

[Mattchew]

Im pretty sure it's legit, you can never be too sure though.

ive said it before.... BEST AVATAR EVER!

 

[Cinemaman]

second poster.

Looks cool! I doubt it's a fake, just a bad resolution

 

[Agentsands77]

Again, it's the right atmosphere for Sweeney.

Well, yes. Burton's the natural choice. His expressionistic style, love of character-driven material, respect for music, and taste for black humor all suit SWEENEY TODD very well. I love how Burton's working with some new people, too (a new production designer and a new cinematographer). So it'll be Burton, but with a new edge.

 

[Catman]

Burton wasn't directly involved with Nightmare. It was his ideas, but the film was handled by others.

Nightmare is very much a Burton and Elfman production. Back in the early `80s when Burton was working at Disney he developed the treatment for the movie, but the studio thought it was too dark. After the success of Batman in 1989, Burton, went back to Disney and told them that he wanted to make the movie. They obviously said yes. Soon after he got together with Danny Elfman to work on all 10 or 11 songs. By the time screenwriter Caroline Thompson (Edward Scissorhands; Elfman's GF at the time) came into the picture there was already a story, character designs, and a demo with 10 songs. She said, "I basically had to build a house around the people who were already leaving on the land." By the time director Henry Selick signed on he already had a script, character designs by Burton, and a demo by Elfman. And, perhaps a cast as well since there was Burton regulars like Catherine O' Hara and Paul Reubens. In other words...like 50% of his job was already complete.