Tim Burton & Johnny Depp Team For 'Sweeney Todd'

[Charlie No-One]

Anyone who has seen the stage revival, how is it? Do they have the barber chair or is like a concert type setting?

 

[Majik1387]

I didn't see the revival but I saw the show last year, and they had a chair.

 

[L0ngsh0t]

Question has anyone who has seen the flick seen the musical?

I am pretty much turned off to anything Burton touches, and I think he is brutal when he isn't working with his own material, like when he does adaptations (Batman/Planet of the Apes) but I do think he gets a lot better when he does his own stuff. I am just a little worried the flick will taint my musical experience

 

[JP]

It's pretty much the same. Word for word in some cases.

 

[DACrowe]

I wouldn't say, "It's pretty much the same." But I say it is very faithful to the spirit of the musical and the story and has many of the songs and everything (except fantasies, flashbacks and images visualized that cannot be on stage) you see is in the musical.

But there are some major changes, but I think while not nearly as faithful in adapting all the songs as say Phantom of the Opera or Dreamgirls or The Producers, it is infinitely more satisfying and one of Burton's strongest. Probably his strongest his film since Ed Wood, I'd say.

A list of changes:
SPOILERS



-The Ballad of Sweeney Todd and all the ghostily choruses are removed from the story and the only time you hear the music is in the opening credits as background music.
-The judge does not sing Johanna in a creepifying manner.
-The morning song between the judge and Bailey is cut in half.
-BIG SPOILER: The beggar woman/the barber's wife, Lucy, is not a prostitute and her song is cut in half and she does not try to solicit sex with the sailor.
-Johanna and Anthony do not have the love song "Kiss Me," or it's reprise. In fact, outside of the wonderful song, "Johanna," the love story is almost completely off screen in the movie.
-Sweeney doesn't get his chair ordered to him and is impatient because of Mrs. Lovett but makes it himself in this.
-A third of "Little Priest" is missing, including most of the best jokes like "The royal marine? What about his private parts? That's extra."
-"God, That's Good" is cut in half, without the actual title of the song being said.
-The crazies that Anthony frees from the nut house do not come and sing "The City is on Fire" in this version.
-Many other of the songs seem shorter than they did on stage so I assume there were cuts I was missing.
Interperative Changes:
SPOILERS
-Sweeney is far more insane in this version. When he gets to London he is already at the killing point, he just needs a little push. Depp's Sweeney is less sympathetic and much more tunnele visioned in performance and tone than the stage versions I know of, just focusing on revenge with the rest of the world dead to him, as opposed to the angry but bemused righteous man who goes nuts halfway through and even then has a sense of humor.
-Mrs. Lovett interestingly is not the batty fishmonger's wife with the cokney accent in this one that is hiding a much darker and evil scheming side with her eccentric exterior being superlative to the real monster underneath. Here,, she is much more sympathetic and far more in love with Sweeney and does everything to be closer to him and has a motherly streak that feels genuine as opposed to artificial. Her death is very grusome but sad, as opposed to much more satisfying like on stage. Maybe it is because Carter is still gorgeous underneath all that make up, though.
-Tobias is not a teenager but a young boy. I think this worked marvelously well making him seem completely innocent and loveable.
-Far less humor.
-The ending ends after Sweeney dies, leaving the audience to wallow in the misery and horror of the climax in the finale. The chorus does not come out and sing the Ballad of Sweeney Todd and we do not see the lovers again, whose escape seems ill-fated in the movie.
-A LOT BLOODIER. A lot more bodies during the reprise of Johanne. The blood is on the walls in this one.
-Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett obviously do not have operetta voices in this.
-The order of some songs has been changed, AND SURPRISINGLY IT WORKS.

But I find all these changes work and while I would have kept more of the music, particularly in "The Little Priest" I overall think it was adapted brilliantly and works perfectly as a movie, which is what you want.

 

[JP]

Yes, true.

What I meant was all the plot points are their, nothing was changed like say Dreamgirls, Chicago or Hairspray.

 

[Agentsands77]

-A third of "Little Priest" is missing, including most of the best jokes like "The royal marine? What about his private parts? That's extra."

Ew. Your rendering of it leaves out the innuendo. The joke actually goes:

"Now, since marine doesn't appeal to you, how about Rear Admiral?"
"Too salty. I prefer General."
"With or without his Privates? ...with is extra."

-Sweeney is far more insane in this version. When he gets to London he is already at the killing point, he just needs a little push.

I always thought George Hearn played the character that way.

But I find all these changes work and while I would have kept more of the music, particularly in "The Little Priest" I overall think it was adapted brilliantly and works perfectly as a movie, which is what you want.

Yeah, it flows really well.

I would have kept a little bit more of the dialogue in "A Little Priest" (namely, the "General" exchange), but that's about it... it's a long song, and it still ran for a decent amount of time.

 

[The Guard]

I missed the Ballad of Sweeney Todd a bit, too. I could have seen it working, even just as voices during the credits sequence that the film had. And Turpin could have been a little creepier/more obsessive toward Joanna.

-Sweeney is far more insane in this version. When he gets to London he is already at the killing point, he just needs a little push. Depp's Sweeney is less sympathetic and much more tunnele visioned in performance and tone than the stage versions I know of, just focusing on revenge with the rest of the world dead to him, as opposed to the angry but bemused righteous man who goes nuts halfway through and even then has a sense of humor.

He may be willing to kill Turpin, but I don't think he's already insane as much as he is cynical, bitter about the world, and lost. He just doesn't have much left to look forward to other than finding out what happened to his wife, who he seems pretty sure has moved on. He's lost in the past, and he goes back to what he knew. And when he finds out the apparent fate of his wife, that drives him the rest of the way mad. He also becomes more insane as the film progresses, going from bein willing to kill just Turpin to not caring about killing anyone.

In other news, I just found out a local theatre in my hometown will be doing SWEENEY TODD locally in the Spring/Summer of 2008. Wish me luck.

 

[DACrowe]

I disagree. There is a sense of humor to both stage Sweeneys I've seen and the original cast recording. He is bitter and out for revenge but he is fairly righteous for the first third of the play and his attack on Pirelli seems the beginning of the insanity and he just snaps at Epiphany. In the movie he is just dead. There is no humor in him and the only thing lurking behind Sweeney's eyes is a boiling rage. You feel his snapping at Pierelli was inevitable because he was already full of such disgust and contempt for EVERYONE, he never gave the image of righteousness. He was much more tunnel-visioned and a good deal creepier. Like when he says "Send the boy up. SEND HIM UP!" there is such venom and evil lurking there that he has already reached that point before Epiphany he just needed the juice to turn it towards the city instead of Turpin. He was already insane, he just had it tunneled one way and it wasn't a point of recognition but an inevitable outcome when the character decides to kill everybody.

That is why I called it an interperative change.

 

[StrainedEyes]

I disagree. There is a sense of humor to both stage Sweeneys I've seen and the original cast recording. He is bitter and out for revenge but he is fairly righteous for the first third of the play and his attack on Pirelli seems the beginning of the insanity and he just snaps at Epiphany. In the movie he is just dead. There is no humor in him and the only thing lurking behind Sweeney's eyes is a boiling rage. You feel his snapping at Pierelli was inevitable because he was already full of such disgust and contempt for EVERYONE, he never gave the image of righteousness. He was much more tunnel-visioned and a good deal creepier. Like when he says "Send the boy up. SEND HIM UP!" there is such venom and evil lurking there that he has already reached that point before Epiphany he just needed the juice to turn it towards the city instead of Turpin. He was already insane, he just had it tunneled one way and it wasn't a point of recognition but an inevitable outcome when the character decides to kill everybody.

That is why I called it an interperative change.

I don't know, he had a little humor in him when he first met Mrs. Lovett And he had fun playing against Pierelli. He just seemed sad and lost, but he still had some humor to him.

 

[Darth Elektra]

Will Sweeney Todd be getting a wider release?

 

[Cyrusbales]

I've heard this film has been called "A Masterpiece" already, and is poised to become Burton's finest work. Does it look like this claim is true?

Also, Jonathon Ross stated that it was "Nothing short of a masterpiece"

 

[Hunter Rider]

^^^ That's usually a bad sign but thankfully a lot of smart posters here also said that.

 

[War Party]

Yeah, I think it's Burton's best film overall. I just had such a great time watching it and it was just bloody entertaining. Sorry for the pun.

 

[Majik1387]

Will Sweeney Todd be getting a wider release?

Wider as in how?
It opened in theaters Friday nationwide, not select theaters.

 

[JP]

Will Sweeney Todd be getting a wider release?

I think it opens in more theaters this weekend.

 

[War Party]

It opened in about 1200 theaters. That was definitely less than the other films released:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2007&wknd=51&p=.htm

 

[Agentsands77]

I've heard this film has been called "A Masterpiece" already, and is poised to become Burton's finest work. Does it look like this claim is true?

Also, Jonathon Ross stated that it was "Nothing short of a masterpiece"

Yes. SWEENEY TODD is Burton's best film, and is indeed "nothing short of a masterpiece." It's truly phenomenal.

 

[Majik1387]

It opened in about 1200 theaters. That was definitely less than the other films released:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2007&wknd=51&p=.htm

Weird, maybe this is why some of my friends thought it came out on Christmas.

 

[Agentsands77]

There is a sense of humor to both stage Sweeneys I've seen and the original cast recording.

Yes. Depp's Sweeney is noticeably more melancholy and less joyful than those Sweeneys.

He is bitter and out for revenge but he is fairly righteous for the first third of the play and his attack on Pirelli seems the beginning of the insanity and he just snaps at Epiphany.

I disagree. I think his insanity is often demonstrated in his very early in the musical. "There's a hole in the world..." like he repeats a few times, he gets furiously enraged at the beggar woman, almost hits Mrs. Lovett after being told what happened to his daughter and Lucy, and if his "My Friends" doesn't demonstrate a sense of brewing insanity, I don't know what does.

This, at least, can be demonstrated with the three "hailed" Sweeneys. George Hearn, who shouts like a madman throughout (his "At last my arm is complete again" is pure madness, nothing more, nothing less) is clearly insane from the beginning. Len Cariou on the OBC recording is a bit more reserved, but I think the madness still shows through (and live, he was definitely mad from the beginning). Michael Cerveris, from the revival, definitely strikes me as being very bloodthirsty and insane from the moment he walks into London.

In the movie he is just dead. There is no humor in him and the only thing lurking behind Sweeney's eyes is a boiling rage.

Granted. What humor he has is very dark indeed, and unlike other Sweeneys, he never even laughs during "Epiphany." But I'd argue that's the only major distinction.

You feel his snapping at Pierelli was inevitable because he was already full of such disgust and contempt for EVERYONE, he never gave the image of righteousness.

That's the way it is for every stage Sweeney. Todd has nothing but disgust for everyone from the first moment he appears in the stage show. Hence his very long "There's a hole in the world..." monologue.

 

[Mr. Socko]

Yes. SWEENEY TODD is Burton's best film, and is indeed "nothing short of a masterpiece." It's truly phenomenal.

I agree.

Though I miss the Ballad, they could have played it during the credits at least

 

[StrainedEyes]

I just wanted to post this because it is sad/hilarious.

[YT]trnr2CXoGAk[/YT]

 

[DACrowe]

I agree there was always madness growing in the stage Sweeneys, but there was just something more sinister in Depp's portrayal. Maybe it is the prospect of it being so close to him and he plays it much more reserved, but there is a boiling rage in him from the beginning and he is ready to slit a boy's throat. I mean even during "A Little Prince" he was only happy to have a way dispose people and I do not think there was any joy in the puns he and Mrs. Lovett made. I siply think Depp's Sweeney is darker and more enclosed as Carter's Lovett is slightly more sympathetic and motherly than the usually batty schemer on stage.

Just my views, though.

 

[Agentsands77]

I siply think Depp's Sweeney is darker and more enclosed as Carter's Lovett is slightly more sympathetic and motherly than the usually batty schemer on stage.

I entirely agree.

 

[Dodger]

This movie started getting real good once he was killing people. I loved everything with Depp and Carter.