Page 22
Spoilers May Be Below!
Page 22
Spoilers May Be Below!
From the New York Press
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Tim Burton slices 'Sweeney' for Lincoln Center crowdOf the three scenes from Sweeney Todd that Tim Burton revealed last night during a Lincoln Center tribute at the Rose Theatre, only one displayed factors that both fans of the Broadway musical and the renowned goth filmmaker are respectively hoping for: Yes, Johnny Depp can sing, and oh, yes—there will be blood. “Joanna,” the swelling ode to the Demon Barber of Fleet Street’s lost daughter, features Depp putting on a solemn face and carrying a tune. It also follows the visual rhythm of several graphic throat slashings committed by the barber as he knocks off one customer after another. The visceral impact of the cheerfully gory montage makes the opening slice in Eastern Promises look like chopping lettuce.
Although Sweeney Todd marks the first full-blown live action musical to come out of Burton’s darkly playful oeuvre, it walks and talks like a Burton film. The use of sepia tones, a lead male actor in heavy makeup sporting a hilariously unkempt hairstyle, and sympathy for social pariahs recall pretty much everything good the guy has made since Beetlejuice. Burton said he knew for a long time that the material was a perfect match for his artistic inclinations.
“I saw it when I was a student in London and just thought, ‘wow, this is amazing,’” he told the audience. “Then I got involved in other things, but recently, I started thinking about it again. I looked at an old drawing of it that I did—and it looked like Johnny and Helena [Bonham-Carter, Burton’s wife and Depp’s co-star]. I didn’t know either of them at the time, so it seemed kind of like a weird fate to me.”
He began the process of culling interest from his favorite star. “I gave Johnny the soundtrack to see what he thought of it. He said, ‘I think I can do it.’ I knew if he said he could do it, he could do it. It was the first time in our [career together] where he knew he could do it.”
As for the singing, Burton seemed satisfied with his stars that weren’t veterans of the form. “None of them are professional singers, which gives them an extra layer that you don’t necessarily get onstage,” adding that lyricist Stephen Sondheim was “very supportive. He was OK with Johnny without hearing him sing, because I think he knew Johnny could pull it off.”
The Depp performance came across in the clip reel like Edward Scissorhands in the Victorian Age with a psychotic streak. The scene in which Sweeney Todd discovers his fate as a murderer features several close-ups of the actor’s face reflected in the blade, an expressionistic visual scheme that allows Depp to emote while his face grows hideously contorted. “Johnny and I always talk about old horror movie actors, like Boris Karloff,” Burton said. “They have a certain acting style that you don’t see much anymore, based on movement and internalization. This part seemed perfect for that.”
But when moderator Richard Pena asked Burton if he would ever make the transition to stage direction, the director withdrew his enthusiasm. “I’ve always wanted to do something onstage,” he said. “I’ve got a couple ideas, but not for right now.” As if to validate his hesitation, he explained himself with an anecdote. “I remember, one time, they wanted me to do a musical version of Batman,” he said, shaking his head as the room erupted into laughter. “I could just see him prancing around stage. Batman on ice.”
From Fox News
Johnny Depp Sings: First Look at 'Sweeney Todd'
Thursday, November 15, 2007
By Roger Friedman
Wednesday night, we learned from director Tim Burton that Johnny Depp modeled his “Willy Wonka” hairstyle on Vogue editor Anna Wintour.“He was trying to scare people,” said Burton, at a Film Society of Lincoln Center event held in his honor.
The studio, Burton told questioner Richard Pena during a Q&A in front of a couple hundred guests, also asked that Depp’s skin color be darkened in the posters for “Willy” because they thought he looked too much like Michael Jackson!
Burton, who was dressed in a black jacket and pants and black and white horizontally striped socks, also said that he thought Depp had never actually watched any of his movies, at least the ones they’d made together like “Edward Scissorhands,” “Ed Wood,” “Willy Wonka,” and “Sleepy Hollow.”
But he may watch his performance in Burton’s new “Sweeney Todd.” It’s got Oscar written all over it.
Last night, at Rose Hall in Jazz at Lincoln Center, a lucky few of us got to see about 25 minutes of footage of “Sweeney Todd.” This is the long-awaited film version of Stephen Sondheim’s magnificent 1981 Broadway musical, directed by Burton and starring Depp as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, his accomplice.
The Oscar race just officially became really, really interesting.
The three set pieces we saw were, in a word, spectacular. They were also just enough to light a fire and suggest that Paramount Dreamworks has a potential Best Picture nominee in “Sweeney Todd,” and maybe even a winner.
Both Depp and Carter sing, as do Sacha "Borat" Baron Cohen, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall and three important newcomers: Jayne Wisener, Jamie Bower and Ed Sanders.
Of the three, we only got to hear Bower besides Depp and Carter. But young Bower turns out to be a winner. His rendition of my favorite number from “Sweeney” — “Joanna” — just knocked out the crowd.
And just a hint of what Depp does in this film was demonstrated in a number called “My Friends,” in which Sweeney sings to his recovered barber tools after returning from 15 years in prison. The number was breathtaking.
Unfortunately, we won’t know more about “Sweeney Todd” until Nov. 29. Burton told me Wednesday night that’s the first possible day he can screen it, as the movie is still being edited! “We will deliver a ‘wet’ print straight to you,” he said.
This much I can now confirm: as Sondheim said in this column a few weeks ago, the film version is shorter and a little different than the stage musical. The main song, “Attend the Tale,” has been removed, as have a few others, including some interstitial material.
“I had to let the movie and the story stand on their own," Burton said. “'Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd' framed it for a theater audience. And we’ve actually added a lot of music back into the show.”
Fans of the show needn’t worry, though. The instrumental score remains intact, and you can hear bits and pieces of the excised songs in it.
As a “Sweeney Todd” buff, I can tell you that the movie seems very true to the stage version. There doesn’t seem reason for worry.
What there does seem reason for is celebration. Burton may have pulled off a great theater-to-film transfer. He’s retained the grisly aspect of the show, of course: Sweeney slits a lot of throats and "there will be blood," even more than in the movie of that name. It spurts and squirts in quantities.
But this is what we also got from seeing this footage: Johnny Depp can sing, and he makes for an impressive Sweeney. The look and attitude are right. The performance should earn him an Oscar nomination as well.
Carter, who specializes in playing “off" types, makes an excellent comic and romantic foil for him.
From MTV
Nov 15 2007 2:36 PM EST
Johnny Depp's Singing Steals The Bloody Show In Musical 'Sweeney Todd'
'It's like an old horror movie,' director Tim Burton tells MTV News in exclusive interview before previewing clips in NYC.By Josh Horowitz
NEW YORK — At first, the scene on the screen seems like one common in many of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's famous collaborations. The production design is atmospheric and evocative. The actor sports a thick English accent. He seems tortured and haunted by the information that has just been delivered to him.
And then, after a few lines are exchanged between Depp and his co-star Helena Bonham Carter, something utterly shocking (even for a Tim Burton flick) happens: Johnny Depp sings. This is "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," perhaps the biggest gamble of the holiday movie season.
There are five weeks until "Sweeney Todd" opens December 21, and Burton is still working on his latest ambitious endeavor, a full-fledged live-action musical (his first) based on Stephen Sondheim's Broadway hit. "We're not quite done with it. It's weird to be doing this kind of thing," he told MTV News in an exclusive interview Wednesday night, moments before showing three scenes, totaling 17 minutes of the film, to an enthusiastic audience at Lincoln Center.
Clad in an all-black outfit (you were expecting something else?), highlighted by some spiffy black-and-white-striped socks, the revered director of "Batman" and "Edward Scissorhands" described a film long in the making. Burton admitted he was never much of a musical-theater fan, but to the surprise of no one, the bloody tale of Benjamin Barker — locked away for 15 years for a crime he didn't commit — was an exception even early on. "I saw it when I was a student. The mixture of humor and horror and emotion felt like it was perfect for me."
At the event, Burton showed scenes he described as "Sweeney comes home," "Sweeney gets pissed" and "Sweeney gets down to business." The images that followed were not especially surprising for a Burton film (Depp storming down the streets of London, bellowing that he wants vengeance). If the background music were ignored, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were seeing a deleted scene from "Sleepy Hollow."
It is the music that carries this film, though. Early on, Burton made the somewhat controversial choice to cast nearly all non-professional singers. That includes Depp, Burton's wife and frequent collaborator Carter, Alan Rickman and Borat himself, Sacha Baron Cohen.
But clearly all eyes will be on Depp when "Sweeney Todd" is released. The film is undeniably his, and the clips don't lie: The performance looks to be a tour de force. Save for a shock of white in his hair, it's Depp's voice that will draw the most attention. Each of the three scenes showcased the actor front and center, and Burton admitted that his version of the story focuses on the man much more so than Carter's Mrs. Lovett, who played a larger part in the Broadway production.
For Depp, Sweeney may pose the biggest challenge yet in a remarkable career predicated on taking chances. Believe it or not, there was a time when portraying a pirate in the key of Keith Richards was considered insanity, at least by some nervous executives at Disney. It's one thing to do an ironic take on a pirate; it's another to star in a Tony Award-winning musical having never sung onscreen before. His part in the 1990 John Waters musical "Cry-Baby" was dubbed over, and though Depp played guitar in rock bands before he ever tried acting, he's never worked the mic. Burton laughed as he remembered that the actor had nearly done a song in "The Corpse Bride" before jumping into this challenge.
As for the biggest question of the day — can Depp sing? — the answer, at least judging by these scenes, is a resounding yes. Much in the way that Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman made the music of "Moulin Rouge" work thanks to decent natural talent coupled with emotion behind the words, Depp sells his character from the start.
Burton's interest in directing "Sweeney Todd" began about 10 years ago, he said. When he started reconsidering the project, he found something that sparked some casting ideas. "I did a drawing a while back, and it kind of looked like [Johnny] and Helena before I even knew [them]. I thought, 'That's strange. That means something,' " he recalled.
When "Sweeney Todd" trailers hit the Internet and television, audiences began to wonder how full-fledged a musical this would be. Let the question be put to rest: As is clear from the footage shown and Burton's comments, "Sweeney Todd" is a musical, featuring nearly wall-to-wall music.
"Most musicals have 10 pages of dialogue and then they burst into song. The music is threaded throughout this," Burton said. "That's what I liked about it. It's like a silent movie with music. It's like an old horror movie."
Indeed, the final clip made clear that this film will not shrink from horror. In it, Sweeney begins by serenading his blades and then quickly moves to slicing customer after customer. Blood gloriously and unapologetically spurts out, even falling on the camera lens at one point. When asked if he considers his film (which the director said will receive an R-rating) bloody, Burton laughed and said, "Yeah, but it's fake blood," adding, "I would have watched this on television when I was 10 years old."
From FANTasticJD scans of the Playbill from "A Night with Tim Burton" held Nov 14, 2007(very large)
And from Playbill
Thanks to Karen at Johnny Depp Reads and Paramount, Dream Works and Warner Bros PicturesBig Smaller
Big Smaller
© 2007 by DreamWorks LLC
and Warner Bros. Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.
Sorry, I cannot remember who scanned this image. If it was you, please write. From Glamore Magazine.
From the PlayBill
PHOTO CALL: A Trip to Fleet Street via Tim BurtonBy Greg Kalafatas
13 Nov 2007Tim Burton's film version of "Sweeney Todd" is scheduled to hit movie theatres around the country Dec. 21. The DreamWorks/Warner Bros. film adaptation of the Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical stars Johnny Depp in the title role opposite Helena Bonham Carter as piemaker Mrs. Lovett.
Here's a glimpse of "Sweeney Todd," coming soon to a theatre near you.
Jamie Campbell Bower as Anthony in "Sweeney Todd."
From the Daily Mail
From cut-throat to throat-cutter: Johnny Depp is the demon barber Sweeney Todd
Last updated at 14:11pm on 13th November 2007He's become famous for his portrayal of lovable rogue and pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. But now Johnny Depp has gone from cut-throat to throat-cutter in his latest film - as the demon barber Sweeney Todd.
In a film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical, Sweeney Todd, as ever, Depp's metamorphosis into the the vicious barber who collected human parts for Mrs. Lovett's meat pies, is completely authentic.
With his pale face, sunken eyes, and shock of dark hair punctuated by a Mallen streak, Depp looks terrifyingly authentic as the 19th century mass murderer.
Edward Scissorhands director Tim Burton has managed to enlist Depp to create a faithful film adaptation in which most of the action unfolds in song. Depp was a revelation, and surprised himself with his singing ability.
He said: "I knew I could stay in key to some degree. But I didn't know if I could sustain a note, or belt one out."
Sweeney Todd spins a gruesome tale of vengeance in 19th-century London. Director Burton insisted on lashings of blood as his ghoulish barber slashed clients in the gory scenes.
But Depp admitted he soon tired of the sight of it.
Depp told US magazine Entertainment Weekly: "I remember everyone except me being covered in plastic trash bags. There'd be a countdown: 'Three, two, one… action!' And then blammo… the great deluge.
"It tasted kind of like a Karo-syrupy sort of thing. It was oily and it was dangerous, slippery.
"You'd see these big English grips, tiptoeing through the swamp of blood."
Alongside Depp, the cast includes Burton's partner, Helena Bonham-Carter.
Bonham-Carter plays Mrs. Lovett, Todd's partner in crime. Desperate to be part of Todd's life and to exorcise his dead wife's ghost, she becomes his business associate, grinding victims into meat pies and selling them to an unsuspecting public. Alan Rickman, and comic actor Sacha Baron Cohen also star.
In the film, Sweeney Todd is a man previously known as Benjamin Barker - who has returned from the penal colonies in Australia, where he has spent 15 years after being falsely accused of a crime.
When he speaks to Mrs. Lovett, maker of the worst pies in London, he learns that while he was away, his wife was raped by Judge Turpin, the man who sent him away. Distraught, she poisoned herself. The judge now has Sweeney's daughter under his thumb as his ward.
Sweeney Todd vows revenge, and Mrs. Lovett agrees to be his co-conspirator. Their plot brings about mass murder and amazing business for the pie shop.
The DreamWorks film is set for release in January 25. (in the UK)
Wild About Movies has a contest to win entry in to a Sweeney screening. Scroll down on that page for the entry form.
The Los Angeles Press Junket has been cancelled. The London one is still on.
From VisiMag
From Film Review
Feature: Sweeney Todd:The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Winter Preview
Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter
As part of Film Review's Winter Preview, we talk to star Johnny Depp about this Tim Burton version of the Broadway musical by Stephen SondheimFrom Edward Scissorhands to Sleepy Hollow’s Ichabod Crane, Johnny Depp has created some memorable Gothic characters with Tim Burton. So when it was announced that the director planned to bring Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street, to the screen, who better than Depp to take on the role? “It’s enjoyable working with him,” shrugs Burton. “Some actors make a career out of being themselves in a movie. But I’ve always enjoyed those actors that just like to become different creatures and he’s that way. He’s always trying something different. On this movie he sings!”
An adaptation of the bloodthirsty Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd is Burton’s first attempt at the genre. “Well, I’ve never been a big musical fan in terms of films,” he says. “But Sweeney Todd, it’s probably my favourite musical, a mix of horror movies and music together which is nice.” A gruesome tale, as Sweeney Todd resolves to brutally rid himself of anyone who has ever done him wrong, Burton promises his version is “uncharted territory” both for him and Hollywood. Promising to deliver an “old-fashioned horror movie” set to music, he notes, “I don’t think there’s that many R-rated musicals out there these days.”
As well as reuniting him with Depp, Burton also once again works with his real-life partner Helena Bonham Carter, who plays accomplice Mrs Lovett. Proudly selling the ‘worst pies in London’ from an establishment below Sweeney’s barbershop, she helps him in his diabolical plan by disposing of the bodies. “She’s bonkers,” laughs Carter. “She makes pies out of human hearts!” Carter admits the film was unlike anything she’d ever shot. “People kept on breaking out into song!” she says. “I surprised myself. I didn’t think I could sing. But it was merciless. It was really quite stressful. I wouldn’t recommend it for any relationship!”
by James Mottram
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