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Looks like Depp has to prove he has the pipes before he can slit windpipes. It also looks like Elfman may have little to do with ‘Sweeney’, unless he pulls a ‘Chicago’ for this one.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2310051,00.html
Lucius
Bahhhhhh! This sounds like rubbish to me. I can’t really see Burton doing this as a musical. Until it’s in front of the cameras, this is all hear say to me.
Blah! What’s the point of having Tim Burton directing a musical if you don’t have nonstop Elfman music?
It’s official, according to playbill.com:
DreamWorks Studios confirmed plans for the upcoming Tim Burton film version of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd starring his constant collaborator Johnny Depp in the title role.
John Logan (“The Aviator,” “Gladiator”) penned the screenplay adaptation planned to begin work early in 2007 for a “late 2007 release,” according to the announcement. Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald will partner with Richard Zanuck and John Logan to produce the co-production with Warner Bros. Paramount will distribute for DreamWorks domestically and Warner Bros. internationally.
Sweeney Todd follows the story of a wrongfully imprisoned barber in Victorian England who sets out to seek revenge on the judge who imprisoned him. The stage work featuring a score by Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler based on the play by Christopher Bond.
The original 1979 Broadway production starred Len Cariou as the barbarous barber with Angela Lansbury as his pie-making cohort in the Harold Prince-directed work. Both stars and the musical itself earned Tony Awards. In the current Broadway run, re-imagined by director John Doyle and starring Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone, the actors play their own instruments. Other incarnations of the work include a 1989 Broadway revival featuring Bob Gunton and Beth Fowler, a Kennedy Center run as part of a Sondheim Celebration with Brian Stokes Mitchell and Christine Baranski as well as a 2001 concert presentation, directed by Lonny Price and led by George Hearn and LuPone.
The film will reunite Depp with Burton once again — the duo have previously worked together on “Edward Scissorhands,” “Ed Wood,” “Sleepy Hollow,” “Corpse Bride” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
Personally, I can’t wait. When I saw “Sweeney” performed at Indiana University as a freshman, it completely changed my perception of what can be done in a musical. Seeing the actual Angela Lansbury-George Hearn performance on DVD only cemented my conviction. For those of you unfamiliar or suspicious, throw away any of your Andrew Lloyd Webber preconceptions concerning stage musicals and buy the DVD on Amazon. If you hate Broadway musicals, you will love Stephen Sondheim. He has a deliciously dark sense of humor that is very much in line with Tim Burton’s sensibilities. “Pacific Overtures” is a kabuki musical about Japan’s forced entrance into Western commerce from the Asian point of view. “Into the Woods” is about assorted fairy tale characters who are unable to take care of themselves once they have come past the comfortable limitations of their stories. And “Assassins” is an ironically Americana look at the lives of men and women who have either succeeded or tried to kill U.S. Presidents.
It should also be noted that one of Sondheim’s inspirations in composing “Sweeney” was Bernard Herrmann, one of Elfman’s idols. In addition to unresolved dissonances, which the composer said keeps the audience in a state of suspence, Sondheim also used motifs in the same way Herrman did. “Sweeney Todd” is a musical that plays like a film score in some ways.
Also of note: Stephen Sondheim
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