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*[[Timothy Spall]] plays Beadle Bamford, Turpin's henchman.
*[[Timothy Spall]] plays Beadle Bamford, Turpin's henchman.
*[[Sacha Baron Cohen]] plays Todd's rival, Signor Adolfo Pirelli.
*[[Sacha Baron Cohen]] plays Todd's rival, Signor Adolfo Pirelli.
*[[Laura Michelle Kelly]] as Lucy Barker, Todd's wife. Michelle Kelly had previously played the same role on Broadway and is the only member of the cast to have done so.<ref>{{cite news | author=Gross, Terry | title = 'Sweeney Todd' Producer Richard Zanuck | publisher = NPR Radio| url = http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17207234 | accessdate=2007-12-16}}</ref>
*[[Laura Michelle Kelly]] as Lucy Barker, Todd's wife. Michelle Kelly had previously played the same role on Broadway and is the only member of the cast to have done so.<ref>{{cite news | author=Gross, Terry | title = 'Sweeney Todd' Producer Richard Zanuck | publisher = NPR Radio| date=[[2007-12-13]]| url = http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17207234 | accessdate=2007-12-16}}</ref>
*[[Jayne Wisener]] as Johanna Barker, Todd's daughter.
*[[Jayne Wisener]] as Johanna Barker, Todd's daughter.
*[[Jamie Campbell Bower]] as Anthony Hope, a sailor who falls for Johanna.
*[[Jamie Campbell Bower]] as Anthony Hope, a sailor who falls for Johanna.

Revision as of 08:03, 16 December 2007

Template:Future film

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTim Burton
Written byJohn Logan
Hugh Wheeler (play)
Christopher Wood (story)
Produced byRichard Zanuck
Walter F. Parkes
Laurie MacDonald
John Logan
StarringJohnny Depp
Helena Bonham Carter
Alan Rickman
Timothy Spall
Sacha Baron Cohen
Laura Michelle Kelly
CinematographyDariusz Wolski
Edited byChris Lebenzon
Music byStephen Sondheim
Distributed byDreamWorks/Paramount (USA)
Warner Bros.
Release dates
December 21, 2007 (US)
January 25 2008 (UK)
Running time
117 min.
Country United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$50 million

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 2007 film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler musical of the same name. The film stars Johnny Depp in the title role, in his sixth collaboration with director Tim Burton. The film is scheduled for release in the United States on December 21,2007.

Plot

Sweeney Todd returns to London after escaping the life imprisonment of Benjamin Barker, only to find his wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly) and daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener) have suffered at the hands of the very man who had imprisoned him, Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman). With the assistance of his former landlady, Mrs. Nellie Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), Sweeney launches a plan for revenge that initially targets the individuals responsible for his imprisonment, but ultimately draws all of society in his sights.

Production

Alan Parker had expressed interest in filming Sweeney Todd during the 1980s.[1] Tim Burton saw the musical numerous times since 1980,[2] first as a CalArts student.[3] Although he was not a fan of the genre,[1] he was struck by how cinematic it was. He described it as being a silent film with music in it,[2] and was "dazzled both by the music and its sense of the macabre."[3] When his film directing career took off in the late 1980s, Burton approached Stephen Sondheim. In Sondheim's words, "then [Burton] went off and did other things."[2] Burton had completed a drawing that coincidentally resembled Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, though it would be years before he met either of them.[4]

Sam Mendes developed the project for several years,[1] during which time Sondheim himself was approached to write the script in June 2003.[5] For unknown reasons Sondheim didn't want to write the screenplay, though Mendes, Sondheim and producer Walter Parkes all approved over John Logan, who previously collaborated with Parkes on Gladiator. Logan claims his biggest challenge in adapting the script "was taking a sprawling, magnificent Broadway musical and making it cinematic, and an emotionally honest film. Onstage, you can have a chorus sing as the people of London, but I think that would be alienating in a movie."[6] Mendes decided to direct Jarhead. Burton leaped at making the film in 2006 after his project, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, fell apart[1] due to the it's excessive budget.[7] John Logan felt he and Burton "share[d] stunted childhoods watching Amicus movies," agreeing over the film's tone.[3] In August 2006, DreamWorks announced that Burton had taken over direction of Sweeney Todd, and Johnny Depp was cast as Todd.[8] Burton and Logan once again reworked the screenplay upon Burton's hiring.[6]

Filming began on February 5, 2007 at Pinewood Studios and wrapped on May 11 2007.[9] Burton opted to film in London as he felt "very much at home" since his work on Batman.[3] For the film's depiction of London, production designer Dante Ferretti looked at the relevant neighbourhoods surrounding the real Fleet Street, and skewed it, making "it a little bit more frightening, more dark, more interesting." Burton initially planned to use minimal sets for the film and use greenscreen, but decided against it, stating that sets helped actors get into a musical frame of mind. "Just having people singing in front of a green screen seemed more disconnected", he said.[2] Depp created his own image of the character, suggesting a white streak in Todd's hair, which was inspired by his nephew. Heavy rings of purple and brown were created around his eyes to suggest fatigue and rage, as if "he's never slept".[10]

Burton insisted that the film be bloody, as he felt stage versions of the play which cut back on the bloodshed robbed it of its power. For him, "Everything is so internal with Sweeney that [the blood] is like his emotional release. It's more about catharsis than it is a literal thing."[1] Producer Richard D. Zanuck stated, "[Burton] had a very clear plan that he wanted to lift that up into a surreal, almost Kill Bill kind of stylization. We had done tests and experiments with the neck slashing, with the blood popping out. I remember saying to Tim, ‘My god, do we dare do this?’"[2] On set, the fake blood was colored orange, as the color of the film would be desaturated. Crew members covered themselves with bin liners to avoid getting wet as the fake blood spurted out.[10] Studios were nervous over the twisted tone of the film, and as a result it took three studios to agree to fund the film's $50 million budget.[3]

Cast

Johnny Depp stars as Benjamin Barker / Sweeney Todd, the barber who was locked away for fifteen years for a crime he didn't commit. Returning to London, he slits the throats of innocent customers in madness after the loss of his wife and daughter. Depp first learned of Sweeney Todd in 2000, when he was given an original cast recording of the musical by Burton. Depp was not a fan of the musical genre, but liked the musical. Depp asked rhetorically when he signed on, "How many chances do you get at a musical about a serial killer?"[1] The actor cited Peter Lorre in Mad Love (1935) as his influence, and practised the songs while filming Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.[10] Depp recorded demo tapes of himself in West Hollywood, working with an old friend and music producer Bruce Witkin to shape his own vocals without a voice coach.[1] Much of Sweeney's dialogue was cut from the musical. Depp said, "We focused on the dangerous and unsettling idea of stillness, that he doesn’t look many people in the eye, or say much", an idea Burton compared to Boris Karloff and other actors in classic horror films, where "his eyes and the music [...] tell the story."[11]

While Depp had formed a band as a teenager, he was unsure of whether he could sustain Stephen Sondheim's lyrics.[1] He noted they were "a lot of half-steps... kind of go G to A-flat to A to B-flat. It's super, ultra complicated, these notes that shouldn't work together at times."[10] Producer Richard Zanuck admitted it was "millions of dollars committed on an assumption. [But] we all said to one another, 'Johnny is a smart guy. He would never put himself in this position if he didn't think he could do it.'" Sondheim felt, "I figured he'd have a light baritone... I love him as an actor, and always have. Put those things together, I didn't hesitate for one second."[1] Sondheim explained to Depp the performance would be more about acting than singing.[10] Depp chose a punk rock approach to his performance,[2] citing inspiration from Anthony Newley and Iggy Pop, the latter whom he called a "very aggressive crooner. Especially in the early stuff, there’s something about [Sweeney's] attack that’s haunting."[11]

Helena Bonham Carter plays Todd's partner-in-crime, Mrs. Lovett, who bakes the corpses of victims into pies. Bonham Carter, a fan of the musical since she was age thirteen, wanted to prove to herself that being cast would not be an act of nepotism on partner Burton's part. The actress was trained to sing by Ian Adam, and Sondheim watched around twelve of her audition tapes, which he approved of: "Even in a recording studio, wearing a schmatte, she is as beautiful and sexy as they come."[1] In total she spent three months on singing lessons while pregnant during the production of the film.[12] The character is often singing while she moves and behaves, a behaviour which Bonham Carter dubbed "the Olympics of multi-tasking".[13] In addition she practiced pie baking for many hours while singing her lyrics at the same time, commenting "you had to do it to syncopated Sondheim rhythm and sing at the same time."[14]

  • Alan Rickman plays the wicked Judge Turpin, who locked away Todd and raped his wife. He adopted Todd's daughter and intends to marry her. Rickman said, "The music is sort of constant, and it slips in and out of speech and song. Because it's in real rooms and real spaces, the move from speaking into singing becomes much more organic." Therefore, he was quite surprised to see himself singing on screen.[13]
  • Timothy Spall plays Beadle Bamford, Turpin's henchman.
  • Sacha Baron Cohen plays Todd's rival, Signor Adolfo Pirelli.
  • Laura Michelle Kelly as Lucy Barker, Todd's wife. Michelle Kelly had previously played the same role on Broadway and is the only member of the cast to have done so.[15]
  • Jayne Wisener as Johanna Barker, Todd's daughter.
  • Jamie Campbell Bower as Anthony Hope, a sailor who falls for Johanna.
  • Ed Sanders as Tobias Ragg, formerly Pirelli's assistant who later joins Todd and Lovett.
  • Michael N. Harbour plays Dr. Jonas Fogg, a doctor at the insane asylum of London.

Soundtrack

Sweeney Todd has joined Ed Wood to become the only films in Tim Burton's career with music not composed by Danny Elfman. In adapting the musical to film, Stephen Sondheim noted the plot has to keep moving on film. Mike Higham, the film's music producer, sent Sondheim MP3 files of his shortened songs, which Sondheim would give feedback on. To create a larger, more cinematic feel, the musical was reorchestrated by the show's original orchestrator, Jonathan Tunick, to increase the orchestra from twenty-seven musicians to seventy-eight.[2]

Burton didn't want patches of dialogue interrupted by song, as is traditional. He cut the show's famous opening number, "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" explaining, "Why have a chorus singing about 'attending the tale of Sweeney Todd' when you could just go ahead and attend it?"[3] Several other songs had to be cut in order to turn the nearly three-hour stage musical into a two-hour movie. Sondheim followed there were "many changes, additions and deletions" though quoted "if you just go along with it, I think you'll have a spectacular time."[6] Christopher Lee, Peter Bowles and six other actors were set to play the ghost narrators. Lee believed the song was cut because of time constraints after Johnny Depp's daughter fell ill in March 2007.[16]

The Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street Deluxe Complete Edition soundtrack will be released on December 18, 2007,[17] and contains the following:

  1. "Opening Title"
  2. "No Place Like London"
  3. "The Worst Pies in London"
  4. "Poor Thing"
  5. "My Friends"
  6. "Green Finch & Linnett Bird"
  7. "Alms Alms"
  8. "Johanna"
  9. "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir"
  10. "The Contest"
  11. "Wait"
  12. "Ladies and Their Sensitivities"
  13. "Pretty Women"
  14. "Epiphany"
  15. "A Little Priest"
  16. "Johanna"
  17. "God, That's Good!"
  18. "By the Sea"
  19. "Not While I'm Around"
  20. "Final Scene"

Release

Reception

Time rated the film itself an A- and added, "Burton and Depp infuse the brilliant cold steel of Stephen Sondheim's score with a burning passion. Helena Bonham Carter and a superb supporting cast bring focused fury to this musical nightmare. It's bloody great."[18] Harry Knowles gave the film a highly positive review, calling it Burton's best film since Ed Wood (1994), his favorite Burton film, and said it was possibly superior. He praised all of the cast and the cinematography, but noted it would probably not appeal to non-musical fans due to the dominance of music in the film.[19] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+ and being impressed as to how a studio could "possibly stick its neck for one of the greatest artistic creations of our time."[20]

The film has been included in the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures's top ten films of 2007, and Tim Burton also won their prize for Best Director.[21] The film, Burton, Depp and Bonham Carter have received Golden Globe nominations.[22] Although Stephen Sondheim was somewhat cautious of a film adaptation, he was overly impressed by the film and its cast.[3]

Marketing

The marketing for the film has been criticized for not advertising it as a musical. Theater director Alex Levy argued, "I picture hordes of teenage boys on Christmas break [...] Someone says: 'That new Tim Burton movie promises the most blood; let's go to that.' I picture their faces as Helena Bonham Carter breaks into the song 'The Worst Pies in London'. I see horror in their eyes, because this certainly is not what they were expecting." Michael Halberstam of the Writers' Theatre said, "By de-emphasizing the score to the extent they did in the trailer, it is possible the producers were condescending to us — a tactic which cannot ultimately end in anything but tears."[23] The three studios opted for a low-key approach for marketing. Producer Walter Parkes stated, "All these things that could be described as difficulties could also be the movie's greatest strengths." Warner Brothers felt it should have similar advertising in the vein of The Departed.[24]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Steve Daly (2007-10-31). "'Sweeney Todd': A Musical on the Cutting Edge". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-11-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Sylviane Gold (2007-11-04). "Demon Barber, Meat Pies and All, Sings on Screen". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-11-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Paul Brownfield (2007-11-25). "Tim Burton's slasher film". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2007-12-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Josh Horowitz (2007-11-15). "Johnny Depp's Singing Steals The Bloody Show In Musical 'Sweeney Todd'". MTV. Retrieved 2007-12-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Gary Susman (2003-06-26). "Tuning Up". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-12-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ a b c Buckley, Michael (2007-12-16). "STAGE TO SCREENS: Logan, Zanuck and Parkes of "Sweeney Todd," Plus "Atonement" Writer Hampton". Playbill. Retrieved 2007-12-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Stax (2006-06-13). "Believe It Not: Sweeney before Ripley". IGN. Retrieved 2007-12-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "Sweeney Todd to Start Filming Early 2007". ComingSoon.net. 2006-08-17. Retrieved 2007-11-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Olly Richards (October 2007). "Sweeney Todd". Empire. p. 100.
  10. ^ a b c d e Steve Daly (2007-10-31). "Johnny Depp: Cutting Loose in Sweeney Todd". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-11-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ a b Logan Hill (2007-12-17 issue). "Attend the Tale". New York. Retrieved 2007-12-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Andy Duke; Stephanie Sanchez (2007-11-28). "Interviews: Depp, Burton, Carter and Rickman Slash Through Sweeney Todd!". IESB.net. Retrieved 2007-12-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ a b "Sweeney Todd — 30m Exclusive" (Quicktime required). Apple.com. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
  14. ^ "Movie Preview Sweeney Todd". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-12-15.
  15. ^ Gross, Terry (2007-12-13). "'Sweeney Todd' Producer Richard Zanuck". NPR Radio. Retrieved 2007-12-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ "A ghost is exorcised". The Telegraph. 2007-05-13. Retrieved 2007-11-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ "Sweeney Todd". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
  18. ^ Time, December 17, 2007
  19. ^ Harry Knowles (2007-11-02). "Harry loves the delicious meat pies of SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET". Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved 2007-11-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Lisa Schwarzbaum (2007-12-12). "Movie Review Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-12-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ "Awards for 2007". National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  22. ^ "The Golden Globe Nominations!". ComingSoon.net. 2007-12-13. Retrieved 2007-12-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Lewis Lazare (2007-12-10). "Is 'Sweeney Todd' marketing giving moviegoers a haircut?". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2007-12-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ Steven Zeitchik (2007-11-15). "D'Works/Par seeks perfect pitch for 'Todd'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2007-12-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links


Template:Johnny Depp films

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