On a cold, drizzly day (somewhat
suitable, one might say) at the Claridge's Hotel, there was a feeling of
excitement in the air that you could cut with a knife as the cast and creative team of the highly-anticipated new movie-musical Sweeney Todd crowded a press junket in London.
In a very special BroadwayWorld exclusive, London reporter Nick Hutson provides a very special Q/A series with the likes of Johnny Depp, renown composer Stephen Sondheim; plus stars Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, and director Tim Burton and the stars
of tomorrow Ed Sanders, Jayne Weisner and Jamie Campbell Bower.
Stay Tuned as BroadwayWorld brings you even more exclusive content and features on Sweeney Todd! In theatres for limited national release December 21, 2007 and wide
January 11, 2008.
WALTER PARKES,
LAURIE MacDONALD
(PRODUCERS) AND
JOHN LOGAN (SCREENWRITER)
The brains behind the
film are the producers. We asked about
their involvement and their history within the film.
Walter Parkes:
Laurie and I met with Steve Sondheim in 2002 originally. And had conversations at the time we were
also running the studio (DreamWorks).
For whatever reason Steve felt comfortable that we would, you know, love
the baby like our own and do whatever we could to make sure that it came to the
screen the right way. John, Laurie and I
have collaborated many many times since but we really got to know each other
and cut our teeth together on Gladiator. John, I feel, really wrote the draft that
kind of became Gladiator and got the
movie made, and had been a man of the theatre and a lover of this play and
quite extraordinarily I think came to us.
John Logan: I
think, on bended-knee, I said if I don't write this I'll die.
Laurie MacDonald:
It was actually in fact Gladiator,
which we all collaborated on, which made us feel that we have the right to take
a shot at such unusual and potentially difficult material.
Walter Parkes:
Speaking for me and Laurie, we had run the studio for several years and it was
a very good run and there's a connection that people have to Sweeney Todd that really does border on
the fanatic. People who love the play
love the play in a very deep way. The
three of us share a lot of things and that was one of the things I think we all
shared, but it isn't an obviously commercial venture, I mean it's a very risky
thing to do. So, really, for us as
producers it kind of took the confidence that we'd derived from a couple years
there working and working together on Gladiator
and seeing how well that worked and saying you know something, we can try this
– we can try to do this the right way.
John Logan:
Right, and also everyone at the early stages in this, Walter and I, we all saw
the original 1979 Broadway production of this and it has stayed with us since
then and we have such affection for it and respect for the work of Stephen
Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler and Chris Bond and Hal Prince and the people that
made that original Broadway production.
That was paramount to me all the way though. From the very beginning we were all talking
about the same beast and talking about it with respect.
