Tim Burton's eagerly anticipated screen version of Stephen Sondheim's classic 1979 musical Sweeney Todd will go in to a limited domestic release on December 21st, 2007, and open in wide release in the U.S. on January 11th, 2008. Sweeney Todd, a co-production between DreamWorks and Warner Bros., marks the 6th collaboration between the Johnny Depp - who stars in the title role - and Burton. Production began on February 5th, 2007.
In addition to Depp, who plays Sweeney, the film stars Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, Jayne Wisener as Johanna and Sacha Baran Cohen as Pirelli, as well as Jamie Bower as Anthony, Ed Sanders as Tobias, Timothy Spall as Beadle Bamford, Laura Michelle Kelly as the Beggar Woman, with Christopher Lee, Michael N. Harbour, Peter Bowles, Anthony Head and Ian Burford. Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald partner with Richard Zanuck and John Logan to produce the screenplay adaptation which is written by Logan (The Aviator, Gladiator). Paramount will distribute for DreamWorks domestically and Warner Bros. internationally.
The Broadway production of Sweeney Todd, with Sondheim's music and lyrics and a book by Hugh Wheeler based on the play by Christopher Bond, opened in 1979 and won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The story of Sweeney Todd is of a wrongfully imprisoned barber in Victorian England who sets out to seek revenge on the judge who imprisoned him. He is helped by Mrs. Lovett, who bakes Sweeney's victims into "the worst pies in London."
Photo courtesy of DreamWorks and Warner Bros.
Johnny Depp as Sweeney and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett
