Helena Bonham Carter to Play Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Film

Variety reports that Helen Bonham Carter has signed on to the Sweeney Todd film to star opposite Johnny Depp as the devilish Mrs. Lovett.

Carter is also director Tim Burton's longtime collaborator both on and off screen, having starred in films such as Big Fish, Planet of the Apes, Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factor for Burton. The upcoming film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp as the relentless demon barber of the title, will begin filming in February of 2007.

DreamWorks Studios had announced that filming will take place at London's Pinewood Studios beginning on February 5th.  Two members of the creative team have been recently announced--costume designer Colleen Atwood (Oscar-winner for Memoirs of a Geisha) and cinematographer Dante Spinotti (Oscar-nominated for The Insider and L.A. Confidential).

Sweeney Todd, which will be a co-production with Warner Bros., marks the 6th collaboration between the actor and director. The previous Burton-Depp films have been Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow.

Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald will partner with Richard Zanuck and John Logan to produce the screenplay adaptation which was written by Logan (The Aviator, Gladiator).  A late 2007 release is planned. 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.  "Its mix of the comic, the dramatic and the macabre held together by Sondheim's movie-like score has had hundreds of productions throughout the world," according to press notes.  John Doyle's highly acclaimed revival (for which he won a Tony) recently played the Eugene O'Neill Theatre; Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone starred. 

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."

Additional casting news is expected shortly.