Sweeney Todd (Tim Burton, 2007)

[malcolm1980]

...or because the studio wants to appeal to a male audience, which stays away from musicals.

That's what I thought also.

I personally liked the trailer. Really looking forward to it now. My only quibble is that I wished it featured more singing. That said, Johnny Depp's voice was pretty good. It was no George Hearn (who I think is the best Sweeney so far. Sorry, Katie) but he's certainly not bad. It was a different, less theatrical take on "Epiphany".

I think the trailer hinges on whether or not you like Tim Burton. If you hate Tim Burton's work and love Sondheim, you'll surely hate it because you'll be thinking "How dare Tim Burton Burtonize Sondheim!"

That said, I'm looking forward to it.

[Jeff]

...or because the studio wants to appeal to a male audience, which stays away from musicals.

Exactly right. It's not not really an unusual marketing decision. They chose not to show scenes with singing for the same reason that trailers for foreign films often don't show any scenes with dialog that would have to be subtitled. They don't want to scare anybody away.

It's not really men I think that Warner and Dreamworks are trying to appeal to though; it's kids. That's why they were fighting Burton to cut it for a PG-13 (though I think he finally won out). The studios know that they have a marketable icon in Captain Jack. They want 15-year-olds saying, "Did you see the commercial for that movie where Johnny Depp kills people with a fuckin' razor? That looks wicked!" American teenagers are still not used to movies where characters burst into song, and many of them (especially the boys, I guess) would think it was silly.

[jesus the mexican boi]

There's also an interesting reading of the line, "At last, my arm is complete!" in the trailer, which in the musical is a rather loud, bravura moment. In the trailer, it's followed by an attempt to show the humor in the story -- "Yeah, but what are we gonna do about [the dead guy in the trunk]?" I think the trailer is a near-perfect balance of the Grand Guignol elements, the musical elements and the pitch-black humor of the play. As a fan of Sondheim and Burton, I'm looking forward to this marriage.

[Antoine Doinel]

...or because the studio wants to appeal to a male audience, which stays away from musicals.

Exactly right. It's not not really an unusual marketing decision. They chose not to show scenes with singing for the same reason that trailers for foreign films often don't show any scenes with dialog that would have to be subtitled. They don't want to scare anybody away.

Though you would think with the unreal success of High School Musical, the studio would want to push the musical angle as much as possible. It's teenage girls who tend to be more open to musicals anyway, if anyone is going to swoon at Depp singing, looking hot, and mugging at the camera it's going to be them.

But, the entire trailer is just oddly constructed. There is no mention of Sondheim, so unless adults are already famililar with Sweeney Todd the trailer doesn't do much for them. There is no singing except for that brief snippet, so unless you know it's a musical it comes off as completely out of place.

Overall, just a poorly constructed promo piece with seemingly no target audience.

[domino harvey]

Though you would think with the unreal success of High School Musical, the studio would want to push the musical angle as much as possible.

No. The success of High School Musical is primarily with a female audience of approx 11-15 years of age, and unless Tim Burton hired Zac Effron and didn't tell anyone, the two are completely unrelated. The High School Musical phenom is really a fascinating one (and reliant on many factors, yes including the music but without the other aspects in place it would not have gone as far), but it in no way revives the musical as a viable, marketable, cross-gender/age genre any more than Moulin Rouge or Chicago did. I agree, many teen and tweenage girls adore Depp, but just as they're not renting Dead Man en masse, they're going to stay home with their copies of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, not rush out to see this (esp if it's rated R, in which case they won't have a choice anyways).

[Antoine Doinel]

New trailer. Absolutely no singing. A bit more blood.

[ogygia avenue]

Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite musicals of all time. I've been nervous enough about Burton helming it, as it's very dark -- and not dark in a way that's compatible with his steamquirk aesthetic -- and the trailers continue to make me nervous. The arrangements lean more heavily towards the sugary-violin end of the spectrum and less towards the bass- and percussion-heavy end that has worked so well in the stage productions. And as for Depp...

There's one actor who's worked with Burton and who has name-over-the-title appeal. He's got a song-and-dance background and is the right age for the role. So why wasn't Christopher Walken tapped for the role?

[malcolm1980]

There's one actor who's worked with Burton and who has name-over-the-title appeal. He's got a song-and-dance background and is the right age for the role. So why wasn't Christopher Walken tapped for the role?

Because Christopher Walken won't exactly attract a lot of fangirls.

Personally, I would've picked Hugh Jackman. Yes, he's a bit young but we know he can sing. But we're stuck with Johnny Depp and based on the trailer, I don't think he'll be as bad as some people say he is.

As for Burton not being suited for Sweeney Todd, I have to disagree. I've seen Sweeney Todd (the original musical) twice and I must say that the story and themes fit right into Tim Burton's oeuvre. I can definitely see why he'd be interested in taking on such a film.

Report from the preview screening.

[Belmondo]

Thank you for the link to the preview screening ... it should have calmed my fears but I am still nervous about this. It appears the movie may make the transition to the multiplex audience, but what about us Sondheim fans?
Note the sentence - "If there is a flaw in the movie, it is that the cinematic storytelling occasionally short circuits the musical nature of the source material." Sweeney Todd was not an opera, but it was close, and mostly through-sung. It appears that the music will now be punctuating the dramatic scenes instead of providing all of the emotional weight and all of the melodic beauty that made the show so unique.
I acknowledge that it is entirely possible that a new vision for the big screen could possibly be a triumph in that it gives audiences plenty of gushing blood, plenty of cinematic background, plenty of drama, and plenty of music too ... but, I choose to remain cautious. Can you blame me?

[Darth Lavender]

That is a genuinely excellent point about Walken. Depp will be interesting (at least in the talking scenes,) just because it's a kind of role that I don't think he's played before. But Walken would have been absolutely perfect.

As for the box-office aspect, while I wouldn't put it past Hollywood producers to take the simplistic kind of approach of Johnny Depp = Hot, so put in the lead role of a horror movie, trim it down to get a PG13 rating, and it will make lots of money.
I do think Walken has more than enough box-office pull (especially as lead in such a Walken-esque role) to carry the movie commerically. The man's basically an icon, anyway. Only reason I can think of for not giving the guy more lead-roles is that the characters he excells at are the types of characters that are usually written as secondary roles.
Besides, I've only seen Sweeny Todd once on television, but I seem to recall a younger romantic-character that, if not played by Johnny Depp, could at least have been played by Orlando Bloom (assuming singing ability) or some other young actor with plenty of attraction for the bubble-headed bobos that go to the multiplex these days.

[Antoine Doinel]

The studio will be releasing the film with an R-rating.

[ogygia avenue]

As for Burton not being suited for Sweeney Todd, I have to disagree. I've seen Sweeney Todd (the original musical) twice and I must say that the story and themes fit right into Tim Burton's oeuvre. [/URL]

I can see where he'd be drawn to it, but...well, there are other Sondheim musicals I think he'd be better suited to adapt. Into the Woods, for example, which has a lot of the themes with which he's worked, less challenging music, and a lighter tone. (Hell, I'd pay money to see a Burton version of Pacific Overtures, which would be one hell of a trainwreck.) At the risk of sounding condescending, what you have to remember about Sweeney Todd is that it's an incredibly dark show -- Grand Guignol, tone bordering on Greek tragedy and all that. Burton's films have a dark tone, but it tends to be tempered with this playful at best, cutesy at worst tone and overstylization. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't, and I don't see his Hot Topic aesthetic working well with the grimness of the source material here. (It would have been interesting to see Cronenberg do Todd.)

[jesus the mexican boi]

It would have been interesting to see Cronenberg do Todd.

Only if Todd had been recast as a syphilitic and his razor was really a bony appendage that sprouted from his palm. Two tickets, please.

[Jun-Dai]

As for Burton not being suited for Sweeney Todd, I have to disagree. I've seen Sweeney Todd (the original musical) twice and I must say that the story and themes fit right into Tim Burton's oeuvre. [/URL]

I can see where he'd be drawn to it, but...

I agree. There's enough similarity that the choice seems obvious, but there're a lot of places in Sweeney Todd that I've never seen Tim Burton go before. It looks like he's pulling no punches in adapting it to his own style--I think Sweeney Todd is perfect for Tim Burton, but Tim Burton is not so perfect for Sweeney Todd, and in the end it will be a great Tim Burton film and a terrible production of Sweeney Todd. Not to mention that the little snippet of Johnny Depp breaking out into melody doesn't sound promising at all.

[malcolm1980]

As for Burton not being suited for Sweeney Todd, I have to disagree. I've seen Sweeney Todd (the original musical) twice and I must say that the story and themes fit right into Tim Burton's oeuvre. [/URL]

At the risk of sounding condescending, what you have to remember about Sweeney Todd is that it's an incredibly dark show -- Grand Guignol, tone bordering on Greek tragedy and all that. Burton's films have a dark tone, but it tends to be tempered with this playful at best, cutesy at worst tone and overstylization.

I know Sweeney Todd's a dark show. I've seen the play TWICE in two different forms. I memorized the story back and forth. I also virtually memorized the entire score.

Sweeney Todd, despite of all of that, is also a black COMEDY. It's supposed to be funny. Tim Burton has shown that he can balance dark and bloody goings-on with black comedy with Sleepy Hollow. I think he can do the same with Sweeney Todd.

[ogygia avenue]

According to this article, "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" has been cut from the film.

As you were.

[Michael Kerpan]

According to this article, "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" has been cut from the film.

But they spent lots and lots of time to get the volume and consistency of the fake blood just right.

[malcolm1980]

According to this article, "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" has been cut from the film.

As you were.

It's still in the film but only as an instrumental score.

I can understand them cutting it. They were going to have ghosts sing it but it would be too much of an overkill on film.

Here are two bootleg audio clips recorded during a special sneak preview of a few clips of the film by Tim Burton during a retrospective of his work in Lincoln Center:

Epiphany.

Johanna.

The two clips are very, very good, IMO. I think this film has a shot.

[Dylan]

Those performances are gorgeous, and I love the booming orchestra. I'll try to make it opening day for this.

[malcolm1980]

Here's another one: My Friends

[malcolm1980]

Here's another clip. It's a Johnny Depp interview plus a clip of him singing "Epiphany".

[Antoine Doinel]

More posters.

[David Ehrenstein]

Well I'm just in from Sweeney Todd and it's utterly magnificent. A perfect melding of the sensibilities of Sondheim and Tim Burton in ways I couldn't quite imagine working until I saw the finished film. Johnny Depp is not only a great star he is a cinematic genius. Helena Bonham Carter is perfect as Mrs. Lovett. Alan Richman and Timothy Spall were born to play Judge Turpin and Beadle Bramford (respectively). As for the juveniles they're all played by brilliant first-timers.

Jamie Campbell Bower looks like Jonathan Rhys-Myers undebauched younger brother as Anthony. Jayne Wisener is a lovely Johanna. A kid named Ed Sanders (no relation to the one of The Fugs, I'm sure) is heartbreaking as Tobias. last but not least Sacha Baron Cohen does a spectacular turn as Pirelli the Barber.

In terms of scale it's the biggest thing I've seen since Little Shop of Horrors -- which was also shot on a British sound stage. But the designer here is Dante Feretti, and what he's created is an Edward Gorey drawing come to life.

Best of all it's a GENUINE musical. People up on the screen are actually singing, because that's what their characters do. And no ifs and or buts about it.

Incidentally Both Johnn Depp and Helena Bonham Carter not only sing quite well, but Burton has understood the fact that the characters must be re-scaled for film. By this on mean on stage we need a Sweeney and a Mrs. Lovett that can project to the back rows. That's not needed here at all. The characters inhabit a shop, and herefor shouldn't shout. In fact the lower decible level of the singing -- and the unstrained manner in whcih its done -- underscore the sinister atmosphere. Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett are very quitely conspiring with one another.

All told a Perfect Christmas Movie For the Whole (Addams) Family.

Do not so much as think of missing it.

[Jeff]

Thanks for offering up your take, David. DW is apparently being extra persnickety about their review embargo with this one, and none of the usual L.A. Oscar bloggers have said a peep even though many of them saw it today. Your review has renewed my enthusiasm for this. Where do you think it ranks in the Burton oeuvre? Outside of Pee-Wee and Ed Wood, I'm not a huge fan.

[David Ehrenstein]

I'm going to have to reconsider the Burton oeuvre in light of this. I love Ed Wood and Mars Attacks! but I need to take another look at Edward Scissorhands which at the time of its release just seemed odd to me. Obviously it's a major work.

Over an above all this is a very important film musical. For me its the most satisfying one since Trois Places Pour le 26th