Tuesday, July 31, 2007

New "Sweeney Todd" Poster!


Aint It Cool News has announced that Comic-Con released the new poster for Burton's upcoming Sweeney Todd last week. The credits have been adjusted for changes in the production, and the poster also shows a new tagline: "Never forget. Never forgive." Click on the picture for a much larger, high-quality version.

Monday, July 23, 2007

"Sweeney Todd" Clips to Be Shown at Comic-Con

Entertainment Weekly (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20047473,00.html) has announced that Tim Burton will appear at San Diego's Comic-Con 2007 to show clips of Sweeney Todd. The convention runs from July 26th to the 29th. The limited U.S. release date of the film is still December 21st, and the wide release in the U.S. will be January 11th, 2008.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Sondheim Talks "Todd"

According to Sandy George of The Australian (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,22052581-15803,00.html), Stephen Sondheim said at Sydney's Theatre Royal last Friday that the film adaptation of his musical "Sweeney Todd" will be, for the most part, very similar to his original conception of the show. Sondheim acknowledged that during the process of filming the musical originally made for the live stage, certain parts had to be cut for time consideration. "There are songs that have been cut, and cuts within some of the songs, but generally it is pretty much the score," Sondheim said. But despite a few alterations, Sondheim reassures that "the plot is very little changed ... It is pretty faithful." Sondheim also stated that the film would have that macabre Burton feel to it, saying that "It has got a lot of blood in it, and that's fine by me."

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter Attend "Harry Potter 5" Premiere


Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter arrived at a cinema in central London to see the premiere of the newest film in the series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, on Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007. Helena Bonham Carter has a role in the film as the character Bellatrix Lestrange. Photo provided by the Associated Press.

View more pictures here, provided by the Collective's very own Melanie McDermott, a.k.a. Pierrot Somepeople : http://www.flickr.com/photos/pierrotsomepeople/sets/72157600631562233/

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

No "Ripley's" for Burton?, and "Sweeney Todd" Filming Completed

Reports are suggesting that Tim Burton might not be the director for the upcoming film, Ripley's Believe it or Not!, according to ComingSoon.net (http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=21120). The chances that the film would begin shooting after Burton completed Sweeney Todd were in doubt before, until Steve Oedekerk wrote a new draft of the screenplay, which gave some hope to the future of the project. No official news are up yet at the moment.

Also, it looks like Sweeney Todd has completed principal shooting, according to Playbill News (http://www.playbill.com/news/article/108819.html). The macabre musical will now begin post-production and should be ready for its U.S. limited release date of December 21st, 2007.

Monday, May 14, 2007

Christopher Lee Cut From "Sweeney Todd"?

An article on Stephen Sondheim's own website (http://www.sondheim.org/php/news.php?id=2299) from the Sunday Telegraph has stated that Christopher Lee's character, the Gentleman Ghost, has been cut from Tim Burton's upcoming film version of Sweeney Todd. Half a dozen other actors who were to play more singing ghosts have been axed from the film, too. Sondheim had greatly approved of Lee's operatic singing (he recently released a CD), but a tight production schedule is most likely to be the reason that the singing ghosts parts were cut. Lee was eager to participate in what would have been his fourth collaboration with Burton (they first worked together on 1999's Sleepy Hollow). The actor said that "It would have been worse if I had done the scenes, but I never got to film them." Lee continued saying "It's a shame as the lyrics were wonderful, but these things happen."

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Helena Bonham-Carter Reveals More Tidbits on "Todd"

A new interview with Helena Bonham-Carter with the Times reveals some little details about the making of Sweeney Todd, as well as her relationship with Tim Burton and their son, Billy Ray:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article1711485.ece

Monday, April 16, 2007

"Vincent" in 3D and "Sweeney Todd" Release Dates Announced!

The Hollywood Reporter (http://www.movieweb.com/news/53/18853.php) has some good news for Burton fans: Not only is The Nightmare Before Christmas going to return to theaters in 3D this fall, but Tim Burton's 1982 stop-motion short film, Vincent, will also be released with it, also in 3D!

For anyone who wants to mark their calendars, some release dates for Tim Burton's next feature film, Sweeney Todd, have been released. ComingSoon.net (http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=16053) has said that Sweeney Todd is set for limited release (most likely Los Angeles and New York City) just in time for Christmas, on December 21st, 2007. However, anyone living in the US but not in that area might need to wait until January 11th, 2008 for the wide release of the Sondheim musical's big-screen debut. IMDb.com (http://imdb.com/title/tt0408236/releaseinfo) has listed release dates for other countries (however, it is not officially determined if all of these are accurate or not):

Italy 5 September 2007 (Venice Film Festival)
USA 21 December 2007 (limited)
Norway 11 January 2008
USA 11 January 2008
Australia 24 January 2008
Netherlands 24 January 2008
UK 25 January 2008

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Matthew Bourne's Edward Scissorhands update

Just a quick update on the Edward Scissorhands ballet tour. You can find a tour itinerary here. You can find pictures from the tour here, including (joy!) some photos of Johnny Depp visiting the cast. So try and catch the show if you still can!

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Sweeney Todd filming underway

Sweeney Todd is currently shooting at the Pinewood studios in London. Yahoo has a news article with some new bits of information ; http://news.yahoo.com/s/playbill/20070227/en_playbill/106058

The article reveals Christopher Lee's character character is "the gentleman ghost".

Also, Stephen Sondheim himself sounds pretty positive about the project: "Sometimes a story or stage production has to wait a long time until the right people come together to turn it into a motion picture. That's what has happened with Sweeney Todd and I'm excited as well as confident that it will be a first-rate and startling movie."

Monday, February 12, 2007

Sweeney Todd teaser poster and new cast members!


Sorry for the somewhat late update; Variety has released an official teaser poster of Sweeney Todd. Click on the above thumbnail to see a larger version. The poster also confirms a few casting rumours; Timothy Spall and Christopher Lee will indeed appear in the movie!
This marks the first time Burton will work with the British actor Timothy Spall (Wormtail from the Harry Potter movies) and it will be his fourth collaboration with the legendary Christopher Lee.
Timothy Spall's role has been reported to be Beadle Bramford. Christopher Lee's role is still unknown.
Thanks to karloffornia13, Fuzzy Duck and other loyal Burtonites for reporting this!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Edward Scissorhands ballet tour info and Believe it or Not update

Two small news items today. For those of you that don't already know, Matthew Bourne's stage production of Edward Scissorhands is currently on tour in America. More information on the dates and locations can be found here.
Also, Variety reports that Steve Oederkerk (Kung Pow) is working on the script for Believe It or Not, with Burton and Jim Carrey still attached. So we may yet see this delayed biopic of Robert Ripley after Burton is finished with Sweeney Todd.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Sweeney Todd updates

Technical problems have prevented any news being posted in a while, so here is a quick update on the latest Burton news. Alan Rickman has been cast as Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd. There are also rumours that Anthony Stewart Head (Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will play a role in the film.
In other news, The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D is now on release in the UK and Empire Magazine has an interview with Burton on their site.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Borat and Sweeney Todd. Very nice! High five!

We reported a while back on the rumour about Sacha Baron Cohen playing a role in Sweeney Todd. Well the English comedian, whose film Borat is currently busting blocks around the world, has been officially confirmed as playing Pirelli by Variety.

Most of you have probably heard this sad news already, but another Burton collaborator, Jack Palance, has recently passed away. Palance had a long career in Hollywood, appearing in, of course, Batman and many other classic movies.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Nightmare Before Christmas 3D leaves screens

Now that Halloween is over, Nightmare 3D has stopped playing just about everywhere. For those of you who weren't lucky enough to see it this time, Disney has promised they intend to bring it back for future Halloweens, hopefully on more screens. And if you're interested in box office figures, Nightmare 3D earned over $6 million in less than two weeks of release, pushing the film's lifetime box office to over $56 million, meaning it's passed the box office totals of both Corpse Bride and Edward Scissorhands.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Bones video premieres!

For those of you who missed it on MTV yesterday, you can watch Burton's video for "Bones" by The Killers on the MTV website. As you'd expect, it features people stripping down to their skeletons and getting involved in all kinds of shenanigans. There's also a making of video on the site.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Burton interviews galore!

Lots of Burton interviews for you today. For those who missed his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, you can watch the whole interview on youtube. Harry Knowles over at Aint It Cool News also has an interview with Burton about a variety of topics. If that's not enough for you, there's an also an interview with Tim on the USA Today website.
And for those of you in the USA who have cable, don't forget that Corpse Bride has its TV premiere tonight at 8pm on ABC Family.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Sweeney casting news and Nightmare premiere multimedia

This news will be no suprise to anyone, but Helena Bonham Carter has been cast in Sweeney Todd. She will play the role of Mrs. Lovett.
There are also some pictures and video clips of the Nightmare Before Christmas 3D premiere that took place on Monday night, courtesy of Independent Entertainment News!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Report on Nightmare Before Xmas 3D premiere!

Our West Coast representative was lucky enough to be at the premiere of The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D in Hollywood last night, and here's his report:

"As you would expect the premiere was a fairly dull affair, who needs to brush shoulders, well 6' away, with John Lasseter, James Cameron, Danny Elfman and Tim Burton and walk down the red, ok black, carpet!
There were quite a few people in suits there but some people made the effort and dressed up as scary characters, one even came as Marilyn Manson, oh no that was Marilyn Manson! Burton went over to the crowd outside and signed autographs.
The movie had impressive 3D and the audience were really into it, cheering especially loud when Elfman's and Burton's name came on screen. Elfman and some of the others were hanging out in the foyer after to speak with fans. All in all it was a fantastic experience and I urge everyone to see the 3D version of the film if they can."

Thanks to Allan for the report and don't forget you can learn more about the 3D version of the film on our NMBC page. It's interesting that John Lasseter was at the premiere, since there are rumours that Burton may make a film with Pixar sometime in the future.

In other Nightmare news, Toon Zone has an interesting interview with Disney producer Don Hahn about the process of making the film 3D.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Borat and Burton to team up?

The latest, most exciting news about Sweeney Todd is that Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Borat, Bruno and Ali G) is reportedly in talks to appear as Todd's rival barber, Signor Adolfo. You can read more about the story here. Let's hope the rumours are true!