For Depp, There Are Films, and There Are Tim Burton Films

For Johnny Depp, there are films and there are Tim Burton films. In an interview by Reuters, Depp, promoting Burton and Depp's sixth collaboration, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (which A. O. Scott of the New York Times has called ""something close to a masterpiece"), describes how he always looks forward to working with his director friend. "There are films that you do that you have enjoyed and the process is fantastic and the directors are great," says Depp. "And then there are the phone calls that you get from Tim," added the now 44-year-old actor. "That is a magical moment for me when the phone rings from Tim, because you know you are about to embark on something very very interesting."

Although Depp has been in the acting business for over twenty years, he recalls his latest collaboration with Burton -- taking on the lead, singing role of the murderous barber of Fleet Street -- as being one of his biggest challenges in his career. "It's an obtuse situation to be in when, at the ripe old age of 43, you find yourself suddenly trying to sing songs all the way through for the first time in your life," says Depp. "It's to say the least absurd and it was an odd feeling. So initially just hearing myself doing it, I was embarrassed..." But despite being "no Sammy Davis, Jr." or "no Frank Sinatra," Depp got the part as Sweeney Todd, with Stephen Sondheim's ultimate approval.

Tim Burton also fondly speaks of his many partnerships with Depp, although he feels that each film with the actor is a different experience.

"I've worked with him six times. I feel like I've worked with six different people," Burton said. "There are a lot of people that really do a very good job maintaining their persona ... they are good at being themselves in a movie. I like character actors that like to become different people, that's what energises me."

Depp and Burton at the Tokyo, Japan premiere of Sweeney Todd on January 9th, 2008.
Reuters/Michael Caronna

Burton and Depp first collaborated on Edward Scissorhands in 1990. Since then, they made Ed Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and the animated film Corpse Bride (2005).

40 Minute Tim Burton Video Interview

A new episode of "Lunch with David," starring David Poland, has been put on the Internet. In it, Tim Burton is interviewed. The filmmaker discusses cinematography, Sweeney Todd, his own style, and much, much more. The video is nearly 40 minutes long and very informative. Click here! (BEWARE OF SPOILERS!)

Burton Fed Up with "Ridiculous" Paparazzi

Tim Burton has slammed a north London newspaper, calling their rumors and paparazzi critiques "ridiculous." The director insists that the Camden News Journal has been making inaccurate stories about him and partner Helena Bonham Carter wanting to make bizarre developments to their home, which they share with their two children. He says, "There was an article that Helena and I were trying to get permission to build a fantasy land in our garden, some kind of amazing gypsy caravan. Our garden is about the size of this sitting area. And the paper showed a picture of an area that looked like what a homeless person would stay in." Burton also criticized the media for singling out him and Bonham Carter as "odd" and poking fun at Helena's fashion sense. The director adds, "Every other week there's a breaking story under the headline: 'Bonham Carter Dressed Like Shit.' So it's like we've got this reputation for being the spooky neighbourhood weirdos."

UK Premiere for "Sweeney Todd"

For those on the other side of the pond, the United Kingdom premiere of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street will be on January 10th, 2008, in Westminster. It will be shown at the Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square. Click this link for more details!

The Visual Effects of "Sweeney Todd"

Tara DiLullo Bennett from VFXWorld interviewed Gary Brozenich of The Moving Picture Co. (MPC) in London on how the visual effects team of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street helped bring Tim Burton's vision to life. Here is an excerpt (more can be read on the link provided -- BEWARE OF SPOILERS!):

Tara DiLullo Bennett: MPC has long worked with Tim Burton on previous projects, so was it just a given that your team came to work on Sweeney Todd?

Gary Brozenich: MPC has a long working relationship with Tim, including Big Fish, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and his Killers video. Chas Jarrett was the production vfx supervisor (on Todd) and he and I had a long working relationship at MPC, where he was a sup for many years. I think it was the combination of those relationships that made Tim comfortable that we could deliver what he needed for Todd.

TDB: How was it working with Tim on this project?

GB: As we are image-makers by trade, it is always great to work with a strong visual director. Tim is also very familiar with the medium and us as a company, which always helps. Also, the whole team was very excited about the project. We all saw it as a great chance to work with him on this outrageously black story, which posed such a great creative fit to his visual style. Tim also gave us a lot of room to participate in the visual development of the environments we created, but his "big picture" view of the film, how it all cut, its overall look and mood was very strongly guided by him.

TDB: What does he ask of a vfx house and, in return, how involved is he in your process since he's all about the visuals?

GB: There was some working and reworking of shot layouts and some concepts at various stages, but the visual feel of the film was clear from the start. As we were never intending to do very obvious FX work, we needed to fit in with the tone and beat of it all, no matter how comprehensive our content in the shot. In that way, [Production Designer] Dante Ferretti's subtly stylized set designs were the obvious present and clear guide [for us].

TDB: Most people will just focus on the practical effects in Sweeney because of the gore and blood, but Burton always adds a digital level to all his films. So what was his plan in merging the two for this adaptation?

GB: We did augment some of the blood work in the film and cleaned up a few bits of rigging, but the vast majority of it was in camera. It looks great! The special effects team did a great job and spent a long time prepping, and it really paid off. There were a few shots where Tim wanted more ability to add grace and control to the forms made by spilled blood and we were able to help there.

Digital Effects Supervisor Gary Brozenich (inset)

TDB: Was Tim's goal to only have seamless, invisible vfx? If not, what were the key elements and sequences you had to plan and create?

GB: There are always moments, particularly in period films, where you know that a scene would not be possible without vfx content. But there are a lot of moments in Sweeney Todd that I hope the audience has no idea they are looking at a CG environment. In that sense, we were aiming for seamless work. The imagery is also very much about Tim's visual style, which can push some boundaries of reality, so seamless, also, meant not jarring with the visual style of the whole of the film. Our primarily concern was the creation of digital sets and environments. The whole production was shot on stages, which ranged from full on builds that only required a top up where the build hit the lights, to a set extension where the street required views beyond the limits of the stage. In some cases, the actors were shot on entirely green stages and we created the entirety of their surroundings. In one case, two of the principles walk down some stairs, through a gate, across a street and stop for a chat in front of a pub. The only practical element is the dressed floor that they're walking on, and the other performers on stage. They even brush up against the CG pub as they walk by.

TDB: Did the break in production [due to the illness of Johnny Depp's daughter] affect your team's work at all? Did you get breathing room or were you just asked to do more to fill the gap with productive time?

GB: The break was positive for us in the creative sense that it gave us more time to prep work for Tim. The shoot schedule was very full on and the original post period was very tight. This made access to TB's time hard to achieve. So, in a way, it did both things. It gave us some creative breathing room and made for very productive time as we headed into post as a result.

TDB: How much time from bid to picture lock did you have to create your pieces?

GB: The whole show lasted about 10 months internally, 11 if you count a few test shots. Post was about four to five months. Some shots/environments required up to six months of work, others were done in weeks.

TDB: How many artists were on the project?

GB: The team was between 50 to 70 artists throughout the shoot and post period.

TDB: When all is said and done, what sequence or element is your favorite in the film?

GB: Eek, my favorite? It's the truly invisible effects shots and sequences that I like best. They are also usually the hardest. There's a few shots mixed into sequences we did that I know no one will question their realistic integrity. They're my personal favorites.

From Stage to Screen: Bringing a Musical to the Cinema

Bringing a staged musical to the big screen is not an easy task, especially for a production as ambitious (and beloved) as the one Tim Burton brought to cinemas: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The Times Online observes this in interviews with Tim Burton and Stephen Sondheim.

Shooting at London's Pinewood Studios was one step that allowed the making of the movie version of the Stephen Sondheim musical easier for Tim Burton (“Here, I’m more able to focus on the movie,” Burton says. “There [in Hollywood], you just feel this vibe of the business around you”). But even after over twenty years of filmmaking, Burton acknowledged how ambitious this film would be. “I’d never really done something like this,” he says. “I’d always had music in movies, but never full-blown. It’s very operatic, and almost everybody in the cast is not a professional singer. Even seasoned Broadway people are saying how difficult it is.”

Stephen Sondheim, age 77, is perhaps best known for his musical Sweeney Todd, which premiered in 1979 and is based on the urban legend of a murderous barber that lived during the nineteenth century in London. But (perhaps luckily) he is less remembered for earlier attempts at bringing his other staged musicals to movie theaters. Still, Sondheim admires film greatly, but interestingly is not typically a fan of movie musicals. “The one form of movies that I never particularly enjoyed was the movie-musical,” Sondheim cautions. “I liked the sort of fluffy musicals before the second world war, the Astaire/Rogers things, but movie-musicals that told stories have always struck me as ponderous.” It’s all down to the gulf between “stage time” and “film time”, he explains, the movie medium being unable to accommodate someone simply standing and singing for several minutes. “Take 'Tonight' from West Side Story. It’s a close-up of him, then a close-up of her, then a two-shot, then a shot of the fire escape. There’s nothing to do. You have to waste the time." (Sondheim wrote the lyrics for West Side Story).

Stephen Sondheim

Tim Burton also was never much of a fan of movie musicals, or even staged ones, for that matter. The director remembered when he first saw the show in 1980. At the time, he was a student at CalArts. “I wasn’t into theatre,” he recalls. “I’d never heard of Sondheim. I just sort of stumbled on it and it really affected me. The first time on stage I saw them singing Johanna, and with the throat, you know, the blood, I thought, ‘This is a unique juxtaposition of music and image.’” It seemed, he adds, “like a great movie score. It would lend itself to one of those old horror movies." Burton's description was not far off; Sondheim's score was at least partially a tribute to the film music of Bernard Herrmann, a film composer who is perhaps best known for his collaboration with director Alfred Hitchcock (and, coincidentally, Herrmann is the biggest influence and hero of contemporary film composer Danny Elfman, who scored nearly every single Tim Burton feature film, with the exceptions of Ed Wood and Sweeney Todd).

Twelve years later, in 1992, Burton was regarded as one of Hollywood's A-list directors (after the successes of such unique blockbusters as Batman and Edward Scissorhands). The young filmmaker approached Sondheim about adapting the musical to the screen. “Then I never heard from him again,” Sondheim mutters. The Sweeney Todd film idea was passed around to other directors for more than a decade, but never grew beyond that concept. Years later, Burton was a year into pre-production for a biography on Robert Ripley, called Ripley's Believe It or Not!, which was to star Jim Carrey in the title role. The project fell through, however. Luckily, Sweeney Todd fell back into Burton's lap. “In some ways, I think the timing was more right,” he muses. “Because, having someone like Johnny, it’s like 10 years or more of life experience, which kind of informs this version.”

Sondheim's consent came with the conditions that he retained complete creative control on what stayed, what was taken out, and what changes and decisions would be made to the project's casting and score (the promise was upheld). But he was cautious of casting Johnny Depp as the lead. After hearing a homemade demo of Depp singing "My Friends" from the musical, Sondheim was convinced. “The fact that he came from a musical background, a rock band, even though he was not a lead singer, I knew he was musical,” Sondheim insists. “I also knew that he was intelligent enough not to allow himself to play this part unless he could handle it vocally.”

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp on the set of Sweeney Todd

Making the transformation from stage to screen needs to look as seamless as possible. As a result, lots of changes need to be made. For one, time must be considered; a staged musical is often longer than the average movie. “I do not believe that anything is written in marble. I want the story to move ahead,” he says. “The thing with Tim is that he understands that. Where the songs did not either suggest or need a camera, ‘Let’s cut’, Tim would say to me, or [the writer] John Logan, and I’d look at it and see if I could elide it or rewrite so it had film motion to it.”

Will hardcore fans of Broadway and Stephen Sondheim still be critical of the film re imagining of Sweeney Todd? Yes. But Burton is not disturbed by this. “I always say: this is a movie. If you want to see the Broadway show, go look at the Broadway show. It’s a different thing.”

Helena Bonham Carter: "Sweeney Todd," Motherhood, Acting, and More!

The Observer has published a lengthy and highly informative interview with Helena Bonham Carter. In the article, the 41-year-old actress discusses her roles in Tim Burton's films, her relationship with the director, her family life, her professional life, and much more.

Helena Bonham Carter recalls one of the first conversations she had with Tim Burton, long before she and Burton got together, about her home place, Hampstead. The director had stayed there while shooting Sleepy Hollow and told the actress that it was the only place in the world where he felt that he truly belonged. Since then, the pair have become a happy, unmarried couple, with a home in Hampstead, England, and four-year-old Billy and a brand-new baby girl, just born this past December. Bonham Carter states that she is very happy with her relationship and family with Mr. Burton. "I think it's to do with our hair - the lack of comb, the lack of hair care," the actress stated.

Of course, Burton was curious about his next project at the time, Planet of the Apes, and Bonham Carter remembers that the very first thing the filmmaker told her was: "I can really see you in an ape mask." Bonham Carter continued, "'He said: 'Don't be offended, but you're the first person I thought of.' Then he explained himself, which was much more intuitive. He said: 'I just got the feeling you like to change what you look like.' And I said: 'You're absolutely right.'"

Helena Bonham Carter as Ari the chimp in Planet of the Apes (2001)

Bonham Carter explained that she wanted to be in Planet of the Apes for two main reasons: partly because of the ape suit ('I always like to do the thing you're never going to be able to do again'), and also because she wanted to be able to work with the acclaimed filmmaker. "I was excited to work with Tim Burton, even though the script was absolutely crap," she says. "But it wasn't a case of: 'I want to work with him because I'm going to have two children with him, and he's going to be my husband!'"

After Planet of the Apes, Helena Bonham Carter worked with Tim Burton on Big Fish (playing a witch), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (playing Charlie's poverty-stricken mother), lending her voice for the animated film Corpse Bride (playing the dearly departed bride), and most recently the love-sick, somewhat-maniacal Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Bonham Carter states that the horror/musical is "not feel-good," but she adored playing the part of Mrs. Lovett in the cinematic adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical. Bonham Carter is a self-described "musical whore." "I've always loved musicals," she says. "Tim thought I was making Billy gay because that's all I'd sing to him." She even claims that singing for Sweeney Todd may have got her pregnant. "It was all the oxygen. And my pelvic floor has never been so fit. I've got great hopes that after this baby it's going to bounce straight back" (Bonham Carter was pregnant with her and Burton's second child while this interview was being made).

A very pregnant Helena Bonham Carter

But the actress asserted that, contrary to accusations, she does not get the parts in her partner's films simply because of their relationship. "I really do have to be righter than right before Tim lets me do a part," she says. "Sexual favours don't get me anything" (nor does it for frequent Burton collaborator Johnny Depp, she said). This was especially the case for Sweeney Todd. Composer Stephen Sondheim, not Tim Burton, ultimately had the final say on whether or not she would play Mrs. Lovett. Luckily, after Bonham Carter auditioned for the Broadway legend, she passed Sondheim's test. She describes getting the part as "the most absolutely amazing thing. I just could not believe it. Nor could Tim, actually. He burst into tears. And I burst into tears."

As happy as Bonham Carter and Burton are in their relationship, she admits that their relationship, like any other, has its rockier moments, and not surprisingly when work is the issue. "There are certain stresses that come with working together," says Bonham Carter, particularly alluding to their experiences on shooting Sweeney Todd. "There's no pretence with us, you see. No 'Let's adopt our formal selves'."

What sort of thing is she talking about? "Well, he was all: (growls) 'How difficult is it to come through the door and cover that spot!' And I'd be (whines): 'I've got wool in my head because I'm fucking pregnant, and there's blood everywhere and I didn't see it, all right?' And all I get is: 'Action!'"

Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter (as Mrs. Lovett) in Sweeney Todd (2007)

But when things got tricky, Johnny Depp was able to step in and act as relationship counselor for the director and actress. Helena said, "Johnny was very helpful because me and Tim would sometimes have little domestics and he was very diplomatic." She continued, saying, "Johnny was very thoughtful because I was pregnant and when you are pregnant, for the first three months it's difficult to concentrate on anything - all your energy goes into the baby. Sometimes he was off-camera and when I had completely forgotten what Tim had told me, Johnny would just sign language, 'Look over there!' or whatever it was I needed to do, so that was particularly helpful!"

On feeding one another's creativity, Bonham Carter stated what she thought of the title of "muse." "I don't know if you could call me a muse," grins Bonham Carter. "Most muses are silent."

But despite minor mishaps during shooting, and despite how much she relished playing Mrs. Lovett, Helena Bonham Carter is absorbed and fully ecstatic with her role as a mother. The actress enthusiastically described motherhood as "the ultimate creativity," and said she'd love to do it again and again. "I'd really like six of them!" Does Bonham Carter feel that having her children in her late thirties and onward makes them all the more precious? "Yes," she says. "Because you really want them by then, don't you? You've made the decision. You don't resent the time, or any loss of freedom. You're just so very happy to have them around."

Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter

Bonham Carter reflected on whether or not Tim Burton was equally excited about becoming a parent. "Totally. He's very childlike anyway. He's never let go of his inner child. Or his outer child!" As for Helena?: "It does make you grow up, doesn't it?' she says. 'But it makes you grow down, too. It brings back the child in you."

The actress stated that she does not like to look at herself in the films she acts in ("It's not false modesty... It's torture!"), but she still loves that career. Her being in touch with her childlike sensibilities is what attracted her to acting in the first place. She says acting is "taken way too seriously - it's all just dress-up and make-believe." The actress also said that there should be a role of play in acting. "That and transforming. You know - getting away as far away from yourself as possible." But why would she need to get 'far away' from herself? "Because," smiles Bonham Carter, "that's what makes me feel liberated."

You can read much more on Helena Bonham Carter's career, film roles (including Harry Potter, Fight Club, and more), her family, her personal history, her fashion sense, and much more in the article from The Observer.

Burton: "Studios Feared 'Sweeney Todd'"

Tim Burton recalls that studio bosses were fearful of investing in his film, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, an ultraviolent, hyper-stylized movie-musical with no "pop songs," fearing that it would be a disaster. Even with Johnny Depp set to play the lead role, studio executives in Hollywood were cautious, since they felt Depp did not have enough experience, especially to tackle such difficult music as featured in Stephen Sondheim's opera-like musical. But in the end, Burton praised Hollywood for eventually allowing him to make such an ambitious motion picture.

The director tells British film magazine Empire, "What's weird is that they (the studios) are afraid of musicals anyway, but an R-rated musical with blood that's not based on pop songs, it's like, 'F**k!'

"Then it was like, 'Um, can he (Depp) sing?' Nobody knew. I didn't know. So that's the joke of the whole thing. In a way, that's the surreal nature of Hollywood, so you have to love it for that because on paper, it's like the worst idea of all time!"

Sweeney Todd did not dominate the box-office on its opening weekend in the United States. It's opening weekend box office, starting on Friday, December 21st, 2007, was only $9,300,805 (opening in 1,249 theaters, $7,446 average per theater), less than one-fifth of the film's cost of $50 million. But since then, the film has grossed an estimated $38,472,000 (as of January 6th, 2008) in the United States alone, and global box office results and DVD sales should more than make up for the underwhelming opening weekend.

You can read more on the box office results of Sweeney Todd and many more films at BoxOfficeMojo.com.

(world entertainment news)

Pictures of Burton at AFI Directors Screening in L.A.

Pictures of Tim Burton at last Friday's AFI Directors Screening have been posted, courtesy of Joshua J. Smelser. After a screening of Sweeney Todd, Burton took questions from the audience. A surprise guest introduced the director: Martin Landau, an actor who won an Academy Award for his performance as horror legend Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood and also had a small role in Sleepy Hollow.

Martin Landau and film critic Claudia Puig of USA Today.

More pictures can be viewed here.

AFI Director Screening with Tim Burton

Tonight (Friday, January 4th, 2008, at 8pm) in Los Angeles, AFI (the American Film Institute) will present a screening of Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The screening of the film will be shown at the Cinerama Dome, and will be followed by a question and answer session with the director. Film critic Claudia Puig of USA Today will moderate.

Click here and here for more information about this exciting event!

Depp Says Burton Dragged Him Through Manure

Johnny Depp recently recalled one of the worst movie-making experiences in his life in an article. The 44-year-old actor remembered when he and collaborator Tim Burton were shooting the film Sleepy Hollow in 1999 and Burton made Depp hold onto a carriage while "curry"-fueled horses pulled him through the stinking mire.

Depp said, "One morning when we were filming 'Sleepy Hollow', Tim called me to the set, pointed to two large horses strapped to a carriage and said, 'This is what we are going to be doing today.' I was to hold on to the carriage behind the horses, being dragged along through the muck."

"The horses must have fed on curry. I've never smelt anything like that."

Being dragged through feces was just one of many traumatizing feats Depp had to pull working with Tim Burton. Johnny Depp faced another terrifying challenge when they worked on their latest film, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The actor would have to sing extremely difficult songs while acting as the menacing title role. But Depp felt more confident after taking singing lessons from his partner, French singer Vanessa Paradis.

But Tim Burton insists Johnny "exceeded all expectations" with his vocal performance as the murderous London barber.

He said, "I always had every confidence in him and he needn't have worried at all.

"His performance was wonderful and exceeded all of my expectations. He is a great actor."

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton in West Hollywood, California, on December 5th, 2007.
(AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, file)

You can see Tim Burton and Johnny Depp discussing these issues with one another and so much more concerning their careers in AOL's Unscripted interview with the two collaborators.

There is also a version of this episode on YouTube.com, in three parts:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

John August: Hinting at Unknown Future Burton Films?

On his official website, screenwriter and Burton collaborator John August wrote in his blog that, contrary to claims made on such websites as IMDb.com (which have now been changed), he will not be writing the screenplay for Burton's upcoming stop-motion adaptation of the director's short film, Frankenweenie. August wrote the following on his blog:


"I had a meeting with Disney Animation about a year ago, in which they pitched the idea of doing a feature version of Tim’s Frankenweenie short film. They even had production art for it. Then, separately, I had a conversation with Tim about doing another stop-motion animation project like Corpse Bride.

"But they’re not the same thing. And as far as I know, I won’t be working on either one. (That said, I didn’t think I was working on Corpse Bride until I was halfway on a plane to London, so never say never.)"

John August first worked with Tim Burton when he wrote the screenplay for 2003's Big Fish. Directly after that fanciful odyssey, August wrote the screenplay for Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the final draft for Corpse Bride, both released in 2005. August also helped composer Danny Elfman adapt and write the whimsical lyrics for both Charlie and Corpse Bride.

August's blog entry is made even more interesting in the following excerpt:

"To further confuse matters, there’s a different and as-yet-unannounced Tim Burton project (live action) which I almost certainly will be writing post-strike. And yes, I’d love to tell you what it is. But I can’t."

This project can't be Burton's upcoming Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which will also be made at Walt Disney Pictures. Linda Woolverton already has the credit of writing the screenplay for that future literary adaptation. So John August seems to be hinting at possibly two unknown future Tim Burton films, one live-action, the other in stop-motion animation. What could these films be? We'll have to wait for future articles to appear...

Attend the Tale of Sweeney Todd...

In case you haven't already noticed, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street opens today in U.S. cinemas!



If you're not in the U.S., here are the current release dates for other countries:

Country	Date
Canada	21 December 2007
USA	21 December 2007
Japan	25 December 2007	(Yurakucho) (premiere)
Japan	7 January 2008	(Kudanminami) (premiere)
UK	10 January 2008	(London) (premiere)
Argentina	17 January 2008
Japan	19 January 2008
France	23 January 2008
Australia	24 January 2008
Hungary	24 January 2008
Netherlands	24 January 2008
Iceland	25 January 2008
New Zealand	25 January 2008
Turkey	25 January 2008
UK	25 January 2008
Hong Kong	31 January 2008
Lebanon	31 January 2008
Portugal	31 January 2008
Denmark	1 February 2008
Singapore	7 February 2008
Brazil	8 February 2008
Egypt	13 February 2008
Estonia	15 February 2008
Spain	15 February 2008
Germany	21 February 2008
Switzerland	21 February 2008	(German speaking region)
Italy	22 February 2008
Norway	22 February 2008
Sweden	22 February 2008
Belgium	27 February 2008
Finland	29 February 2008

Burton and Depp Interview Each Other with Your Questions

The complete and unscripted video interview between Johnny Depp and Tim Burton is now online. The two ask one another various questions about Sweeney Todd and more, submitted by fans, viewers, and Internet browsers to AOL Movies. Check it out!

Two New Pee-wee Movies?

In 1985, Paul Reubens brought his original character, the zany man-child Pee-wee Herman, to the big screen. This same film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, was also Tim Burton's directorial debut in the world of feature-length motion pictures.

It's been over twenty years since that widely acclaimed, box-office winning, and quotable cult classic came into popular culture. Now, Mr. Reubens, though a bit older (but still plenty Pee-wee) is considering making two more films featuring his infamous alter ego.

"I feel like the time is really ripe right now," Reubens said on why he's interested in making more Pee-wee movies at this point in time. "A lot of the kids who grew up with the show are young adults. The college kids are middle-aged adults. I feel like I have enough of a built-in audience to make back an investment."

Reubens reported that he has two scripts ready to go. The first concerns an extension of his multi-Emmy Award winning children's series, Pee-wee's Playhouse. This feature-length adaptation will bring the characters into a whole new realm. "We never really went out into what we call puppet land," Reubens recalled of the show. "And this [film] takes place out of the playhouse. I think there are one or two scenes in the playhouse in the beginning. Basically it's all in a fantasy land," he said. "It's like a 'Wizard of Oz,' H.R. Pufnstuf epic adventure story." The whole assemblage of characters will hopefully be there, in their live-action human and puppet forms alike.

Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman

Photo: Frazer Harrison/ Getty Images

The second storyline is one that Reubens called "the dark Pee Wee movie," is "not really very dark" and certainly not intended to be an R-rated film. "It's basically the story of Pee-wee Herman becoming famous as a singer," he explained. "He has a hit single and gets brought out to Hollywood to make musical movies, kind of like they did with Elvis. It all kind of goes downhill from there for Pee-wee. He turns into a monster. He does everything wrong and becomes a big jerk." Though he described it as a movie "about fame," Reubens insisted, "It's not autobiographical."

But will audiences buy a 55-year-old man-child, even if it is Pee-wee? People have noted that Reubens still has the energy, humor, and essence of his character from over two decades ago. But if that isn't enough, Reubens has a plan: "My second option is to have Johnny Depp play Pee-wee," he said. Reubens insisted that he's even spoken to Depp about it, saying that the actor told him, "Let me think about it."

Will Tim Burton and Paul Reubens collaborate again? After Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Reubens and Burton collaborated again on Batman Returns (1992) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Reubens admitted that he talked to Burton about the possibility of bringing these new Pee-wee projects to the big screen in the future, but acknowledged his old collaborator's own busy schedule. "I have talked to Tim about one of them about a year ago. But Tim is booked. I think he would be interested in it, but he's really busy." Indeed, Burton will soon be working on a feature-length version of Frankenweenie (the original short film from 1984 was what made Reubens decide that Burton was perfect for directing the first Pee-wee Herman movie) and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Reubens is still searching, but remains optimistic. "I think it's really just a question of the right person coming along. I've had opportunities to do [the films] with people who didn't feel like the right people. It just takes one person."

"Sweeney Todd" Gets Four Golden Globe Nominations Including Best Picture

The nominees for the 2008 Golden Globe Awards have been announced. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has earned four nominations:

- Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy:
Sweeney Todd (Parkes/MacDonald and Zanuck Company; DreamWorks/Paramount Distribution / Warner Bros. Pictures)

-Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy:
Helena Bonham Carter

-Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy:
Johnny Depp

-Best Director - Motion Picture:
Tim Burton


The 65th Golden Globe Awards will be broadcast on January 13th, 2008.

It's a Girl!

Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter's second child was born last night in London.

"They are absolutely delighted they have a daughter," Bonham Carter's representative, Karon Maskill, said. "It's a lovely Christmas present for the family."

There is no official word on the baby girl's name as of yet.

(E! Online)

UPDATE: A few sources have said that the baby will be named Indiana Rose Burton. Confusion about the validity of the name is understandable, as it has been reported that Burton and Bonham Carter did not want to know the gender of the child until it was born.

Burton and Depp 'Like Immature Brothers'

Helena Bonham Carter reports how the long-time collaborators Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are "like immature brothers."

"They have a great synergy. They are very like each other. Chosen brothers elected by each other. They have the same sense of humour and share a deep respect. They have grown up together.

"Working on Edward Scissorhands joined them. They are both introverts, but very flamboyant when it comes to their work. That is their release. They are rebels, anti-authoritarian. They are very age seven in their sense of humour."

Burton added that he and Depp have "been lucky to usually be on the same wavelength and like similar kinds of things."

Helena Prepares for Baby

Helena Bonham Carter and family are preparing for her second child with Tim Burton. The baby is due this month, most have reported, and the actress remarked that, at the moment, she looks like a "huge globe." In anticipation of the new arrival, Bonham Carter has given her son, Billy Ray Burton, a doll so he too can prepare for taking care of the newest addition to the family.

"He just turned four, is in preschool, and we've gotten him a baby doll so he can get used to the idea of having a sibling," she says. "He's already teaching the 'baby' that he shouldn't swallow marbles."

Regarding Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Helena recalled (eventually) getting the role of Mrs. Lovett.

"Tim was the most professional, professional. He wouldn't even tell me how auditions were going," said the actress. She also said that her singing coach was "brilliant," and that said that when she was told she would play Mrs. Lovett was: "Probably the best day of my life."

Sweeney Todd will be released this coming Friday in U.S. cinemas.

Burton on "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

Scifi.com reports that, in an interview, Burton wanted to maintain the essence of Lewis Carroll's original with his upcoming adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. "It's just such a classic, and the imagery is so surreal," said the director. "I don't know; I've never seen a version where I feel like they got it all. It's a series of weird adventures, and to try to do it where it works as a movie will be interesting."

Burton will also produce the film, which will be released by the Walt Disney Co. It will reportedly be a hybrid of live-action and performance-capture animation.

"The stories are like drugs for children, you know?" Burton said. "It's like, 'Whoa, man.' The imagery, they've never quite nailed making it compelling as a full story. So I think it's an interesting challenge to direct.

Filming on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland will commence in early 2008.

Burton on New "Frankenweenie"

Scifi.com had some quotes from Tim Burton on his upcoming, stop-motion version of Frankenweenie. The film, based on Burton's live-action short of the same name from 1984, will now be a feature-length movie, which is what Burton had originally wanted to do. "We're going to do that real low-budget," the filmmaker said. Burton assured that this will not be the exact same movie as his original. "The thing that excites me about it and that will make it different is that when I look at my original drawings, there are certain things that are in those that I couldn't get in the live action when I made the film. So I'm quite excited to try to get a certain emotion and other characters in the new version, and I want to make it a slightly bigger story."

"I'm such a fan of old movies, and I think that just stays with you," Burton added. "It doesn't leave you. Those kinds of things, whether you think about them or not, they just are in your DNA, and they stay with you. Even if I was doing a romantic comedy I would probably stick a bunch of shadows in there or whatever."

One piece of artwork by Tim Burton for his 1984 Frankenweenie.

Frankenweenie will be shown in 3-D in participating theaters, and released by Walt Disney Pictures, in 2009. This may seem like a short time, but stop-motion features, though tedious to make, are considerably less expensive than CGI movies (usually only a third of the expense), and, with enough diligent, talented animators working on many scenes simultaneously, the film can be pulled off in a few years. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride from 2005 was also accomplished in this amount of time, having been done so with new technology that exceeded the abilities and time spent on animating from the days of The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993.

Helena's Changing Curves

Helena Bonham Carter claims that her chest changes sizes dramatically throughout Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street -- and not because of her outfits. Helena was pregnant throughout shooting of the film. As a result, the actress claims, her curves kept changing during each scene, which was shot out of sequence.

The child she was pregnant with is due any day now.

Photos From Paramount Screening of "Sweeney Todd"

Pictures taken prior to a special screening of Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, California, December 5, 2007.

Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton.
Reuters/Fred Prouser (United States)


Tim Burton.
AP Photo/Matt Sayles


Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.
Reuters/Fred Prouser (United States)


Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Richard D. Zanuck, and Stephen Sondheim.

Manson Denies Burton Movie Rumors

Shock rocker Marilyn Manson has denied Internet rumors of him collaborating with Tim Burton on a biopic on Lewis Carroll. Manson will soon be shooting his own movie on the novelist, entitled Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, and stated that people likely became confused with Burton's separate film, his upcoming adaptation of Carroll's novel, Alice in Wonderland.

Manson said: "I've read that he's making Alice in Wonderland, but my film isn't Alice in Wonderland. It's about the period in which Lewis Carroll was writing it. I've based it all around his diaries."

This is not the first time that rumors of a Manson-Burton collaboration have come up. Back in 2004, rumors developed on the Internet that Manson would play Willy Wonka or even the villainous Slugworth in Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Slugworth was not even featured in the film. (He was mentioned briefly, as he was in Roald Dahl's original book). Manson, however, did do a cover of the song "This is Halloween" for the special-edition soundtrack from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas last year.

Burton's Alice in Wonderland is being produced by the Walt Disney Co. It is likely to be released in 2010 (but no official word has come up yet).

NBR: "Sweeney Todd" Among 10 Best Films of 2007; Burton Wins Best Director

Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has been named among the top ten films of the year by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.

"2007 was an extremely exciting and challenging year for the NBR in determining the winners in the various categories," said NBR president Annie Schulhof in a release. "We screened 282 films and the diversity of these narratives is reflected in our 2007 Ten Best Films."

Eventually, No Country For Old Men by the Coen brothers won Best Film of 2007. But Sweeney Todd was recognized as one of the ten best of the year, and Burton took home the prize for Best Director.

Sweeney Todd will be released in U.S. theaters on December 21st, 2007.

A Very Burton Christmas

Tim Burton's Christmas tree this year will be adorned in a macabre fashion appropriate for the director -- "dead babies and slime." Helena Bonham Carter, Burton's long-time partner, revealed that Burton shuns tradition for a different version of holiday cheer. "Tim decorates the Christmas tree with dead babies and slime balls and things. It looks lovely and glittery from afar, and then as you get closer, you realize it's rather gory," the actress, now pregnant with their second child, said. The couple's first child was Billy Ray Burton, now four years old. The second child is due this December.

Bonham Carter described her tree as looking quite different from her boyfriend's. "Mine looks like Beatrix Potter. He has dead Oompa-Loompas around and multicoloured fiberglass alien lamps. But then he has some nice red-button sofas from Sleepy Hollow. So it's a funny and good mix." But despite the morbid appearance, Bonham Carter assured that they're not sick in the head in a bad way. Helena told Playboy magazine: "We're not that dark. What I love about Tim is that he retains a certain innocence and a childlike quality. He sort of forgot to grow up. I think I've definitely forgotten to grow up, which is great."

Helena jokingly said that their childish outlook on life (and death) might make them odd parents. "At some point, Billy will probably want parents. He'll have to look elsewhere."

Burton and Depp Will Be Taking YOUR Questions

Tonight (that is Wednesday, December 5th) Cinematical.com will be hosting an interview with both Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. The visionary duo will be taking your questions, in part of Cinematical's "Celebrity Interviews: Unscripted." Check back the week of December 17th to see if your question was answered in the video interview!

Tim Burton Film Festival in London This December

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced that a festival of all of Tim Burton's films will go on in London from December 7th until December 30th, 2007. The films of Mr. Burton, who has been described by the BFI Southbank website as "One of modern cinema's great visionaries," will be shown as well as other films that inspired Burton's work: Glen or Glenda?, the quasi-documentary/autobiography about transvestites by Ed Wood (Starring Bela Lugosi), the B-movie filmmaker Burton made a biopic on, and House of Wax in 3D starring horror film legend and Burton's idol Vincent Price.

In addition to the film screenings, two talks with two of Burton's associates will be featured. The first talk will be with Mark Salisbury, who wrote the book Burton on Burton and recently the companion book to the film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. His talk will occur on Thursday, December 13th (click the link for more details).

The second talk will be with Academy Award-winning costume designer and long-time Burton collaborator Colleen Atwood, who will be discussing her work with the imaginative director. Atwood began working with Burton in 1990, on Edward Scissorhands, and will have more of his creations feature as the wardrobes in Burton's Sweeney Todd. The renowned costume designer has so far worked with Mr. Burton on seven feature films. Atwood will speak on Saturday, December 15th (click the link for more information). Costumes from Sweeney Todd will also be on display.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas will be just one of all of Burton's feature films that will be shown at the festival this month.

There will also be fun activities, like a "Corpse Bride Animation Workshop" and a "Nightmare Before Christmas Light, Sound & Animation Workshop."

A few additional surprises will be at this exciting event. Search the website for details, showtimes, and more!

Nine Clips, Three Featurettes, and Behind-the-Scenes Footage from "Sweeney Todd" Online!

IESB.net has posted a whopping nine film clips, three featurettes, and behind-the-scenes footage of Sweeney Todd. The videos on the site feature interviews with the cast and crew on the film, and actual segments from the movie itself. There are also several new high-quality pictures from the movie on the link. I haven't looked at any of the videos myself, as to avoid any potential SPOILERS. But for those of you who just can't wait, there's plenty to offer from this website.

More can be seen and heard on the official website for Sweeney Todd, too, including song excerpts, production notes, a photo gallery, and downloads.

Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in Sweeney Todd.



Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman.

Burton and Depp Seen Christmas Shopping

A report from digitalspy.co.uk claim that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp were seen Christmas shopping at a "Forbidden Planet" store in London. The store closed its doors from the public to allow the director and the actor to shop movie memorabilia without the public's distractions. The article reported that Depp bought a cuddly Mario doll from the "Super Mario Bros." game franchise.

Burton "Devastated" by "Ripley's" Problems

The Los Angeles Times reported that Tim Burton felt "pretty devastated" by the failure of the development of a film he was going to work on last year, Ripley's Believe It or Not!. Burton had already begun planning locations for shooting the film in China, when Paramount Pictures shut down pre-production due to budget issues. Ripley's was to be a biographical movie ("bio-pic") on Robert Ripley, a cartoonist and filmmaker who traveled the world looking for bizarre oddities and curiosities. The film was to star Jim Carrey in the title role, and reportedly Gong Li, as well. "I know it's a business," Burton said of Ripley's with a frustrated tone of voice. "But for those of us working on the film, you get excited, and it's an art form. They should feel lucky that you treat it like an art form." Shortly after, however, a new project from Paramount came up for Mr. Burton: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Ripley's may still happen someday, but likely not with Burton (since he will be working on Alice in Wonderland and a feature-length, stop-motion animated version of Frankenweenie with Disney in the next couple of years).

The article goes on to talk about Sweeney Todd, but beware of SPOILERS! Approach with caution!: Article.

Helena Preggers

A couple of pictures of Helena Bonham Carter ripe with her second child with Tim Burton have appeared on the Internet. The baby is supposedly due December 7th, 2007.

Burton and Depp Video Interview

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp were interviewed by Access Hollywood to promote the upcoming Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In between laughing, the director and actor discuss their partnership, fatherhood, singing, the blood in the film, Preparation H (don't ask; just watch the video) and more:

http://video.accesshollywood.com/player/?id=189396

Update: The Producers of Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" Announced

Playbill News has stated that Richard D. Zanuck, Joe Roth with Suzanne and Jennifer Todd will produce Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland at Disney. Roth and the two Todds are first-time Burton collaborators, but Richard D. Zanuck has produced every live-action film by Tim Burton since 2001's Planet of the Apes. The article also stated that production for Alice will commence in January 2008. Burton will not be working on Alice and his stop-motion remake of Frankenweenie simultaneously. Instead, production on the upcoming animated film about a boy and his resurrected dog will begin after Alice. Walt Disney Pictures is expecting production on Alice to be finished by the end of May 2008.

Updates on the New Films

A new article has stated that Linda Woolverton, who wrote the screenplays for the Disney animated features Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, will be penning the script for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie. In addition, both Alice and the stop-motion, feature-length version of Frankenweenie will be shown in theaters in the Disney Digital 3D format. The 3D format has received a reborn interest among many film studios in Hollywood. Several new films and old classics will be released or re-released in the 3D format in the coming years. This year, Tim Burton's brain-child from 1993, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and his 1982 stop-motion short Vincent (in participating theaters), were shown in 3D.

Shooting for Alice will commence early in 2008 and is set to end production by the end of May that year. Burton will then go on to work on Frankenweenie, also with the Walt Disney Co.

NEW PROJECTS?!

Reuters and the Hollywood Reporter have announced that Tim Burton has signed on with the Walt Disney Co. to make two new film projects: Alice in Wonderland and a full-length, stop-motion version of Frankenweenie.

Alice in Wonderland, based on the original Lewis Carroll tale, will be shot with a combination of live-action and motion-capture technology. Shooting will begin early 2008. Rumors about Burton adapting the story have been circulating on the Internet for years, but this is certainly the closest thing to an official announcement that has appeared thus far.

The second project announced in the article, also in collaboration with the Walt Disney Co., Frankenweenie, is an adaptation of Burton's very own live-action short film he made while at Disney in 1984. This was the film that made Paul Reubens discover the young director and asked him to make his first feature-length film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, in 1985. Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Pictures, hinted that a prominent filmmaker in recent stop-motion features would be working with Disney in the near future. This is likely that film. In the book Burton on Burton, director Tim Burton said that he felt that Frankenweenie could have been a full-length feature film.

More details to come in the near future! Stay tuned!

Hear Burton Talk about "Sweeney Todd" Before "An Evening with Tim Burton: Cinema's Demon Barber"

On Wednesday, November 14th, Tim Burton spoke at the Rose Theater in New York at The Film Society of Lincoln Center's "An Evening with Tim Burton: Cinema's Demon Barber. " At the show, Burton discussed his career in filmmaking and showed clips from his various films spanning over the last two decades. The finale of the evening featured three clips from his upcoming Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The clip reportedly confirmed that the film will be bloody and that Johnny Depp can sing. "Witty, often elegant and always unpredictable, the films of Tim Burton have created a special niche for themselves within contemporary cinema," reads an announcement for the evening. "A born spinner of tall tales, whose subjects have ranged from Martians to Z-list Hollywood directors to, now, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Burton takes audiences places they'd never thought they'd go—and in ways they couldn't have imagined."

Before the show, The Los Angeles Times reports that Burton discussed the songs in the movie musical. Despite cuts, Burton assured that much of the music from the staged musical will be in the movie. "There are 26 songs in it. It's like 70 to 75 percent singing and 80 or 90 percent music — more like 90 percent." Burton also gave an indication that the film will be roughly an hour and forty-five minutes long. An Mp3 interview with Burton can be heard here.

AP Photo/Paramount Pictures, Albert Ferreira.

Max Casella interview

The Collective recently interviewed actor Max Casella, who appeared in Ed Wood, by telephone. He talked about working with Burton, having his trailer cleared out by the real Paul Marco, and more. You can read the full interview here!
Speaking of interviews, MTV has one with Jack Nicholson where he badmouths The Dark Knight and the casting of Heath Ledger as the Joker. While I wouldn't want to really see Nicholson playing the Joker again at his age, I agree with him that the later movies in the series (including Batman Begins) never "really captured Tim Burton's spirit". What do you guys think?

Entertainment Weekly Covers "Sweeney Todd"

Entertainment Weekly has a huge cover story on the upcoming motion picture from Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The article, written by Steve Daly, calls says that the film is, "dark, desaturated, and visually stunning — and yields some revelations: First, Johnny Depp can actually sing, and second,the movie's got more spurting blood than a season's worth of E.R. Like the [staged musical], Sweeney Todd spins a gruesome tale of vengeance in 19th-century London."

Actor Johnny Depp remarks on bringing Todd and its psychotic, blood-thirsty anti-hero to the big screen. He reports the difficulty of ''taking a character like that and attempting to make people feel for him, at the same time that he's slashing people up. Not easy.'' Nevertheless, Depp remained enthusiastic about the challenge. "How many chances do you get at a musical about a serial killer?''

Helena Bonham Carter, Depp's co-star, who plays Mrs. Lovett in the film, says that the grotesque subplot of the movie "is so sick... I hope we get away with it.'' But director Tim Burton realized the importance of the highly stylized blood and gore effects. The article states that Burton "felt Sweeney should be deliberately grotesque — a Mario Bava gorefest with ballads." ''It just goes with the story,'' Burton says. ''I'd seen different Sweeney Todd productions on stage, and when they skimped on the blood, the production lost something. Everything is so internal with Sweeney that [the blood] is like his emotional release. It's more about catharsis than it is a literal thing.''

Photo by Leah Gallo

On the issue of the leading actors' singing capabilities, Stephen Sondheim felt confidence in their abilities. "'I figured he'd have a light baritone,'' says the composer, now 77. ''You can hear it in his speaking voice. I love him as an actor, and always have. Put those things together, I didn't hesitate for one second.'' Depp astonished by the master composer's words. ''It was a real shock,'' the actor says. ''He said to me early on that the singing was secondary to hitting the notes emotionally.'' Depp continued: ''I didn't believe him.'' He laughs. ''I think he was probably just saying that to make me feel better about what I was about to attempt.'' But Sondheim felt certainty in Depp's ambitious role. ''There are very few people who can act and sing at the same time,'' he says. ''He's one.''

Helena Bonham Carter also spoke of her work in the movie musical. ''I think I had to be righter than right to prove I was right to play Mrs. Lovett. But it had been in my blood. I wanted to be her when I was 13, when the show came out. I went around with a Mrs. Lovett hairdo.'' Unlike Depp, Bonham Carter studied for months with a renowned vocal coach, Ian Adam. ''He was famous for making actors sing who couldn't previously,'' she says. Sadly, Mr. Adam passed away the week filming wrapped.

Bonham Carter is aware of some people's doubts on bringing Mrs. Lovett to the screen effectively and faithfully to the original show. ''I'm sure people will think, Aah, it's because I've slept with Tim. But I didn't sleep with Sondheim. And he ultimately chose me.'' The composer says he watched a dozen or so audition tapes and insists that Bonham Carter's performance was the best. ''Even in a recording studio, wearing a schmatte, she is as beautiful and sexy as they come,'' he says. ''She knew what she was doing, more than the others.''

Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney's crazed cohort, and Sacha Baron Cohen, as Sweeney's rival, Signor Pirelli. Carter: Peter Mountain; Cohen: Leah Gallo.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street will be released in U.S. theaters on December 21st, 2007.

More can be read in the article.

Q&A with Johnny Depp, on "Sweeney Todd"

Entertainment Weekly has conducted a question and answer session with Johnny Depp, star of Tim Burton's upcoming Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, on the making of the film. In the interview, Depp says his take on the murderous barber ''makes Sid Vicious look like the innocent paper boy.'' Depp says the wild streak of white hair his character was the result of "this hideous trauma, from being sent away, locked away. That streak of white hair became the shock of that rage." The actor also described the character's eyes as "needed to have experienced too much, you know. That's where the darkness came around them. These heavy rings around his eyes of purple and brown, this kind of awful fatigue and rage. It's like he's never slept."

Photo by Leah Gallo.

Depp also recalls Peter Lorre's performance in the film Mad Love and other horror film actors as being key sources of inspiration. On Lorre's performance, Depp says, "[h]e's unbelievably disturbing. Broken and haunting and sweet. Way ahead of its time, that film and performance. The other sort of God for me is Lon Chaney Sr. Aside from Peter Lorre, he would be the other enormous inspiration. Did you ever see his film The Penalty? It's shocking.... His performance is so heightened and gorgeous. I highly recommend that one."

On the amount of blood and gore in the movie musical, Depp says that he remembers "everyone except [himself] covered in plastic trash bags. There'd be a countdown. Three, two, one... action! And then blammo, you know? The great deluge."

Depp also talks about one of his co-stars, Sacha Baron Cohen (star of Borat, who plays Todd's nemesis, Pirelli). Depp said of Sacha Baron Cohen that "he's kind of today's equivalent to Peter Sellers." When asked how he and his long-time collaborator, director Tim Burton, worked together, Depp described it frankly that they've "never had an argument. The process [on Sweeney] has been as smooth as since way back when. Obviously, you want to come up with a character that you are not going to be embarrassed about. With Tim, I just don't want to let him down. Because, you know, he's a brother. He's my family. So that's one of the scariest sorts of things initially. Just making sure I haven't disappointed Tim. Once we get through that then I can kind of make sure I'm okay with it."

Burton and Depp on the set of Sweeney Todd. Photo by Peter Mountain.

When the interviewer, Steve Daly, said to Depp that he "is going to freak out a lot of pre-pubescent girls with this character," Depp enthusiastically exclaimed, "Ah, finally!"

More of the interview can be read here.

Depp Happy His Daughter Recovering, and The New York Times Discusses "Todd"

Johnny Depp is thankful that his daughter, Lily-Rose, who was seven when a mystery illness struck her last March, is recovering. "To say it was the darkest moment, that's nothing," the actor told Entertainment Weekly. "It doesn't come close to describing it. Words are so small." At the time the illness affected his daughter, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, in which Depp plays the title role, was only three weeks into shooting. "I didn't know if I was coming back," he recalls. "I remember talking with [Tim Burton], saying, 'Maybe you need to recast.' "

But Burton and the rest of the crew and cast went on a brief hiatus, allowing Depp to be with his daughter without having to change such a primary casting decision. "We've adjusted his schedule to fit in with his needs," DreamWorks said in a statement at the time. "Everybody's with them in good spirits." Depp and his partner, Vanessa Paradis, are relieved that Lily-Rose, now 8, has made a complete recovery. "Now every single millisecond is a minicelebration, man," Depp says. "Every time we get to breathe in and exhale is a huge victory. She pulled through beautifully, perfectly, with no lasting anything."

Photo by Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com

Meanwhile, the New York Times has reported on the Burton-Depp collaboration, Sweeney Todd. In the article, much of the cast and crew mention the process of bringing the Sondheim musical to the big screen. Production designer Dante Ferretti recalls how Burton acknowledged the importance of having actors perform in physical sets, using computer-generated backdrops and environments minimally, and how the look of the film should be more of a horror movie kind of London than a completely historically accurate Victorian-era London. Ferretti, whose work goes back to collaborating with Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini, states that the production team made the film's version of London "a little bit more frightening, more dark, more interesting."

Depp recalls that he never wanted to be a singer, because he felt that singers always get "too much attention." But when offered the role of Sweeney Todd for Burton's cinematic version, Depp, cautiously, accepted. During the filming of the third installment of the Pirates of the Carribean franchise, Depp studied the songs from the musical thoroughly, practicing to and from the sets. Depp says he would drive "two hours to work and two hours back listening constantly, learning the melodies in the car."

Depp also recalls on how classic horror film stars influenced his performance in Todd. Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and, especially, Peter Lorre were sources of macabre inspiration for the actor. Richard D. Zanuck, a producer of Todd, remarked that "Johnny in front of his victims with the razor is almost like a ballet dancer, dancing around them," in the film.

The article also mentions the blood and gore effects of the film, helping bring a stylized touch to the musical tale of the murderous barber. Mr. Zanuck states that the crew had "done tests and experiments with neck slashing, with the blood popping out. I remember saying to Tim, 'my god, do we dare do this?'"

Mike Higham, the music producer of the film, noted how economically Burton conveys his ideas. "He can say three words, and he completely sums up what his vision is," Higham says. "You get those three words and you go."

Burton on the set of Sweeney Todd. Photo by Peter Mountain/Paramount Pictures.