Article From Chicago Times Talks Sweeney

'Sweeney Todd'

September 9, 2007

Oh, you know it's a happy holiday movie when you have a musical decked in red: Blood. And the main character is a guy with white hair: a killer barber. And the pie is not made of mincemeat, but man-meat. Welcome to Tim Burton's idea of a real nightmare before Christmas which is his musical "Sweeney Todd" starring Johnny Depp with sheers, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen.

Written by Burton and Jon Logan, the movie isn't exactly what some might consider a warm-hearted holiday flick. Depp is a barber who butchers victims in his barbershop chair by slitting their throats. He sends the bodies down a chute in the floor to the home of his mistress Mrs. Lovett (Carter) who then turns them into meat pies! "The beauty of it is Tim takes chances no matter when, no matter what," says Depp, who adds that the minute his favorite director approached him, he was in.

"I started telling people that the minute I put down my Pirates sword that I was doing a musical. People thought, 'No.' I said, 'Yeah, I'm doing it.'" Depp jokes.

Burton, who admits that he's "not a huge fan of musicals, but this one is my favorite" had adapted Stephen Sondheim's classic about a crazy love story. The movie is 70 percent singing with Baron Cohen as a rival barber who Burton swears has "amazing" singing chops.

But Burton isn't exactly Simon Cowell rating the singing of his cast members. He finds more glee discussing what this film really is all about for him.

"It's a horror musical," says the director.

Want some egg nog with that?

Cindy Pearlman