Johnny Depp, Tim Burton Together on 'Sweeney Todd'

Johnny Depp is lending his immense star power to a musical cause as the actor will reunite with director Tim Burton on the film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical, Sweeney Todd.

DreamWorks recently made the Sweeny Todd announcement that will see the eccentric Tim Burton reunite with the wildly popular Johnny Depp. Sweeney Todd, expected to his theatres in late 2007, will feature Depp as the murderous barber, Sweeney Todd.

Sweeney Todd marks the sixth film collaboration for Tim Burton and Johnny Depp since 1990 after the two first worked together on the unforgettable Edward Scissorhands. Since then, Burton and Depp have worked together on Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and most recently, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which grossed over $200 million domestically.

Sweeney Todd, however, has been adapted on film as far back as 1936 with plays dating even earlier. The 1936 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was a silent film rich in melodramatic layers, while the 1973 stage play of Sweeney Todd focused on the back story of a wrongfully imprisoned barber hell-bent on revenge. The 1998 television movie, The Tale of Sweeney Todd, starring Ben Kingsley and Joanna Lumley, was so well received that it landed Kingsley a Screen Actor’s Guild Best Actor nomination. The Stephen Sondheim musical version of Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, debuted on Broadway in 1979 and has been adapted several times in various mediums, including another televised version in 2000 and a British revival in 2004 that is still ongoing to this day.

As Reuters reports, “The new movie, which will be co-produced by DreamWorks and Warner Bros., will be adapted from the modern musical thriller ‘Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,’ with songs originally composed by Sondheim. That version became a Broadway hit in 1979 and won 8 Tony Awards.”

Director Tim Burton first struck box-office gold with Beetlejuice back in 1988. The next year, Burton went on to direct Michael Keaton in Batman and since that time the director has achieved even greater levels of success with many of his films. That also included bringing a young Johnny Depp off of 21 Jump Street and into the role Edward Scissorhands in 1990. Burton also went on to direct Batman Returns, The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Mars Attacks!, Planet of the Apes, Big Fish and Corpse Bride, among others.

As for Johnny Depp, his star power is hotter than ever. Having quarterbacked the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise in the colorful role of Captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp has proven to be an incredibly versatile actor. Depp has also honed his craft via such films as Benny & Joon, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Fear and Loathing is Las Vegas, Nick of Time, Blow, From Hell and Finding Neverland. With Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest now under his belt, Depp has helped the franchise grow into a huge success totaling over $700 million in the U.S. box-office receipts alone. In 2007, Johnny Depp will be reprising the role of Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which could delay production on Sweeney Todd.

[Additional Sources: Reuters, IMDb]