[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svP3HsJB5ng"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svP3HsJB5ng[/ame] Can't fucken wait, the musical is awesome and Tim Burton is awesome. (lol at 1:39) Higher quality here
Great musical, and I couldn't think of a better team for the job to bring it to the big screen than Burton and Depp.
This looks cool. Since it's already a well-known musical what are the chances that Burton will keep Danny Elfman far away from the production?
Does it really matter? Sonheim composed and arranged all of the music, so I doubt Elfman will be involed much. And even if you do hate him (which I don't), it probably won't make a big difference if he's involved.
His overblown brass will surely intrude and tread upon anything Sondheim wrote, or Bartek will overorchestrate. I looked it up on IMDB, and even though Elfman's name isn't mentioned anywhere I could find, the interestingly phrased credit of "Un-original music by Stephen Sondheim" gave me a chuckle, but signified that there will also be um, Original music included somewhere, which is sure to reek of Elfman.
I'm very skeptical as this is Sondheim's greatest masterpiece and one of the greatest pieces of musical theatre ever to grace any stage. Burton's style could really fit if done well, it could also really suck. The minimal singing in the trailer suggests that a lot of the sung text could have been changed to spoken dialogue, which usually is to a detrimental effect. And what singing there was from Mr. Depp did little to reassure me that he can sing as well as play the part. Too bad they couldn't have gotten Cerveris involved. Again I'm not saying it's going to suck, I hope it is really awesome. We'll see.
I was going to make a new thread on this, but I saw that I had been beaten to the punch. Regardless, I think this is going to kick some freaking ass. I have a feeling that Johnny Depp WILL pull of the job. Oh, and the judge is played by Alan Rickman (Snape from Harry Potter, Hans Gruber in Die Hard), so it'll pretty easy to dislike his character, anyway. Tim Burton will bring the darkness to the musical, but I hope that Elfman doesn't take a steaming dump on the chest of this piece. Right now I'm just like over this.
I wouldn't assume that. What is far more likely is that it's a marketing decision, because they're afraid that a bunch of singing will scare off dudes that would like to go see a cool movie about Johnny Depp murdering people but think musicals are "gay and stuff"
As with Strangefist, definitely a marketing choice. I'm not a huge fan of musicals, but I'm very aware that this is a musical. When the trailer started, I thought "hmm, are they making this a non-musical telling of the story? And then we get the small bit of song. There will be tons of people out there who will be turned off by a ton of singing. I did not hear anything terrible about his singing in the trailer. As long as he can be on pitch and inject a ton of character into it, I'll be fine with it. Rex Harrison got away with tons of non-singing in his musical roles. I'm assuming Depp got some singing lessons, as well as some help from the mixing board, to balance out the few thousand cigarettes he's smoked in his life.
I would agree - if Depp were playing Henry Higgins or some other "classic" musical theater role that doesn't call for great singing. But Sweeny Todd is almost operatic in nature, and the title role is very much an operatic role that demands classical training. They're not just tunes that any old fogey can fake his way through - they're full-blown arias. Any faking/belting here will take away drastically from the power of the music. @Opera_Guy - I saw Cerveris on Broadway and I agree that he needed to be the one in this movie. Tim Burton is so obsessed with nepotism that he can't see that he needs different actors for this one.
^ This. Higgins was basically written for R.H. as a psuedo-singing role. Sweeney is an entirely different animal. Mrs. Lovett can probably get away with the least singing ability, and I actually think that HBC will be able to pull it off fine. Sweeney, Anthony, Johanna, The Beedle, and especially Pirelli all need real singers chops to pull off their roles well. I also have to wonder whether they will include the "greek" chorus in the show, it would suck if they didn't.
@ Opera_Guy It seems like you are too focused on making this into a true version of Sweeney Todd...it's going to be a film. There is a significant difference between film and live theater. You're probably not going to get your dose of arias and the Greek choruses, but you have to take that with a grain of salt and realize that this is a full length movie that they're making, and they're not making it to please every musical theater fanatic, but instead to tell a great story in a new and different way.
I have no problem with new and different if it is compelling. We'll just have to wait and see if they pull it off well.
I have no problem with them wanting to tell the story in a new and different way - the story was around long before it was made into a musical. However, Tim Burton shouldn't be using this music unless he can do it justice - and you just can't do it justice without great singers. If he wanted to go ahead and make a non-musical of it, that would be great and I would go see it and probably enjoy it. But this reeks of Burton getting in way over his head and leaving a big fat pock mark on the legacy of one of the greatest works of art ever created. Besides, there have already been two great filmed versions of Sweeny Todd - the stage production film with Angela Lansbury, and the semi-staged concert version.
Yeah, but those aren't really feature film type productions. More like...filmed performances. Anyway. It will be badass.
Easy there theater boy. First of all, it's not going to hurt anything. It's the same argument I use with people who bitch endlessly about remakes. It's not going to tarnish or destroy the legacy of your beloved musical. Second, do you know for a fact that Burton is in over his head, that he can't do it justice, or that Depp et al. aren't great singers? No, I don't think you do. So until we have further evidence that it's all fucked up, let's take a chill pill, stop assuming the worst, and play a fun game of wait and see before jumping to conclusions.
Like usual the OST will come out a few days before the movie, so if it's the musical aspect of the film you are worried about you can listen to the OST first.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZcHNmFdiuQ"]Sweeney Todd - Behind the Scenes NEW 1/3[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYXpVu3R8rw"]Sweeney Todd - Behind the Scenes NEW 2/3[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVmZWp1W9Pk"]Sweeney Todd - Behind the Scenes NEW 3/3[/ame]
I can't fucking wait for this. http://www.apple.com/trailers/dreamworks/sweeneytodd/30mexclusive/ Edit: I didn't know Sasha Baren Cohen is in this.
Great video. I'm really glad that they worked with Sondheim on this, and that he realizes that this is a movie, not a musical. Tim Burton's approach to this seems very unique, and I think it will be fantastic.
I know nothing about the original, and only heard there was a musical after I heard the movie was coming out. Thus, I have no expectations and I'm sure I'll love it
just saw the midnight showing of the film... amazing. having seen the play there were some differences (very few) and it was very well adapted to film. Depp was FANTASTIC, and the rest of the cast held him up high. I was very impressed and i highly recommend it.
Agreed Vehod. I was actually only familiar with the music, having never seen the production, but this musical was impressive as hell, musically. And as a film it was visually astonishing and very well acted. Everyone played theirs parts really well, and there was not one character I thought somehow out of place.
Seeing it today, not sure what time yet. Been listening to the soundtrack since wednesday though. Green Finch & Linnett Bird has to be the most pleasant song ever.
I think he was talking about filmed versions of the musical by Hugh Wheeler and Stephen Sondheim. There are other films of this tale, the story is actually quite old.
Shoot him and take his lifeless body/I.D. and go see the movie. If you don't want to see it, you deserve to die. This movie was incredible.
