Alan Parker had thought of adapting Sweeney Todd
for film in the mid-1980s. However that never came to fruition. One Tim Burton had seen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd many times since the 1980s. Burton was not a devotee of musical theatre far from it, but something about Sweeney Todd's cinematic nature struck him. Later when Burton was more established in his film career he approached Sondheim about the prospect of making a movie out of the show, but nothing definite came of it and Burton went on to do other things. Sam Mendes came along and worked on making the film of Sweeney for several years with John Logan's script, but decided to direct Jarhead instead via studio wishes. In 2006 after Tim Burton's Ripley's Believe it or Not fell through he jumped at the chance to direct Sweeney Todd for Dream Works. Shortly after it was announced his friend Johnny Depp would play the lead, Sweeney himself.
Filming commenced on Sweeney Todd on February 5, 2007 at Pinewood Studios in London and wrapped on May 11, 2007. For the film's portrayal of London, production designer Dante Ferretti took in the neighborhoods surrounding the real Fleet Street, and embellished them, making them" a little bit more frightening, more dark, more interesting." As Sondheim recently stated "There's one too many rats. One too many chimneys..." There's a feeling something is not quite right in the air, and indeed the atmosphere.
Burton had initially planned to employ minimal sets for the film and use greenscreen, but decided against it. Upon refection he thought that sets helped actors get into a musical frame of mind. "Just having people singing in front of a green screen seemed more disconnected", he said. Burton observed that his original drawing of Todd and Lovett resembled Depp and Bonham Carter. Depp envisioned his own image of the character, suggesting a white streak in Todd's hair, which was inspired by the Bride of Frankenstein. Heavy rings of purple and brown were created around his eyes to suggest fatigue and rage, as if "he's never slept".
Burton stood firm on his notion that the film be bloody. It was his feeling that stage versions of the play which held back on the bloodshed weakened the shows effect. He said "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." Producer Richard D. Zanuck is quoted as saying "[Burton] had a very clear plan that he wanted to lift that up into a surreal, almost Kill Bill kind of stylization. We had done tests and experiments with the neck slashing, with the blood popping out. I remember saying to Tim, ‘My god, do we dare do this?’"
Sweeney Todd opened at theatres December 21, 2007. It goes into wider release January 11, 2007
