The SWEENEY TODD Film That Could Have Been

[BarnabyTucker]

Posted: 3/4/23 at 11:07pm

I'm a big fan of the '08 Burton film and was recently watching an old interview with Helena Bonham Carter where she talks about how Sondheim had to sign off on her.  It got me thinking, who else was on the short list for casting?

I've searched the boards and can't seem to find an answer: were there earlier rumbles of another film adaptation of SWEENEY before the '08 film was made?  Any other directors who passed it up?  Any actors in consideration for the leads?

Would be curious to learn about what could have been.

[ljay889]

Posted: 3/4/23 at 11:14pm

From Wikipedia:

Director Sam Mendes had been working on a film version of the story for several years, and in June 2003 Sondheim was approached to write the script.[7][9] Although he turned down the offer, Mendes and producer Walter F. Parkes obtained his approval to use writer John Logan instead. Logan had previously collaborated with Parkes on Gladiator, and claimed his biggest challenge in adapting the Sondheim stage play "was taking a sprawling, magnificent Broadway musical and making it cinematic, and an emotionally honest film. Onstage, you can have a chorus sing as the people of London, but I think that would be alienating in a movie."[10] Mendes left to direct the 2005 film Jarhead, and Burton took over as director after his project, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, fell apart due to its excessive budget.[7][11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweeney_Todd:_The_Demon_Barber_of_Fleet_Street_(2007_film)

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 3/4/23 at 11:52pm

Joe Dante wanted to make it into a movie in the 90s with Christopher Lee and Vanessa Redgrave, but he couldn't get funding.

Which is nuts. Christopher Lee as Sweeney Todd would have been a grand slam of casting - he even performed "Epiphany" on one of his musical albums.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 1:07am

That Christopher Lee recording is BIZARRE. He's actively singing in the wrong key at points, which would be one thing in a live performance, but this is a professional recording. Lee was also to play a ghost who sang the title song in the Burton SWEENEY.

Guillermo Del Toro could have done a fascinating SWEENEY film. I've always wanted him to direct a musical.

[Quinn Wilson]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 1:21am

I don’t know how much truth there is to the rumor, but there was a rumor Cyndi Lauper was a name thrown around for Lovett, and I’m deeply curious as to what that would be like.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 1:52am

Quinn Wilson said: "I don’t know how much truth there is to the rumor, but there was a rumor Cyndi Lauper was a name thrown around for Lovett, and I’m deeply curious as to what that would be like."

I believe that was for the John Doyle revival. 

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 4:04am

Kevin Kline and Julie Andrews (yes, really) were set to do it sometime in the 80’s but funding fell through or something. It was very close to happening I believe.

[binau]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 5:55am

Bernadette Peters screen tested for Mrs Lovett. I believe she was filmed singing ‘Worst Pies in London’ according to Paul Ford’s book. 

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 7:39am

I believe Toni Collette was pretty close to getting the role. 

Another film adaptation that never happened was talked about in the mid 1990s after Julia McKenzie had done Lovett at the National. Declan Donnellan was going to do a film version possible for TV but it was for the BBC with McKenzie as Lovett and Anthony Hopkins as Sweeney. McKenzie and Donnellan were also planning a Gypsy around the same time but it never happened. What could have been!

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 8:25am

Apparently, of all directors to nose around the project, Kevin Smith (yes, that Kevin Smith... "Silent Bob" Kevin Smith...) was interested, but when the studio told him they were looking into Tim Burton, he demurred because he got why they'd choose him and the film buff within him was more interested in what a Burton Sweeney Todd would look like.

For a glimpse at the Smith version that could have been, check out this charming sequence from Jersey Girl, performed (in part) by Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler, with a cameo from the late George Carlin as an unlucky victim and the charming Betty Aberlin as the abashed school principal:

Honestly? I like it.

Updated On: 3/5/23 at 08:25 AM

[BJR]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 8:56am

It's true Helena screen tested, as did Bernadette, Toni Colette, and Cyndi Lauper, I believe. Did I miss anyone?

Wild to think Burton went with his wife... And how strong any of the other three would have been.

And yes, it's true Christopher Lee was going to be part of the ensemble singing the Ballad, which was conceived as ghosts of Sweeney's victims. When Depp's daughter fell very ill, filming was shut down for 2 weeks. Those sequences were cut to cover the costs of the hiatus.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 9:18am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "Guillermo Del Toro could have done a fascinating SWEENEY film. I've always wanted him to direct a musical."

I wouldn't be surprised if one day we see The Shape of Water adapted to the stage.

[binau]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 9:19am

According to the Sweeney Todd coffee table book even Sondheim apparently thought Helena was the best person for the job based on the screen tests, and had that assessment based on his own judgement before he was asked. I can’t help but feel Helena probably WAS the best person to fit into Burton’s vision and world of Sweeney Todd. For me the main issue is actually just the weak vocals. Surprising that Sondheim didn’t seem to mind too much. The one thing Sondheim said he continued to have input on is casting decisions for revivals of his work - so I have to trust that he was satisfied and did choose Helena as reported in the book. 

[Balcony Bill]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 9:30am

I'd love to know if Burton ever considered casting actors who could sing.

[RippedMan]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 10:05am

binau said: "According to the Sweeney Todd coffee table book even Sondheim apparently thought Helena was the best person for the job based on the screen tests, and had that assessment based on his own judgement before he was asked. I can’t help but feel Helena probably WAS the best person to fit into Burton’s vision and world of Sweeney Todd. For me the main issue is actually just the weak vocals. Surprising that Sondheim didn’t seem to mind too much. The one thing Sondheim said he continued to have input on is casting decisions for revivals of his work - so I have to trust that he was satisfied and did choose Helena as reported in the book."

Sondheim is pretty notorious for choosing acting over singing for this shows. I'm assuming that's why he signed off on Company. I'm of the mind that we can easily have both. But alas. 

[BarnabyTucker]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 10:41am

Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond!  I do remember Cyndi Lauper being thrown around for the Doyle production and that being the rumor at the time.

HBC made the most sense for the penny dreadful world that Tim Burton created.  She WAS Mrs. Lovett inn that universe and not some celebrity who stuck out like a sore thumb.

 

[The Distinctive Baritone]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 10:53am

BTW, I have it on good authority that Meryl Streep was offered Mrs. Lovett in the Burton version and turned it down.

[Ke3]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 11:30am

Bernadette's screen test was done at Sondheim's request if I remember correctly so I'm not sure there was ever truly a chance of that happening.

I've always wished somebody *cough* Speilberg *cough* had done a Light In the Piazza film with Bernadette in the Margaret role.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 12:07pm

The Burton film is gorgeous and at the same time, completely unwatchable for me. It’s up there with “Dreamgirls” and “Nine” as far as 2000’s screen adaptations that look incredible but decided that style was more important than maintaining what makes the material work so well. And if we want to move ahead a few years, throw that absolute trash film of “Into the Woods” into the mix, as well. 

[darquegk]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 12:42pm

Is there a movie musical more divisive than Sweeney? Either you love it for what it is, or hate it for all the things it isn’t.

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 1:04pm

After this thread popped up yesterday, I dug out my Blu-ray and watched the whole movie straight through. I'd forgotten how much I love it, particularly the artistry of the production, and I consider it one of Tim Burton's top 5 films, easily. I'm not a hardcore Sweeney aficionado, so everything about it just works for me, and I can understand why Sondheim had such a fondness for it.

https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/sweeney-todd-stephen-sondheim-favorite-movie-musical/

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 1:55pm

Based on what she said interviews, it seems Burton really kept HBC on a short leash and made her play everything as small and as sleepy as she did. I bet her Lovett would have been a lot more interesting and successful had she been able to follow her instincts.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 2:16pm

^ Especially when you learn from interviews that, much like the title role being Groban's dream job before this revival, HBC had wanted to play Mrs. Lovett since she'd seen Angela Lansbury's take on it when she was a kid. I'll always mourn what might have been.

Also, stone me for blasphemy if you must, folks, but I would rather have seen Cyndi Lauper in the Doyle revival, perhaps playing the Appalachian dulcimer or something, than Patti LuPone and her tuba any day.

[nasty_khakis]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 2:28pm

I always heard Meryl had to basically choose between Sweeney and Mamma Mia and she was in a place where she wanted to have fun filming in the islands vs in a cold dark soundstage in London. 

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 3/5/23 at 3:04pm

TaffyDavenport said: "After this thread popped up yesterday, I dug out my Blu-ray and watched the whole movie straight through. I'd forgotten how much I love it, particularly the artistry of the production, and I consider it one of Tim Burton's top 5 films, easily. I'm not a hardcore Sweeney aficionado, so everything about it just works for me, and I can understand why Sondheim had such a fondness for it.

https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/sweeney-todd-stephen-sondheim-favorite-movie-musical/"

I like the movie just fine but my biggest hang up with it is how utterly humorless it is. The whole film is so dour and I really miss those brief moments of lightness (typically provided by Lovett).