Today in London...SWEENEY TODD begins principal photography!- Page 3

[CapnHook]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 10:13am

Gelfing, if SWEENEY TODD is pulling a DREAMGIRLS, then DREAMGIRLS pulled a CHICAGO and CHICAGO pulled a MOULIN ROUGE!

CHICAGO: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rene Zellweger, Richard Gere, John Reilly, Queen Latifah

MOULIN ROUGE: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo

THE PRODUCERS: Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, Will Ferrell

and don't get me started on HAIRSPRAY...

Casting big names in musicals is just how it works. How else will you get a non-musical audience to come see the movie? The only two recent movie musicals not to do so was RENT and PHANTOM...though RENT did have Taye Diggs and Jesse L. Martin and PHANTOM did have Gerald Butler and Patrick Wilson and Mimi Driver.

For the record: I think the names Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are enough to bring in the bucks. Warner Bros shouldn't worry about it. Not to mention for extra security you have Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Alan Rickman!!

Updated On: 2/6/07 at 10:13 AM

[CapnHook]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 10:13am

double

Updated On: 2/6/07 at 10:13 AM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 10:27am

Frankly - they should have done MORE star casting.

Johnny Depp is absolutely NOT a guaranteed draw. Just last year his movie THE LIBERTINE (a dark movie somewhat along the twisted lines of SWEENEY) brought in a whopping 4 million dollars at the box office - and it argueably had more recognizable names in the ensemble cast than SWEENEY. Burton has his fans, but frankly, his past movies have mostly been filled to the brim with starry ensembles (BIG FISH) or based on extremely famous properties (CHARLIE...CHOCOLATE, APES).

Subject matter dictates everything. Cast dictates everything else.

To make a movie musical of SWEENEY TOOD with a cast most people - including people on this board - have NEVER heard of is very, very, very risky - in my opinion.

[mateo]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 11:08am

omg the libertine was so weird.


Is it rare for a movie to announce filming in a 2 page spread?

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 11:13am

Most movies that are either really big budget (SUPERMAN) or are really reliant on Oscar nominations to make money (DREAMGIRLS) do big "announcement" ads when shooting begins. I heard somebody say once -- the bigger the ad, the more scared the studio is!

[luke-h***]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 11:57am

has anyone actually heard Depp sing?

[Fan2]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 12:25pm

Interesting topics on the IMDB message board for this movie - including a few links about Depp singing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408236/board/threads

[Thesbijean]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 12:30pm

First of all, it's Minnie Driver.

And if you think Taye Diggs, Jesse L. Martin, Minnie Driver, Patrick Wilson, and Gerard Butler are "names" that drive people to see movies, you are in a delusional state.

Maybe I'd give you Jesse L. Martin, but the RENT film target audience and Law & Order's main audience are totally different age brackets, with very little crossover.

[little_fall_of_rain]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 1:08pm

Someone posted a scan on imdb.com

[little_fall_of_rain]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 1:08pm

sorry double post
Updated On: 2/6/07 at 01:08 PM

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 1:16pm

Just FYI There is something funky with that scan. The blood isn't pink in the actual ad.

[dirty rotten guy]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 1:32pm

Aghhh! That just made me soooo excited.

I dont care how worried I am about this film, that logo almost made me pee my pants!

Yay!

[Julian2]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 1:33pm

Its Klingon blood.

Sry, flashback from my Star trek days.

But if I'm picturing it right (trying to distill the correct colors), looks pretty cool.

[Weez]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 1:46pm

Yeah, I'm a little pee-y in the pants now an' all.

Tim Burton + Johnny Depp + Helena Bonham Carter is certainly enough to pull in a crowd. Not a madly dull and mainstream or even huge crowd, but there are plenty of people who'll go "Tim Burton and Johnny Depp? Yes please!". We'll see how it goes. ^_^

[benjamingullett]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 1:56pm

Here, I got this from Variety.com

[worrell4077]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 2:21pm

I am so excited for this movie. I love the logo. It's funny because two of the members of the movie have done the Harry Potter movies, so it's like a reunion of sorts for Timothy Spall and Alan Rickman.

Christopher Lee is supposed to be Fogg in this right? I heard from others on here that's who he was playing, even though Anthony Head seems more like a Fogg to me, than he does.

I hope this comes out around Halloween, it seems to make more sense for it to be release in October, than in November or December.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 3:48pm

Thesbijean, re-read what I said. I didn't say those names were used to promote the film (even though to a degree they were), I said they were known names in the films.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 4:59pm

Christopher Lee and Tony Head are playing singing dead people.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 5:01pm

How sadly generic and remarkably similar to the last one.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 5:03pm

I'm sure the actual poster will be a huge picture of Johnny Depp: that logo is going to be a very small part of marketing this movie.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 6:11pm

I really like the logo!

"Johnny Depp is absolutely NOT a guaranteed draw. Just last year his movie THE LIBERTINE (a dark movie somewhat along the twisted lines of SWEENEY) brought in a whopping 4 million dollars at the box office"

I think that's a little unfair--I mean, the movie was virtually unpublicized and dumped in a handful of theaters. Also, it was unbelievably awful (I saw it on DVD).

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 6:47pm

I assume this is being marketed as an Oscar-bait right?

[Wildcard]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 7:07pm

If it is being marketed as Oscar-bait, I just hope the studios aren't as aggressive as they were with Dreamgirls. I think Dreamgirls' marketing was a turn-off to voters. Oscar-bait or not, I'm definitely looking forward to this film.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 7:10pm

With WB's marketing department, the problem will be the other way around...

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 2/6/07 at 7:25pm

That's a pretty nice looking logo.