Burton on Blood in "Sweeney Todd"

Tim Burton has stated that the highly stylized use of blood in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was crucial for the story. He says that he let the bosses at DreamWorks and Warner Bros. know that "blood was part of the production" as soon as he proposed his desire to make the movie version of the musical.

Talking about their initial meetings, he said: "It's an amazing thing that [we said]: 'We're gonna do an R rated musical with no professional singers, with lots of blood, about a serial killer and cannibalism', and they go 'Great!'. That was unheard of, I've never had that happen in my life before."



The filmmaker added that the fake blood used for the movie was orange, sticky, and curiously sweet. "It was our own special recipe, very sticky, very sweet and it burns your eyes."

The young Ed Sanders, who plays Toby in the film, also gave his opinion of the purposefully unrealistic gore in the film: "For a start, [it] was orange, and you could also see it actually pumping in through the pipes around the people they were killing's necks."

Good thing for star of the film Johnny Depp, who revealed that he is squeamish of seeing blood.

"There's a lot of blood-letting in the film but I like to keep mine inside me thank you very much.

"I'm not very good with the sight of my own blood. Nobody likes to be prodded or poked in any way, whether it's in the doctor's office or in jail."

Depp continued: "I always look away when I draw blood at the doctor's office. The blood we use is very theatrical. That's one of the reasons it still feels like a play to me. The realistic edge is off."

Burton admitted that he shared Depp's phobia, but didn't have a problem with their false blood concoction used during filming.

Depp Happy His Daughter Recovering, and The New York Times Discusses "Todd"

Johnny Depp is thankful that his daughter, Lily-Rose, who was seven when a mystery illness struck her last March, is recovering. "To say it was the darkest moment, that's nothing," the actor told Entertainment Weekly. "It doesn't come close to describing it. Words are so small." At the time the illness affected his daughter, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, in which Depp plays the title role, was only three weeks into shooting. "I didn't know if I was coming back," he recalls. "I remember talking with [Tim Burton], saying, 'Maybe you need to recast.' "

But Burton and the rest of the crew and cast went on a brief hiatus, allowing Depp to be with his daughter without having to change such a primary casting decision. "We've adjusted his schedule to fit in with his needs," DreamWorks said in a statement at the time. "Everybody's with them in good spirits." Depp and his partner, Vanessa Paradis, are relieved that Lily-Rose, now 8, has made a complete recovery. "Now every single millisecond is a minicelebration, man," Depp says. "Every time we get to breathe in and exhale is a huge victory. She pulled through beautifully, perfectly, with no lasting anything."

Photo by Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com

Meanwhile, the New York Times has reported on the Burton-Depp collaboration, Sweeney Todd. In the article, much of the cast and crew mention the process of bringing the Sondheim musical to the big screen. Production designer Dante Ferretti recalls how Burton acknowledged the importance of having actors perform in physical sets, using computer-generated backdrops and environments minimally, and how the look of the film should be more of a horror movie kind of London than a completely historically accurate Victorian-era London. Ferretti, whose work goes back to collaborating with Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini, states that the production team made the film's version of London "a little bit more frightening, more dark, more interesting."

Depp recalls that he never wanted to be a singer, because he felt that singers always get "too much attention." But when offered the role of Sweeney Todd for Burton's cinematic version, Depp, cautiously, accepted. During the filming of the third installment of the Pirates of the Carribean franchise, Depp studied the songs from the musical thoroughly, practicing to and from the sets. Depp says he would drive "two hours to work and two hours back listening constantly, learning the melodies in the car."

Depp also recalls on how classic horror film stars influenced his performance in Todd. Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and, especially, Peter Lorre were sources of macabre inspiration for the actor. Richard D. Zanuck, a producer of Todd, remarked that "Johnny in front of his victims with the razor is almost like a ballet dancer, dancing around them," in the film.

The article also mentions the blood and gore effects of the film, helping bring a stylized touch to the musical tale of the murderous barber. Mr. Zanuck states that the crew had "done tests and experiments with neck slashing, with the blood popping out. I remember saying to Tim, 'my god, do we dare do this?'"

Mike Higham, the music producer of the film, noted how economically Burton conveys his ideas. "He can say three words, and he completely sums up what his vision is," Higham says. "You get those three words and you go."

Burton on the set of Sweeney Todd. Photo by Peter Mountain/Paramount Pictures.

New "Sweeney Todd" Wide Release Date: December 21st!

DreamWorks and Paramount have decided to give Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd a wide release in the United States for Christmas. The original wide release date was January 11th, 2008, assuming that the film didn't have the potential to be a commercial success. But some studio executives saw some clips of the upcoming movie, and realized the film has much broader appeal than they assumed before (despite it being a violent musical). Variety wrote, "The hope is that "Sweeney" will be the sort of signature role for Depp that Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise was." However, the article stated that, "at the same time, DreamWorks and Paramount aren't likely to go out with "Sweeney." The studios aren't planning on releasing the film in more than 1,500 theaters in the United States on opening weekend.

Rumors of "Sweeney Todd" Cuts Dismissed

Much fuss has been appearing online saying that Warner Bros. wanted Tim Burton to cut some of the more gorey and bloody scenes from Sweeney Todd in order for the film to receive a PG-13 rating by the MPAA. But Variety has stated that these claims are false. "DreamWorks has always said it was an R," says Anne Thompson of Variety. "Anyone who knows the show knows that it involves killing and meat pies."

Mark Salisbury, who is writing the companion book to Sweeney Todd, also dismissed the rumors of Todd receiving a post-production slashing. Salisbury wrote on his blog, "all those reports of Burton being asked to cut back on the blood in the movie, don't believe a word of it."