Hopefully Johnny Depp won't take it literally when Tim Burton yells "cut!"

Well the film has been cast and they've begun filming the movie musical of Sondheim's SWEENEY TODD. Fingers crossed that this movie lives up to the stage version. Of course as much as I love Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman, I'm really going to see it because Sacha Baron Cohen is playing Pirelli. I bust a gut laughing my way through his film BORAT so I'm curious to see what he does with a Sondheim lyric...naked wrestling anyone?

According to this article in Playbill:

The Sweeney Todd film, in which Tim Burton will direct Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, has begun filming in London, according to an official announcement.

The DreamWorks Studios/Warner Bros. film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical is penned by John Logan ("The Aviator," "Gladiator"). Work is underway at London's Pinewood Studios for the film, which is slated to be distributed domestically by Paramount for a late 2007 release and distributed internationally by Warner Bros.

"I've always wanted to do a musical and Sweeney Todd is my favorite," said Tim Burton in the release. "Stephen's blend of humor, horror and emotion is something that has always connected with me."

Sondheim joins the director in his enthusiasm. "Sometimes a story or stage production has to wait a long time until the right people come together to turn it into a motion picture. That's what has happened with Sweeney Todd and I'm excited as well as confident that it will be a first-rate and startling movie."

Sweeney Todd follows the story of a wrongfully imprisoned barber in Victorian England who sets out to seek revenge on the judge who imprisoned him. The stage work features a score by Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler based on the play by Christopher Bond.

Burton returns to his familiar casting pool with Depp (the duo have previously teamed on "Edward Scissorhands," "Ed Wood," "Sleepy Hollow," "Corpse Bride" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") and Carter (seen in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Big Fish," "Planet of the Apes" and in voice on "Corpse Bride"). Depp takes on the title role with Carter as piemaker Mrs. Lovett.

The film will also feature Alan Rickman (Private Lives, the "Harry Potter" films) as Judge Turpin, Timothy Spall ("Harry Potter") as Beadle Bamford, Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat," "Talladega Nights") as Signor Adolfo Pirelli and Christopher Lee ("The Lord of the Rings") in the role of "the gentleman ghost."

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