Sweeney Todd Epilogue

The first audiences to be treated to a view of "Sweeney Todd," were at the Venice Film Festival in September where Burton was awarded the Golden Lion for career achievement. Eight minutes of the film were unveiled, including Depp singing the song "My Friends." The reaction to the footage was excellent and wildly enthusiastic.

"I pray it's going to be at least half as enjoyable and exciting and thrilling as making it has been," says Bonham Carter. "It should be great. It's a true marriage of Sondheim and Tim, because they've both got very similar sensibilities and the same black humor. And the romance of the music also, and the tenderness too, because both Tim and Johnny are both very tender."

"There's always a possibility it might upset the purists because it's not the show, and there are numbers that are not in it," muses Burton. "I'm trying to be as pure to it as possible, but I don't know how the purists will respond to it, but then again, how many purists are there? A movie like this is a strange gamble because it's an R-rated musical, it's got blood in it and people that go to Broadway shows don't usually go to see slasher films and people who see slasher films don't usually go to Broadway shows."

For fans of the original musical, Sondheim does acknowledge that some material was cut. But, he adds, "I urge them as much as possible to leave their memory of the stage show outside the door, because unlike all other movies of stage musicals that I know, this really is an attempt to take the material and completely transform it into a movie. The nice thing about `Sweeney Todd' is that this is not a movie of the stage show. This is a movie based on the stage show."

"I'm most excited about the people who have never heard of Stephen Sondheim, who have never been to a Broadway show in their life, who are going to get to see this majestic piece of work," says Logan. "They're going to get to hear a score unlike anything that has ever been composed by an American composer. They're going to get to see a story that is unique, that they don't know. And they're going to get to understand why we, who love `Sweeney Todd,' have loved it for so long and so passionately. In a way, they will get to be John Logan or Tim Burton watching this for the first time and being inspired with a passion that has lasted now 25 years. At its heart, `Sweeney Todd' is a horror musical. It is a horror movie with music that supports it. It is also, I think, a riveting character drama and a wonderful black comedy. It is an exercise in Guignol. But above everything else, it is pure entertainment. It is the genius of Stephen Sondheim, the genius of Tim Burton, the world of Sweeney Todd, coming together to create something unique and very entertaining."