Attend the Tale: 'Sweeney Todd' Exclusive with Weisner, Campbell-Bower & Sanders

On a cold, drizzly day (somewhat suitable, one might say) at the Claridge's Hotel, there was a feeling of excitement in the air that you could cut with a knife as the cast and creative team of the highly-anticipated new movie-musical Sweeney Todd crowded a press junket in London.

In a very special BroadwayWorld exclusive, London reporter Nick Hutson provides a very special Q/A series with the likes of Johnny Depp, renown composer Stephen Sondheim; plus stars  Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, and director Tim Burton and the stars of tomorrow Ed Sanders, Jayne Weisner and Jamie Campbell Bower. 

Stay Tuned as BroadwayWorld brings you even more exclusive content and features on Sweeney Todd! In theatres for limited national release December 21, 2007 and wide January 11, 2008.

JAMIE CAMPBELL-BOWER (ANTHONY)

Two newcomers to film play the films two young lovers.  We were discussing the different life styles between the US and the UK and what they like best about the US.

Jayne Weisner: I tell you…I really like the sweets…well, apart from their chocolate!  I like the accent, I like the lifestyle, I don't know.  I like my lifestyle too, I like the British lifestyle.

I asked if London has become similar to New York City.

Jayne Weisner & Jamie Campbell-Bower: No.

Jamie Campbell-Bower: Just shoot you down…I mean London's kind of where it all began, really.

Jayne Weisner: London's an incredible place.

The grass is always greener, as they say.

Jamie Campbell-Bower: I can't live in Hollywood.  I can't leave London.

Jayne Weisner: It's too good.

Jamie Campbell-Bower: Yeah…I think LA's kind of fake.   Obviously it is…you've got to play the game but I wouldn't want to play the game 24/7.

ED SANDERS (TOBIAS)

Ed Sanders is fourteen years old and plays the complex and dark character of Tobias. Not only does acting this role involve an understanding of a vastly complex and disturbed character, but he also gets to sing arguably one of the most famous and beautiful songs in Sondheim's repertoire.  What does this singing this song feel like to him?

Ed Sanders: It's an amazing feeling…yeah, it's quite scary but I'm very happy with how it came out in the end.  Definitely the musical side film, I think is definitely having its time at the moment.  I think it will be very good.

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DreamWorks Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures Presents a Parkes/MacDonald and Zanuck Company Production, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, directed by Tim Burton. Produced by Richard D. Zanuck, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and John Logan; Executive Producer Patrick McCormick.

Based on the Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler; originally staged by Harold Prince. From an adaptation by Christopher Bond, screenplay by John Logan. Johnny Depp and Tim Burton join forces again in a big-screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's award-winning musical thriller Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street…

"Depp stars in the title role as a man unjustly sent to prison who vows revenge, not only for that cruel punishment, but for the devastating consequences of what happened to his wife and daughter. When he returns to reopen his barber shop, Sweeney Todd becomes the Demon Barber of Fleet Street who 'shaved the faces of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard of again,'" state press notes. "Joining Depp is Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney's amorous accomplice, who creates diabolical meat pies. The cast also includes Alan Rickman, who portrays the evil Judge Turpin, who sends Sweeney to prison, Timothy Spall as the Judge's wicked associate Beadle Bamford and Sacha Baron Cohen as a rival barber, the flamboyant Signor Adolfo Pirelli."

For limited national release December 21, 2007 and wide January 11, 2008.

Photos courtesy SweeneyToddMovie.com: Jamie Campbell-Bower (Anthony); Jamie-Campbell-Bower and Johnny Depp (Sweeney)