The long awaited film version of Sweeney Todd could be awaited not much longer – Tim Burton is delaying his next film, Ripley’s Believe it Or Not, for a year, and is looking to reteam with Johnny Depp on the tale of a murderous barber and his landlady who makes his victims into meat pies. While singing.
Ripley was supposed to start shooting in November – in fact, its start date was one of the official reasons Jay Roach’s scifi comedy Used Guys got canned last month. But there have been some creative issues, with star Jim Carrey and Burton rethinking aspects of the story, leading to major rewrites. One big change would be to move the focus of the picture from Ripley to some of the freaks and marvels he investigates. Also the budget was brushing against 150 million, and Paramount opted to give it a year to see if the value of money dramatically improves, or if Jim Carrey’s career continues on a trajectory to making him affordable.
Johnny Depp suddenly finds himself pretty open, as well, as director Peter Weir has just just dropped out of their latest project. The stars could be aligned to bring this Stephen Sondheim musical to the big screen by next year.