Lincoln Center's Film Society Will Get First Look at "Sweeney Todd" at "An Evening with Tim Burton"

By Ernio Hernandez
October 24, 2007

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will screen clips from the forthcoming "Sweeney Todd" film at "An Evening with Tim Burton: Cinema's Demon Barber," which will celebrate the movie musical's director.

Burton will take part in the Nov. 14 conversation at 8 PM in Frederick P. Rose Hall's Rose Theater. Clips from his films will be played at the event, including a "first look" at his screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd.

"Witty, often elegant and always unpredictable, the films of Tim Burton have created a special niche for themselves within contemporary cinema," reads an announcement for the evening. "A born spinner of tall tales, whose subjects have ranged from Martians to Z-list Hollywood directors to, now, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Burton takes audiences places they'd never thought they'd go—and in ways they couldn't have imagined."

Constant Burton collaborator Johnny Depp takes on the title role opposite Helena Bonham Carter as piemaker Mrs. Lovett in the "Sweeney Todd" film, which is scheduled to hit movie theatres around the country Dec. 21. The DreamWorks/Warner Bros. film adaptation of the Sondheim-Hugh Wheeler musical was penned by John Logan ("The Aviator," "Gladiator," Never the Sinner).

The film also features Alan Rickman (Private Lives, the "Harry Potter" films) as Judge Turpin, Timothy Spall ("Harry Potter") as Beadle Bamford and Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat," "Talladega Nights") as Signor Adolfo Pirelli.

Rounding out the cast are Laura Michelle Kelly (Fiddler on the Roof) as the Beggar Woman, Jamie Campbell Bowen as Anthony, Jayne Wisener as Johanna and newcomer Ed Sanders as Toby. "All the stars will do their own singing from Stephen Sondheim's music and lyrics," according to the announcement.

Tickets to the event at The Rose Theater, located in the Time Warner Center on Broadway (at 60th Street) in Columbus Circle, are available to members and the general public through FilmLinc.com.