Helena Bonham Carter to Star With Johnny Depp in DreamWorks and Warner Bros. Production of 'Sweeney Todd'

Helena Bonham Carter to Star With Johnny Depp in DreamWorks and Warner Bros. Production of 'Sweeney Todd'

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Helena Bonham Carter will join the cast of "Sweeney Todd," the DreamWorks Studios and Warner Bros. co-production that will star Johnny Depp as The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Tim Burton is set to direct the film based on the award-winning Stephen Sondheim musical thriller.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040816/LAM079LOGO)

She will play the starring role of the diabolical Mrs. Lovett who dispenses her victims' bodies in her meat pies and becomes Sweeney's amorous accomplice.

Production is planned to begin early in 2007 for release late that year. Paramount will distribute for DreamWorks domestically and Warner Bros. internationally.

Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald are partnered with Richard D. Zanuck and John Logan to produce the screenplay adaptation which has been written by Logan.

In her film career, Helena Bonham Carter has starred in a range of roles including "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Big Fish," "Planet of the Apes," and "The Wings of the Dove" for which she was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress. She most recently completed filming on "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." She has also lent her voice to animated films such as the Oscar-winning "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" and "Corpse Bride."

The original production of "Sweeney Todd" with Sondheim's music and lyrics and a book by Hugh Wheeler based on the play by Christopher Bond, opened on Broadway in1979 and won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The show's mix of the comic, the dramatic, and the macabre was held together by Sondheim's movie-like score. It has had hundreds of productions throughout the world including its recent acclaimed revival in New York.

CONTACT:

Marvin Levy
DreamWorks Studios
(818) 733-9787

Nancy Kirkpatrick
Paramount Pictures
(323) 956-5824

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040816/LAM079LOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: DreamWorks Pictures; Warner Bros. Pictures

CONTACT: Marvin Levy of DreamWorks Studios, +1-818-733-9787; or Nancy
Kirkpatrick of Paramount Pictures, +1-323-956-5824

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