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Johnny Depp to star in ‘Sweeney Todd’

Actor will play title role in Burton's film adaptation of Sondheim musical
/ Source: The Associated Press

Johnny Depp is going from woozy buccaneer to murderous barber.

Depp is reuniting with director Tim Burton (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”) to play the title role in a film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Sweeney Todd,” about a 19th-century barber seeking bloody revenge over his wrongful imprisonment.

The star of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” this year’s biggest hit with a domestic gross of $400 million, is expected to do his own singing, said Marvin Levy, spokesman for DreamWorks, which is co-producing “Sweeney Todd” with Warner Bros.

“Sweeney Todd” marks the sixth collaboration between Depp and Burton, who scored a blockbuster in summer 2005 with “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” in which the actor played the reclusive candyman Willy Wonka.

Their other films together are “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Ed Wood” and “Sleepy Hollow.”

The filmmakers plan to start shooting “Sweeney Todd” early in 2007.