SWEENEY TODD will sing at Christmas–DreamWorks schedules a limited U.S. release for December 21st!

Tim Burton will add a splash of the macabre to Christmastime this year, as DreamWorks announces a limited U.S. release on December 21, 2007 for Burton’s film of Stephen Sondheim’s musical SWEENEY TODD, starring Johnny Depp as the revenge-obsessed demon barber and Helena Bonham Carter as the pie-maker, Mrs. Lovett. Variety reports that the film will enter wide release in North America on January 11, 2008. Release in the UK is scheduled for January 25, 2008. Encouraging news–despite a few recent production delays, SWEENEY TODD is still on course to make its original release dates. The Zone thanks Theresa and DeepinDepp for the stories from Comingsoon.net and Variety.

“I’ve always wanted to do a musical and SWEENEY TODD is my favorite,” Tim Burton told the press recently. “Stephen’s blend of humor, horror and emotion is something that has always connected with me.” Composer-lyricist Sondheim had equally nice things to say about the artists currently involved in bringing his work to the screen: “Sometimes a story or stage production has to wait a long time until the right people come together to turn it into a motion picture. That’s what has happened with SWEENEY TODD and I’m excited as well as confident that it will be a first-rate and startling movie.” –Part-Time Poet