Who's excited? I'm excited!

Depp to star in Burton's 'Sweeney Todd'

Wed Aug 16, 11:25 PM ET

LOS ANGELES -

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.

Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite musicals. It reminds me of one of my fantastic family stories.
So when my family came from Ireland, they settled back East and one night my many greats great uncle went to the pub and never returned. It seems that this was an unsurprising event, as he was so well loved.... Years later they tore the pub down to build a new run for the train and the pub had some bones buried in the basement. Apparently he had got uppity and the owners off'd him and fed him to their pigs. Likely then the pigs were used to feed the other bar flies.

Now that is the circle of life.