Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Blu-ray Edition
Directed by Tim Burton
Starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release date: October 21, 2008

Deny it all you want, but deep down inside everyone loves musical theater. Everyone has at least one show where they’ve memorized all the songs, they find themselves humming the songs in the shower, they keep hidden in some deep pocket of their iPod. Me, I like lots of shows, but I had never heard any of the songs on this one until I saw this film in the theater. Now I’ve had the chance to revisit it, and I find myself humming about the worst pies in London, and can’t help but smile. At times hilarious, at times frightening, Sweeney Todd has a lot going for it, not the least of which is Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, and of course the skillful direction of Tim Burton.

Judging from films such as the Nightmare Before Christmas (mental note: add that to my Christmas watching list) and Corpse Bride, it seems that Tim Burton has a very deep love for musicals, and it shines through in this production. The design and look of the film is what you would expect from a Tim Burton film, full of dark and moody tones, but still with a sense of playfulness. It’s basically what we’ve come to see from his films, but he is able to bring his vision of London to life, and makes the film feel like a movie with song, rather than just someone filming the stage version, if you catch my drift.

Fans of Anime films will be thrilled to learn that Warner Bros. has announced their intentions to bring a live-action Ninja Scroll movie to life with Alex Tse — who also wrote Watchmen — taking the writing duties. Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way is producing the film.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri‘s Ninja Scroll follows a ninja who saves a girl from captivity from a giant man with rock-hard skin who took the girl after killing the group of ninja she was with while they were investigating a strange plague. After these events, the ninja and the girl embark on a journey that includes fighting demons, crisis and the previously mentioned plague.

A project that just sort of showed up and started adding big time cast names like Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, and Helena Bonham Carter — Tim Burton‘s Alice in Wonderland just keeps on getting better, now adding the likes of Crispin Glover, Alan Rickman, and Christopher Lee.

Technically, Christopher Lee isn’t official yet, but all signs seem to point to it being a sure thing. Crispin Glover will be playing the role of the Knave of Hearts, who’s put on trial for stealing the Queen of Heart’s (Bonham Carter) tarts, while Alan Rickman will play the hookah-smoking Caterpillar. Also recently announced, Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon) will be playing the Cheshire Cat.

Reporting from the Wonderland set in Culver City, CA, Zack Roth (son of the film’s producer Joe Roth) said he got to see Depp in character as the Mad Hatter and that he looked “startlingly crazy.” Roth also said that he was told that screenwriter Linda Woolverton “added some socio-political context to the film’s narrative,” which is adapted from the classic Lewis Carroll tale. He also talked a little bit about the set itself…

The Godfather – The Coppola Restoration
Blu-ray edition
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, John Cazale, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Eli Wallach, Robert De Niro
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Date: September 23, 2008

Everyone knows the Corleone family and its members on a first name basis. Everyone speaks the family’s language. Some people even try to make their homemade sauce like them and fail miserably in trying. If I were to say the words “˜toll booth,’ “˜cannoli,’ “˜Sicily’, and “˜horse’s head’ you would know what I was talking about. These characteristics are what make Francis Ford Coppola‘s The Godfather arguably the greatest film ever made.

When watching, whether for the first time or the 100th time, it is like we are entering the Corleone’s dinning room. Their setting is dark, but it’s still inviting, the feeling is intimidating but once we become familiar with it it turns into intimacy. It’s a film that is told entirely from the inside. The outside world of the Corleone family bears little consideration. From the film’s opening lines, “I believe in America,” The Godfather paints an exact replica of American capitalism but adds a few more colors that makes this capitalism seem OK in society. It’s a vivid view of a powerful Mafia family, which wakes up one morning to find their enterprise isn’t as powerful as it once was.

After the long, long decade of rumors, combined with many refusals to believe it was true, as well as my consistent coverage of this project all year, the massively desired sequel Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day has officially begun filming in Toronto.

Take that naysayers!

As a big fan of the original flick, I’m happy to see actual filming taking place and it’s very good to see Sean Patrick Flanery eating some food and being silly. At the same time, though, I’m still pretty antsy to see some images and footage of familiar faces back in action.

As I’ve previously reported, Sean Patrick Flanery www.seanflanery.com and Norman Reedus (www.normanreedusonline.com) are returning for this film as the McManus brothers. Billy Connolly, David Della Rocco, and Brian Mahoney will also reprise their roles, while Aaron Berg has joined the cast as JoJo Rhama as has Clifton Collins Jr. as a new character.

Below are a couple new production diaries to check out.