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Johnny Depp’s, picking up a razor for “Sweeney Todd,” according to the Los Angeles Times

Depp will team with longtime collaborator Tim Burton to turn Stephen Sondheim’s hit musical about a vengeful barber into a feature film, DreamWorks and Warner Bros. announced.

Production is scheduled to begin in February of next year, with the movie musical hitting theaters in late 2007, the two studios said. A DreamWorks spokesman said Depp was expected to perform his own singing.

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AS a pirate Johnny Depp rules the waves, but can he master the high Cs? by John Harlow, Los Angeles for The Sunday Times.

Stephen Sondheim, the veteran composer, wants the actor to take a voice test before he blesses Depp as cinema’s latest Sweeney Todd.

The 76-year-old composer is concerned that Depp, who has played with rock bands since he was 13 may be too "rock’n’roll" to play the murderous barber of Fleet Street.

Tim Burton, the London-based director behind the proposed film, has been praising Depp’s singing voice, but Sondheim needs to be convinced…

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For weeks after we saw the first “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, a debate raged in my family about the bizarre behavior of the lead character, Capt. Jack Sparrow, played by the delicious Johnny Depp.

“He’s drunk,” said my son.

“He’s crazy,” said my daughter.

“Wrong – all of you!” I said. “He’s gay.”

Now, after watching nearly five hours of Depp flitting around on white sands and prancing on ship decks, I’m left with little doubt: Depp has brought to the silver screen one of the most brilliantly entertaining gay characters of our time…

More by author Desiree Cooper of the Detroit Free Press.

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With swords thrusting, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest features a protagonist whose mannerisms defy the stereotype of the traditional American action hero.

Most obviously, the character is morally ambiguous. That’s a given, since he’s a pirate. But the differences run more deeply. As some viewers–gay and straight–surely have noted, Depp’s performance leans a little toward the higher end of the Kinsey scale.

[While Depp] doesn’t explicitly say that situational homosexuality was a part of pirate life, but he notes that "women were thought to be bad luck on ships" and that long periods of time could separate these men from one port and the next. It’s done in a roundabout fashion, but Depp does acknowledge that, whether intentional or not, this side of Sparrow exists…

Read more of Drew Mackie’s article on AfterElton.com.

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Pirates, parrots and planks are all the rage again thanks to Hollywood’s Capt. Johnny Depp and Disney writes Jim Beckerman. In an article posted on St. Louis Today Beckerman asks, “Are ye lubbers ready for the year of the pirate?”

Anyone would have told you before 2003’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” raked in a cool $655 million internationally that pirates as a pop-culture fad were dead in the water.

What a difference a Depp makes.

This “Pirates of the Caribbean” fad might seem brand new to today’s kids. [Johnny’s] encore performance as the eccentric Capt. Jack Sparrow is expected to coincide this year with a spike in buccaneer-themed children’s parties and piratical Halloweens. So says Party City, which has dubbed 2006 the Year of the Pirate…

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And in resurrecting his Sparrow character, Depp found himself in strange territory: acceptance. “On Pirates 2 and 3, we didn’t get the calls – ‘My God, you’re ruining the movie!’ By Anthony Breznican for USA Today.

…”In a lot of instances they [Disney executives] kind of were beyond supportive to the degree where it’s, ‘Keep doing it! Make some more stuff up! Add some more weirdness!’ But we did hit a couple of places that made them nervous. . . .”

Depp pauses for a long time. That devil’s smile returns. ”And it does feel good. It does,” he says. ”If you don’t sort of tread in the arena of fear, you won’t move forward somehow.”

Gore Verbinski, director of the Pirates movies, says he and Depp were trying to find a way to ”one-up each other” to avoid playing it safe the second time around. At one point in the sequel, when Sparrow is captured by cannibals, Verbinski had the savages drape a necklace of severed toes around his neck.

Sparrow then does something outrageous. ”People were like, ‘You can’t put that in the movie,’ ” Verbinski says. ”Well, who’s going to stop us?” Not the suits. Not this time…

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Cinema Blend
By Lexi Feinberg – Terry Zwigoff is set to direct an adaptation of Happy Days for Johnny Depp’s production company Infinitum Nihil, says the Hollywood Reporter.

The bittersweet story by author Laurent Graff, follows a thirtysomething man who decides to leave his wife and children and check himself into a rest home. While there, he develops a special bond with an old woman suffering from cancer, taking her on a special journey as her last wish.

“Johnny Depp asked me to do the film,” Zwigoff said. “He said he chose me because I’m very Hal Ashby-like,” referring to the late director of the intergenerational romance “Harold and Maude.” “I took that as a compliment. It’s a very quaint, fantastical story.”

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The Rock Radio – Marilyn Manson begins production soon on his directorial debut, a film called Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, and wants his pal Johnny Depp to make an appearance in the movie.

Manson jokingly told MTV.com, “In less than two weeks, I’m going to France to start production on my film…And maybe I’ll convince Johnny to be in it — I’ll extort him to be in it.”

The shock-rocker co-wrote the movie and stars as Alice In Wonderland author Lewis Carroll. Constantine actress Tilda Swinton also has a role in the picture, which does not yet have a release date.

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andPOP – Johnny Depp has laughed off reports he will play Michael Hutchence in a new film about the life of the late INXS frontman, reports Ninemsn – by Jennifer Weatherhead.

“It’s not true,” Depp told reporters in Los Angeles while promoting his new film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

In fact Depp didn’t even know about the film until a friend sent him a clipping of a media report stating he would play the part. The film “Slide Away” is about the life and death of Hutchence, who was found dead in his hotel room in Sydney in 1997.

“Somebody sent that to me and I read it and thought ‘Wow, that’s kind of interesting’,” Depp said, laughing about the media story. “No-one ever approached me about it. I don’t think I’d be the guy to play Michael. I knew him pretty well. He was pretty broad, Michael. He was kind of a glam guy. He was like a god, like a shaman, so I don’t think I’d be the guy.”

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AUTHOR: Terri

Playbill.com – It looks like Stephen Sondheim

and Hugh Wheeler’s version of the tale of Sweeney Todd is finally headed to the silver screen – By Andrew

Gans.

Variety reports that Johnny Depp will star as the vengeful barber in the film musical,

which will be directed by Tim Burton. Burton will helm the movie, which was developed by DreamWorks, for

Paramount Pictures. Screenwriter John Logan has adapted the Sondheim-Wheeler musical for the screen.

“Sweeney Todd” is being put on the fast track because another Burton project, “Ripley’s Believe It

or Not,” has been sent back into development. That film was to star Jim Carrey as the famed

explorer-reporter.

“Sweeney Todd” will mark yet another Depp-Burton collaboration. The Hollywood actor has previously

been directed by Burton in “Edward Scissorhands,” “Ed Wood,” “Sleepy Hollow,”

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and the animated film “The Corpse Bride.”

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