Sweeney cuts Lee

Any time an actor as eccentric and wonderfully eerie as Christopher Lee gets dropped from a film, it automatically suffers. But when that film is Tim Burton’s upcoming musical SWEENEY TODD, and features a cast that includes Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sasha Baron Cohen, I can’t imagine the movie suffering too much of a blow.

Lee, who was to play a character not in the original musical named the ‘Gentleman Ghost’ has been cut from the film for unexplained reasons. Lee, ever the optimist, had this to say about it: “It would have been worse if I had done the scenes, but I never got to film them. It’s a shame as the lyrics were wonderful, but these things happen.” That’s right Christopher. As dark and sinister as you are, it’s always important to look on the bright side of things.

TODD tells the musical story of a barber (Depp) who sets out to get revenge on the judge who wrongly imprisoned him. The musical was originally written by songster Steven Sondheim, who had this to say about the upcoming project: “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.” And to that I have to say, as are we Steven, as are we, Christopher Lee or not.