Can Johnny Depp knock out the “National Treasure” sequel?Will Christmas be the right season for the Demon Barber of Fleet Street?DreamWorks and Paramount certainly hope so. According to Variety, “Sweeney Todd” is now set to go wide on Dec. 21, rather than taking a proposed limited, Oscar-qualifying run on that date and going out nationwide on Jan. 11.Directed by Tim Burton, the adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical stars Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen. The trade paper suggests that after seeing early footage from the feature, the studio decided that “Sweeney Todd” might be able to stand out as a wide release from the start rather than being platformed to build buzz.The biggest Christmas release currently scheduled is Disney’s “National Treasure: Book of Secrets.” Also expected to open wide are “P.S., I Love You,” the Judd Apatow-produced “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” and a number of limited award hopefuls including “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” [Source]

DECEMBER DEPP: Dreamworks & Paramount have granted Tim Burton’s “Sweeney Todd” a nationwide release on Dec. 21, instead of waiting until January to go wide as originally planned. VARIETY reports that studio execs were impressed with clips of the Johnny Depp-starring “dark” musical, noting its potential for “broad appeal” at the holidays. [Source]

Pleased with what they’re seeing from Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd, the musical starring Johnny Depp as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, the suits at Dreamworks and Paramount have locked December 21st as the wide release date.The original plan had the 21st circled for a limited release with a wider rollout on January 11th.Apprehensive execs figured the grim film would need buzz to find success. They found it to have broad appeal, sooooo, for those not living in a major metropolis, expect to see Depp exact his revenge sooner than later! [Source]

TIM Burton has been told to tone down the gore in the screen version of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” starring Johnny Depp. The suits at Warner Bros. “became a tad squeamish when they viewed grisly footage of blood splashing across the set as Depp slits the throats of his customers,” London’s Daily Mail reports. In another scene that has the studio on edge, a 10-year-old boy feeds human body parts into a meat grinder to make meat pies. The movie, co-starring Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen, opens in December. [Source]

Award-winning director Tim Burton has been told to butcher his own film, in which Johnny Depp plays the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney Todd. Studio executives became a tad squeamish when they viewed grisly footage of blood splashing across the set as Depp slits the throats of his customers in the movie, based on Stephen Sondheim’s stage musical. In its present form the film would merit an 18 rating, but Warner Brothers would prefer it to have a 15. During filming at Pinewood studios, prosthetic lookalike limbs were used (obviously the real thing would have been taking realism too far!) and they were so gruesomely lifelike that some of the crew became nauseous and had to take fresh air breaks. Those on set were further spooked because there were piles and piles of sliced-up ‘corpses’, plus several spare ‘necks’ in case Burton wanted to shoot several takes of the same throat-cutting scene.