John Logan, the co-producer and writer of Tim Burton's film version of Sweeney Todd, recently spoke with TheaterMania about adapting the much-loved Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical for the big screen. As he tells TheaterMania's Brian Scott Lipton, Logan lobbied hard for the job that would ultimately take him five years to bring to fruition. But as soon as he heard that a film version was in the works, he knew he had to be involved, given how much the Sondheim work meant to him: "I saw the original Broadway production and it changed my life. I think one of the reasons I'm a writer today is because of that night."

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has announced the winners for its 2007 awards, and topping the list is Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood with four awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis, and Best Production Design from Jack Fisk. The film was a runner-up for Anderson in the screenplay category, Robert Elswit for cinematography, and Jonny Greenwood for music. New York Film Critics Online awarded the film for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Day-Lewis), Best Cinematography (Elswit), and Best Score (Greenwood).

Tim Burton's film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd scores a perfect 100 on the Rotten Tomatoes rating meter, which averages all the critics' reviews from across the country.

The Berlin International Film Festival has announced that There Will Be Blood will be making its international premiere as one of the first eight films to be selected for the festival's prestigious Competition program. The festival, the 58th running of which will be held February 7–17, 2008, awarded Anderson's Magnolia its top prize in 2000. 

With the Sweeney Todd soundtrack out in just over a week, it's no wonder the Chicago Tribune is saying that "the highly anticipated holiday movie season brings with it not just some of the best movies of the year but some of the most distinctive score soundtracks as well." Writes Richard Knight Jr.: "This is a great finale to what has been a signature year for soundtrack lovers," not least "an intimate, seductive Sweeney Todd."

Kronos Quartet's Jeffrey Zeigler is featured in a documentary that will be shown as part of a centennial celebration of the Elationsists—an early 20th-century art movement from San Francisco that found hope in art after the devastation caused by the city's 1906 earthquake. San Francisco's Foundation for the Preservation of Fantastic Possibilities presents a weeklong exhibition beginning tonight that honors the movement's contribution through art, film, photography, poetry, music, and even a signature chocolate drink.

The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures has unveiled the winners of its awards for the best in film for 2007, and on its list of the Top Ten Films of the Year: Sweeney Todd. The film also garnered an award for Best Director, Tim Burton. The awards will be handed out at a special gala event on Tuesday, January 15, in New York City. Congratulations to Tim and the entire Sweeney cast and crew!

The Palm Springs International Film Festival has announced that Daniel Day-Lewis, star of the upcoming Paul Thomas Anderson film There Will Be Blood, will be presented the Desert Palm Achievement Award at the Festival's January 5 gala event, reports the Palm Springs Desert Sun. The Festival includes screenings of over 200 films as well as special events, seminars, and runs January 3-14.

You've seen the trailer. You've watched the behind-the-scenes footage in the recording studio. You've read what the critics had to say. Now you can hear for yourself what all the talk has been about: Nonesuch Radio is now playing Johnny's performance of the pivotal song "My Friends" off the Sweeney Todd film soundtrack, which will be available from Nonesuch December 18. To hear the track, click on the Nonesuch Radio icon at the top left of this page.

"You know that a movie wows an audience when nobody stirs during the closing credits. That's what happened at the end of Sweeney Todd tonight at the first critics' screening in Manhattan." So reports Tom O'Neil in his LATimes.com blog, Gold Derby. While he's not yet able to give a full review of the movie this far in advance of its December 21 release, he does have a few words to say about Sweeney, which he calls "the most important movie of 2007."

When you've signed on to play Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, chances are good you'll be wielding razor blades every now and then. And when you've played Edward Scissorhands, one would expect you'd be comfortable with that sort of thing. But in an interview with the Glasgow Daily Record, Johnny Depp admits to having some trepidation when it came to lathering up his co-star in the film version of Sweeney Todd, Alan Rickman.

The Sweeney Todd film site has now been fully updated to include all the latest information on the upcoming release—production notes, cast and crew bios, trailers, behind-the-scenes video, a photo gallery, and all sorts of downloads featuring the film's stars. The site also features streaming audio of songs off the soundtrack, which will be available from Nonesuch December 18.