So last night my wife was busy with homework. I should have beeen busy with homework, but I haven’t been going to school since 1996 without learning how not to do homework. I probably have a PhD in that by now. Anyway, I decided to watch one of the movies I got from Orem Public Library (my place of employment, for those of you who don’t know). OPL has over 25,000 movies, and I’m there all the time. This makes me feel like I have over 25,000 movies in my personal collection, especially since I can check out as many as I want for free, and I don’t have to pay late fees. (Mwa ha ha! Maybe Brandon’s right–maybe librarians really are evil. But I’m one of them, so who cares?)
So I watched Sweeney Todd–the filming of the Broadway musical with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn. What an incredible film. I remember watching it once before when it was on television. Of course, I was only like ten years old at the time. My dad watched it with me, and as I recall, he got in hot water for it, too. (I don’t think I’d watch this movie with children–very disturbing.) In any case, I didn’t remember it very well. I’m already a Sondheim fan–the man’s a genius, in my book, and he writes musicals like no other. While I was watching Sweeney, I was really just hit by how well it all fit together. The musical motifs, the themes, the plot–everything was included for a reason, and it all came to a wonderful climax. This probably stuck out in my mind so much because of all the plotting for Ichabod I’ve been doing right now. I just watched the film and thought, “I want this to be the experience people have when they read this book.” Who knows if I’ll be able to do it or not, but it’s a good goal to shoot for.
Not much else to report right now. I’m sitting in the Wilk at BYU in between sessions of LTUE (BYU’s sci-fi/fantasy con), and tonight I’m going dancing with my wife. Just because we don’t celebrate V-Day, doesn’t mean I don’t go dancing with her.
In the meantime, maybe I should do some homework.
Or Sudoku.
New Sweeney Todd Movie
I found out a few weeks ago that Sweeney Todd is being made into a new movie musical starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter. It’s being directed by… guess… Tim Burton! It’s set to release this December. Sounds awesome, if you ask me – but the question on everyone’s (chapped) lips is, Can Johnny Depp sing?!?!
If you want proof of the movie, go here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408236/
-Gretel
Re: New Sweeney Todd Movie
Howdy, Gretel. Yes, I’ve been aware of this one for a while. I’m not sure if it really matters if Depp can sing, although if you look at his bio on imdb, you’ll see that he’s been the front man for two different rock groups, and even opened for Iggy Pop once. So he can sing in one fashion or another. Although Audrey Hepburn couldn’t sing, and she still seemed to do fine in My Fair Lady. Ah, the wonders of dubbing. Oh–and you missed one of the more interesting casting choices: Borat as the “Italian” barber who competes with Todd.
Re: New Sweeney Todd Movie
Interesting…the only thing I’ve seen Borat in so far was Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Not very impressed. That movie had a lot of potential but ended up being a waste of my time.
I’m just happy to see that movie musicals are officially back “in.” Chicago, Rent, Phantom of the Opera, The Producers, Dreamgirls, and now Hairspray and Sweeney Todd. Wicked can only be so far off… 🙂