Might ‘Sweeny Todd’ Take Cake For Biggest ‘Bait-and-Switch Scheme’ in Movie History?

HollywoodChicago.com — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:39:22 -0700

As “Sweeney Todd” continues to capture all sorts of different kinds of buzz, one that particularly caught my eye on Monday came from the pen of Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lewis Lazare.

Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman in “Sweeny
Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”.
Photo credit: IMDb
He asks if its marketing will give patrons a haircut and says unsuspecting fans might sing another tune. Plus, the best line of all:

From what we know about the movie from its marketing strategy to date and from a small body of critics and VIPs who have seen the film (we have not), this “Sweeney Todd” also might be remembered for being the subject of one of the biggest bait-and-switch marketing schemes in movie history.

[This] bait and switch … became an imperative to ensure the film generates an opening weekend box-office figure substantial enough to suggest “blockbuster” to the moviegoing public.

Lazare is ultimately questioning if the film’s actually for “slasher fans” or if it screams “Sondheim musical”.

Tim Burton’s film – starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen – is based on composer Stephen Sondheim’s stage musical from three decades ago.

Its marketing, though, has shifted from deliberately targeting its musical side and separately honing in specifically on its throat slitting. Lazare wrote:

Sondheim’s original Broadway score in almost its entirety is said to be included in the Burton movie. In fact, reports indicate that about 90 percent of the movie is comprised of sung scenes.

But curiously, you’d never know that to be the case from watching the 150-second trailer, which makes the movie seem like a fast-paced bloody period thriller/horror flick about a crazed murderer and his sidekick.

The full Chicago Sun-Times story can be found here. “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” opens on Dec. 21.

Scoop: Four-Story Building to Be Imploded in ‘The Dark Knight’

HollywoodChicago.com — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:49:23 -0700

At 4:36 p.m. on Tuesday, I received a report with loads of juicy information about upcoming “The Dark Knight” filming. This exclusive information comes from a person with the alias “Secret Scoop”.

Warning: The following can be considered spoiler information.

Hi, Adam. “Secret Scoop” here with more “The Dark Knight” filming information.

They are currently filming in the IBM building downtown, which is the HQ of Wayne Enterprises. They will be there for a week.

Production is running a little behind (so my source says) and they might be filming here a bit longer than planned.

A CTA bus crash on Wacker Drive might be re-staged.

Here is the biggest information of all. Mark Aug. 29, 2007 down on your calendars. They will implode a four-story building on the former Brach Candy factory site.

I have been told this will be a day shoot. A typical building implosion does not have any flames. This will be different.

They will load the building with large amounts of gasoline and other flammable material for a huge explosion and ultimate implosion of the building.

This explosion/implosion will then be added to a CGI building for the film.

Also, the Angelina Jolie movie (“Wanted”) will be shooting on Lower Wacker for the next several days (at least). There will be a high-speed chase scene.

As for the veracity of this information, “Secret Scoop” is the same person who I published on July 24, 2007. The scooper correctly predicted the semi truck flip.

9:29 a.m. update on 8/15/07: A reader wrote it after having done some more research. First, here is an image of the Brach Candy site as captured by Microsoft Virtual Earth:

Also, the reader found a story by ABC 7 Chicago published on Oct. 19, 2005 about the Chicago Fire Department investigating an extra-alarm fire at the plant on Chicago’s west side.

“The building was abandoned since 2001 when the Brach Co. closed after 76 years of business,” the story said.

4:06 p.m. update on 8/15/07: Jason in Chicago has submitted to me another angle of the Brach site.

4:35 p.m. update on 8/15/07: I am in conversations with FOX Chicago about this report. They plan to pool resources together to shoot professional footage when this goes down. Stay tuned.

8:56 a.m. update on 8/16/07: On Thursday, Chicago Sun-Times entertainment columnist Bill Zwecker cited this site and report. On Thursday, this also appeared on CBS 2 Chicago.