Studio bosses bulked at proposals for TIM BURTON's SWEENEY TODD movie, because
they feared a musical/horror film with no "pop songs" would bomb at the box
office, according to the director himself.

The maverick filmmaker struggled to win over movie bigwigs, not least when he
opted to cast Johnny Depp - who has no previous singing experience - in the
lead role.

But Burton has praised Hollywood for greenlighting such a risky project.

He tells British film magazine Empire, "What's weird is that they (the
studios) are afraid of musicals anyway, but an R-rated musical with blood
that's not based on pop songs, it's like, 'F**k!'

"Then it was like, 'Um, can he (Depp) sing?' Nobody knew. I didn't know. So
that's the joke of the whole thing. In a way, that's the surreal nature of
Hollywood, so you have to love it for that because on paper, it's like the
worst idea of all time!"

(TN/IMP/MT)