Sweeney Todd deserved a better fate. Sure, sure, it's a very fine film -- and that's really all that matters when all is said and done, but I can't help but think its domestic box office tally (just over $50 million) and its Oscar nomination haul (lead actor, art direction and costume design) should have been a little ... well, bigger. But I suppose it's tough to sell a big-budget horror musical, even if it is based on a very popular stage play AND showcases movie star Johnny Depp in a really (ahem) unique light.

Fans of the flick will be pleased to learn that Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street will be available to own (via shiny disc) on the first of April. Choose between a single-disc release (which includes one "making-of" documentary) or a extras-laden double-disc edition that comes with a BUNCH of featurettes, photo galleries, trailers and a Moviefone Unscripted piece, which is cool because we love Moviefone! Neither DVD package will include an audio commentary, unfortunately for those who love audio commentaries. Like me. Oh, but the 2-discer will be making an appearance in my collection. Book that.

[ Thanks to DVDActive.com. Check out the cover art! ]

Midwest cinema chain Marcus Theatres is at odds with Paramount Pictures again, this time over the booking costs for Cloverfield. You may remember that Marcus failed to reach an agreement over the cost of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and ended up not playing the film during its first couple weeks in wide release (the chain is now showing the movie). Of course, people in the Midwest are used to waiting for arty movies like Sweeney Todd around this time of year. Marcus patrons could have just told themselves it would be just like waiting for No Country for Old Men or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly to hit their 'hoods. However, Cloverfield is a whole different kind of movie, a kind that will likely affect Marcus' business in a bad way.

See, in case you didn't read Erik and Scott's ravings about Cloverfield, you should be aware that this monster movie is a must-see-right-away kind of event. But it's not just that the movie is apparently awesome that makes it necessary viewing on opening weekend. An awesome movie can be seen anytime during its release. But Cloverfield is one of those kinds of movies you have to see before your friends ruin it for you. And by friends I mean internet bloggers, forum posters and Facebook acquaintances. And by ruin it I mean commenting on what the monster looks like, how (if?) it's killed, and other plot points and spoilers. By the time Marcus does reach an agreement to show Cloverfield, it may be too late. Nobody's going to be seeing this movie in its third week or beyond.

Rejoice Midwesterners: Marcus Theatres is finally showing Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street! Last month, I wrote in my column on the story of Marcus' inability to reach an agreement with Paramount on the split of the movie's box office, and the cinema chain's subsequent decision to not show the film. For many people in Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, North Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota, that meant not being able to see the musical unless they drove hundreds of miles out of their way to an area with a non-Marcus-owned movie theater. I'm sure some huge Johnny Depp fans and Burton loyalists made the trek, thinking they'd otherwise have to wait for the DVD to come out. But Marcus and Paramount have now worked out a deal, likely because the movie has been out long enough for Paramount to be satisfied with the box office share it squeezed out of the country's other theater owners. Or maybe the studio realized that with a gross of only $40 million in three weeks, the movie wasn't as in demand as it had thought. Starting today (Jan. 11), 15 of Marcus' 49 locations will be showing the dark Sondheim adaptation.

I haven't yet seen Sweeney Todd. I wish I could say that I've been boycotting the film in support of Marcus Theatres, but in all honesty I've simply been choosing other better-looking movies to see (including The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and There Will Be Blood). Coincidentally (or not, maybe the company is doing it to spite the studios), Marcus has also decided to highlight these better-looking movies, which all qualify as "art films". The chain is calling this new programming of foreign and independent films "Critic's Choice"; the purpose is to call to attention "acclaimed and smaller films that are in limited release or might otherwise go unnoticed." Titles include Diving Bell, Juno and No Country for Old Men. Between those films and Sweeney Todd, Marcus patrons should now be fully prepared when they sit down to watch the Golden Globes press conference this weekend.

Best Actress (Musical or Comedy)

Nominees:

Amy Adams -- Enchanted

Nikki Blonsky -- Hairspray

Helena Bonham Carter -- Sweeney Todd

Marion Cotillard -- La vie en Rose

Ellen Page -- Juno

Predicted Winner: Ellen Page -- Juno

Although screenwriter Diablo Cody is clearly the "breakout" star of the Juno story, I'm sure she'd admit that without Ellen Page, the movie wouldn't be quite so special. Movie fans first took note of the diminutive gal's talents in the chilling Hard Candy, and the blockbuster fanboys fell for her hard in X-Men: The Last Stand -- but it's pretty safe to say that Juno is her "star-making" role -- and it couldn't happen to a cooler girl. We predict a Globe win, an Oscar nomination, and ... well, let's not jinx the woman!

Now it's your turn to vote ...

Best Director

Nominees:

Tim Burton -- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Ethan and Joel Coen -- No Country for Old Men

Julian Schnabel -- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Ridley Scott -- American Gangster

Joe Wright -- Atonement

Predicted Winner: Ethan and Joel Coen

No Country for Old Men could go on to win Best Director at the Oscars, but unlike the Academy, the Hollywood Foreign Press will actually recognize both of the Coen Brothers. Everyone knows that Ethan and Joel co-direct their films, but due to Director's Guild and Academy rules, only Joel is allowed credit for them. Therefore their win of the Golden Globe for Best Director will be the better honor. And boy do they deserve it! With No Country, they've delivered a stunning film that exemplifies the two major dimensions of the craft: visual storytelling and management of the acting performances.

Now it's your turn to vote ...

The Klingon death blade you see Diablo Cody wielding here is what she used to slay the other box-office contenders over the weekend. Juno leapfrogged from number ten -- already respectable for such a small film -- to number five, coming in just behind Charlie Wilson's War and I Am Legend with an impressive $10.3 million. These numbers were enough to cause Fox Searchlight to press the big button -- Juno will now expand to 2,000 screens next weekend. So far, the film about a wise-ass 16 year-old who becomes pregnant and decides to carry the baby to term and give it up for adoption, has brought in a total of $25.7 million. This puts it well on track to blow Little Miss Sunshine, its equivalent from last year, totally out of the water -- LMS only brought in $59.8 million domestic total.

In other box office news, Cage continued to hold the top spot with National Treasure: Book of Secrets bringing in $35.6 million. In nine days, the film has pulled in $124 million. Meanwhile, although I Am Legend slipped down to the number three slot this weekend, it still pulled in $27.5 million and is just on the verge of breaking the $200 million mark. It will be interesting to see if National Treasure can gain ground on Big Willy over the next few weeks -- it seems to be the film with the most staying power at the moment, but Legend has a big head-start. Sweeney Todd also stayed strong this weekend, bringing in $8 million for a ninth-place finish. Atonement, on the other hand, has yet to find its audience, which will hurt its Oscar front-runner status.

As everyone's been saying for months now, there are going to be two basic camps of people seeing (and talking about) Tim Burton's screen adaptation of Sweeney Todd: those who've seen and love the musical on stage (and/or those who generally go into orgasms of ecstasy for Stephen Sondheim in general), and those who've never seen the stage version, but who generally go into orgasms of ecstasy for all things Burton. There are, no doubt, those who loathe Burton, but if you loathe Burton, why would you go out of your way to see one of his films anyhow?

At any rate, I fall into the second camp -- love Burton, never seen Sweeney Todd on stage. I went into the film knowing only the basic storyline, and that it was gory, and that it was directed by Burton and stars Johnny Depp. That was enough for me to want to see the film, and I wanted to see it not knowing more than that, so I've been avoiding as much as possible all the buzzing about the film on other sites. I even set aside the cool hardcover Sweeney Todd production book that arrived in the mail last week to savor after the screening, so I'd go into the film with as fresh an eye as possible.

The film opens with rivers of bright red blood flowing through the cobblestone cracks of a London nearly as dismal as the Paris we met in the opening of Tom Tykwer's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (one of my favorite films of last year). Much as Sweeney Todd is going to be compared to Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Edward Scissorhands, for me, right from the opening credits, it evoked Perfume more. After zooming us through a cramped, filthy, dismal London, Burton takes us onto a ship arriving in London, where we meet the beautiful and aptly named young sailer Anthony Hope (Jamie Campbell Bower, who's almost -- but not quite -- prettier than Depp), singing "No Place Like London," in which he's joined by his friend Benjamin Barker (Depp), freshly escaped from an Australian prison and returning home to a London he views with a far darker and cynical eye than the fresh-faced sailor. From the first words Barker sings -- and more, from the way Depp acts the part -- we get a sense of just how dark his story is going to be.

In an interview for Sweeney Todd over at the Telegraph, Sacha Baron Cohen goes into lots of detail about the process of learning to sing for the role. He tells a long anecdote about having his mother look up a singing teacher for him in the Yellow Pages, and then finding out the woman not only never heard of him, but also never heard of Tim Burton, Johnny Depp or the musical Sweeney Todd. "I ignored everything she said and went to the set the next day," he says. When made to audition for Sondheim, Cohen says he was unable to hit a crucial high note, but came up with a unique solution -- "I brought in a very fat female opera singer to sing the final note." Apparently, that was good enough to gain him Sondheim's approval.

Cohen also talks at length about his alter-egos Ali G and Borat, and says that he's come to realize that the popularity of the Borat movie means he'll never be able to do the character again. "Admitting I am never going to play them [Borat and Ali G] again is quite a sad thing," he says. "It's like saying goodbye to a loved one. It is hard, and the problem with success, although it's fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I 'get' with Borat again, so it's kind of self-defeating form, really. It's upsetting, but the success has been great." Of course, the interviewer tries to get some info out of Cohen about Bruno, the next character he'll be taking to the big screen, but Cohen pretty much stops him cold. He's not opening his mouth about that.

Just how strange are the Golden Globes? Is Atonement a sure-fire, dead-lock Best Picture winner, or has it stumbled with the Academy before the race was even begun? Did Francis Ford Coppola "cut his own throat" with the release strategy for Youth Without Youth? And, speaking of cutting throats, will Sweeney Todd seduce the Academy, or have its hopes been washed away with the arterial spray? Joining James this week is David Poland, the critic, blogger and raconteur behind Movie City News as well as the wildly contentious, always insightful The Hot Blog. Listen in this week as James and David talk about the BFCA nominations from the inside, discuss the tarnished-yet-telegenic schizophrenia of the Golden Globes, and much more! And finally -- new this week on for The Rocchi Review -- you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:



As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

I decided to write this because each and every week I have people sending me things that I simply HAVE to do, or see or look forward to. I'm sure it's the same for you; you'll be chatting with a friend online, and they'll throw something out and follow it up by saying: "Dude, you HAVE to do it!" I take it that's how Norbit made so much money at the box office. But anyway, here are a few things that are hip this week (in my life) and maybe yours too ...

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street -- The first critics screening is what did it, and since then -- in only a week or so -- the new Tim Burton flick has reached cult-like buzz status. Almost everyone I've spoken with is telling me to see it, even though they haven't seen it, which kinda doesn't make much sense. But the folks that have seen it are loving it, and so this week it's hip to want to see Sweeney Todd. Additionally, feel free to submit questions for Tim Burton and Johnny Depp for Moviefone's Unscripted session. (Actual quote: I've heard it's Burton's best film since Beetlejuice!")

Walk Hard Tour -- We posted about this earlier today, and already almost all the shows are sold out. In case you're wondering what I'm talking about: To promote his new film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, John C. Reilly is touring the country and performing tunes from the movie in local rock bars. I caught wind of this early yesterday, and since then a number of people have asked me how to get tickets to see him at The Knitting Factory in New York City. We're currently working on getting some of our readers tickets for this thing, so stay tuned and be excited. (Actual quote: If I meet John C. Reilly, do you think it would be weird if I geeked out a bit over Boogie Nights?")

Facebook -- This social networking site has been around for some time now, however I finally caved into the peer pressure and created a page yesterday. While browsing, I was amazed to discover just how many people I knew who were on this thing. At one point, I half expected my mother to show up. Cinematical is currently in the process of setting up our own Facebook page, but in the meantime feel free to look me up (by name or by searching Cinematical), share movie tips with me and read the latest stories on Cinematical. A bunch of us Cine writers are also on there (like Rocchi, Patty, Jessica and Snider), so be sure to say hello. This week, it's hip to have a Facebook page. (Actual quote: Dude, f*ck MySpace -- Facebook is where it's at!")

Speed Racer -- You might not think it's hot at the moment, but wait until later this week. We definitely have something special in store for you ...

What else is hip this week?