Timetable Set for Burton's Sweeney Todd Film Starring Johnny Depp

What's been rumored is now apparently official: Johnny Depp is set to star in Tim Burton's big-screen version of Sweeney Todd, according to Variety. The movie is set to begin shooting in early February at Pinewood Studios near London, with rehearsals and pre-recordings beginning in November and December. A late 2007 release date is planned.

The script for the movie is by John Logan, whose big-screen credits include The Aviator, The Last Samurai, Star Trek: Nemesis, Gladiator and Any Given Sunday. Theater fans will recall that Logan began his career as a Chicago-based playwright. He is the author of Never the Sinner, a well-received play about murderers Leopold and Loeb, which had a five-month run off-Broadway at the John Houseman Theatre in 1998, and Hauptman, about the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, which ran for a month at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 1992 with Denis O'Hare in the title role.

In a collaboration that has spanned more than 15 years, Burton has directed Depp in such films as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sleepy Hollow, Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands. The timetable for Sweeney Todd moved forward when both Depp and Burton had projects fall through.

The film version of Sweeney Todd will be produced in a partnership between Dreamworks producers of the upcoming Dreamgirls film and Warner Brothers.