Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image.

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET

TITAN BOOKS
WRITER/EDITOR: Mark Salisbury
ISBN: 9781845767044; hardcover
176 pp., Color, $30

Before the DVD, one of the ways in which movie audiences could get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the making of a movie was the companion movie book.  That book is still alive and well in the just-released Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which, of course, promotes the upcoming Tim Burton film of the same name.  This movie, which opens in theatres Dec. 21, 2007, is based on Sweeney Todd, the 1979 Stephen Sondheim musical and 1973 Christopher Bond play.

Written and edited by Mark Salisbury, this in-depth companion volume does great service to Sweeney Todd the film.  Anyone who is unfamiliar with this new movie could very well become interested in seeing it.  Salisbury, who is the author of other Tim Burton books, not only opens up the world of Sweeney Todd, but also provides a generous look into the making of this movie.  Salisbury lavishly illustrates this 176-page book with something like 400 photographs, still film images, diagrams, concept designs, production sketches, costume drawings, etc.

If anyone ever wondered what the drawings of Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood (Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha) and Oscar-winning art director Dante Ferretti (The Aviator) look like, Salisbury provides several examples of these twp artists work on Sweeney Todd, as well as several images of Simon McGuire’s concept designs for the movie.  There is even an example of how shooting a movie scene against a “green screen” allows CGI to add an entire building into the background of that scene.

The behind-the-scenes photographs and still images from the movie’s narrative are probably the best selling points for Sweeney Todd.  Anyone who is in the dark about this film:  what’s it about, who is in it? and who made it? will find those questions answered.  Because Salisbury has chosen photographs and stills that both arouse interest and answer questions, he’s done his job.  Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street can put the movie on many must-see lists, and what more can a filmmaker ask of the companion book?