It looks like those rumors that Sweeney Todd was being watered down to fit a PG-13 rating may have been just that: rumors. DreamWorks now claims they’ve always wanted the movie to be R and that it will indeed be rated-R when it hits theaters this Christmas.
Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean Burton isn’t being pressured to tone it down. It could have been that the studio wants a softer-R than whatever throat slashing madness Burton has in store for us. But Variety sources insist that rumors that Burton is being forced to cut back on the violence are unfounded. Apparently the studio hasn’t even seen the whole film yet, and won’t for several weeks.
It sounds like DreamWorks has confidence both in Burton and the movie; they’re opening it wide on Christmas and letting Burton make the movie he wants. Sweeney Todd fans should be happy. It never made sense that DreamWorks would try to shoot for a PG-13 in the first place. It’s not like they didn’t know what they were getting in Sweeney, this is after all a movie about a barber who slits his patients throats and then lets his neighbor resell the bodies as food.
