Johnny Depp gives Alan Rickman a close shave in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

LONDON -- Tim Burton's and Johnny Depp's friendship has spanned six movies and 17 years. And yet, last year, Burton realized there was something he didn't know about Depp.

"I strangely had absolutely no idea if he could sing," says Burton, who nonetheless cast him, sound unheard, in the lead of the Sondheim-approved movie of the Tony-winning tale of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

There hadn't even been some misbegotten evening of karaoke? "I've always been frightened of karaoke. I've never tried it," Depp says at a press-conference in the storied Claridge's Hotel.

"If you're not a singer karaoke is actually quite frightening," Burton adds, "unless you're drunk or something."

"And I've never been that drunk," Depp continues. "Though I have been drunk," he adds with a smile.

In fact, months went by between the events that brought Burton and Depp together with theatrical legend Stephen Sondheim -- specifically, the cancellation of the Jim Carrey movie about Believe It or Not creator Robert Ripley that Burton was to helm, and another cancelled project on Depp's end -- before Burton even got to hear Depp's singing voice on a CD.

"I strangely had absolutely no fear of that," he says when asked what would happen if his friend literally croaked. "I worry about a lot of things, but I didn't go through any angst on that level at all."

"I did," Depp adds dryly.

In fact, Depp was the only main cast member who didn't bother going to a vocal coach. "I didn't know I could sing, but I had a feeling because of my background in music (playing in bands) that I could hit a note or two. But I didn't know if I could sustain it. So I went to a buddy's studio, literally a garage studio, and started to record the songs to see if I could get over the initial fear of that type of exposure. So we did that and sent it to Tim and it felt okay."

A story that has existed in one form or another for 150 years, Sweeney Todd is the tale of a homicidal barber with a lethal straight-razor, a crazed sense of justice and a cannibalistic meat-pie-making accomplice named Mrs. Lovett. In the Sondheim musical (written in the '70s), he's a revenge-bound escapee from the Australian penal colonies, out to get the judge (Alan Rickman here) who framed him. Blood is its backdrop.

It is, in short, a natural-born Burton-and-Depp project, show tunes and all. Burton first talked to Sondheim about a movie in the mid-'90s. Schedules failed to mesh, and when his mind turned again to Sweeney a decade later, Burton looked at sketches he'd made of the title character and Mrs. Lovett and was struck by how much they looked like Depp and Burton's wife, Helena Bonham Carter.

"I mean, my sketches tend to look exactly the same," Burton says with a chuckle, "But I did pull out an old sketch and it was shocking that I saw them in it. I always looked at it as a positive sign."

Both choices received thumbs up from Sondheim, who had casting approval.

For inspiration, Burton and Depp turned to their shared love of old monster movies and actors. "It was probably a combination," Depp says of his inspiration. "We spoke a lot about silent film, and the King of the Silents in the horror genre was Lon Chaney Sr. He was a great inspiration, and Boris Karloff, all those iconic images of monsters. Peter Lorre in (1935's) Mad Love.

"In terms of sound, it's hard to say, Iggy Pop maybe? Iggy has a beautiful, deep quality to his voice. He's a real crooner. That's probably the closest I've come (to an inspiration) vocally."

And of course, "I have past experience handling sharp objects," Depp says, referencing his and Burton's first collaboration, Edward Scissorhands.

Says Burton: "I have to say this was one of my favourite characters he's done."

In fact, all the pieces meshed so well that the move might have actually come in under budget, but for a near tragedy in March that saw Depp's daughter Lily-Rose hospitalized in London for blood poisoning. The insurance company wouldn't cover Depp's absence because he wasn't the one that was ill, so there was a period where the film's future was in doubt.

"I don't know what anyone else's feelings were at that time," Depp says. "I know I wasn't sure if I'd be able to come back. And the production was unbelievably supportive."

After films like Sleepy Hollow and Corpse Bride, it's hard to imagine Depp's and Burton's collaboration getting much darker.

"We don't really talk about it," Burton says of their shared esthetics, "but it's probably that when you grow up as somebody people look at as strange, it becomes part of your psyche. It's not like you go out of your way (to be dark). But I will say when we walk into a meeting with the studio to talk about an R-rated musical with blood, it does make you laugh because it's so surreal.

"It's nice to have that surreal feeling around a project."

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