Sacha Baron Cohen just can’t stay away from those frothy foreigner roles. If it’s not a rabble-rousing Kazakh journalist or a gay French Formula One driver, it’s his latest likely project – playing an Italian hairdresser in Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd.
Cohen is in talks to sign on as Signor Adolfo Pirelli, the rival to Sweeney Todd in the hair-snipping business (though we doubt he can keep up with Depp’s Todd in the neck-slicing competition).
And more plot information has arrived for those who don’t already know the musical that this tuned-up film is based on: Benjamin Barker (AKA Todd) is deported, but comes back to London to find out how his wife and child are doing. When he learns that the nefarious Judge Turpin has condemned them to a terrible fate, he swears revenge and joins forces with Mrs Nellie Lovett, who bakes pies downstairs from his barber’s shop. Cue a new batch of the best tasting meat pastry in London…
Burton kicks off shooting at Pinewood in February, but the cast will start warbling pre-recorded material next month.