Paramount Pictures chairman Brad Grey has exchanged one big-budget Tim Burton project for another: He has sent Believe It or Not back into development while Stacey Snider, CEO and co-chairman of Paramount's DreamWorks, is putting Sweeney Todd on the fast track with Burton at the helm, according to the Hollywood Reporter. DreamWorks will now need to assemble and cast that movie, which is a project adapted by John Logan ("The Aviator") from the Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical. Burton already is talking with Johnny Depp for the lead role as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Paramount sources said. Burton and producers Richard Zanuck, Sean Daniel and Jim Jacks had been fighting the battle of the budget bulge on "Believe," starring Jim Carrey. But Grey refused to give the project a green light until the ambitious production, based on the adventurer Ripley, fell into the $150 million range, co-president of production Brad Weston confirmed.
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