Trying to catch up on several pages of discussion so I apologize if I'm repeating anything.
First, blastr.com gives some more background info on this photo-- as several people have suggested, the similarity to the cast photos from the original series is totally intentional. Also, the photo was apparently taken the day before filming started.
http://blastr.com/2011/09/1st-official-dark-shadows.phpWhile it's possible that the timing is in reaction to the response from last week's paparazzi photos, I tend to doubt that's the case. As someone mentioned, magazines usually prepare features like this weeks in advance. Even if Johnny's production company or WB tried to pressure Entertainment Weekly into publishing official photos more quickly, Entertainment Weekly has not always catered to Johnny or Tim in the past, and I just don't think they would bend to the film industry like this- they have a magazine to publish and I just can't see them catering to every film's needs or wants. I believe that I and others mentioned that for Tim's movies, the first official photos tend to leak out toward the end of filming, or slightly after filming ends, so this is right within that general time frame. I do suppose it's possible that the photo release could've been moved up a little bit, but not much. (Edited to add- another point I just thought of is that in the past, when the official photo(s) did surface from one of Burton's films (or even other films, for that matter), they are often not in conjunction with a magazine feature but just distributed directly to comingsoon.net or a similar site. So they could've done that if they had wanted to).
About Johnny's ears, I agree, having studied the man's face quite extensively over the years
that his ears don't usually stick out that much. I do recall Johnny discussing his Ichabod Crane character for Sleepy Hollow-- initially, he wanted to look like the character described in the original story, with ears that stuck out, a long nose, and long, gangly fingers. He was pushing for prosthetics but Tim nixed the idea at the time. I kind of see this look as a kinder, gentler version of that, such that Barnabas would still be handsome but maybe a little gangly.
I do hope that a high resolution version of this photo will surface soon. Knowing the Depp community, they will be combing all sources feverishly to find one.
In general, I am beyond thrilled at the look of this, and I can't wait to see more!
Cathy