It seems that TB grew so tired of August's script that he entertained a pitch from writer Seth Grahame-Smith and liked his version of what the new DS movie should be. At least we know that this movie will not be "very funny" if the previous script was rejected.
Well, I don't know if we can necessarily say that. From the reports I've seen, after reading Grahame-Smith's
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, it was Burton who decided Grahame-Smith was the guy to write the Depp/DS film and Burton approached him. Though it's still not clear what it was about the book that made Burton make that decision. Was it the vampire story, or the humor in it - or possibly even both? And have you seen some of the reviews of that book? Some critics really hate both the story and the humor of it. (A few pages back I referenced what EW had to say about the book.) But the one review I'm trying to hold onto is the following one (but only because it's from
www.vampires.com - and I'm hoping they *might* be a good judge of what makes good vampire fiction - but who knows?):
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter ReviewAs I've said, I'm trying to keep an open mind, but I won't really feel completely comfortable until some DS fan whose opinion I trust reads the book and also thinks Grahame-Smith could be capable of coming up with a great script...