Thanks for all the links, Sara!  I am firewalled from Facebook during the day, and I dare not click the first link, but I appreciated being able to see the photos for now.  Mostly very cool!

Thanks for the heads up on Total Film, Cousin_Barnabas. I need to do some errands tonight, and conveniently there's a Barnes & Noble in the vicinity of where I'm going. I'll definitely have to check to see if the issue is in yet or, if like Empire, it won't be available in the US for a few weeks yet.

57 days 8 hours 18 minutes 48 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

In my experience, the UK publications don't get here to the US until about 3 weeks later (it may be sooner if you live in NY or LA, but I'm in the DC suburbs).  It's worth a chance to stop by B&N, though, if you can- you never know!  There have been a few times when I've REALLY wanted a UK mag, and been able to buy it on eBay.  Even if it takes a week to send from the UK, I have the peace of mind of having it and not missing it at the local bookstore, especially since my closest bookstore used to be Border's, which has now gone under (the building is vacant, at the moment).  But it may not be practical for most people to use eBay, factoring in the postage expense.  Anyway, I add my thanks to Cousin for the heads-up!

As I said earlier in the non-spoiler thread, I am a longtime fan of both DS (I used to run home from school...) and Burton/Depp.  While I agree with much of what y'all are saying here with regard to disappointment in hearing that this is pretty much a comedy, I would personally not go so far as to say it's sickening.  If it's not your/our cup of tea, that's fine, but it doesn't destroy the OS or the fans of the OS.  I will be seeing the film on opening weekend regardless, and if I don't like it, then so be it, but at worst, it'll be a disappointment for what could have been.  It won't change how I feel about DS.

Depp bought the rights, so he made the film that he envisioned, and for him, this meant bringing Burton on board.  I truly believe that he is honoring DS in his own way, and I really don't feel that he had any intention of trivializing the show.  Here is a question, though-- Jim Pierson was involved in this production, so what is his responsibility in all of this??  If anyone would serve as a spokesman for what Dan Curtis Productions would want, isn't it him?  Now, it could be that he was against the film's direction and got vetoed.  But it'd be interesting to learn later on how much input he actually had.  (Though if he was against the film, I doubt it would ever be made public).  For most other films, a lot has been written about both Burton and Depp wanting to honor the source material.  Ed Wood's widow visited the set of that film and was asked what she thought, Sondheim was involved with Sweeney Todd, and they spoke with the family of Roald Dahl for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and so on.  Maybe this time was different, I dunno.  But I just can't believe they would have deliberately wanted to thumb their nose at the OS.

Finally, I disagree with those who seem to think that all Burton/Depp films are silly parodies.  Maybe this one will be, but I count Sweeney Todd among my favorite horror films, and it was anything but silly or disrespectful.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!  (That'll teach me to stop off at the grocery store on my way home from work!  I could've been home earlier and watching this!     )   Thanks for the screen caps, MB!  This looks GREAT, to me!  And it looks like there will be some good lusty stuff going on, too   I can't wait to see the whole thing!   Woo-hoo!!!

Sorry folks, by saying "if this is so", I didn't mean that I doubted it was so!    I guess I meant "this being the case..."  Anyway:

Bad, bad MB!   

LOL!   

Of course, now I'm wondering if the trailer will show up in theaters on Friday?

On IMDb, someone was just speculating about The Hunger Games.  Hmm.  Also, I really doubt it would debut with 21 Jump Street because the genres are so different, but Johnny does have a cameo in the movie and of course there is a lot of history there, so, ya never know.  (It's not WB, though- is The Hunger Games?)

I'm with you, MB, and I would further say that my interpretation of Tim's words is that he refuses to put the film into a neat little box.  If he brands it as something, "comedy", "gothic" or whatever, then fifty thousand bloggers and entertainment sites will pick up on it and repeat it until everyone treats it as gospel, and I think that he is deliberately refusing to do that.  I guess I could be wrong, though 

As for KLS, I didn't really see a problem in her answer.  She is pointing out some differences from the OS, for instance that Victoria rather than Maggie is the Josette figure (and of course, that is a big point from her perspective, for obvious reasons  ), and that there is more emphasis on Barnabas adjusting to a new era, as we all already learned.  So she's obviously not going to say that the movie is completely faithful to the series, because it's not.  Also, she doesn't want to give away everything because she wants people to buy her book to read more.  I do agree with Phil that there is going to be a bit of a spin factor, but that was going to be true no matter what- everyone involved with the franchise has a bias, and that's understandable.

Adding my thoughts and best wishes, too.  I look forward to this, especially NODS.  Cheers to Darren!

Thanks for the "weirdest characters" poll link.  It's hard to choose!    Slight nitpick- Johnny's character from the film Benny & Joon is *not* named Benny; Benny is Joon's brother, played by Aidan Quinn, and Johnny's character is Sam.  That is a common mistake    (Kind of like how some people want to spell Barnabas with a "u" )

I don't want to get too far off topic regarding the Tonto/Lone Ranger photo, but since it's been brought up, apparently some Depp fans have done research and seen that this makeup and headpiece is actually a realistic Native American look; I've only had time to skim so I can't tell you the exact details of which tribe(s) or whatnot, but there's been a photo of a Native American man posted that portrays a similar headpiece and very similar makeup.  I was shocked at the photo at first, but in a way I'm pleased that they didn't go with the caricature-ish stereotypical Native American look.  I'm actually very shocked that there has been a photo released *this* soon, but the photo was released by Jerry Bruckheimer himself on his Twitter account this morning, and let's just say that Jerry Bruckheimer and Tim Burton have VASTLY different ways of handling an upcoming film.