Oh, I forgot to answer about Jayne Wisener (who played Johanna in Sweeney Todd).  She's a beautiful young woman, but Sweeney Todd was her first professional job, and I believe she was cast because of her singing and not acting.  Besides singing one song, she only had maybe a half dozen lines, so it's very hard to tell if she could handle a larger role.  Her usual speaking voice is a very thick Irish accent... she was able to sound more or less British for the film, but I don't know if she'd be able to swing an American accent.  She has presence, though, and she was very lovely in the interviews she gave. 

My guess is they'd use someone with more experience for Vicki, but that's just a guess.

Cathy

I didn't see either movie in the theaters, but rather came upon them while I was rediscovering the show on SciFi channel in the 90's.  I bought one and think a friend taped the other for me.  I like both films.  For HODS, I didn't mind the more sinister and gorier aspect, though it did shock me a little bit.  (I have a pretty high tolerance for dark and gory stories  )  As for NODS, it was being so badly knocked by the folks on the forums I was in at the time that by the time I saw it, I was expecting it to be really terrible.  While I didn't think it was great, I liked the atmosphere and liked that the story was something new.  I guess it helps not to have high expectations!  Realizing that the film was butchered, I always hoped that a restoration might improve it further.  I guess we'll see!

Cathy

Good point, bb, and I didn't mean to sound as negative about Burton as I did above.  I do love Tim, it's just that he wouldn't have been my first thought for director of DS, other than that Johnny absolutely loves working with him.  But that last point is key-- they do make a great team, and I think they will really push each other hard to make a great film. 

Wow, this sounds like too much fun!!  I'm a scientist in real life (though a biologist and not a physicist... hopefully not TOO much of a mad scientist  ) and really go for this kind of stuff!  Thanks for the info Prof Stokes, and I look forward to your preface!

Cathy

Thank you cousin madscntst for your encouraging post. I guess by now you know that DS fans have been let down many times through the years with rumors of DS revivals that never materialized outside of the 1991 mini-series and the 2004 pilot. My question is, if you know, is it common in past Johnny Depp's movies that there is no announcement that a screenwriter or director has been made and they wait to release all details all at once?  I mean is it possible that the DS script has already been written and we don't know it? I have no frame of reference with Depp's movies. Any input from you would be greatly appreciated.

Uhhhh.... I dunno   Well, there's no established way that Johnny's people or now his production company update the Depp fan community.  So we sometimes find out about things as they're happening, but more often we hear things in spurts.  Occasionally (though not often) it's all at once, but usually there are *some* kinds of murmurs going on.  We hear things in announcements in trades like Variety, or from remarks by actors, screenwriters, directors, producers etc. that happen to get reported.  And even then, sometimes it's not completely accurate- for instance the Shantaram author Greg Roberts announced on his blog at one point that his screenplay for the film was done... but then we found out awhile later that Johnny was unsatisfied with it as is and had another screenwriter come in to revise it.  But I didn't know about that until after it happened.  I don't mean to scare you, but it's just to say that no matter how hard the fans go searching for news (and believe me, Depp fans will scour the net and other media quite thoroughly!!  Just as I'm sure DS fans do!!) there's a lot going on that the public just never finds out about. 

I've been rather hoping that the DS community may find out about some of the proceedings first!  I've been hoping that the fest discussion will somehow have some kind of progress report, though maybe that is optimistic of me!

All this said, I seriously doubt that a script has been finished.  Last we heard (and I think I posted this), a screenwriter had not yet been selected, and if I recall correctly, that was in the middle of the writers' strike, so no further progress could be made during that time, anyway.  Perhaps one is being written now that the strike is over, but I just don't think a good quality script could be finished in such a short time.  So... we may be in for the long haul.  I wonder if we'll even get any feedback about what the movie is going to be *about*    Will it be basically the HODS story, or will it incorporate more of the characters from the show, or will it go off in a new direction??  Do we even know that much yet?  I don't think we've heard anything about the plot from the Depp side, other than that it will include Barnabas!

Cathy

Ah, I was going to come back to answer this and see it's already been done!  I vaguely remembered KLS being on Jump Street, so I checked out her IMDb page and saw that her episode was called Change of Heart.  Since I have the DVDs, I checked out the ep last night.  I didn't know it was on YouTube   

Anyway, the episode was from Season 4 (aired in Jan. of 1990, I think IMDb said), and Johnny was on his way off of the show by that time.  He'd actually been trying to break his contract for a couple of years and they finally let him go, and by season 4 he was only in about half the episodes.  In some of them, like this one, he would only appear briefly in the "precinct." IMDb didn't even list Johnny as being in this episode at all, and when I mentioned the episode title to other Depp fans yesterday, nobody recalled it  very clearly offhand.  We wondered how KLS and Johnny would ever have interacted if he wasn't in the ep (or only in one scene).  But some guessed that perhaps she visited the set in preparation for doing her ep, or perhaps the show shot scenes from more than one ep simultaneously.  Or maybe they even did some promos together for the show.  Who knows?

Either way, I think it's so cool that they got to cross paths all these years later, and it was so gracious of her to send him her books! 

Cathy

Thanks so much for stopping by, Mr. Frid!     I loved running home from school every day to see what you and the DS gang were up to, and loved rewatching it for a time while I lived in NJ and again on Sci Fi Channel.  Love your website too!  Best wishes, and I hope you can visit again!

Cathy