If I may, it's been a very long time for me:
Very nice choices so far. No one could handle a subhuman, badly Chromakey-ed William Hurt like Blair Brown. I'm sorry, I love her. And Martin Donovan, well, there's no comparison. Brilliant man. And then there's Marley Shelton, who stunk up the horrible Valentine. Other than that, I am cautiously interested.
I have never had any patience for Smallville but any fool knows that these properties (yes, even Tarzan, etc) must be updated if they are to be re-done and ported to a contemporary audience, and that means removing Dan Curtis from a large portion of the equation so we never, ever have to witness the "cops with crosses and stakes" scene from HODS again. Mark Verheiden has done fine work prior to Smallville and PJ Hogan is brilliant. There is an innate, huge franchise value in Dark Shadows and always has been - it's just a matter of changing up the story, and weeding out the most tired elements (and people involved, ahem) .
The gauze and thick smoke cinematography barely flew in '91, and it will not fly now - the romance itself has to be about more than a guy sitting around the decrepit manor property and Vicki thinking, 'wow, how sexy' and not 'wow, I should call the cops.' Barnabas can't go around killing everybody anymore while Julia says things like 'you had to' - what happened to Daphne in '91 would be unacceptable now. He can't only fixate on Vicki because of Josette. He can't be a complete psycho, basically, because it will not work. It cannot be episode upon episode of Barnabas sitting in the easy chair from 1684 and drinking port while talking about how the past fascinates him, trilling lines about endless love beyond time, etc. DCP probably wants that, but it can't fly anymore.
In short:Yes, the WB can be cancerous, but this kind of modernization is a necessary step. You cannot leave this up to Dan Curtis.
A part of me is still very skeptical, as I'm not sure DS as a serial can ever fly again as long as A. the new guard does not understand the magic of the original, insane series and B. the old guard refuses to step back. There has to be a happy medium.
And that's all you're getting out of me for another five years. Or maybe until fall.