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Current Talk '24 I / Re: It's official: Dark Shadows returns as a film with Johnny Depp: **NEWS: #266
« on: June 10, 2008, 09:08:16 PM »
While I do think that shooting in B&W could possibly add to the movie stylistically, I'm afraid I have to agree with Brandon - and I would even go so far as to say that shooting in B&W could kill any chances of the movie launching a franchise. The sad fact is that movies shot in B&W often severely limit themselves because there's a whole chunk of the audience (more specifically many people born in the '70s and beyond) who refuse to watch anything shot in B&W because they think it's too old fashioned to it's just plain dull, and they stay away in droves. Just look at almost any of the grosses for any of the films that have been shot in B&W since the mid-'80s (Schindler's List being one of the few exceptions (mostly because it appealed to an older audience) - Burton/Depp's own Ed Wood being the norm (a pathetic $5.8 million despite being critically hailed)). If the movie was strictly planned as a one time thing, and they were simply going for style over boxoffice (which major studios like WB rarely if ever do these days), B&W could be a viable alternative. But I strongly suspect that everyone involved is hoping for a possible franchise - and franchises need big boxoffice to get off the ground - and that means targeting the age range that seems to most support movies:12-25 year olds (and maybe 26-35 year olds) - and that will in all probability require that the film be shot in color. Quite simply, while our dollars will certainly be accepted, we original fans (meaning those of us who watched the daytime DS in the '60s and '70s) are not really a target audience for the movie...