With all of the widespread panic, I think it's worth noting that WB may be simply struggling to figure out how to market the movie and is testing how it will play as a comedy, which doesn't necessarily mean that the movie itself will be a comedy. These are old, but here are a few "alternative" trailers that illustrate how far off a movie can be. For example, here's a "trailer" that shows
The Shining as a romantic comedy:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/KmkVWuP_sO0And here's another one that always makes me chuckle that portrays Mary Poppins as a horror movie:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/2T5_0AGdFicSince the trailer hasn't even been released yet, maybe it would be prudent to wait until we actually see it? As Gerard mentioned, I always thought it was a little odd how well adapted Barnabas was in the face of what should have been a pretty significant culture shock.
As for humor, even the darkest of movies have humor. I remember laughing in
The Dark Knight at a couple of the things that Heath Ledger's Joker did (including the "magic trick" of making the pencil disappear and when he stopped and looked miffed when one of his explosive devices didn't work in the hospital). I don't think anybody regards that movie as a comedy or as a parody.
In the grand scheme of things, many TV series have been converted into movies. Some have been well done (I enjoyed
The Untouchables) and some have been utter abominations (
The Brady Bunch and
Bewitched come to mind). We don't have any idea how this one's going to turn out. I'll use the
Star Trek movie franchise as a guideline. In my opinion, that first
Star Trek movie was a bore that was designed to delight the hardcore fans. Fortunately they were able to get past that and made a second one that turned out much more enjoyable. I hope that Burton et. al. are shooting for a movie (and maybe a franchise) that will bring in new fans, even if that ends up alienating a few of us "old" fans.