Many reports are claiming the Depp/DS film will be starting in January - but they all seem to be citing the deadline.com piece as their source - so who knows? Perhaps we'll get confirmed news at Comic-Con on the 24th. But I'm somehow doubting that as the same people involved with what was discussed at the Fest will be part of the Comic-Con panel.
Entertainment Weekly has also picked up the story:
'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' author will write a 'Dark Shadows' remake for Johnny Depp and Tim Burton.
Though I dreaded reading this bit of speculation:
...the vampire melodrama was played pretty straight. Between Burton, Depp, and Grahame-Smith, you have to figure that the movie version will lean in a slightly more absurdist direction. Just imagine what sort of exciting new accent Depp will invent to play lead vamp Barnabas Collins! Though I'm trying to hold onto the fact that it is just that - speculation...
And there's also this report:
Grahame-Smith Scripts Dark Shadows
Soap and Vampires and Zombies.
And it makes a point of mentioning that Grahame-Smith is
"best known now for his mega-selling one-joke literary pastiches." Not very encouraging. And it also mentions that he's co-created MTV's
The Hard Times of RJ Berger. However, I know absolutely nothing about that show and the only significant thing I've discovered about it is that it appears to be a 'tween comedy, which doesn't exactly give any indication if Grahame-Smith can write anything but comedy...
John August is looking better and better in hindsight...