DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '25 I => Current Talk '04 II => Topic started by: David on July 17, 2004, 02:58:51 PM
-
I have posted an online petition
to request that director Tim Burton & actor Johnny Depp consider collaborating with Dan Curtis on a big screen DS. Both Burton & Depp are known to be DS fans, and have collaborated on three wonderful, Gothic type films already. Depp has publicly stated that he'd love to play Barnabas Collins.
the petition URL is:
http://www.petitiononline.com/BurDepDS/petition.html
People, my Save the WB DS petition got 600 signatures, so I will be sending it to WB, UPN, Showtime, & TNT.
Some of you do not understand why I posted angry messages a month or two ago.
It's because the business partner of a DS star told me that not only were DS webmasters/fanzine publishers refusing to support the WB petitin, they were campaigning AGAINST IT!
I cannot even begin to imagine what inspired them to do this,
but they are wrong!
This sort of thing needs to stop.
Folks, the DS franchise is in trouble. Sci-Fi wants nothing more to do with it. Soapnet and TV Land have no plans to pick it up.
For whatever reasons, the '91 DS flopped. In 2001 Fox rejected a pilot script. The WB DS is dead.
Unless DS Fans band together & show support, unless we show network & studio execs how many of us are out there, we can kiss DS goodbye!
Both the original & '91 versions of DS ended without ending. This may be the longest cliffhanger in TV history! Time to tell the naysayers to cool it & show support for a new DS!
Sign my new petition & spread the word!
DS CAN BE REVIVED!
I cannot even begin
-
In general, I oppose remakes, which is one reason why I was less than thrilled to learn about the WB's attempt to create DS 2004. However, something that I would like to see is a remake of Night of DS using the original, uncut script.
Over the past several years, Satan's School for Girls, Willard, The Stepford Wives, and Salem's Lot, all of which were notable 1970's horror flicks, have been remade/re-envisioned. As originally conceived, NoDS is a superior film--suspenseful and atmospheric. Even in its butchered state, I prefer it to House of DS. A new Night of DS, whether as a theatrical release or a TV movie/mini-series, would appeal to a mainstream audience unfamiliar with DS the series since this story stands on its own, apart from the world created by the show. For instance, NoDS Quentin and Angelique are not the same Quentin and Angelique from the series. Seeing NoDS as it was meant to be seen could garner more appreciation from the existing DS fans, who tend to overlook it. I also think it could attract more attention to the restoration efforts, or serve as motivation to get the films on DVD. Also, because the movies seem to exist in a different universe than the series, fans are less attached to these characters than they are to the series characters. As difficult as it would be to find a Carlotta to fill Grayson's shoes, I don't think there would be quite as much of an uproar over recasting NoDS as there was to the recasting of DS the series.
Anyway, that's my wish for a revival of DS. I wonder what the chances are of it happening.
Making a DS movie--any movie--would have been a better route to take than trying to make a new series, IMHO. For the $3-6 million that went toward the pilot, DCP could have bought a small country, let alone made a decent film. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are very big names and especially popular now, so if they were involved in anything to do with DS, it would be a coup for the franchise. However, they would have to finish with Willy Wonka before undertaking a new project, so we'd have a wait. Still, one can always hope.
ProfStokes
-
Is Burton directing or just producing the new Willy Wonka?
I don't think Burton/Depp are as much of a long shot as people might think. Both are committed
lovers of the show & the whole genre....
NODS... the one that got away!
would love to see it complete!
Dame Judi Dench as Carlotta?
Depp as Quentin?
Mandy Moore as Tracy?(don't laugh, she can act! She'd make a great Victoria Winters too!)
Angelique? Hmmmm.....
-
Here's a site for a petition trying to get Tim Burton to make a Dark Shadows movie starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins.
I hope that some of you will think about signing it.
http://www.petitiononline.com/BurDepDS/petition.html
Misa
-
cmon and sign it already. stop bickerin bout it. hollywood wont stop till they have made every tv show that ever existed into a feature film. we might as well try to give them some of our input.
-
A NODS remake...interesting idea...
I know someone who'd be a terrific choice to helm it... ;) 8)
-
hollywood wont stop till they have made every tv show that ever existed into a feature film. we might as well try to give them some of our input.
You certainly have a point there joe. And it would be wonderful to have both Depp and Burton. I can't think of anyone else during this current time period who would would be better. And of course Darren you should definately be involved as well. ;)
-
The Burton/Depp connection is a wonderful idea, if I may say so.
Getting them would be the biggest thing to happen to DS since Frid, and would result in a gothic, romantic, phantasmagorical classic!
Let's Make It Happen!
Sign the Petition!
Webmasters, fanzine editors, publish the petition
URL!
Spread the word!
Let's put all personal differences aside & unite to show Burton/Depp what a huge audience their DS film would have!
-
A NODS remake...interesting idea...
I know someone who'd be a terrific choice to helm it...
Darren is obviously referring to a collaboration between John Woo and Jerry Bruckheimer, who I am sure would more than do justice to the project.
((ducking and running VERY VERY fast))
;D
--Mark
http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey
-
In a Woo/Bruckheimer DS, Nick Cage as Barnabas, a 175 year old Black Belt.
(oy, vey.......)
some other casting ideas for a Burton/Depp DS:
Mandy Moore as Josette (she has the acting range, folks, ignore her silly CDs & look at her in the films How to Deal and the brilliant Saved!)
Halle Berry as Angelique, an Island Voodoo Priestess with an Island accent!
gotta cast original DS people:
John Karlen as Joshua
Kathryn Leigh Scott as Natalie
Lara Parker as Abigail
only former movie stars can play Joan Bennett roles.
Should Naomi be:
Lauren Bacall
Patty Duke
Leigh Taylor Young
Ali MacGraw
Mia Farrow
Ellen Burstyn
Jane Fonda
Sally Field
Raquel Welch (she CAN act. See James Ivory's The Wild Party & the TV movie Right to Die)
Vanessa Redgrave
Lynn Redgrave
Julie Christie
Susannah York
Dame Glenda Jackson
these ideas on the assumption that Burton would want to do a period piece, since he loves Gothic cinema so much!
-
In a Woo/Bruckheimer DS, Nick Cage as Barnabas, a 175 year old Black Belt.
(oy, vey.......)
I personally think the Woo angle will involve a slo motion biting, semi-erotic, capes in the wind kinda scene with the requiste doves being released in Julia' laboratory when the victim falls downs and dies. Could also mean that Barnabas would be able to leap tall bounds (again in slo motion), with a flash of cape flying with sudden heart pounding moments done in quick edits.
Then, if Francis Ford Coppola is available, it could be a sort of Collins mi familia drama in washed red and sepia tones.
(http://home.pacbell.net/cbsbiz/Victoriaquill.gif)
-
I think Mia Farrow seems about the right age for Naomi in 1795. Some of the others are getting a little long in the tooth to play the mother of Sarah. Ali MacGraw would be okay age-wise too - but I've always thought her acting skills were limited.
If this would really come to pass, I'd like to see Helena Bonham-Carter join the cast. I just can't decide who she should play. Angelique maybe - though I think the Halle Berry idea is great.
-
I'm not opposed to the petition, although I personally have no interest in new DS products. I do have a morbid curiosity in the rejected pilot because of all the hoopla (plus, I think Alec Newman is seXXXy).
Just for what it is worth, I have heard that for whatever reason, industry types are much more impressed by old fashioned snail-mail letters than online petitions. Perhaps people who have a serious interest in this should start a campaign to have fans send snail letters to Burton's office. Someone could write up a template letter--the fan could just send this as is, or embellish it according to personal preference.
I also disagree that the "DS franchise" (a phrase I personally detest) is in serious trouble. Those electric disc-thingies are selling like the proverbial hotcakes, and the entire series is STILL in print, IN ITS ENTIRETY, on VHS. Do you know how quickly most material goes out of print on VHS and DVD? I think DS has an excellent track record in terms of niche marketing.
As for its absence on the small screen, I blame WorldVision. I have no details, but I bet they're asking the usual way-beyond-the-market price for the b'cast rights.
G.
-
Writing snail mail letters
to Burton/Curtis/Depp is a great idea, Gothick.
We all know where Curtis' office is.
Do you know where Depp/Burton
conduct their business?
Re: Worldvision. They are greedy, unreasonable buggers. Many local stations in the 70s & 80s dropped the show because of them.
But Sci-Fi dropped it because they didn't want it anymore.
Sad but true......
-
wouldn't you like to see a new DS that might wrap up some of the original's more glaring plot holes?
Victoria's parentage.
The deaths of Angelique & Edith in 1840.
Where did Adam & Chris/Sabrina/Amy go?(and what happened to them?
How did the 1840 trip affect the 1897 chain of events, not to mention Cassandra coming in 1968?
-
wouldn't you like to see a new DS that might wrap up some of the original's more glaring plot holes?
Not really.
I think that effort would require altering the universal space/time continuum......the writers on DS left more gaping holes and twisted threads than a tailor run amok.
Besides.....isn't it more fun to come up with one's own version of how things turned out? Isn't that what has fueled 35 years of fan fiction?
I have no interest in the "summing up" of DS according to Dan Curtis or anyone else involved in the show........I think we fans do a better job of it.
-
Gothick wrote:
Those electric disc-thingies
and Patti fell again in love with Steve!!
A man after my own heart!! :-* :-* :-*
Patti
-
Victoria's parentage.
The deaths of Angelique & Edith in 1840.
Where did Adam & Chris/Sabrina/Amy go?(and what happened to them?
How did the 1840 trip affect the 1897 chain of events, not to mention Cassandra coming in 1968?
The other Rainey hit the nail on the head. Other than perhaps the question of Victoria's parentage, none of these aspects of the original show stand a ghost of a chance of being addressed in any new adaptation. They're far too specific to the original to be meaningful in any way to a new audience. And any conceivable new Dark Shadows will be meant for a new audience; diehard fans are gravy. There are enough of us to keep the spark of the original burning steadily, and happily so, but it is beyond unrealistic to think that such issues will ever be resolved except by fandom. And I think that's where those particular questions, and their ilk, belong. Enthusiastic attempts to influence the powers that be are great, I'm all for them; but enthusiasm ought to always be tempered with a healthy respect for reality.
--M
http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey