And, to be pefectly honest, I don't want to see people hired because they're just a bunch of young "hot stuff." I never saw the aborted 2004 WB pilot; however, while it was being developed, I was very uncomfortable with some of the people they casted to play the characters. To me, many were just a bunch of Beverly-Hills-90210 (or whatever that zipcode is) clones, making it look like Melrose-Place-Meets-Buffy. I don't know if that's how the pilot turned out (because I didn't see it)
Um - it didn't.
I like the suggestion of Kathy Bates. Chances are it won't work out that way, though - mostly for the simple fact that it's probably not likely that TPTB will think the target audience (being chiefly comprised of 12-25 year olds, like every other major studio film
) wouldn't care about a relationship between Depp and Bates, no matter how well it could be written. And that's sad. But that's the movie business today.
But I really liked the way you developed the scenario.
Honestly, I haven't given much serious thought to who might play what roles because at this point we still have no idea what shape the script will take. I really liked the idea of setting the film in 1795 (or whatever past era they decide to place Barnabas' origins in), but the story has always been kicked off with Barnabas being released from his coffin in the present, so they may not want to tinker with that. But either way, there is a strong likelihood that if indeed Tim Burton is directing, Helena Bonham Carter will appear in some major role because she seems to appear in all of his films (one of the perks of being married to the director - though she certainly seems to do an excellent job with every role he gives her
). As others have suggested, Julia and/or Natalie would seem to be the most well suited roles for her - but who knows?