thanks cb...

the notes are very interesting. i really don't see them as spoilerish per se either. actually they do answer one question that seems to be troubling many. reading them might not be a bad idea.

it's becoming clear to me that this victoria is not the virginal naif alexandra moltke or even joanna going played. with her flip hairdo and childish wardrobe i originally thought they were going to try and recapture that preternatural naivety but it's seeming like a totally new spin on the character.

with each new clip and summation i become more intrigued. i had sort of resigned myself to the goofiness of the trailers so it's nice to read there is more going on.

i'll add this although i know i'll get into trouble...

while we all tend to get sentimental about the series' high points...joan bennett for instance and jonathan's "haunting" and "nuanced" and "complex" performance... there are many times when the series was just plain bad.

for me most of 1968 was DS at it's absolute camp worst. monsters coming out of woodwork. robert rodan's boring, thuggish adam. don briscoe's eye-bugging, tongue-wagging tom jennings in vampire mode. for me it's almost unwatchable.

for me this was not dan curtis' purity of vision but a cash in. it's a hot mess. even frid himself took a back seat to this nonsense.

magnus...

KLS is not speaking of her casting of josette as a real flesh-and-blood character(which of course did not even occur until 1795)but of her first appearance as a ghost.

it's the old story of her arriving at the studio and finding the producer and wardrobe mistress draping a dressmakers dummy in tatty cloth with the hope that lit and photographed properly it would make an effective ghostly apparition.

it was then, very early in the show's run, that she stepped in. not much later during the barnabas period of the series.

in her earlier recollections she got the timing of this correctly. recently however, and for whatever reason, she has altered the story so that josette was only created in relationship to barnabas.

turns out that the event was part of a monthly industrial/goth dance party. the DS portion of the evening was ancillary.

as promised KLS did a live skype interview. as have been her remarks of late she spoke of the new book and of her experience onset at pinewood. again she reassured jittery fans that having despite limited involvement in the film she has read the script in it's entirety and promises "fantasy", "romance" and "horror" alongside humor. those four combined elements being to her, at least for the moment, the "essence" of the story.

needless to say she also added touching words in regards to jonathan frid. she quoted some of depp and burton's remarks as fitting tributes.

then, of course, in response to the usual questions there were the usual inaccuracies. in scott's new take on her casting as josette, which she has repeated several times lately, is that the role was created as the vampire's doomed love. that josette's first ghostly utterance was "come to me barnabas." i'm not sure why that's her spin because as we know the character was first seen long before anyone had ever even heard of barnabas collins but there it is.

i'm not sure if she misspoke or if he's a recent addition but, in a plug for the east coast fest, added that david selby will be present.

otherwise NODS played on a large screen and episodes from the series on smaller monitors throughout the bar. i stayed for about two hours but not being otherwise remotely into the "goth" thing there was not alot there for me.

guests were given black t-shirts with depp's barnabas on the front and the "strange is relative" tagline. it'll make a good pajama top.

i get everyone's concerns...

but i guess part of my thing is that i long ago stopped caring about the "public perception"of the series. it doesn't mean anything in terms of my affection for it. i love it, if other people think it's stupid it doesn't matter to me. i no longer think it's worth getting upset or defensive about. who cares?

at best the people in my life think of my DS preoccupation as a charming eccentricity. at worst a troublesome obsession.

so now we have a big-budget movie rather than a shoe-string soap. it will be what it will be but even if the film was "serious" and viewers went back and checked out the OS they're still going to see rubber bats on strings and thayer david's head popping out of a hole in a table. they might find it charming...as i did...or they might find it ridiculous. it doesn't matter to me.

i'm all for having a thriving fanbase but the OS is VERY MUCH an acquired taste and an enormous commitment of time. i'm not sure the film will change that much either way.

yeah if one doesn't like the film's comedic tone is one thing...

but depp's barnabas looks like a dandy and a gentleman of the highest order.

it's funny just about two months ago we were complaining that there was NO promotional material out there. i even recall speculation that the film's release date was being pushed back.

now we're inundated. i agree that there has been WAY too much spoilerish material released. especially for a film that's supposed to have an element of mystery. still i'm the one who's guilty for checking it all out.

that said these particular clips are not that spoilerish. not much is given away. we've seen more elsewhere. they're more little character sketches. and the "he's a vampire!" scene with julia and liz is really divine.

as much as i've made peace with the film's largely comedic tone the alice cooper cameo still makes me uncomfortable.

it's just too literal and campy. i just don't like it.