It's official: Dark Shadows returns as a film with Johnny Depp

[Taeylor Collins]

Very nice work Sara Monster.  I always enjoy your graphics!

[Zahir]

Well done, Sara Monster.  I find it interesting that you gave Depp's Barnabas fangs a la True Blood (i.e. near the front, like a bat) as opposed to the more-common elongated bicuspids.

[Sara Monster]

Thanks Taeylor & Zahir! 

[jimbo]

As we speculated and according to GK Films the movie is expected to be filmed in September/October of next year. It also seems the script is still not completed which I have learned is not a surprise but still interesting to me.

http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=16042&count=0

PS Sara that was great indeed

[jimbo]

Does anybody know what GK meant in his statement in the last paragraph of this new article?

http://scifiwire.com/2009/12/confirmed-johnny-depps-da.php

[madscntst]

I think he's saying that DS is going to be its own thing, and not relying on the Twilight fad 

This is excellent news- I raced over here to make sure it was posted here, since there's also just been news that Johnny is confirmed for The Tourist and hoped that wouldn't dismay anyone

Cathy

[jimbo]

Thanks madscntst. I guess Johnny's schedule for next year is The Tourist, Pirates 4 and then DS. That sounds like a full schedule to me plus Johnny may have a speaking part in Frankenweenie which TB will be starting in early next year.

My interpretation is that TB is going to make this DS movie pretty dark and on the violent side as some feared. I could be wrong of course. Some articles are saying that they (GK Films) are rewriting August's script. I am hoping it actually is August himself is rewriting the scenes. I guess that is a given.

[Taeylor Collins]

OH MY GODDESS!  I may have to take a running spell through my house!  This is the best news I have heard in a while!  This time next year DS will be in production!  Glory be to the Gods of Art!  


 This is literally how I feel! WHOO HOO!!!!!!!!!

I personally don't mind a bit of darkness and violence in DS! I am pretty sure JD will not let Barney be like the HODS Barney!

[madscntst]

I love dark films, so I hope it'll be pretty dark.  I do hope that they will find some humanity... er... is that the right word for an undead creature?     But Johnny nearly always gives even his most evil characters (Sweeney Todd, Sands from Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Armacost from The Astronaut's Wife) something to like about them, and I feel (hope) he will draw upon Barn's tortured past.

3 films is an awful lot for one year, especially in terms of Pirates, since the first 3 films took so long to shoot.  But by all accounts, The Tourist will be a "small" film, and Pirates is scaling back from the mega-effects of the sequels.  Technically, Johnny did 3 films in 2008 (Parnassus, Public Enemies, and Alice In Wonderland) so it can be done.  Maybe that's why he needed the break this fall (though he has kept himself busy- he's directed a couple of music videos and played guitar on an upcoming album, and also making deals for more future films  )   

Seems to me that King's remarks are all in line with what we've heard during the year about DS.  Johnny had said the script was "very, very close", and he tends to be very polite, so what I had taken from that was that it still needed a bit of tweaking, so it's good that they are doing that.  He also said "toward the end of next year" in one interview.  Still, isn't it a sigh of relief to finally hear something solid?   

[jimbo]

Yes Taeylor Collins and Madscntst that is good news and confirmed news is always good to hear. I do keep my fingers crossed because I believe it was also GK who announced almost the same thing a year ago or so but that was before TB decided to change course on Alice but this sounds much more definitive.

This article points out that John August wrote the first screenplay but it doesn't mention his further involvement-I guess his involvement with the rewrites are a given. It seems Johnny can handle any load especially with Pirates 4 will be shot next year although JD has not signed off on the script yet to my knowledge.

http://screencrave.com/2009-12-07/dark-shadows-confirmed-as-tim-burtons-next-film/

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I've been away from a computer for most of the day, so I'm just now seeing this news. How great to finally get an update - and to get it from a reliable source. 

As for there being rewrites to the script, that's not at all unusual. And it's also not at all unusual for the original scriptwriter not to be involved in the rewrites. The report from Sci Fi Wire indicates King is working with "screenwriters" - to me that might appear to indicate they're using writers other than August for the rewrites. But that's not a direct quote from King, so who knows?    Only time will tell...

Time to get some friends on the phone and to do a happy dance.  

[Taeylor Collins]

I have been doing the   dance all day! I am just so beyond excited!  I cannot wait. It's nice to hear some news as we were kind of going through a dry spell! YAY!  Deep Shadows should be in theaters possibly by the summer and/or fall of 2011! Which makes me ask the question? Do you think it would be more suited for a release in the summer or fall?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I've said that I hope the Depp DS film is a fall release.

[Taeylor Collins]

I wasn't for sure if it would appropriate to raise that question here but I guess so since you answered Mysterious!  I also think that a fall release would be the best!  HODS was released on October 28 1970!Maybe it would be cool to also release this one close to Halloween?  

[KMR]

HODS was released on October 28 1970!Maybe it would be cool to also release this one close to Halloween?

Actually, HODS was released around Labor Day 1970.  But I agree that a release date close to Halloween for the Burton/Depp DS movie would be cool.