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

[michael c]

i actually haven't been following the preproduction of this too much but i gave this a look...

alot of the articles are phrasing it with a question mark("kirsten van wagner as victoria winters?")so there still seems to be much uncertainty about it.

she is quite stunning. i guess i'm relieved she's not a short haired blond. vicki's such an ingenue i don't mind an unknown actress portraying her. in fact i'm sort of expecting alot of semi-unknowns in this production(besides depp of course)for some reason.

my guess would be that liz and maybe julia will be the only bits of stunt-casting or semi-big names.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The situation with Kirsten Van Wagner is almost like the situation with Helena Bonham Carter and the New York Times Web site. They list her as having been cast as Julia in the film - yet nowhere else is there any info to confirm it. Though a difference from the Kirsten Van Wagner situation is that Bonham Carter has repeatedly claimed that she hasn't even been asked to be in the film. So, beyond the notion that she frequently appears in Burton's films, just where is the NYT getting their info?

As for the IMDb requiring some sort of verification, the only thing I've ever noticed there is a link to one of the German Web sites that I referred to two weeks ago. But it still remains unclear to me if the IMDb listing came first of the German Web sites' reports did. There's no date for the IMDb entry.

Of course, none of that means that Bonham Carter won't eventually be asked or won't be in the film - or even that Kirsten Van Wagner won't be. It's just that these sites seem to each be operating with sources of info that are exclusively (and I use that term loosely) known only to them, so who can tell how reliable they are? That being said, though, the fact that Burton prefers to be so secretive could be the very reason why there hasn't been any corroboration. In fact, if there's any truth in either situation, it just might be that someone went against Burton's wishes and said something when they really shouldn't have.

The only thing we can be sure of is that the facts will come out - eventually...

[madscntst]

I've heard that if one has an IMDB Pro account, it's fairly easy to add information, ie., it is "believed".  I still take all of these tidbits as rumors for now.  Sometimes they do end up being correct.  For what it's worth, when Sweeney Todd was in pre-production, we started hearing little ditzels of info from various unexpected places, such as the school that Jamie Campbell Bower and Ed Sanders attended (congratulating them on snagging their roles, of course!)  And I think that we may have heard about Laura Michele Kelly from her record label site or something.  And then gradually, things were confirmed.  Since filming is still several months away I don't think it's at all unusual that we haven't heard anything specific about casting- I hope to start hearing a few names after the New Year.

Edited to add- it just occurred to me that Sweeney Todd is a special case because they actually did all their singing the month or two before filming began.  So the roles may have had to be confirmed a little earlier.  By the way, even though Johnny was heavily rumored to have a role in Alice In Wonderland (for the obvious reason that he's Tim's main muse), I don't believe that was confirmed until after filming had already started!

Cathy

[Mysterious Benefactor]

By the way, even though Johnny was heavily rumored to have a role in Alice In Wonderland (for the obvious reason that he's Tim's main muse), I don't believe that was confirmed until after filming had already started!

That's true.  And it's very possible that we won't get publicly confirmed casting for the Depp/DS film until it's very close to production or also has already started shooting.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I just discovered a Google alert to this article in my e-mail, and all I can say is "Finally!"
(Scoll down to the paragraph immediately under Depp's second photo)

One would presume that they're building the sets. But anything that they're doing is more than they had been doing. And one just hopes that Warner Brothers hasn't been paying for the studio space since we last heard they'd rented space more than two years ago back when they were hoping for the sadly aborted "late summer" '09 start.  

[jimbo]

MB I think WB is just grateful that the movie is finally happening-fingers crossed of course. The NY Times also has the movie filming in the United Kingdom although Pinewood is not specifically mentioned. I think it added some studio executive names. That Kirsten actress is not mentioned so I guess everything is still up in the air with the casting.
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/451864/Dark-Shadows/credits

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Back in early December '08 Richard Zanuck simply said that the film would be shooting in London - he didn't specifically mention Pinewood. Then again, he probably didn't have to considering that Burton always seems to work at Pinewood, so many fans (including our very own madscntst) speculated that Pinewood would most likely be the studio where the film would shoot. But shortly thereafter we learned that studio space had indeed been secured at Pinewood. And now we know that the film is finally prepping at Pinewood. Hallelujah!!  

As for the NYT Web site, they've definitely recently added those exec names because they weren't listed there last week when I mentioned that Helena Bonham Carter was still listed as Julia, which I noticed is still there. Hmmm...

I also see that their specific indication that the film will shoot in England is: "Locations: United Kingdom". I would love for that to mean more than studio space and that actual United Kingdom locations will be used, particularly for something like the exterior of Collinwood. But time will tell. With Burton you never know what he has up his CGI sleeve...

(BTW, it's currently snowing here with the sun shining. Collinsport isn't the only place where the weather is weird!  )

[jimbo]

Any one here going on a Pinewood Studios tour? jk I assume its workers' have to sign some type of confidentiality agreement and not even admit that DS will be filming there. But it is exciting that sets are now most likely being constructed. I also hope that they shoot exterior and on location shots. I wish the NY Times could at least spell the character Julia's name correctly. I guess we will soon learn about casting.

Oh you got snow already. I am not mentally prepared for snow. Crazy.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Ha! I'd never even noticed that is says "Julie" and not "Julia". But at least it says "Barnabas" and not "Barnabus".  

(As for snow, it's been snowing here on and off since Sunday - but we still have only a dusting...)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Apparently Japan is getting in on the act because now there's a Japanese Web site reporting that Kirsten Van Wagner will be in the Depp/DS film. 

[Josette]

Depp is supposed to be on Letterman tonight (Monday, Dec. 27).  Hopefully he'll ask about upcoming work and we might learn something!

[Midnite]

Unfortunately, it's a repeat from earlier this month.

[Josette]

Unfortunately, it's a repeat from earlier this month.

Upon seeing it, I discovered that - but since I didn't know about the original, it was nice to see.  Unfortunately nothing that particularly interested us, though!

[Richard]

Photo of Kirsten Van Wagner.
Since neither the actress nor her agency has denied the rumors, it's probably true.
She looks a little like Alexandre Moltke.
Is Burton casting look-alikes?


Richard

[Midnite]

Richard, a portion of the url of your Photobucket album is reversed, which is why the image isn't showing up in your post.