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

[madscntst]

I don't know much about Production Weekly and am not sure if anyone can just subscribe (and if so, how much is it?) but it strikes me as more of a publication meant for industry people.  Very dry and bare-bones status reports, and probably not meant to be a public announcement about anything.  So I agree that anything printed there should probably still be taken with a grain of salt, compared with an ironclad public announcement.  That said, if something is included in a PW issue, it probably means there's been some change or other in the film's status, which can only be great news for a project like DS that we want to see progressing!  

[jimbo]

For sixty dollars per month you would think Production Weekly has a very good verification process in place for its subscribers paying that steep price. Oh well I guess we will hear something soon and hopefully from a reliable source. Not sure why IMDb allows people to see the production listing for The Rum Diary and not for DS. If the site wants people to subscribe to its pro feature you would think the R.D. would also not be available for free.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Whether something is listed on regular IMDb vs. IMDbPro may have to do with who's maintaining the listing. TPTB working on the Depp/DS film certainly seem to want to keep things as under wraps as possible. Though when it comes to IMDbPro, even though it advertises itself as "Designed exclusively for people in the entertainment industry," anyone can actually sign up for a 14 day free trial - and if they want to continue with it after that, all they have to do is pay $12.95 a month. That doesn't exactly keep anything that's added to any IMDbPro listing that well hidden. 

[madscntst]

Sixty a month for PW??  Wow, no wonder I don't want to subscribe    Anyway, what I was trying to get at with regard to the publication is that it may just be meant as a listing for folks in the business- if say a cameraman sees a production starting up, they may try to contact them for work.  The nuts and bolts about the plot and even the cast or director may not be the only thing of importance from their perspective.  Just a thought.  

I may not have always followed every entry on IMDb, but I seem to recall that The Rum Diary *was* off the regular IMDb listing for awhile.  This film's been around for a long time- I remember seeing it when I first started getting die-hard about Johnny around late-ish '03 (have been a fan since Edward Scissorhands, but ya know, the internet sometimes does things to people   )  And then it was in limbo for a long time.  It makes sense that it's listed now because the film is about to get made, and many of the cast members have been announced already.  What I *don't* get is that a film like Sin City 3, which has similarly been in the works for years, but doesn't seem like it's going to be made any time soon (or Sin City 2, for that matter), and that one *is* still on IMDb.  

Fortunately, there was news today about The Three Stooges- Benicio del Toro is in talks to play Moe Howard, according to Variety, so hopefully that one is going to be taken off Johnny's cast list any time now.  And I hope that Dark Shadows will return to the regular IMDb area once there start to be announcements about a start date and cast members.  I agree though that the whole IMDb vs. IMDbPro thing is silly- guess they just want to try to tempt people into paying...

[jimbo]

To MB. That is very interesting. So if one subscribes to IMDb Pro for $12.95 per month you can obtain information that may or not be accurate and that information in turn could be given to the general media defeating the DS production listing not being accessible to non-subscribers. It does sound like TPTB we are familiar with.

To madscntst. Can you imagine paying $60 every month-that is nuts and you may be right about its general purpose. Also what you said about the Rum Diary being taken off IMDb and then put back on when most of the cast had been named. I guess that will happen with the DS movie. I do agree that the IMDB vs IMDbPro is incredibly silly. Pure greed on its part.

[Garth Blackwood]

Somebody on the dark shadows wiki updated the page about the movie writing in as the synopsis:

The plot follows a governess who arrives at the Collins family mansion to discover that all is not quite normal - and that Barnabas Collins is, in fact, a vampire.

Does anyone know if this is official information or if this is just some fan's opinion of what the movie will be about. I'm probably over analyzing it, but this indicates to me that perhaps the movie will not include the unchaining of B, and at some point in the movie Vicki finds out (and remembers) that B is a vampire.

[jimbo]

Tim Burton was quoted as saying that there is a long way to go in his Alice movie.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/feed.asp?NID=24488

[Mysterious Benefactor]

An interesting article: Dark Shadows Envelop Johnny Depp, Drift Toward Tim Burton. And one of the things that makes it most interesting is how it points out some hard truths that some DS fans may not like but which are, nonetheless, facts in this day and age in entertainment. And they only reinforce some of the things we were saying just last week...

[madscntst]

Interesting, thanks MB.  Going along with this, this past weekend I was browsing the IMDb message board of the Swedish film, Let The Right One In.  One of the posters there, I assume from what he wrote that he was a teen, said that he was in a video store and a group of other kids were looking at the DVD cover for Let The Right One In, and one girl tossed it back and said, "It looks like a ripoff of Twilight."  The guy/gal who posted to IMDb said he got in a big argument with her, because LTROI was written first, and she didn't believe it.  I found this attitude to be very concerning.  The younger fans of Twilight may not realize that Twilight isn't the first story about vampires, nor is it the be-all and end-all.  I can't really give a full opinion about Twilight because I haven't seen it (nor have I read the books), but judging from the clips I've seen, it's not even much of a vampire story so much as it is a story about teen love.  I just hope that they aren't so silly as to dismiss Dark Shadows as being a ripoff of their favorite hot trend.  And along with that, I hope (and trust) that TPTB don't try to make DS too trendy.  I do agree, though, that the production values are going to have to be a lot more up to date and along with the types of films that are released in today's world.  That's why I am wondering if they may go for an R rating.  Even if it's PG-13, I am guessing that they are going to imply a lot of gore.

Cathy

[jimbo]

madscntst you certainly raise an issue that WB is probably trying to over come. With the new Star Trek movie the producers did not have to reference the original series ie.... in its trailers, as most people know ST has been on for many years. But with the new DS movie I wonder if TPTB may need to include in its trailer that it is based on the 60s series which would then give new fans a point of reference, something that indisputably shows that DS came long before Twilight? I am going to gamble and say that WB will play it safe and go with a PG-13 rating especially if they want to tap into Twilight's fan base, unless their mom's take them if it is rated R.

[katrinavantassel]

I don't know why people would confuse Twilight with Dark Shadows in the first place unless their minds are stuck on the word 'vampire'. I saw Twilight and it is mostly a teen movie - high school, hanging around with 'your' group in school, boyfriends, etc. Just happens one of the groups are vampires! (By the way, I did enjoy this movie but there really isn't anything in it to compare with DS.)

I'm wondering if the movie will go along the lines of Underworld. That movie was pretty violent with plenty of blood and special effects.

One item on my DS movie wishlist is that the studio try to recreate the original interiors that were in the series. I just loved looking at the drawing room, entry way and the Old House. The set designer really did a wonderful job making the studio look like an actual house (mansion?).

I have faith in Tim Burton. I loved his version of Sleepy Hollow (and the sets were awesome) and Johnny Depp has a good working relationship with him.

[arashi]

Tim Burton is a fan of gore, so I think there's going to be gore in it - I remember reading an article back when Sleepy Hollow came out about the utter delight Burton had flicking fake blood on Johnny Depp in the scene where Ichabod is hacking at the tree of the dead. I still have yet to see Sweeney Todd, so I can't comment on how gory that is, but I think we can expect to see blood. Teenagers are going to expect it, and like it or not teenagers make up most of the movie going crowd.

As for the story, I think they're going to focus a good deal on the romantic elements of Barnabas. It is a gothic drama. But he is also a monster. I've been watching the first DVD boxset recently and was shocked back into realizing how sinister his persona was when he first appeared. I don't think the writers are going to sit down and watch all 1225 episodes before tackling the script, but who knows, maybe everyone involved has a complete set of DVDs.  Hopefully at least they'll watch the episodes relevant to whatever story they decide to tell.

As for Twilight I was somewhat dismayed upon walking into Borders and seeing a table set up with Twilight prominently displayed with Dracula.... however I thought about it and realized maybe someone was trying to get kids to pick up other *coughbettercough* vampire novels. I get the feeling though a lot of them will dismiss it as "old" and therefore irrelevant. Most teenagers are morons. I thought so when I was a teenager, I still think so now. Thankfully I think there's going to be a LOT of people who watched DS as kids, may have forgotten about it in their adulthood, will see the movie previews and respark their interest. At least I hope so.

[Taeylor Collins]

I think DS has the potential to reach Twillight's audience and waaaaaaaaaaaay more.  I hope so that is.

[jimbo]

Article states the Alice movie is nearing completion although we know that is not entirely true; and also says that Burton and Depp may get together and film a movie about Salvador Dali which I believe was already raised here.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spiderman/news/1810204/weekly_ketchup_special_edition_raimi_announces_next_spider_man_villians

[Midnite]

Article states the Alice movie is nearing completion although we know that is not entirely true; and also says that Burton and Depp may get together and film a movie about Salvador Dali which I believe was already raised here.

jimbo, beware of odd news posted on April Fool's Day.