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

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Hmmm - not sure if this is legit because one needs a password to read their articles, but tracking-board.com is listing an article entitled "MICHAEL SHEEN Sets His Sights on the DARK SHADOWS of Johnny Depp, Eva Green and Helena Bonham Carter!"

If true, having Sheen join the cast would be great!

[Mary]

It's rare that I go to any movie on opening night. I don't like seeing any movie, except maybe Rocky Horror Picture Show, with a large crowd. If I go I want to see and hear the movie, I don't want to hear kids or cell phones or what you're doing after the movie... I rarely go to movies any more. Not because I don't like movies but because ushers don't do their jobs anymore.

I love movies and I go every week.  Some of them are bad, but oh well, I just pick what I think looks good to me.  I go to matinees and rarely have a problem with kids, cell phones, etc.  Just a thought. 

[borgosi]

I love movies and watch 4 or 5 a day when I'm off work and normally two on days I do work, I just don't watch them at a theater. That's the whole reason I have cable, netflix and DVDs.

If I'm impressed enough with a movie I'll go to a theater but I usually wait until it's been out for a couple of weeks and then go to an early show. I'm hoping to be impressed enough with DS to go opening night, that's very rare

I look forward to the day that I can download a movie on opening night and watch it in my living room.

[Nancy]

I love watching movies  too in the theater or at home. I watch about three movies a week at home via Netflix or Blockbuster.  I watch only certain kinds of movie on the big screen generally speaking.  I don't go opening night though because I do not do well in large crowds.   

[jimbo]

The DS writer Seth was interviewed and states his task was to make DS "fun and funny". Interesting read but I am against his quest to intentionally make DS a very funny movie. The DS universe has always been a dark horror gothic romance show-never intentionally funny. I wonder how DC would react to this script.
http://collider.com/seth-grahame-smith-interview-hard-times-rj-berger-dark-shadows/82399/

[Mysterious Benefactor]

You beat me by about 3 seconds to posting this. I saw that you were posting in this topic so I waited, figuring you were posting about that article/interview.    Thanks for the link.  

As for the interview, it's interesting that Grahame-Smith is only writing for Depp/Barnabas. And it may not be as bad as it might sound at first because Barnabas definitely had some funny lines in both the original DS and the '91 Series. In fact, I was watching Ep #3 of the '91 Series yesterday to get ready to take the next batch of captures for the slideshow, and one particular line of Barnabas' had me laughing all over the place. However, it wasn't slap your knee type of funny, it was viciously sarcastic type of funny.

Also, it doesn't seem that it was his idea to make it funny - it seems like Burton and Depp brought him in for that task. And considering that Depp has said that his portrayal of Barn will be close to that of Frid, I wouldn't think the lines Grahame-Smith is providing are all in the knee slapping vein because that certainly isn't the way Barn was originally portrayed.

[jimbo]

MB thanks for waiting. I just wonder how this movie is going to be marketed. Will it be marketed as a comedy mixed in with some gothic horror romance or will it be marketed as a serious horror movie with some comedy mixed in. I am still under the opinion that making DS intentionally funny is not the greatest idea as well as setting the movie in the 70s. I don't mind the movie being funny at times but very funny crosses that line. It is an interesting gamble by the DS production team.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I certainly have lapses, but I'm still trying to stay positive. And what's also interesting is that Grahame-Smith says he's still tweaking the script. So, that would mean that no one has actually read the final version, so any comments we've heard thus far could be off - meaning comments from people like KLS...

[jimbo]

I guess is that I am most troubled by the writer's approach and intent as he described in this article, "My job on Dark Shadows was to make it fun and funny, first and foremost. It can still be dark and it can still even be gory and Gothic at times, but it also needed to be fun and it needed to be an experience that people would enjoy having. I came at it from, “Let’s not be afraid to be funny. Let’s make Barnabas funny." I personally don't agree that the writer of this movie is to make the movie funny first and foremost. It seems that gothic is a secondary characteristic in his vision. It is very hard for me to remain positive and I certainly have lapses too. As you said the script is still being tweaked so we just have to hope for the best.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I was actually reassured by those comments because it says that the film will be gory and Gothic. I suppose it's a glass half full/glass half empty kind of thing.  

Something to keep in mind, though, is that Grahame-Smith says he's only tweaking Barnabas, not the rest of the script, and apparently he was only brought in to refine Barn's sense of humor. A sense of humor isn't necessarily a bad thing. The Barn of both the daytime and primetime versions of DS each had a sense of humor. A biting (no pun intended) sense of humor. And if Grahame-Smith retains that, then we'll be seeing a Barn that we are familiar with and have loved.

[jimbo]

That is true it being a half/fullglass half empty kind of thing. In the Blackbookmag article Eva Green was asked, "Is it going to be a film children can see?
I don’t know, it’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever read. There will be blood, so I don’t know. It’s always dark and poetic with Tim Burton..." But she also did say in the same article that the script was "very, very, funny". Time will tell.

[Nancy]

I'm fine with humor.  I also sense that sarcasm will be employed quite a bit in this script.  Barnabas, Julia, Roger, Quentin, Carolyn and even Elizabeth could be quite funny at times with their witticisms and observations.  That's how I choose to take these "very funny" remarks.

My feeling too is that if Frid reads the script and thinks it's being made to be campy he is less likely to be a part of the project.  I'm just saying . . . my own observation and only my own.  While he certainly (obviously) is open to seeing other people play Barnabas (and welcomes them to it) I don't think he would like to be a part of anything that makes the character or the series look ridiculous.

Nancy

[Gothick]

Interesting... Eva Green's comment about the script being the weirdest thing she's ever read reminds me of an interview Nancy Barrett did about 20 years ago where she recalled arriving at the studio to "read what seemed to me a very peculiar script..." or words to that effect.

Let's cue Dame Shirley Bassey with a chorus of "History Repeating," shall we?

Nicholas Blair and Count Petofi were two other masters of the dry, sly, witty comment.  I would love to see this kind of writing in the new film.

G.

[borgosi]

I don't mind witty, dry humor. I don't even mind a "Lost Boys" type humor. I'm ok with that. I'm just afraid they are going for funny. I like what I call "thinking man's humor" or "smart humor" and I would be fine with that, I just hope it isn't camp or silly.

I know there are those who think that any movie that gets people to watch the original DS is ok and to a point I agree. I just know that a protest at each theater showing the new movie would cause people to check out the original. An original story about a seriel killer that leaves original DS tapes with the bodies and writes polices to tell them that he asks questions about the show and only kills those who can't answer his questions, could cause people to watch the original. I'm all for new fans. I'm all for more people watching the original DS. I would hate for people to watch it and say "that's not funny, I thought this was funny, the movie is". That would just suck.

I'm ok with humor. I'm not ok with funny.

Stephen King says that no matter what the movies based on his books are like, his books are still there.


No matter what this movie turns out to be, we'll always have the original DS.

[Nancy]

A "protest" would simply be embarrassing.  All we need is for non-DS fans to have a good reason to label DS fans (and the show that inspired them) as being whack jobs protesting a movie just because it didn't reflect on the original the way it should have. I certainly couldn't defend such an action as being anything less than silly.  My hope is that fans who may even feel that way have better sense and better things to do with their time.  Given the current economic situation and general suffering of people on a grand scale in this country and elsewhere, I would also hope those into protests would channel their energies accordingly into something that really matters and not whether or not they liked how a movie based on their favorite TV series came out.

nancy