Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Love the photo! Thanks so much to michael c for alerting us to it and to Sara Monster for sharing it. 

Is it just me or does that look like one of Barn's old robes??

It's definitely not just you - the robe in the new photo looks like it could be very similar. And if it is, I suspect it's intentional.

indeed it looks like depp is sporting barn's signature "smoking" jacket for elegant at home wear.

"Elegant at home wear" - a perfect way to put it. 

88 days 10 hours 43 minutes 5 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

the picture is now up at collinwood.net as well.

And if one clicks on that one, one gets rewarded with a much larger version. 

And, michael c, apparently you're more on top of things than even GK Films is because it wasn't until a couple minutes ago that they retweeted about the DS News Blog's posting. 

88 days 10 hours 30 minutes 47 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[arashi]

whatever the movie turns out to be i certainly won't find myself to be "insulted".

none of this is personal.

Amen. Not going to read the trailer description myself as I don't want my impression colored by some one else.

I am thinking of doing a separate thread here on Humor in Dark Shadows.  I am fascinated by how a lot of fans on the Net react to it.  I laugh all the time when I watch the show.  Does that make me "not a real fan"?

I think that would be an interesting topic to discuss. Everyone's taste in humor is definitely different and for some reason a touchy subject, no matter what the object of discussion and especially amongst differences of opinion. I also laugh a lot when watching the show and that's part of the reason I love it so much, it's so much fun to watch!

[neiljohnson]

I agree humor can be a touchy subject -- actually in any discussion of soap operas.  I am a fan (more than a fan, really) of soap operas in general, and I've noticed many discussions of humor on soaps since the 1980s.  True fans can have huge disagreements about the use of humor - whether is is appropriate, whether is belongs on soaps, how much is too much, etc.  But I think the real problem lies in the semantics -- the difference between "humor" and "comedy."   I enjoy humor on soaps and can take the remainder of the show seriously, inclusive of the humor.  But, I don't think soap opera (including Dark Shadows) is an appropriate place for comedy. 

Back to the movie -- I feel the same way here.  Humor, I can tolerate or even enjoy.  But, I don't see how an otherwise serious film about a vampire can include comedy.  Again, there is a difference between humor and comedy.   I may be beating a dead horse, but why are the actors focusing so much on the word "funny"?  Most of them (who've been interviewed) have used the word "funny" to the exclusion of any other adjective.  There has to be a reason for that.

[Nicky]

I've been interpreting "funny" to mean "dark" or "black" humor/comedy.  Sleepy Hollow evinces this; so, too a more extreme extent, does Death Becomes Her, which balances the funny with the horrific (with a lovely/exaggerated moral message as well). 

As far as humor and the soap goes:  perhaps unintentional once upon a time (surely Frid has spoken time and again how DS was never intended to be camp; other actors have also said that they always played it deadly straight), soaps are melodramatic by nature, and melodrama can be read by today's standards as "funny."  Perhaps this is the other explanation.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

How can these guys go on-and-on about being childhood fans of the original, and then make a film like this?  None of it makes sense.  I can understand adding a little humor to the storyline, but that is the most-used description we have heard from all of the stars -- funny, funny, funny.  Have any of them used descriptors like "scarey?" "suspensful?" "romantic?" "terrifying?"

Back in April I posted this reply after Eva Green first described the film as a "black comedy":

Well, IF it is a black comedy, it's a scary and bloody black comedy that's also a relationship story with touches of the poetic. 

It was based on many of the descriptions we'd gotten of the film up to that point. And one thing that we shouldn't forget is that by definition a "black comedy" is a type of drama, not a comedy per se.

I also laugh a lot when watching the show and that's part of the reason I love it so much, it's so much fun to watch!

Yes. I find it hard to imagine that someone couldn't laugh at some of the mocking and insulting and jibing inherent in the dialogue as well as the outright absurdity in some of the situations. But that in no way means that one can't also take what's happening seriously.

Not going to read the trailer description myself as I don't want my impression colored by some one else.

The person who posted doesn't really even describe the trailer. From what I read it's mostly impression and flashes. (Though I do have to say that I love the line he/she says Barnabas utters when he's first released.) And as you say, everyone's taste in humor is different, and humor can also be subjective, so what one person sees as humorous may not even strike someone else as funny.

Something to possibly keep in mind, though, is that we may never see that trailer. In the posts that I read from him/her, he/she didn't say if he/she was asked questions about the trailer after viewing it, but one would presume that considering that he/she saw the trailer while taking part in a marketing survey, questions like what you thought about the trailer and would it make you want to see the film would be asked. I mean, why else include it? And if the trailer doesn't get a good response, it may never even be used in the marketing campaign for the film.

And there's also something else to possibly keep in mind, and that's that the trailer that person saw may not be the only DS trailer that's part of the marketing survey. It may actually show two or more different DS trailers at random to see which gets the best response. For a time back in the '90s Entertainment Weekly used to send a friend and I e-mail requests to take marketing surveys. (Ah, for the good ole days when EW used to mail some subscribers VHS tapes of trailers and screener copies of new TV shows.) And I remember from that experience that we didn't always see the same versions of trailers. I know I definitely saw trailers as parts of those surveys that I never saw again. But then, I wasn't in every theater at every showing of every film, so it's hard to know which trailers never saw the light of day apart from the surveys and which I simply never happened to be in the right place at the right time to see again...

88 days 8 hours 49 minutes 22 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

If you haven't read the topic on IMDb in a few hours: 1) the original poster says that he/gave the trailer negative feedback, so that means that he/she was asked about his/her reaction to it, and 2) he/she has provided new details regarding some of the scenes included. What's interesting, though, is that the person has gone from being very negative toward the trailer when he/she first started posting and saying he/she gave the trailer negative feedback to saying "it looks like it will be a fun movie." Other posters are asking him/her to reconcile those two seemingly opposing opinions...

88 days 5 hours 2 minutes 54 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Everything was believable to me except for one detail he gave in the topic about the Depp/Green photo, where...  (Alleged Trailer Spoiler Ahead:)
[spoiler]

Depp says he doesn't know what he ever saw in Green.  To which she replies by ripping off her shirt, revealing her corset, prompting Depp to say, "Oh now I remember."

[/spoiler]

That is not Burton humor.  That is not Shadows humor.  And it causes me great concern.  Although the other jokes I've heard sound very funny, this one seems really out of place, and that makes me want to not believe the poster, although my gut tells me to.  But who knows...  Maybe they will cut that little bit.  Granted, it wouldn't be as bad if Barnabas didn't have that line of dialogue...  But that really lowers the level of humor to something I don't want to hear in Dark Shadows.  Just my opinion, though.  Like I said, the other jokes sound classy and fun.   

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Everything was believable to me except for one detail he gave in the topic about the Depp/Green photo, where...  (Alleged Trailer Spoiler Ahead:)

I didn't see that because I didn't bother to check out any of the other topics. So, I just went to check that topic on the IMDb board and guess what - more than half of the replies in the trailer topic are now gone. When last I checked, it was up to page 7 - now there are only 3. Hmmm...

That is not Burton humor.  That is not Shadows humor.

It does seem more like Pirates of the Caribbean humor. And now that so many of the posts in the trailer topic are gone, I don't know what to think...

88 days 2 hours 28 minutes 44 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[jimbo]

There is a reason as to why we haven't seen a trailer yet. Any trailer for that matter. If WB had a good representative trailer it would have been released by now and its delayed release is not due to any marketing strategy. I fear that WB believes it has a problem on its hands. It kind of reminds me of the 2004 fiasco where there was a creative difference between the production companies and the WB's studio regarding the 2004 DS pilot. I don't want to see this again where the various parties are all pointing fingers at each other. This is all speculation on my part of course. I will be the happiest person on the earth to be proven wrong. I want this movie to succeed in the worst way. I am trying to think positive but the evidence mounts to the contrary. It goes back to the people's initial reaction after reading the script that it was a very funny one. That is not the typical first reaction one would have reading a vampire gothic horror script. I just got a bad feeling about all of this. My feelings could dramatically change when I see the trailer. I'm hoping that this movie makes us DS fans proud. The sooner WB gets this trailer out the better for all of us.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I don't honestly think Warner Brothers believes they have a problem on their hands. If they did, I doubt that just the other day Jeff Bewkes, the Time Warner CEO, would have included DS as one of the films he expects to do well for Warner Brothers. I mean, surely, as the CEO of the parent company, he would be kept apprised of how the film is progressing - especially if there were problems with it. Not to mention that both Time Warner and Warner Brothers would be opening themselves up to all sorts of bad if they allowed their CEO to include a film that's having problems. If that was the case, they could have easily left DS out of their press release rather than single it out as one of three films they're high on and expecting to allow the studio to continue its strong earnings.

88 days 2 hours 9 minutes 6 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[jimbo]

I am eager to embrace the movie. I still have my concerns. I look forward in seeing the trailer. Let's hope for the best.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

I didn't see that because I didn't bother to check out any of the other topics. So, I just went to check that topic on the IMDb board and guess what - more than half of the replies in the trailer topic are now gone. When last I checked, it was up to page 7 - now there are only 3. Hmmm...

That's odd, MB.  I can still see all of the replies.   

[Mysterious Benefactor]

You're seeing 7 or more pages of replies? I just checked and all I'm getting is 4? 


But changing reels entirely, I see where Jessica Dwyer she of the tweet that more than implied that she'd heard directly from the studio that there wouldn't be a DS trailer during the Super Bowl because there was no trailer yet, has posted this on shocktilyoudrop.com:

"Studio stated a trailer would be out in March.  They are still working on the score and editing."

Check out the first reply to: A Photo of Eva Green, Johnny Depp in Dark Shadows

[Cousin_Barnabas]

I have 76 replies and 8 pages for the "I just saw the trailer" thread.   

And, yes, that bit from Jessica Dwyer aligns perfectly with what we have come to expect in regards to the trailer and what I heard in regards to the the Eflman score.  So, it sounds very accurate to me.