Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

[neiljohnson]

After reading the lastest description of the supposed trailer, I came away with the following understanding:  [spoiler]The entire 1970s family is aware that Barnabas is a vampire, and is perhaps even protecting him.[/spoiler]

Did anyone else get the same vibe?  What a strange change to the original story.  If true, then that explains why the family accepts Barnabas, despite his unusual "look."  Until now, it seemed perposterous that they would accept someone who looked like that as a member of the family.  I'm not happy about the explanation, but at least,\ we have one.

[jimbo]

I agree with your take on it. I don't like it one bit if it turns out to be the case. I know others will like it but I think it is just plain stupid. On the other hand it could just be a joke.

This article predicts the DS movie will take in approximately $25 million in its first weekend. http://moviecitynews.com/2012/02/5-predictions-for-2012/

[Nicky]

Hey Neil -- I thought the same thing.  I think it's kind of a terrific take -- as someone else pointed out today, we have the original series.  And while I won't be, say, thrilled if it turns out to be a parody, I like to see variations in remakes.  Last year's Fright Night took some interesting new turns, for example; if I want to sample the original, I can do that with my DVDs.  Besides, I've always been intrigued by the idea that [spoiler]the family may know Barnabas' secret and actually be supportive.  [/spoiler]

[KMR]

It's important to bear in mind that it is very common for trailers and TV series promos to have brief clips of dialog strung together totally out of context, giving the impression of plot points that are actually very different from what is in the real story.

[KMR]

Thinking about the matter of humor in DS, this morning I got thinking about the series Twin Peaks.  That was something that was quite dark, yet also had a very healthy amount of humor, and sometimes outright hilarious moments.  Then I got thinking, what if David Lynch had gotten his hands on the rights to DS?  Now that would really be something!  You could certainly bet that there'd be some humor in it, but I'd be hard pressed to imagine him making an actual comedy.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Just watched episode 214.  Barnabas has quite a fitting line that ties into the current situation. 

"Nothing that ever happened here was... funny."   

Thought that was appropriate for the discussion at hand.      And, MB, btw, great new background!

[LOOKE300]

i don,nt aprove of making ds a comedy but other movies have a lot of comedy in them look at superman2 it had alot of funny moments. but it had its share of drama it had great villiams but they had gene hackmam for the comedy.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The sad thing is that hardcore fans are likely the only ones to get a kick out of this version. New folks will be left out of the joke, is my guess.

Possibly not. I was checking out JOHNNYDEPPZONE a short while ago and discovered there's a topic over there discussing the latest descriptions of the consumer survey trailers. Interestingly, the majority of people posting are Depp fans but not DS fans and they're loving what they've read about the trailers. The one poster who is having any sort of problem is someone who's both a Depp and DS fan - but she's also willing to give the benefit of the doubt until she sees the trailers for herself. And like I've said, I also prefer to wait to see any trailers for myself before I form any opinions about them. But who knows - perhaps developing some trailers that focus on the humor in the film could be a good thing in the long run if the Depp fans over there are any indication of how a general audience will respond to them.

78 days 7 hours 44 minutes 15 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I still can't understand how the 2nd reviewer managed to remember the dialogue with such great specificity.

This is purely a guess, but perhaps they have a copy of the trailer. When consumer surveys like that are handled in offices, obviously people only get to view trailers or whatever once. However, when a consumer survey is handled on a person's own computer, and that survey features video, it's quite possible that a copy of that video may be present in the person's browser cache for a period of time. And if that person is savvy enough, it is possible for the them to go into their browser's cache and save a copy of the video file that's stored there.

One would think that the people behind consumer surveys featuring video would be smart about not letting people get copies of the video. And there are ways to do that. But some of the methods only delete the video from a browser's cache after either the video window is closed or the survey is completed. So, if a survey handles video in either of those two ways, and if someone were to go into their browser's cache before either of those two things happen...

78 days 7 hours 32 minutes 6 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And, MB, btw, great new background!

Thanks - a short while ago I posted about it and the associated forum logo in the "** BIG CHANGES COMING FOR THE NEW YEAR **" over on the Testing board.

And speaking of the background for the film, I discovered two interesting things when I did a very high resolution scan of the cast photo. For one, I never noticed how intricately detailed Barnabas' cane is. And secondly, even though it's not exactly the same, that blue and white vase/jar behind Mrs. Johnson's head is reminiscent of the one often seen on the original show.

       

Also notice that you can see Barnabas ring much better. And not that I needed to, but I decided to include all of Mrs. Johnson because, well. she is so far in the background in most of the versions of the cast photo that you can barely even see her, much less the vase/jar behind her.

78 days 7 hours 11 minutes 0 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Thanks for that, MB! Fantastic!  Like I said, the sets and costumes are stunning, which is why I have my doubts that they would allow a script that was so out of line with the original series.  But, time will tell...   

[jimbo]

Thanks MB for the great photo of Barnabas' cane. Nice detail indeed.

Thanks also for the explanation on how the reviewer possibly recalled the dialogue in great length. That would give the reviewer more credibility. I am just not thrilled at all at was written but time will tell if and how it is utilized in the film.

[borgosi]

"Young Frankenstein" had great sets and costumes, it even has some of the original labs props, and it was completely out of line from the original Universal Frankenstein.

[Phil]

Yeah, they don't allocate budgets to how serious a movie is.

To clarify the earlier comment, I guess I mean that hardcore fans will be the only ones to really fully "get" a comedic riff on the show, and the sad part is that so few seem open to that experience.

[jimbo]

I forgot to mention how much I like the new background. Well done.