Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

[jimbo]

I think you are right about WB's marketing strategy. However, I am wondering if in fact WB has to market it as a comedy because it was filmed as a comedy. We shall see if JD plays BC as a classical vampire as he said he would with a little poetic licensing. I don't think the movie should be marketed with JD as a vampire in a comedic role. Then the studio is sending the message that this movie is going to be a parody of the o/s or just another Addams Family like movie. To me that is not going to get fans of horror to go and see this movie. The bottom line is that as far as I know comedy dominates this movie. My goodness I hope I am so wrong.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

If the film was shot as a comedy, then HBC and Seth Grahame-Smith wouldn't have said that what the film actually is is so hard to pin down that it was going to be hard for the studio to figure out how to market it. They would have been well aware that the film would be marketed as a comedy because that's what it would be.    And also recall that prior to his remark about it being hard to market, Grahame-Smith had seen rough cuts, so he knows in what directions Burton is taking the film.

59 days 9 hours 51 minutes 45 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[jimbo]

I have learned not to trust to a large extent anyone associated with the production of this movie. I also have my doubts about the individuals who claim to have seen the trailers. I guess "Trust No One" is my new motto until I see the movie myself. The studio must have changed its description from a Gothic Thriller to that of a Gothic Comedy when the studio saw the entire movie and realized that comedy dominates the movie irregardless of what TPTB have said. The good thing is that we should expect some real feedback soon. I hope it is a great movie.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I'm tending to be willing to believe both camps. I don't see why the people who've described the test trailers in the ways they have would have described them in those ways unless that's really what they did see. And I definitely believe that the people associated with the film who've described it as a mix of such different elements that it's hard to pin down just what it is are being truthful because that's certainly not the way people want to describe their film unless they have to - and it's certainly not the way a studio wants to have a film be described because they like films that can be pigeonholed into an easily marketed genre. But as always, we shall see...

59 days 8 hours 57 minutes 21 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[jimbo]

KLS doesn't know how to respond to the question if the new version is faithful to the original series.
http://www.examiner.com/fanboys-in-national/exclusive-dark-shadows-star-kathryn-leigh-scott-returns-to-collinwood

I'm still hoping that TB and company has hoaxed us all.

[arashi]

I have learned not to trust to a large extent anyone associated with the production of this movie.

Where? Why have you learned not to trust them? We haven't seen anything at all yet but stills. I'm not trying to be rude or anything, so please don't think I am, I'm just curious as to where this opinion stems from.

[jimbo]

Mine was meant to be a general comment regarding what the movie is and is not and how TPTB may have said things to keep us off guard (for the integrity of the movie). My comment was not meant to convey an attack on their integrity and professionalism. Perhaps I should have worded it better but I don't understand why some people here just take things out of context and fly with it especially when they are not in my head. I hope I have satisfied your question.

[Phil]

Jimbo is correct. Anyone associated with the film must have anything they've said taken with a huge grain of salt. It's in everyone of their contracts that they must take part in the "promotion" of the film. They're doing their jobs right now, and their job is to promote the movie, not to give us the straight dope on what kind of movie it is.

Had WB nailed down a marketing strategy, they'd all be parroting the same lines right now. The comments you're seeing from them are only as wishy washy as they are because with no marketing plan, the cast and crew are doing their best to hold up their end of the contract without any kind of marketing master plan.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Call me naive, but I suppose I'm more willing to take what's being said by the cast/crew at face value rather than surmise everything being said is perhaps being spun simply because they have no idea what to really say. Though I suppose in the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter which view we each chose to currently subscribe to because before too long we'll see the film for ourselves and we'll know whether they were simply spinning or they were being truthful. 

59 days 6 hours 31 minutes 11 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[madscntst]

I'm with you, MB, and I would further say that my interpretation of Tim's words is that he refuses to put the film into a neat little box.  If he brands it as something, "comedy", "gothic" or whatever, then fifty thousand bloggers and entertainment sites will pick up on it and repeat it until everyone treats it as gospel, and I think that he is deliberately refusing to do that.  I guess I could be wrong, though 

As for KLS, I didn't really see a problem in her answer.  She is pointing out some differences from the OS, for instance that Victoria rather than Maggie is the Josette figure (and of course, that is a big point from her perspective, for obvious reasons  ), and that there is more emphasis on Barnabas adjusting to a new era, as we all already learned.  So she's obviously not going to say that the movie is completely faithful to the series, because it's not.  Also, she doesn't want to give away everything because she wants people to buy her book to read more.  I do agree with Phil that there is going to be a bit of a spin factor, but that was going to be true no matter what- everyone involved with the franchise has a bias, and that's understandable.

[borgosi]

I think it would be a good idea to let us know what kind of film it is before opening night. I know if I walk in expecting a gothic love story and I get a comedy, I won't be happy. It I expect a comedy and I get a comedy it will be a lot easier to take. But that's just me.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I suspect it's not an either/or. If we can believe what we're being told, we're going to get elements of both comedy and Gothic love story.    And actually, the description of the Gothic love story portion of one of the test trailers sounded quite promising...

59 days 2 hours 38 minutes 21 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[michael c]

i'm not that familiar with burton's other works...

but aren't they all to some extent "follies"? whimsical tales with comedic elements?

i mean even if the film is not straight up comedic we know we're not getting 'the exorcist', right? his films are never genuinely "scary" are they?

[Nicky]

I just watched Sweeney Todd the other night ... any comedic elements were already in the script.  I'd say "scary" over "fanciful" (and it was shelved in the horror section at the video store ...)

[arashi]

Mine was meant to be a general comment regarding what the movie is and is not and how TPTB may have said things to keep us off guard (for the integrity of the movie). My comment was not meant to convey an attack on their integrity and professionalism. Perhaps I should have worded it better but I don't understand why some people here just take things out of context and fly with it especially when they are not in my head. I hope I have satisfied your question.

I hope you weren't thinking I was taking what you said out of context, I didn't think it was an attack at all, I was genuinely curious as to how you formed this opinion. A lot of the times people (not you, but everyone) will post an opinion but not elaborate on where it came from or why they think so. I was just hoping you'd explain.

Oh and to Michael C - with Burton's work it depends largely on the movie. I'm not familiar with ALL of his movies, but something like Big Fish, while it did have fantastical elements, was much more an incredibly moving story about the relationship between a father and a son. So I wouldn't categorize them all as follies.