Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

if i recall in the 1991 series only ben cross, who got "top billing", and jean simmons, who got the classic "and..as" billing, received special mention. the rest of the cast was alphabetized.

on the original series only joan, alexandra and later jonathan got any special billing but how the rest of the cast got billed is anyone's guess. it seemed to be almost based on some sort of seniority after the first year. actors who had been with the show longest got "top" billing if joan wasn't in a given episode. it occasionally made for strange credits. for instance there were some 1968 episodes where joel crothers got "top" billing because he had been with the show longer than say, jonathan or lara parker, but they were obviously the episodes' "leads" in terms of plot. it had to have been political or contractual.

there also seemed to be a bit of male chauvinism going on with the original series in terms of the credits. again, if joan was not in an episode "top" billing almost always went to the next senior male member of the cast. this was notable during the laura collins storyline when diana millay was clearly the episodes "star" but got second or third billing after the men in the cast.

Cousin B, I can't give you details--I am sure someone who follows the current industry will be able to do that for you--but billing is HUGE in contracts. You are talking about a class of people who really obsess over this sort of thing, and it is a big part of what they pay their "people"--agents and so on--to guarantee for them.

The number of scenes or lines in the final print has nothing to do with an actor's billing. Zsa Zsa Gabor was billed as a star of the Orson Welles classic Touch of Evil.  She had one scene and, if recall, all of two lines.  And the lines went something like:  "Miss Fifi?  I do not know her."  For reals, babe.

Hollywood is a strange place. And that was the 1950s. Nowadays--you have creatures like the Kardashians who are famous solely because they're famous.  Don't ask me to figure that one out.

G.

Also, note that the order in which the IMDB lists performers ordinarily has zilch to do with billing (in some cases, it seems to go alphabetically), which is a real nuisance when you're scrolling through a long cast list of an unseen production trying to determine who the principal players were.  The IMDB is pretty much a world unto itself.  With all its faults, however, it is a very useful resource, so long as you bear in mind the guideline that every fact needs to be checked--same goes with the "Wikipedia."

cheers, Gothick

Wow, Gothick!  I had absolutely no idea all of this went into the placement of two words on a poster.  I guess I am in the WRONG business.     Thank you for the insight.  I may have to change careers now.   

And michael c, your analysis of the original series and its billing is similar to what I concluded.  The longer an actor was on continually, the higher billing he or she received.  There were exceptions down the line, with Jonathan Frid, Grayson Hall, and David Selby all getting higher billings much more quickly than others, but over all, continuous time spent on the show meant a higher place in the credits with very few exceptions. 

Joan Bennett, Jonathan Frid, and Alexandra Moltke all got special billing in the original.  (Note how later Victorias never received the same billing as Moltke.)  And I hope that the roles they made famous will be treated with the same respect in terms of final billing for this film.  We know Depp's status as Barnabas, but it will be interesting to see how Pfeiffer and Heathcote will be billed in terms of special wording. 

Getting back to the cover of the DS film tie-in book -

Me thinks KLS needs to look at the '67 cast photo again because Joel Crothers isn't standing behind her. Sadly, he doesn't even appear in any of the versions.  

- I wonder if now KLS realizes that it's Anthony George and not Joel Crothers who's standing behind her? But just because that 1967 cast photo is supposedly part of the cover (and I say "supposedly" because often the final covers are quite different from what Amazon first puts up), that doesn't mean KLS has even seen it. After all, and as per usual, Jim Pierson is also listed as editor, so he could have been the one to approve that cover and KLS may not have even seen it yet.

I suppose the only way we'll really know is if she keeps repeating that Crothers is behind her in the photo the same way that she keeps repeating the Frid and the hangers anecdote.  


And on a completely separate but certainly interesting note, the posting on the DS News Page about the book seems to have been taken down...

171 days 9 hours 17 minutes 38 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

I also noticed that the link to the DS News page was taken down. I was told it was down very early in the morning. Can't imagine why if Amazon has it.
Hopefully JP and KLS will correct  the Joel Crothers' issue.
Another Chloe interview where she says the DS movie is very funny. I just wish it was described as a horror movie with some comedic elements-splitting hairs I guess but I would feel more comfortable.
http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/11/21/chloe-moretz-hugo-dark-shadows-interview/

Jimbo.  I don't know if she means it's funny here.  I think she means it's "odd".  Look at the sentence:  "It's really interesting, it's a very funny movie. I can't really say anything about it, but it's Tim Burton's fine line. He straddles that camp and drama, perfectly."  It doesn't make a lot of sense to have "comedy funny" as a descriptor here, but it does make sense when you replace the word "funny" with "weird" or "odd".  That's just how I read it anyway. 

Cousin Barnabas I hope you are right. As we know everyone who has read the script has said it is very funny. I hope we see some promo stuff coming soon.

I came away with same interpretation of funny as you did, Cousin_Barnabas. The fact that Moretz follows using funny by saying that it's Burton's "fine line" and that he "straddles that camp and drama, perfectly" make me also think she means funny as in odd or weird rather than funny as in generating laughs. And this isn't the first time that I've gotten the impression that someone describing the film as funny was actually saying it's odd or weird. Though I'm too lazy to go back through my previous posts to see who it was and what they'd said. But the posts are there.  

171 days 8 hours 19 minutes 58 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

Eva speaks about her acting in the movie.
http://www.film-news.co.uk/show-news.asp?H=Eva-Green-is-Burton-fan&nItemID=8290

Very interesting that she says that Michelle Pfeiffer and not Bella Heathcote is her rival in the film. That certainly bodes well for Liz being an integral part of the action. And it also bodes well for what Cousin _Barnabas and I and others have been hoping:

I want plenty of biting dialogue ... between Liz and a certain other character whose life goal is to destroy the family.   

Thanks so much for posting the links to both Eva Green's and Chole Moretz' articles, jimbo. 

indeed very interesting about elizabeth and angelique being rivals in the new film. they're obviously not romantic rivals but don't forget in this variation on the tale ang was once a servant at collinwood and revenge is a dish best served cold. pfeiffer didn't sign on to be part of the set dressing.

digressing back to the train business. in this story julia, willie and angelique are not being given lengthy introductions as they were in the OS. in the name of expediency(given the two hour time frame) the characters are already ensconced at collinwood or well established in collinsport when the film begins. they could have done that with vicki as well. but remember the plot synopsis we've been given described her as david's "new" nanny. so perhaps they thought time allowed, and tradition has bound them to, the classic vicki-arrives-in-collinsport-by-train introduction.

i'm all for it.

MB passes along that Chloe Moretz will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tonight.  That's NBC at 12:35, 11:35 Central.

Thanks so much for posting that, Midnite.    And for the sake of others as to why I didn't post it myself, it was because I was in Internet Connection Hell, meaning my provider was working on their service and I didn't have any connection.    But these things have to happen from time to time...

170 days 5 hours 19 minutes 15 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

Chloe Grace Moretz on Jimmy Fallon:

Part One:  http://www.hulu.com/watch/303430/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-chloe-grace-moretz-part-1#s-p2-sr-i1
Part Two:  http://www.hulu.com/watch/303428/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-chloe-grace-moretz-part-2