Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

[jimbo]

Sleepy Hollow had a budget of $65 M and that was 12 years ago. Interesting that the Sweeney Todd budget was only $50 M.
Speaking of gambles I think the Lone Ranger project is a serious gamble. I just don't see a film like that equalling its huge budget (200+ M). At 60 million DS is a great gamble imo. Again its box office will be helped with a PG-13 rating although I would like to see it rated R.
I agree that the vampire genre is here to stay and that many people still love a good vampire flick. TB has taken on this project knowing fully what the expectations were. I think his heart is in the right place but hopefully the film won't be too much over the top. I have a feeling that TB won't be involved in any sequels mainly because of his other commitments and balancing his schedule with JD's. I am sure there will be a trailer around Christmas time. Can't wait.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

now that's some SWELL company we're keeping!

Wow - it's amazing that the release of the Depp/DS film is on a list with all those other events! Thanks so much for sharing the news.  

(And the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like the Harper's Bazaar info belonged in this topic rather than on the other board, so that's why I moved/merged it here.  )

165 days 9 hours 11 minutes 48 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

let's not forget that at the end of the day this film is still something of a gamble...

"we" of course will go see it as will diehard depp fans and perhaps fans of the vampire genre but the great masses might not be lining up the the multiplex to see a remake of an old soap opera.

True. And the fact that The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 made $138,122,261 in its first weekend does prove, as Variety said, "there's plenty of life in the undead." However, as I've said before, I would be thrilled if the Depp/DS film pulls in something like those numbers for its entire US run in theaters. There's no way DS is going to do those numbers in its first week because it's nowhere near as established in the minds of the potential audience as the Twilight films or even the Underworld films are, having already had multiple successful predecessors at the box office.


Something I did find interesting when I just noticed it on boxofficemojo.com is that BD P1's budget was $110 million. That's more along those lines of what I was expecting for DS. But as others have said, shooting mostly in studio definitely helps to cut down on a film's budget - plus it's probably likely that some of the personnel involved in the film took a much smaller upfront salary and are more than likely getting a share of the gross in return for that. Plus DS was completely shoot in England, unlike BD P1, which was shoot in several exotic locales, including Brazil. And to put things in even greater perspective comparitively, the first Twilight movie only cost $37 million to make, so DS' budget is well ahead of that.

Something I also noticed on boxofficemojo.com is that Hugo is only estimated to make $11,350,000 for the five day Thanksgiving weekend. True, it's only playing in about 1200 theaters, whereas its competition is playing in close to three times as many (or even more than three times as many when it comes to BD P1), and that figure is very close to Hugo's projected gross for the weekend, which was $10 to $12 million - but I really do think it shows that even a movie with as prestigious a pedigree as Hugo's and one as highly lauded by critics as Hugo has been is now having a much tougher time at the box office because of the higher cost of 3D tickets and the trending unwillingness of a good portion of the audience to spend extra for 3D. Again, thank heavens DS was not shot in 3D as was initially announced!

And finally, it was mentioned that DS will be in post-production well into next year, so it has months of post-production still ahead. Though that might not have much or even any effect on its budget because, as madscntst mentioned, films tend to anticipate what post-production is going to cost and that's factored into the overall production budget before production even begins. In most cases they rarely go over that estimate - or at least rarely go over it by much.

165 days 8 hours 10 minutes 7 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[michael c]

mysterious...

i see why you moved/merged the 'bazaar' thread into the main topic but unless i'm missing something the content of the post is gone.

it's unclear what i was talking about.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

It's here - it's reply #1645 on page 110. People can either access it by viewing that page or by clicking on the link at the top of the quote in my posted reply here on page 111.  

165 days 6 hours 39 minutes 11 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[jimbo]

HBC indicating DS may be impossible to sell.

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/12/01/helena-bonham-carter-dark-shadows/

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Hmmm - very interesting. And I have to say I loved hearing much of her description. And I definitely agree that if the film is anything at all like the original DS, as we're hoping it will be, it will be very hard for the studio to categorize because there are so many different types of elements to it.

One thing I definitely don't agree with, and something I doubt most of us would agree with, is her saying that the original DS was "actually a really bad, hilariously bad soap opera."    But we're used to that by now.  ::sigh::

And this is the first time I've heard that there's an element of a ghost story to it. I wonder if that means we'll see Josette as a ghost as we often did on the original DS?

Thanks so much for the link, jimbo.  

161 days 3 hours 31 minutes 32 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[KMR]

HBC's comments are giving me really mixed messages. I'm still not sold on the theory that the "funny" everybody's talking about is "funny weird". The context in which we hear the word "funny" by the DS personnel gives it more of the "funny ha-ha" meaning. But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that the "funny" is of the nature of something like the humor in Hitchcock, or the humor in the 1991 DS series, or Piper Laurie's role as Margaret White in Carrie.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

For me the interpretation of the use of the word "funny" to describe the film depends on the context. At times I certainly think the person using the word means the film will be weird or strange. However, in other case they certainly mean funny as in generating laughs. And I certainly think generating laughs is the way HBC meant it in these latest remarks. But we know there are definitely supposed to be funny elements in the script. (How could something like Mrs. Johnson polishing silverware with bologna be for anything but laughs?) But as we've said before, the original show was not without its intentionally humorous moments - and there was certainly intentional humor in the '91 Series. So, humor in the film's script doesn't frighten me so long as the humor is along the same lines as has been done in DS before. Though it probably shouldn't also go without being said that there's always the possibility that what is in the script and what was shot won't all necessarily end up in the film in the same way as the script may have intended it to be. Editing can change the feeling and intent of almost any scene. No one will really know what sort of funny weird or funny ha-ha there will be in the film until we see the finished film...

161 days 3 hours 11 minutes 29 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[madscntst]

Interesting remarks, thanks jimbo.  I think that HBC has a bit of a sarcastic, dry-witted manner of talking, so this may just be her way or her style of explaining things.  I'm still not worried.  I hope that a trailer, which I hope we will see soon, will give us a better taste of the tone.

I don't know many folks here watch American Horror Story, though I think there is a thread about it here somewhere.  But if that is anything like the type of humor that we might expect to see with DS, then count me in!  The show is very humorous, but very dark and scary, as well.  I saw a recent description of Jessica Lange in a forum about that show, that admired how she could go from campy to cruel to heartbroken and vulnerable, sometimes in the same scene.  If Depp or Green or some of the others can do that, I'll be a happy camper!

Cathy

[jimbo]

I agree what you guys are saying. Some of the early comments at this article support the movie.

http://www.deadline.com/2011/12/helena-bonham-carter-on-dark-shadows-its-going-to-be-impossible-to-sell/

[michael c]

definitely mixed messages(as usual)coming from this cast member...

it's a "soap opera" but also very "subtle" and hopefully "funny". that's alot going on.

nothing about the OS could really be construed as deliberately "funny" subjectwise. it was all pretty deadly serious. yes we could all chime in on a few droll drawing room scenes with roger and liz or julia at her most sardonic and say that it's "funny" but in general the tone was not comedic and we know it.

what COULD arguably be described as being "funny" as we all know is the series' much heralded "camp" value: the flubbed lines. the blatant teleprompter readings. the over the top performances. the dated costuming. the naive and technically primitive special effects.

THAT'S what carter seems to be channelling in some of her remarks about "really bad soap operas". we'll see. i'm still very excited and intrigued by it all but i think some serious camp is coming our way.

incidentally all of these remarks make most of the spoilers we read awhile back...which were quite serious sounding...seem increasingly unlikely. that's seeming like a fraud.

[retzev]

http://www.deadline.com/2011/12/helena-bonham-carter-on-dark-shadows-its-going-to-be-impossible-to-sell/

More than HBC's thoughts, I enjoyed the comment from "Chris":

"Johnny Depp as a vampire. Hmm. I wonder how they’re going to sell this one."

:]

[Cousin_Barnabas]

My response to her exactly...   

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I could be wrong, but I think when HBC said the Depp/DS film will be impossible to sell, she was referring to the studios' desire to categorize their films with one of five single words: action, comedy, drama, horror, romance. Apparently from what we've learned so far, the film has elements of all five, but it doesn't fall easily into any one of the categories - and that fact is going to confound the suits because they like films to be that single word simple to categorize and sell.

160 days 20 hours 19 minutes 0 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!