Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

[michael c]

heathcote certainly has that doe-eyed and virginal quality moltke brought to the role. and her getup in the cast photograph is about as "ingenue-ish" as you can get.

my only regret is that she does not have the raven hair as her predecessors. still she looks like she'll make a nice addition to the list of victorias.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

I hope so.  I am sure the trailer will give us a taste of her interpretation of, in Burke's words, "little Miss Muffet"... Miss Winters."   

I am really curious to see what color her hair is on screen.  It's even hard to tell from the official press picture...

[Cousin_Barnabas]

I just thought of this song...

"Many years ago, in 1793,
An evil woman named Angelique said with glee,
'I cast a spell on Barnabas!'
And what was even worse,
She turned him into a vampire,
That was his curse.

Barnabas, we must confess.  We dig your pearly fangs and your blood-stained vest.  Biting people's necks is your coolest desire.  Barnabas, you're our favorite vampire!  Vampire!"

Any bets that will make it into the Tim Burton movie? 

[Gothick]

I thought it was "mustang vest"--a style of vest popular in the late Sixties--more Quentin's line than Barnabas', actually.

G.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Hmmm...  I don't know.  And I don't see the official lyrics posted anywhere either.  I remember thinking it was Mustang at some point, and then I changed my opinion to blood-stained later on.  (I guess it felt more appropriate!)  So, you may be right.  I don't have access to the song, so I can't even give it another listen.  But if someone else does... 

That way when the official 2012 soundtrack is released, all the groovie ghouls will have the correct lyrics on record.   

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Just checked around Twitter for the first time in a long time and came across this:

Darkershadeofme Chris Mullen
#HighlightOf2011 Meeting and working with Tim Burton and legendary Hollywood producer Richard D. Zanuck!
31 Dec

As you may recall from his past tweets, Mullen worked on the DS film as a production secretary.


And it's nice to see that this writer at MSNBC would pick DS over The Avengers:

Movies to look forward to in 2012

129 days 9 hours 58 minutes 12 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Yes, that is exciting! Let's hope other people feel the same way.  I am not sure if Shadows will beat Avengers in its first week.  But, I am pretty sure that it will be first the following week.  Again, all of this depends on the reception of both films.  But I think Avengers will be positively received, which could put a dent in Shadows' numbers.  But, we can always hope otherwise!   

As an aside, I see IMDB now has an image in the "official poster" slot.  Yes.  You guessed it.  It's the cast picture.  Considering that it looks terrible on the page, I am fairly certain that someone is trying to force Warner Bros into releasing a poster...   

BUT!  It is also featured on the IMDB homepage, advertising the Warner films of 2012!  Fantastic!

[Gothick]

Did the MTV weekly DS column/feature dry up? I figured it might have done simply for lack of material...

G.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

I have not seen anything, G...   

But more news from the IMDB front...  Dark Shadows has just been upgraded from a Top 5,000 title to a Top 500 title - despite the fact that there is no new publicity.  Interesting...

[madscntst]

There may not be any new publicity from official sources (namely, the poster and trailer we've all been waiting for!)  But I think that now that the holidays are over, and people are looking ahead to what's coming in 2012, DS is coming to mind.  It doesn't hurt that it's on lists like the MSNBC one and this one from Zimbio:

The Ten Can't Miss Films of 2012

So folks are probably reading lists like these and going to IMDb to check it out    

Cathy

[Gothick]

It IS interesting, Cathy, given that the ONLY promotional material that has been released were three magazine photographs four months ago.

The fact that the title is showing up on all these lists is almost enough to make one wonder about payola... but, we know the "Industry" doesn't operate that way any longer ... don't we?  *wink*

G.

[Miss_Winthrop]

I'm anxious to hear news of the 'rating' the movie will receive...will the music box be in the movie..what will the music by Elfman be like...so many questions, so few answers thus far. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I haven't logged into IMDbPro in ages, so I went to see why DS jumped to Top 500 - and the reason is that last week the film was ranked #603 and this week it jumped up to #375. And what prompted that you ask? Well, it's mostly being attributed to reports about and including Christopher Lee's video in which he mentioned doing DS (apparently a lot of people were still unaware of his participation), and to a lesser degree it's being attributed to the various Web site articles last week about Warner Brothers' release slate.

I know it definitely can't be attributed to the pieces the entertainment shows Extra and Access Hollywood did on the upcoming movies for 2012 because DS wasn't included on either - which is interesting because both shows are produced by Warner Brothers TV. However, all the films that were included in both pieces already have trailers out and bits and pieces of those trailers were showcased by both shows. But as we all know only too well, DS has no trailer as of yet, so I'm presuming that's what kept it off of both shows. Though a somewhat similar instance of DS not being included can definitely be attributed to DS not having a trailer - and that's a recent poll that was conducted by Entertainment Weekly of the Most Anticipated Films Of 2012. It was specifically stated in the poll that only films that have released trailers were included (because the thinking was that that was the only real way voters in the poll could legitimately judge what films to anticipate - and I can certainly see some logic in that thinking). So, of course, because DS wasn't included, it's nowhere to be seen in the results that were published in EW's latest issue.    And another thing that makes me pretty sure that at least in Access Hollywood's case it was a lack of a trailer that kept DS out of their piece is the fact that EW's Jeff Jensen was the person who was interviewed about the 2012 releases.

But getting back to IMDb, 2011 was a very good year for DS as far as its rankings there go. It may have spent January fluctuating between #1470 and #1113, but the week of February 6th, thanks to the first casting news, it climbed to #586 - and it rarely fell much lower. It was even as high as #182 the week of April 3rd when news of Chloe Moretz' casting came out. And its second highest ranking, which was #205, was the week of September 18th when she first began talking about the film after wrapping her part. And if all that isn't proof that she's going to be one of the major draws of the film, nothing is. 

128 days 10 hours 53 minutes 16 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[jimbo]

Well said MB. There is no doubt that many entities have excluded DS from its most anticipated movies of 2012 type lists because there is no trailer. In addition it follows that DS is not even being considered as a prospective franchise for example as seen here http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3338&p=.htm I do hope WB is going to heavily promote this movie.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

As much as we do jest that there isn't a trailer (or even a teaser poster yet), it is frustrating. But at the same time I don't doubt for a second that Warner Brothers has a marketing plan in place for DS or that they plan to promote the film heavily. Of course we would have preferred to have seen at least a teaser trailer by now. And we have no idea what the delay (at least to our minds) is. But IF there is a delay in Warner Brothers' timetable and it's not something that has been part of the plan all along, the reason behind it could be quite simple. As I said before, it could easily be that some special effect or effects that they may want to include in a trailer haven't been perfected yet, and they don't want to put out a trailer without it or them being included to hopefully wow an audience. And if that is the case, those sorts of delays are often commonplace. (Just watch any number of films' DVD/Blu-ray extras for evidence of that.  ) And one thing that probably shouldn't be overlooked in all this is that the first impression of something is quite often the one that lingers regardless of what comes afterward. So, I'd much rather have to wait for all involved to get a trailer assembled that gets everything right rather than have them rush something out simply because so many other films already have their trailers out...

128 days 7 hours 4 minutes 3 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!