Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

[Phil]

It is obvious from the range of posts here and based on what we know so far that those looking for a dark, heavy, serious tone mixed with some comedic moments are going to be very disappointed; those wanting to see an over the top parody are going to love the movie.

What I'm looking for is something between the two extremes but, in terms of specifics, one which I'm not qualified to imagine. I pay 11 bucks (yep, 11) to see things I couldn't come up with on my own.

[jimbo]

Actually it is 12 dollars where I am but I digress. I won't be happy with a BC purportedly yawning after he is freed after 200 years. Funny, for sure. JD has stated he wants to play BC as a classical vampire. I don't think Dracula would be yawning in the same story context after being buried all those years. With respect to the spoiler Neiljohnson referred to, that is an unacceptable story twist IMO. That is akin to a child finding a puppy and asking his parents, "can we keep him?". The bottom line is we don't exactly know what the truth is until we see the trailer.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I keep coming back to what was said at Comic Con. When someone in the audience said she was afraid the film was going to be campy and a parody of the original show, not only did KLS and Lara Parker flatly deny that it would be, so did Jim Pierson. And when the same person said she didn't want to see what she termed "Jack Sparrow in Maine," they all said there was no worry of that because the film wouldn't be anything like that.

77 days 23 hours 9 minutes 47 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The bottom line is we don't exactly know what the truth is until we see the trailer.

We may not even know it then because, as several people have said, trailers don't necessarily give a complete and accurate picture of what a film is really like. Often they showcase one aspect of a film but not the film's tone in its entirety.

We won't actually know what the film is really like until we finally see it for ourselves...

77 days 23 hours 0 minutes 18 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Gothick]

I just read the Ross person's description of those two trailers.  Hoo boy, sounds like a bottom-of-the-barrel script to me. 

I'm not surprised that Seth Graham failed to get the ring of late 18th century genteel speech, but it is surprising that he seems to have given such anachronistic dialogue to people living in 1972.  I do remember how people talked back then.  It wasn't anything at all like the dialogue quoted in the Ross rap about these snippets.

Excitement fading... but, we still have the DVD restoration of NoDS to look forward to... that remains my predominant focus as a fan of the original.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I do have to say one thing that I enjoyed reading in the description of the longer trailer was this part:

A train is moving then a ghostly appearance of Bella Heathcote's character appears and says "She's coming". Voice over says "I don't know what it is, there's always been something funny here pulling me to you". The real life Josette walks in. Depp stands up and says "Josette". The little brother character says "That's freaky" Bella Heathcote says to Depp "I feel like I've known you forever".

77 days 22 hours 13 minutes 14 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Cousin_Barnabas]

and i'm not really seeing the connection between whether the film is a comedy or not and the production values of the sets and costuming.

Maybe it's just me, but I think the loyalty to the original look, especially for Barnabas, Julia, and Roger and the fact that Burton's team scouted Seaview tells us that they are trying to keep the look of the show true to original form.  They could have gone with radical new designs for these characters, but they chose not to.  HBC's wig, Depp's bangs...  All original elements that are instantly recognizable.  If Burton was going to deviate in tone there would be no reason to be so strict to the original look of the characters - unless it was a downright parody.  If he wanted to create a new tone for the movie, why be so slavish to the original look?  He could just make his own new look to go along with the new tone...  That's how I see it anyway. 

Since March, Burton has stated that he has been wanting to get the tone "right".  That doesn't indicate to me that he is creating a new (different) tone (a la overall comic tone).  That indicates he is trying to set a tone in a similar way to how he designed the looks of the characters and of the sets - a tone that would reflect the look of the film.  I don't really see an out and out comedy doing that, as it deviates from the look.  If it's a parody, I get it.  If it's not, I don't see a point to recreating the original look and then not recreating something akin to the original tone. 

Almost everything we have been told about these trailers would seem to contradict that.  And yet I can't help but remember exactly what MB brought up about what KLS, LP, and JP said at Comic Con...    Plus, we have been told it's a horror film, that the comedic elements are all based around Barnabas and his transition to his new life.

Which leads into this...

That they've done that, and are making a goofy love letter to the original show, without any kind of slavish fanboy loyalty, is kind of what excites me.

I agree 100 percent.  I just hope that it doesn't end up being an outright comedy, that it balances the comic with the dramatic, and that it holds true to what we can all recognize as being Dark Shadows.

And I think we can all agree with MB that the part of the trailer description that deals with Josette is on par with what we are hoping for...  This kind of description has me thrilled.  I just don't want the comedy and "light raunchiness" to detract from that - which is why these trailer descriptions bother me.  But, as has been said before, they may not be reflections of the final product... or even legitimate reflections of the final movie at all. 

Then again, my optimism could be leading me towards disappointment.  The finalized promotional materials will definitely help me in coming to a better conclusion though. 

[Gothick]

Just my personal opinion... I would take more seriously the comments from the two cast members and Pierson if the women had been on set more than one or two days, and Pierson weren't a paid employee of Dan Curtis Productions with an obvious fiduciary interest in the success of this project.

Frankly, if it helped sell Pom Press Books, I think KLS would say just about anything to anyone (to quote Dr. Julia Hoffman in a certain scene with Our Favorite Witch).

Trying to be tactful here... whatever else one may say about the trailer descriptions, they purport to include actual dialogue from actual scenes in the completed film. 

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

That's true. And I hate to keep harping on this, but even if all of that dialogue is indeed in the film exactly as quoted (though we have yet to see for ourselves how it's delivered), probably at the most it could comprise 90 seconds of content. And while there's also a probability that there's more where it came from, it wouldn't be the first time if that trailer gathers the most and the best of that type of dialogue to showcase it but most of the rest of the film could be very different. It wouldn't be the first time by a long short. Trailers can and have been very deceptive. With adept editing they can make dramatic films look like comedic films, comedic films look like dramatic films, romantic films look like action films, action films look like romantic films, action films look like comedic films, etc., etc. And there are too many examples of that to even begin to list here.

The bottom line is that trailer is designed to attract the potential portion of the audience who will respond to Depp/Burton's brand of humor. And like I said, if we can go by the Depp fans over on JOHNNYDEPPZONE, the descriptions of it seem to be working rather well. But that doesn't necessarily mean that all there is to the film is one liner upon one liner (the description of and the lack of one liners in the part involving Josette shows that to some degree). And given how so many people connected with it have said that the DS film contains a variety of styles and moods and because of that it will be very interesting to see how Warner Brothers attempts to market it, it just might be the case that no trailer, whether it focuses mostly on humor or romance or horror or whatever else, will be an accurate reflection of what the film will really be like...

77 days 11 hours 6 minutes 46 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[borgosi]

From the very start I've said that I don't like the idea of humor coming from Barnabas as "stranger in a strange land". It makes me think of "Escape From The Planet Of The Apes". Many have said that JP and HBC look like they're playing Frid and Hall as Barnabas and Julia, in my opinion that is parody.

I hope it's a very good movie. I hope it isn't a parody. I hope most of us like it.

[Joeytrom]

I remember that "Arachnaphobia" (sp?) was originally presented as a comedy in the first trailer.  When the movie started to make a lot of money, a later trailer had a completely serious tone.

I never saw the movie myself but I have heard it wasn't really a comedy.

[KMR]

And given how so many people connected with it have said that the DS film contains a variety of styles and moods and because of that it will be very interesting to see how Warner Brothers attempts to market it, it just might be the case that no trailer, whether it focuses mostly on humor or romance or horror or whatever else, will be an accurate reflection of what the film will really be like...

Exactly, MB.  I keep reminding myself of HBC's comment that she's wondering how in the world Warner Bros. will sell the film.  DS has always been pretty much sui generis, and it only makes sense that this film would be as well.  Of course I'm nervous, but the way we've been hearing only positive stuff from those involved gives me much hope.  I don't recall ever hearing anything negative from anybody who's been involved.

[borgosi]

The web page that ComingSoon shows as the offical page for the movie DarkShadowsthemovie.com now takes you to the WB page.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Make what you want of it, but someone on imdb claims to have seen the trailer after taking a movie survey:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1077368/board/nest/194768736?p=1

OK, this is fascinating - I just discovered that every post in that topic "has been deleted by an administrator." In fact, you can't even access the topic unless you use the link that Sara Monster posted for us. Yet the IMDb topic discussing the descriptions over on SuperHeroHype of the two consumer survey trailers is still on IMDb. What was it about the first topic that got the entire discussion deleted but hasn't affected the second topic? Well, not as of yet, anyway...

76 days 6 hours 9 minutes 12 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

'Dark Shadows' Trailer: Where Is It, Tim Burton?
With just 77 days until the film's release, we're still waiting for even a taste of the campy Johnny Depp starrer.

76 days 4 hours 12 minutes 20 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!