Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

I just watched "Escape From The Planet Of The Apes". Mostly to be reminded of how they handled the Apes learning about the world that they found themselves in. There's a bit when one of them answers a reporter on a TV, a bit with one taking a bouble bath, there's even one trying on a cape. The comedy isn't nearly as over the top but the point is that even after they made them comical, you were still about to take them serious.

There is a chance that even with Barnabas looking like a fool in the trailer that they could still make him serious. I don't know if he could ever be scary after what we've seen but who knows, maybe.

And so Seth Grahame-Smith's book is called Unholy Night and in it he takes on The Three Wise Men and they're thieves led by Balthazar. I've read one of his books and I never want to go through that again.

Richard - I was unhappy with Grahame-Smith as screen writer because in my opinion anyone that would "Pride and Prejudice and Zombie" shows that he has no respect for the classics. TB has said that he likes Grahame-Smith's since of humor. Butcher the classics....oh, how funny.

I did see 21 Jump Street today, and the DS trailer did show in front of it.  I started to think we wouldn't get it because I believe it was the last one shown.  I was at a Regal Cinema.

Cousin, thanks for the link to Graeme-Smith's article.  Once again, my reaction is different than Richard's in that I'm encouraged that there will be more to the film than a black/white extreme of a parody.  But that's just me- I am not sold on the film but am still open to it.

Everytime I find something to make me feel a little better about the film something happens to make me feel bad about it again.

I'm so hoping they do some re-editing, even if it delays the release.

THE WOMAN IN BLACK (2012) proves that a straightforward period Gothic horror film is still viable and very much in vogue.

Maybe we have different definitions of in vogue, but I don't believe The Woman In Black fits my definition.  I went and found it to be kind of slow, and the scariest things were more startling than anything else.  The movie was never #1 at the box office, even in its opening weekend and with a considerable advertising campaign and opening on Super Bowl weekend.  Honestly, I think Chronicle, which came out the same weekend, was a better film.  A quick look at Rotten Tomatoes suggests 63% of the people who watched The Woman In Black liked it. 

I guess my point is, I recognize that different people can see the same film and have drastically different opinions about it.  I am planning to keep an open mind and see the movie.  Only after actually seeing it will I form an opinion about whether I like it or not. 

Not to speak for others but I don't believe anyone here has formed an opinion about the film. We do have an opinion about the trailer, a trailer made to promoto the film, to get people to spend their money going to see the film. That's it's job. If it doesn't represent what's in the film that's not our falt. It's the falt of who ever made and approved it. Until we are able to see the completed film what else can any of us judge it by?

Based on the available information I am in agreement with Richard's last post. My goodness Seth speaks like a politician.

Richard - I was unhappy with Grahame-Smith as screen writer because in my opinion anyone that would "Pride and Prejudice and Zombie" shows that he has no respect for the classics. TB has said that he likes Grahame-Smith's since of humor. Butcher the classics....oh, how funny.

But the addition of monsters is the only way you can get some kids to read them at all, and maybe if they do read it and like it, they'll check out the original work.

Maybe he does have a lot of respect for the classics, but his sense of humor runs different from yours.

Cousin, thanks for the link to Graeme-Smith's article.  Once again, my reaction is different than Richard's in that I'm encouraged that there will be more to the film than a black/white extreme of a parody.  But that's just me- I am not sold on the film but am still open to it.

I agree with you, I found that article encouraging in that Smith states it's a balance between gothic drama and comedy--not one or the other.  I take that to mean there's this other side of the film that wasn't represented as much in the trailer. 

arashi - Have you read anything by him? And now he's turning the Three Wise Men into thieves! That'll make a great Christmas movie. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll do a book about Muhammad next. Just think he could have a writing credit on The Bible and The Koran. Or maybe he just thinks it funny.

arashi - Do you like "Cliff Notes" or Colorized movies? Do you agree with them? Are they respectful of the original works? They could get people who may not otherwise read a classic or watch a black & white movie to do so.

THE WOMAN IN BLACK (2012) proves that a straightforward period Gothic horror film is still viable and very much in vogue.

You keep bringing up this movie and citing how successful it has been compared to what one might expect. Have you actually seen the film, or are you just basing your opinion on the results the film has yielded? Have you considered that perhaps the film may have fared better than it would have had it starred someone not as known as Radcliffe is?

As far as Graham-Smith's short interview goes, I'm not at all surprised. I do agree that he's trying to play the field, but why shouldn't he? His job is to promote the film, and as another cousin pointed out several pages ago, anyone who is promoting the film will make comments that must be taken with a grain of salt. If you ask anyone who's worked on a film, whether it's an actor or a stagehand, they will probably say the film is great, not only based on the actual film itself but also based upon the experience they had while making the film.

We won't know exactly what this thing will turn out to be until we can plop ourselves down in front of a theater screen and watch it. Wouldn't it be interesting if everyone who is looking forward to it ends up hating it and those who seem to harbor negative feelings currently end up loving it? More than likely this won't happen, but we all know where DS is concerned stranger things have occurred.

I was looking through some old issues on The World of DS today, and I have to say that they reminded me of something - many of the cartoons done by Sherlock and Stanford and Warren Oddsson have humor extremely reminiscent of the humor in the DS film's trailer. And if I'm being truthful, I definitely remember finding them quite amusing back in the day (as I'm sure others had or such cartoons wouldn't have continued to apper) so perhaps that's why I'm not finding it quite as hard as others to accept and even appreciate some of the humor in the trailer. And if I'm also being truthful, I'm also guilty of having said very similar things to what's depicted in the trailer. In fact, a friend just reminded me today that one day back in the '80s when we were watching an ep of DS in which Barnabas and Angelique were arguing and Barn said something to the effect of wondering what had ever attracted him to her, I joked that she ripped open whatever she was wearing, thrust her chest out, and said "Could it have been these?!" And when my friend saw the similar scene in the trailer, he laughed hysterically because he thought it was like the film was channeling that moment with us. What can I say?    But then, as anyone who reads the Caption This! and the Complete This Phrase / Fill In The Blank(s) boards knows, I post hopefully humorous things about DS nearly ever day of the week. And nothing about that means that I don't love DS or that I don't generally take it seriously when we're having serious discussions about it. The evidence for that is all over the forum as well. So, it really isn't impossible to love DS and also to be able to appreciate any sort of humorous DS take - including what we're seeing depicted in the trailer.

So, I guess that one of the things I'm trying to say is that now that Depp has told us that the DS film is "not anything like a vampire picture" (and it might have been nice had he told us that sooner), I've decided to embrace the trailer and use a few of the humorous things in it as some of my avatars (yes, Midnite and I now have multiple avatars - but then, being an admin has its privileges ). And I assure anyone who has commented unfavorably about two of the scenes I'm using that I'm simply using them because I honestly find the moments funny and not for any other reasons...

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

MB, I enjoyed Sherlock's and Warren's cartoons in TWODS and they usually gave me a good laugh as well but I wouldn't want them to form the basis for a film or TV series entitled "Dark Shadows."   I have no problems with parody and having fun with the source material if it's done as a side thing in a 'zine or even as a humorous backup strip in a comic book, but not as "Dark Shadows the movie."  We shall see...

And I can totally understand your take, PD, as well as sympathize with your feelings. It's just that we're not going to get the film we really would have liked, so I'm completely willing to keep an open mind that the film we are going to get is something I can appreciate for what it is rather than what I might have wished it would have been.


And speaking of the film, IF whatever is shown tonight during Once Upon a Time is different from what we've already seen, I'll certainly post it. And that goes from any future TV ads that will no doubt come along...

53 days 3 hours 12 minutes 59 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!