Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

Well, this latest trailer really does make me wonder if perhaps the whole Collins family does know Barnabas' secret.

I just saw the ad for ET and their spot on DS tomorrow. I can't wait to see behind the scenes, and it definitely looks like we'll get to see things we haven't already from the various pictures and trailers that have come out over the past few weeks.

Thanks so much for the latest video spot, MB!  For some reason, I didn't get any audio when I tried to play it in Quicktime, but it worked just fine using VLC media player.  I love Johnny's phrasing when he says the "biggest balls" line- I don't feel that it's too over the top 

Interesting - I just tried to play it in Quicktime and I can't get it to play at all - no video or sound - yet it plays perfectly in every other video player I have in Windows and Linux. How strange.    But considering how much trouble my video creating software was giving me to try to create it, I suppose I should count my blessings that Quicktime seems to be the only player with a problem...

16 days 3 hours 15 minutes 17 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

Well, this latest trailer really does make me wonder if perhaps the whole Collins family does know Barnabas' secret.

In the one for which MB provided an .mp4 file (thank you, MB!), Barnabas tells the group of hippies that he's been in a box for the last 200 years.  In the latest YouTube one, you hear Barnabas say "I'm a vampire," and it's edited to appear that Willie responds, but it's impossible to tell who he says it to.  In the Chinese commercial we've seen, he clearly tells the hippies that he's a vampire and that he now has to kill them all. 

To be honest, I'm beginning to think that he might actually keep his secret largely intact to people he doesn't intend to bite.

I think Elizabeth will know for sure.  Possibly Victoria too unless he says he has a skin disease and that is why he has to go out in all kind of sunscreen and a umbrella. Can't wait till tomorrow!

Thanks for taking the time to upload that, MB.  Mine worked in VLC.

After seeing these most recent advertisements, my excitement for this project has actually waned a great deal. 

But I think what really got me was this...  (The top has the spoiler track titles, but if you scroll down to the bottom, you can hear the complete first track (8 mins).)

http://www.soundtrackgeek.com/v2/soundtrack-review-dark-shadows-2012/

Where is Cobert's theme?  I don't hear it, and they have the whole prologue up.  Okay, you can kind of hear influences in it (6:17 sounds familiar), but I don't hear enough of the notes together to satisfy me.  Is it too much to ask for 25 seconds of a 50 minute score dedicated to the original theme song? 

The music is good, but without the theme or any other whole musical composition from Cobert, it's just not Dark Shadows to me.

What gives me hope is the track "Shadows Reprise."  It's 44 seconds long and it starts with the electronic "waves."  Since it's a reprise of a song named "Shadows" which is not included anywhere on the score, I am hoping that said missing music will be in the final film - and whatever "Shadows" is in full form is actually the original theme song (with that dubstep sound).  Cobert's theme would work great with that sound.  And I don't think it's asking too much.  But I am now 90% certain that the theme is not on this release.  And now 60% sure it's not in the film, and that upsets me... to the point of disinterest actually. 

Maybe something will come out to change my mind again, but the music was the selling point for me.     

Well I didn't get a copy of the 4th spot. In fact, I didn't see any spots during what I watched. However, I did hear from a friend that the spot MysticScribe told us about was shown during the series premiere of The L.A. Complex on the CW - though I didn't record that. But tomorrow's another chance...

Anyway, here are the first 3 screen captures from the new stuff in the 4th 30 second TV spot:

Click for larger image: Capture #140

Click for larger image: Capture #148

Click for larger image: Capture #328

16 days 0 hours 46 minutes 10 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

And here are the next 4:

Click for larger image: Capture #359

Click for larger image: Capture #373
(It's interesting that Liz is wearing the same dress in those two caps as she is in the photo of her aiming the gun in the Sci Fi Magazine article. And she's also in the drawing room in that photo. So who knows what is going on?!)

Click for larger image: Capture #388

Click for larger image: Capture #439

16 days 0 hours 40 minutes 41 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

And here are the next 4:

Click for larger image: Capture #452

Click for larger image: Capture #488

Click for larger image: Capture #492

Click for larger image: Capture #606

16 days 0 hours 34 minutes 39 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

And here are the final 3:

Click for larger image: Capture #614

Click for larger image: Capture #627

Click for larger image: Capture #637

16 days 0 hours 31 minutes 38 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

It's interesting because the more I see, the more intrigued I become - especially when it comes to what I'm seeing of Liz. I strongly suspect I'm going to absolutely love Michelle Pfeiffer's interpretation. And I'm getting really excited to see Jonny Lee Miller's Roger as well. His body language and facial expressions in some of the scenes and stills look to me to be dead on perfect.

And as far as the score goes, even though I absolutely love Robert Cobert's compositions for the original show, the original films, and the '91 DS, it doesn't disappoint me at all that none of it may appear in the film - mostly because I love what I've heard thus far of Danny Elfman's score, and I think it's a perfect fit for DS. Though all that being said, I can definitely understand and sympathize with those who were hoping for more of a Cobert presence. But for me the frequent back and forth between something of his will be used or possibly won't be used in the film got me to the point where I wasn't counting on anything of Cobert's being used. So, I'm not as disappointed as I would have been had I been counting on it.

16 days 0 hours 21 minutes 7 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

Oh, yes, I think Michelle and Bella will be great.  I am sure other actors will excel as well.  But the more bodily humor that pops up in the ads and the seeming lack of Cobert's theme (25 seconds is all I asked for) just makes me feel apathetic towards the project.  And, as we all know, I had been looking forward to it for a long time.  But we will see what the new trailer brings with it.  If it's more of the same, I probably won't be rushing to the theater to watch this.  If it actually brings something new to the table, I may be there opening weekend.  At this point, I'm just sort of burnt out.  I knew this wasn't going to be the DS I had hoped for, and I accepted that; but I was planning on a little more flavor of the original materializing than what I am seeing with the new ads and hearing in the soundtrack (which I think is beautiful and works well for something called Dark Shadows - but lacking in any of the following musical compositions: Dark Shadows, Shadows of the Night, Collinwood, Josette's Music Box, Cue 2...  I just can't accept it as being Dark Shadows.)  I hope that the theme is used in the final cut, and I hope that the tone is much more in line with what Burton et al are saying in the monster mags, but the latest batch of materials hasn't been able to keep my interest.  But I will keep my eyes on this thread, searching for something to change my mind.   You know I want to!   

Well, the Angelique's breasts bit is certainly overt, but the "biggest and most wonderful balls" remark is not. And as with the panties sequence, I do honestly think it's in keeping with Angelique character. It's taken to a more explicit place than we've previously seen - but it is well within character. And I have no problem with it being more explicit. Some of the stuff in the '91 DS was more explicit than the original show - and it's pretty much only to be expected things would be more explicit in a film.

15 days 23 hours 35 minutes 54 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

Seeing the amount of anxiety that exists for some DS fans about this movie, I'm curious how some of the tweaks were perceived among longtime fans when the 1991 series first aired.  For example, were there debates about the changes to Maggie's character (the affair with Roger, her being a psychic) at festivals?  I realize the internet and message boards didn't exist to whip emotions into a frenzy, but I don't remember this amount of trepidation for anything Dark Shadows in the past.