Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

Again, don't know if this had been posted yet,
'Dark Shadows' Featurette: Strange Family

There seems to be new stuff everyday, lately!
& Haven't even watched it in full yet, to see how many spoilers might be in it. So be warned.

I noticed that if you go to the Facebook page of the film, and scroll all the way to the bottom, there are posts to the timeline from as early as 1752, and they continue up through 1776, explaining so of what, I'm guessing, we can expect to see in the prologue portion of the film. Family curses, troubled young Barnabas, and even how Joshua and Naomi meet their end are all explained.

http://www.facebook.com/darkshadowsmovie

Sara and Brandon, thanks for those two last links.  Really good stuff!  I'm getting more and more impatient to see this movie!!!

When the '91 prime-time remake came out, I was so excited, and then had my major disappointments.  As I stated before, I thought it was, for the most part, horribly miscast.  Some, I thought, were perfect:  Jean Simmons (as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard and Naomi Collins), Barbara Steele (as Dr. Julia Hoffman and Natalie DuPres), Stefan Gierasch (not so much as the combined Michael Woodard/T. Eliot Stokes character, but as Joshua Collins [he was great in that]), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (I think he made an even better David Collins that David Henesy did - he was the one that improved on the original), Julianna McCarthy (she was great as both as Sarah Johnson and even better as stick-up-her-patoot Abigail Collins and did Clarice Blackburn proud, even though she didn't make any mayonnaise).  I'll even give Barbara Blackburn her due playing Millicent Collins.  In that role, she was fabulous and did better than Nancy Barrett did (although Barbara's portrayal of Carolyn Collins Stoddard was very annoying to me).  Michael T. Weiss also pulled off a great Joe Haskell and Peter Bradford.  Just for making Peter Bradford a likeable character should've earned Weiss an Emmy.  As for the rest, pheh.  Even Ben Cross couldn't elicit the sympathy for Barnabas, with an early mixture of monster loathing (as it was originally intended) that our late, great Jonathan Frid did. 

The rest of the '91 series also grated on me, from the writing to the sets (palm trees, palm trees, PALM TREES!!!). 

But I loved it.  While it bounced around in schedule (the thing that killed it in the ratings) because of that pesky, annoying Gulf War, I made sure I found out when it was on, and if I couldn't watch it at home, I taped it.  I wouldn't've missed an episode if it meant my life.  When I found out it wasn't renewed, I went into the same tear-soaked depression that I did when our beloved original was cancelled.  It was, despite its many deficencies from our beloved original, and because of the faux pas from the original (and the HoDS rip-off that it also was) that should've been corrected, my DS.  I was so proud that the show I loved had made it to prime-time and to an even more vast audience. 

The same with HoDS.  It had all my characters and their actors/actresses, and even though it followed the original intent (to a degree) that was originally imagined for Barnabas, a totally evil, vile but with a tinge of sympathy character that was to be staked at the end of 13 weeks, but by that time the series had moved on for several years and was long gone from that original intent.  Also, the PTB at MGM demanded so many cuts that it made parts of the story incomprehensible, even to a 14-year-old like me.  But I still loved the movie.  It was my DS.  And, despite it being a gore fest rather than a character-driven film (made so by the cuts demanded by the MGM PTB), I still enjoyed it because I was living in a era with Hammer films.

And then there was NoDS.  Like I posted before, it had none of the characters from the original.  None.  Yes, there was a "Quentin," but he wasn't the Quentin from the original.  Neither was the "Angelique."  She was removed decades from the original.  The movie also suffered from cutting problems ordered by the MGM PTB, but I still loved it.  It was my DS.

So I do find fault with everything that followed from the original (and I find fault with the original).  The movies weren't perfect.  The '91 version wasn't perfect.  I'll forever hold that making Willie a doofus in the '91 was a massive mistake when it came to trying to inject comedy (Barbara Blackburn's portrayal of Millicent Collins actually did it to almost perfection - if Dan Curtis had just stuck with that, I wouldn't've had any problem). 

Oh, but I loved them all, warts and all.  To me, that's a basis for DS fandom.  I'm so psyched about this movie and can't wait to see it.  For many, if not most, if not all of us DS fans, it'll have warts.  That's a part of DS.  I happen to agree with Depp and Burton that doing just another straight-forward, all-horror remake of the same old same won't work anymore.  If HoDS had been made following the exact, same storyline of the TV show, I believe it would've died in the theaters.  (And MGM looked into making a movie that would've consisted of cutting-and-pasting scenes from the show - what a nightmare that would've been.)  It went a different direction and became a 1970 box-office smash.  If NoDS has been just a sequel rehash of Barnabas coming back to exact revenge or whatever (an impossibility since most everyone was killed off in HoDS), it would've looked like The Return of Count Yorga.  If the '91 version had tried an exact replica of the original, it wouldn't have garnished the high ratings it initially did (and draw into our family of cousins those who had little exposure to, or even heard of, the original). 

So I'll retain my criticism of what followed the first DS (and my criticisms of the first DS).  Whether or not they are all valid, the original and what has all followed has kept our beloved DS in the spotlight.  We've now got a major motion picture again bringing it "back to life."  It might not be the way all of us want it (and the '91 version wasn't the way I wanted it), but it's put our show out there for the whole world to see.  As I posted before, I have friends who have absolutely loathed DS and all it stands for.  Because of this movie, they are becoming fanatical supporters, and they haven't even seen it yet.  In my DS-movie Saturday, May 12th matinee party that we are planning, we now have about 30 people.  Maybe five of us grew up watching and appreciating DS - the rest have only vaguely heard of it, seen little bits of it, and didn't care for it.  Now they can't wait.  If that means that Barnabas (i.e., Depp) slaps Willie Loomis on the forehead the way Leslie Nielson did to Renfield in Love at First Bite, then that's what it takes.  Would our original have had a scene like that involving Jonathan Frid and John Karlen?  Well, it didn't.  But now I'm seeing around two-dozen people whom I know who once hated DS now turning into fans.

We all need to give this continuation of DS a chance.  We gave all the other incarnations a chance.  We all found fault with them.  And yet, all of them have kept this show visible.  I've made my perception of the '91 remake clear.  I thought, in comparison to the original, it was awful.  But I still loved it.  It brought a whole new generation of fans, including many of those here.  I laud the '91 version for that.  I bow before it.  Now, bring me those up-coming comments in the film about birthing hips and Karen Carpenter on TV being a miniature sorceress songstress and watching a vampire try to brush his fangs in a mirror where he casts no reflection.  Don't worry if it doesn't line up with the original.  That was then, this is now.  And we want DS to always remain in the now.  Carrie, in the 1974  Stephen King novel, and the 1976 screen adaptation, looked up information about her abilities using a flip-card catalogue and something called "books" in the library  In the 2002 made-for-TV version, she used a computer and the internet in the library.  It was changed, and the different adaptation didn't distract from the original at all. 

That was then, this is now.

Gerard

It survived years of being in syndication here and there with few viewers ever having seen the entire series,

I remember back in the late 70s - early 80s, when some episodes were reconstructed in the old zines purely on the basis of distant memory and some photographic clues!  No MPI, no second half syndication, no internet.  Talk about feeling isolated!  Yes, I am a first generation fan. 

Petofi

  Bottom line -  I really don't care what anyone thinks about the Barnabas Collins I grew up enjoying; the same is true for the original series.   And for that reason, what anyone thinks of the Depp portrayal of the character is meaningless to me.

From what I've seen of the trailers and behind the scenes stuff, I think it looks like a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to seeing it. If it ends up being crap, it won't affect my viewing of the original whenever the mood strikes me.

I received a tweet on my phone from GK Films about the new featurette - but I wasn't home at the time and just got back. So, I have a question to those who have already watched it: if I want to avoid spoilers (which I wasn't able to do when I watched the first featurette) should I just download this new one and save it to watch after seeing the film? Or is this new one safe to watch beforehand?

9 days 3 hours 28 minutes 24 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

Was this tv spot video linked to yet?

I posted screen caps of that one (starting back with reply #3904 on page #261) - but I haven't posted the video of it yet. In fact, I'm way behind on posting video. But I want to see if I can get the the bottom of what's going on with Quicktime, and I just haven't found the time to do it yet. 

9 days 3 hours 19 minutes 7 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

I noticed that if you go to the Facebook page of the film, and scroll all the way to the bottom, there are posts to the timeline from as early as 1752, and they continue up through 1776, explaining so of what, I'm guessing, we can expect to see in the prologue portion of the film.

So events do play out through 1776. Well, now Angelique's 196 years comment makes sense.

Family curses, troubled young Barnabas, and even how Joshua and Naomi meet their end are all explained.

All of which I don't want to know about until I see the film. But thanks for posting the link, Brandon, for those who don't mind spoilers. 

9 days 3 hours 15 minutes 21 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

I was just looking for something that I'd bookmarked last year, and lo and behold what did I discover - something else that I'd bookmarked last year not even realizing how it could pertain to the DS film - but a subject which we've often discussed since the DS film's trailers and TV spots have come out:

How Ratings and Trailers Mislead You -- And What to Do About It

9 days 2 hours 55 minutes 39 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/6839359/The-chameleon-queen

At this point I'm not even sure what counts as a spoiler anymore, so.. 

MB, you asked about possible spoilers in the new featurette.  I wouldn't say there are definite spoilers in the featurette, but it does clarifiy/confirm a couple of things that have been discussed here on the forum.  Anyone who would consider confirmations on the same level as spoilers should probably avoid the featurette.

For those who want to discuss, I'll hide the confirmations as spoilers.  In the featurette, we see that [spoiler]Collinwood does indeed burn, and there is clearly a mausoleum in the film.[/spoiler]

It amazes me that they consider sequels after everything that goes down.  But if they wanted to do it with HoDS, they can do it with this...  It will just be harder.   

Well, we don't really know for sure what happens. We have our suspicions with a lot of things. And for instance, just because[spoiler]we know that Collinwood burns, that doesn't mean that the damage is beyond repair. Have you seen that cache of jewels and gold that Barnabas has stashed away?  [/spoiler]And as I've also said, if what I suspect happens at the end of the film really does happen, it would be a tremendous tease to leave things that way. I would love to see a sequel flesh out how things might play out from there. Though there's always the possibility that a sequel would take place at some point in the past. Say some sort of version of the 1897 storyline. There are actually all sorts of directions for a sequel to possibly go in...

9 days 1 hour 12 minutes 26 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[spoiler]It's really hard to see it go...  I was expecting that it would burn at the end of a trilogy or whatever, not in the first film (even though I have known since we saw that photo last year).  Yes, I am sure there will be some way of paying for a restoration.  But what about all of the portraits and antique phonographs?  They have to be saved.  And this fire looks really bad.[/spoiler]

And if what you expect is true, I can't even imagine where this thing will go.  That's uncharted territory with no need for Quentin.  But who knows...  At this point, I guess we just have to get through the first film.