Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Release!!

[David]

 

How silly! Alice in Wonderland and Burton's Planet of the Apes were annoying as hell, but Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd--all wonderful.
Gotta judge each film individually.

[madscntst]

^ I avoided Planet of the Apes, largely because of what I'd heard about it (which I guess makes me guilty of not judging for myself, but in this case I was going by what friends had said and not just critics/reviewers).  Alice was by far my least favorite Depp/Burton collaboration, but *someone* must've loved it because it made over $1 billion worldwide!  Sweeney Todd wasn't that long ago, and it was very well regarded when it came out and it got several major nominations, including an Oscar nom for Johnny, so it's weird that there is such a strong stigma against the pair of Depp/Burton these days.  (I love Burton, but even I admit that I was a little unhappy when I found out he was directing, as I'm sure I have said here several times-- I just never felt that he was quite the right fit)

Don't forget, too, that there is a fair amount of negativity coming from a segment of we, the fans of the OS.  Because this place is very civil and allows all opinions, I had started to forget how things are "on the outside".  But I popped onto the IMDb board the other day and was shocked at how people were still at each other's throats, and many of the movie haters were still claiming that anyone who liked the film must be a plant from WB    Not that the OS fans don't have their own right to their opinion, but if the DS fanbase is divided, I think that does add to the perception of how the film performed-- the media aren't going to say that the film was successful if the fans didn't unilaterally embrace it, and in a way, I can't blame them for that.  Just a thought.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

That's all very true, madscntst. I haven't been over to the IMDb board in a long time, so I don't know what's going on over there now - but if people in the media ever checked out the things that have gone on over there in the past, or worse still, some of the stuff that's transpired on Facebook, I shudder to think what they probably thought. 

As for Planet of the Apes, I DVR'd it one day in the early development of the DS film because I'd read so many bad things about it. However, I didn't think it was as bad as some of the things I'd read. It definitely kept my interest. And actually I was paying more attention to Helena Bonham Carter than anything else because I was more curious to see her performance because I'd seen so little of her work at that point - and I thought she was good. But I do have to admit that while I've seen all the original Apes films, I was never more than a casual fan of them. The only real reason I'd watched all of them was because I was curious to see the different takes and back histories. And even among the original films themselves there are certainly vastly varying degrees of quality. I mean, in some ways by the end the series became a parody of itself.

I still have the recording I made of PotA that day, so one of these days I should probably revisit the film to see what I think of it now.

102 days 14 hours 36 minutes 53 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

[jimbo]

Although I have purchased Blu-ray DVDs I haven't played them yet on my Blu-ray player. This new article on the movie's Blu-ray DVD says you can view the 9 bonus featurettes only if you are in the interactive mode. If you are watching the film in the interactive mode the bonus featurettes will come on during you viewing the movie and that seems to be a distraction to me? Perhaps I have misread the second paragraph in the article but I guess I will figure it out.
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Fangtastic-Dark-Shadows-Blu-Ray-Hit-Shelves-October-32581.html

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Watching Blu-rays can be a very different experience than watching DVDs - and interactive mode is one of the things that makes Blu-rays so cool. And yes, when in interactive mode a whole slew of features are likely to become available for selection or automatically. However, that isn't the only way a Blu-ray can be watched - it can also be watched normally just like a DVD. And that's what I tend to do the first time I watch something. But then I definitely watch again in the interactive mode. For example, I'm currently watching the 4th season of True Blood on Blu-ray. First I watch an ep exactly as it was shown on HBO - but then I'll watch the ep again in what the set refers to as "Enhanced Viewing." In that mode, which is simply their way of saying interactive mode, various characters on the show will pop up automatically during the ep to offer comments on scenes, situations, their character, other characters, and any number of other things. Also, all sorts of background character info never explored on the show is likely to come up at the bottom of the screen in a text box from time to time (mostly involving new characters). And if all that wasn't enough, the option to choose to watch past scenes, even ones from different seasons, will sometimes come up as a way to refresh your memory as to what happened in past eps that relates to what's currently happening. The entire experience is a great way to get deeper into the True Blood storylines and characters. And when it comes to films it's a similar situation as actors and behind the scenes personnel are likely to pop up to comment on what's happening in the film, and you're often given the option to watch behind the scenes video detailing how certain scenes were shot and such (after which you return to the film at the exact point that you left it to watch the video). Trust me, it's great fun! And from what that site is saying, that sounds like what the Blu-ray for the DS film will be like, which doesn't surprise me because that's what every other WB Blu-ray that I own is like.

One thing that I did find interesting on the site is that they indicate that the deleted scenes will also be on the DVD. I really do hope that's true and it's not a mistake. But unless they changed the info given on the back of the DVD, it wouldn't seem that the deleted scenes are actually on the DVD. But I suppose we'll find out for certain once the DVD actually comes out.

[jimbo]

Thanks so much MB for the detailed explanation.  It sounds like a fascinating viewing experience which I haven't truly experienced.  Sounds! like fun.

[michael c]

my DVD player is ten years old and nearing the end of it run...


while i wouldn't upgrade to the blue-ray format just for the DS release i might have to do it sooner or later anyways. so my question is this...

i have hundreds of DVDs that i don't want to replace. will they be compatible with a blue-ray setup or do i need to start again from scratch?

[David]

There are DVD/Blu Ray combo players. I'd go for that.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

All DVDs (as well as all CDs) play in all Blu-ray players. 

102 days 21 hours 46 minutes 11 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I'm not sure why because normally the show doesn't reshow segments until a film's DVD/Blu-ray comes out, and the DS DVD/Blu-ray doesn't come out until October, but I just noticed that beginning tomorrow ES.TV will start reshowing their segments with various stars of the DS film. Up tomorrow is Chloe Moretz (and Bella Heathcote). Thursday is Eva Green. And Friday is Michelle Pfeiffer. The other segments will probably follow next week - but next week's schedule hasn't been released yet. (And it might have been nice if they were going to show the segments again so soon, if they'd shown them while the DS film was still playing in several theaters instaed of a probable handful of theaters that are already off the grid. But I suppose we can't have everything.  )

102 days 22 hours 26 minutes 18 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Hmmm - Box Office Mojo has posted the Venezuelan chart for August 17-19, but DS isn't on it. And it's not like DS came out earlier in Venezuela because I just went all the way back through the charts to the May 11-13 weekend.

The official Web site definitely still listed August 17th as late as the end of June, which is the last time I looked at the release schedule. But apparently something happened and it looks like the release was delayed even more. Who knows?    And it's not even like we can check the official Web site again because the release schedule is no longer a part of it.

103 days 10 hours 6 minutes 4 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

While doing a Google search to try to track down the Venezuelan page for the DS film on Facebook (I referenced it back in June in this topic - but wouldn't you know that instead of linking to it for the video I wanted to share, I linked directly to YouTube - and now I have no clue how to locate the page again because originally I'd gone though the official Web site and the link is no longer there because it was on the release schedule page) one of the things that actually came up instead of the Facebook page was this article from Interview magazine:

Thomas McDonell Does It All

And what's most interesting about it is this portion:

BROWN: ... You just finished filming Tim Burton's new film, Dark Shadows, how was that?

MCDONELL: Yeah, I went to Pinewood Studios to work on that. It was quite interesting.

BROWN: Was it intimidating?

MCDONELL: No.

BROWN: There are a lot of exciting people in that movie: Christopher Lee, Eva Green, and, obviously Johnny Depp, although I think I've watched too much 21 Jump Street to take him seriously.

MCDONELL: That stuff made you not take him seriously? What about the videos of him reading Hunter S. Thompson letters online? They're pretty goofy.

BROWN: Is that what you opened with: "Hi, Mr. Depp, you're kind of goofy"?

MCDONELL: No.

BROWN: "Nice to meet you?"

MCDONELL: [laughs] No, not that either. I'm not telling you what I said.

As madscntst and I've said before, we were sure we'd seen interviews in which McDonell talked about shooting for the DS film. I don't know about madscntst, but this wasn't one of the ones I'd seen back then - but regardless, it still shows that he did shoot. But quite obviously as the film stands now they went in a totally different direction in the final edit. And it certainly doesn't look like anything that McDonell shot will be included as deleted scenes. And with no commentary, we may never know why McDonell's stuff all ended up on the cutting room floor...

103 days 10 hours 34 minutes 56 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I've also just come across this in my search:

MY OPEN LETTER OF APOLOGY TO "DARK SHADOWS" DIRECTOR TIM BURTON

Makes one wonder if posts like this one and possibly elsewhere, not to mention just straight word of mouth (which is something we've strongly suspected), are the things that helped the DS film perform so well at the domestic box office after its first few weeks?

103 days 11 hours 5 minutes 14 seconds since the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows has been in release(ET)!!

[Nicky]

I wonder what constitutes a DS "purist"? 

[Gerard]

I guess I'm a DS "purist" (despite the many, many, many, many, may faux pas of the original), which is why I wasn't a big fan of the '91 remake (with Dan Curtis at the helm, no less).  As far as I was concerned, it totally mucked up the subtlety and characterizations of the OS.  It could've been a million times better.  But, as a "purist," I loved it because it was DS - our DS, and it was back.  Even HoDS was way off the mark when it came to the OS (although it did portray Barnabas as a totally evil character, as he was suppose to be originally portrayed).  But I was infatuated with it.  And NoDS had none of the original characters in it.  Not one.  It had many of the same names, but none of them were the characters from the series.  Yes, I loved it.  All of them were our DS.  (I never saw the '04 version, so I can't comment on that.)  And this movie is also our DS, much more faithful, as far as I'm concerned to the OS than all the other variants, even the ones DC did. 

We "purists" should always realize that the OS is the foundation of everything that followed.  But a foundation is nothing more than that - it's what's put on top that counts and so far everything that has been has been successful.  Were the Marilyn Ross novels exactly like the OS?  Of course not.  Some, if not many, if not most, were horrible.  How about the Gold Key comic book series?  Oh, gawd, how awful it was, but I bought them as soon as they hit the stands.  But it's all our DS.  If one wants to be a purist, one needs to look at what DS hath wrought.  If one is to puritanical that he/she cannot abide this movie, then forgoe everything that has followed, including the fact that this is the only soap opera that has created such a massive fan base, one that draws thousands to annual festivals and lots and lots of products.  Forget everything that has happened since it left the airwaves in 1971, including the fact that it's the only soap opera deemed worthy enough for a multi-million dollar film version more than 40 years later.

Gerard