The original Depp Shadows

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/170183-excl-john-august-on-the-dark-shadows-movie-that-never-was

It sounds so wonderful.  I guess this is just another reason for people to hate Twilight.  My God...  Imagine what it could have been.   

Interesting. Though what would really be interesting would be to read the script to see what its comedy and quirkiness quotient were like because remember that when Richard Zanuck described August's script, yes, he did say that it was "scary", but he also said that it was "very funny" as well as that it carried "the Tim Burton stamp of uniqueness."   

All that being said, though, I do look forward to reading August's full interview. Thanks so much for the link to the excerpt, Cousin_Barnabas. 

Very tantalizing! I'm quite looking to hearing more from Mr. August.

I just like how he describes it as a Godfather-like saga, only with the Collins family.  The idea sounds so epic and exactly like the sort of thing I wanted to see in a remake. 

Perhaps there will be a reboot at some point that uses this script or something closer to it?  If it happens in the next decade, I'm all for keeping Pfeiffer in the cast.     I'm not really sure what the chances are for a resurrected Dark Shadows.  Maybe on TV.  From the description, this script would seem to translate well to something longer than a single film. 

As for the humor, I'm curious what form it took as well.  Though, from his description, it seems to be more of a single element than an overarching theme, which I think is what was always meant anytime someone mentioned Curtis wanted to have humor in DS. 

I just like how he describes it as a Godfather-like saga, only with the Collins family.  The idea sounds so epic and exactly like the sort of thing I wanted to see in a remake.

That part of his description actually gave me pause. Though, of course, it's very hard to judge an entire script from a one sentence summation (some descriptions of the DS that we did get made it sound equally epic). But even though DS was many things, it was never Godfather-like with Barnabas at the center as, presumably, some sort of Don Corleone figure. For me that would be as far away from the true essence of DS as some fans believe the film that we did get is. But as I said earlier, the real proof of what August's script truly was can only be discovered by reading it. And hopefully one day we might get the chance to not only read it but also to read Seth Grahame-Smith's script because, if we can go by his comments that almost an entire film's worth of material ended up on the cutting room floor, I suspect reading all that cut material would prove fascinating.

 

How about we petition HBO to do August's script as a TV miniseries?

That part of his description actually gave me pause. Though, of course, it's very hard to judge an entire script from a one sentence summation

That's interesting, MB.  I took it in a more figurative way, and assumed that it was a very family-centered story with a lot of character storylines.  However, all of those storylines would have a single bloodline running through them, one that would always lead back to Barnabas.  I think what had me most excited about it was the possibility that each member of the family would have really detailed back-stories that would end up playing key parts in the plot.  And while we probably had some of this in the uncut version of the new film, I took these remarks to mean that the individual character stories were far more fleshed out.   

How about we petition HBO to do August's script as a TV miniseries?

Yes, please!!!!  I'd even subscribe to a TV service for that!

As I've said before, I wouldn't necessarily be too quick to judge how deeply fleshed out the characters are in Seth Grahame-Smith's script. When almost an entire film's worth of material supposedly ended up being cut, all that material might have helped to flesh out all the characters quite a bit more. Though, sadly, we'll probably never know for sure unless/until we have an opportunity to read the script for ourselves.

And, of course, another thing we have to remember is Warner Brothers' bizarre edict that the DS film couldn't run over 2 hours. So, even if his script had been used, no matter how much fleshing out there may have been in August's script, who's to say how much of it may have also ended up on the cutting room floor?

Material ending up on the cutting room floor seems to be a plague that affects all DS films. 

Publishing one or both of those scripts could be a future project for KLS.

releasing an unfinished, unedited "what-could-have-been" script is just going to stir the pot and get all the whining and hand wringing going again.


nothing positive is going to come of it and personally i think it's a bad idea.