DS mention in Beautiful Creatures TV review

[dom]

This was a television critic's review from YNN a local New York Time Warner Cable news television station. The critic says: "Jeremy Irons, as Lena’s smoking-jacketed decadent-aristocrat uncle, and Emma Thompson, as her floridly angry dead mother, are like blithe spirits out of a "Dark Shadows" sequel you actually want to see."

The full review video can be watched  or read here:

Beautiful Creatues review

[Annie]

Hi Dom how neat is that !   Do love DS  moments  like that thanks for  sharing!
                              Love  Anne

[dom]

Thanx Anne.

It kinda makes me pine for a DS closer to the original concept and wonder if it could ever happen. Anything is possible, I guess. 

Jeremy Irons as Roger and Emma Thompson as Liz -- a fun fantasy. I wonder if I saw BC if I could trick my mind into it?

[michael c]

for all of it's flaws i'm glad the film didn't end up being some teen-angsty goth-chick "twilight-ish" melodrama...


at least it was imaginative.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I saw the trailer for Beautiful Creatures in a movie theater last December - and while it looked like it could be interesting, it didn't look too much like DS to me. And apparently the trailers and TV ads haven't been appealing to too many people because I was just reading estimates for this weekend's box office and BC is supposedly doing just awful. And the interesting thing is that before release many had predicted that it could be a worthy successor to the Twilight franchise - but it's definitely not looking that way.

[michael c]

i think that zombie thing 'warm bodies' is being set up as the teen/tween 'twilight' replacement...


it basically sounds like 'twilight'(hot but undead boy/pretty mortal girl)with a zombie instead of a vampire.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I suspect the reason why many had said BC could have been the next Twilight franchise is because, like Twilight, it's based on a series of young adult books. And while Warm Bodies is also based on a book, I *think* it's only a one-time novel rather than a series. But regardless, the way things are supposedly shaping up with BC, it's not looking like it's going to see any sort of franchise. In fact, some are saying (though how they know this so soon is beyond me) that BC will be lucky to amass a total gross of $30 million (which, as we will recall, is just a few thousand more than what DS made in its opening weekend) over its entire time in theaters.

Also, I'm confused by the line dom quoted. At first I thought the reviewer was implying that BC was the sequel you would want to see to DS but that you didn't want to actually see DS - and that was because the reviewer hadn't liked DS. However, that was before I read the film reviews in my copy of the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly and saw the line dom quoted as part of Owen Gleiberman's review in EW. So, he can't have meant to imply anything like that because, for one, Gleiberman loved DS - for two, he gave it a B+ - and for three, that's more than he gave BC because he gave it a B-. So, maybe he's trying to say that if you liked DS, you may like BC because of Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson. Who knows? 

[Josette]

I interpreted the quote to mean that the reviewer didn't like the movie and felt that these characters would make for a good DS.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

So, see - I'm not alone. Though as I explained, it's not the case that the reviewer didn't like DS. 

And something else that's interesting that I didn't notice until after I'd posted last night is that in both the print version of the BC review and the copy up on EW's own Web site the word "actually" (as in "sequel you actually want to see") does not appear in the review. And the fact that it's not there can change the meaning of what Gleiberman wrote considerably. So, a really good question is how did the word "actually" end up being included in the YNN site's version? And interestingly enough, how, considering that the original version on EW's site was posted 3 days before YNN's site "reposted" it, so it's not like it was posted on YNN first?

[dom]

That was my first thought (that it was a dis) but I subsequently took it as to mean that what the OS fan base would have hoped to have seen, or expected, was a dramatic version, not a Burtonesque comedic version. I feel that way. I loved the movie, but I had always hoped for was a dramatic version, with big names and a big budget, and Oscar nominations, etc. Once Burton was signed on I think we pretty much knew we had to change our expectations.

Interesting about the addition of the word 'actually'. I can't view the YNN video so I don't know if the word was used in the video. I want to say it was but I really don't remember.

[michael c]

unless i'm recalling this incorrectly burton...and depp...were the first names attached to the project. it did not exists in any concrete fashion before they optioned it.


so while expectations vacillated wildly during the 4 or so years of preproduction i think everyone knew from the outset it would be some sort of burtonian fantasy. it's comedic side however didn't start to really come into clear focus until the first stills of depp in makeup were leaked and that godforsaken trailer was released.

i don't remember any pre-burton expectations.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

No, there were pre-Burton possibilities. It was announced in July of '07 that Depp had optioned the rights to DS and would be making a film - but Burton didn't indicate that he was potentially interested in directing until sometime in January of '08 - and he didn't officially come on board until June of '08, almost a year after we first heard about the film.

It's all detailed in the first 270 or so posts of the "It's official: Dark Shadows returns as a film with Johnny Depp" topic - along with a lot of fears about Burton directing. 

[michael c]

sorry it's all lost in the haze of this endless saga...


can you believe we're closing in on a YEAR since it's release!

[ProfStokes]

I'm disappointed that this film didn't get a better box office. I thought the movie was witty and fun with likable characters and an actual plot that moved.  I really enjoyed it, far more than I expected to.

The story has superficial similarities to DS: a mysterious founding family with supernatural characteristics, a reclusive patriarch of said family who has not left the ancestral mansion on the outskirts of town for years, a family curse, star-crossed lovers, and hints of reincarnation.

From what I've read at imdb, it seems that one reason for BC's lack of success is that the film took a number of liberties with the original source material, alienating the existing fanbase. Apparently, there was quite a backlash against the film after its test screenings and word of mouth spread. 

If this is indeed the case, then I find it very interesting to see what power a fanbase can have, and I wonder if in future, studios will be more inclined to consider the concerns that such fans may have.

ProfStokes

[dom]

I'm glad you posted. I am going to see it on your recommendation.

The fan-base question you pose is an interesting one. I for one don't think much consideration should go to the fan-base; you've got to make your own film, create your vision.

I blame the OS fan-base for generally mucking up the show, culminating in the "I love you Angelique" claim from Barnabas. IMO, that was done solely for the fans.