I think WB will have a hit with DS if they cast it properly. That was something the original series had a lot of luck with.
Depp is 40? He looks a bit younger, but maybe I'm thinking of whatever I last saw him in. He would still be a good Barnabas. Even if he is "older" now, he's still younger than Jonathan Frid was in the 60s (of course, Frid would look younger, too, if her were 40 today with all the "help" you get!). Depp could be the new DS' Heather Locklear. Then, they could get younger dudes and dudettes for other roles.
Shakespeare was kinda like the Dan Curtis of his time, if I follow the above correctly?
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
-- Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5
Maybe Mark Rainey could help write it!
so, we have
starring KATE JACKSON as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard
also starring JOHNNY DEPP as Barnabas Collins
...
and
? as Victoria Winters
(please, NOT Paris Hilton...)