WB ORDERS FILMING OF NEW DS PILOT

Good plan--unfortunately there's no way on heaven or on earth that the pilot will be finished, including editing in time for that date...Perhaps they'll show an assembly of a finished scene...

I'm confused (not an unusual state for me! ), I hope this isn't too dumb of a question (uh oh!), but if the pilot won't be finished by that date, will there be enough there for the WB to decide whether they want to pick it up or not?  At least in time for the fall season?  Or will they have to skip it or delay their decision until midseason?

 ???Mary

Considering the basis on which many choices are made in the tv and movie industries......I'm sorry to say I doubt they would have hired him if he hadn't had "the look" they were looking for....no matter how talented he is.  Never having seen him in anything, I'll take it on faith that he's VERY talented......but when was that ever enough?

Do YOU think they would have hired someone who looked like a young Jonathan Frid for this role?  I doubt it.

Do YOU think they would have hired someone who looked like a young Jonathan Frid for this role?  I doubt it.

I'd have to check, but Frid might have actually been a good looking young man (not that he was by any means ugly when he was on DS - but I suppose one could say that he wasn't the conventional idea of handsome).

The thing I come away with from the casting choices that have been made is that, with few exceptions (Alec Newman not being one of them), these new actors have a background in live theater - and truthfully, after having read the article about the WB DS casting director to which I posted a link to in the topic "Out of the 'Shadows'" on this board, I can't say that surprises me in the least. One of the best things about the actors in the original cast was that many also had theater backgrounds - that's one of things that often made their work so strong - and I take it as a good sign that this new cast has similar backgrounds. Yes, they're also attractive people. But, frankly, we shouldn't exactly hold that against them...

I take it as a good sign that this new cast has similar backgrounds.

Ah.... a theatre background being so much more......what, exactly?

Ah.... a theatre background being so much more......what, exactly?

OK - I give up.    It's quite clear you're not going to see my point...

I'm sure there will be enough time to have execs to view and approve the pilot for a series, but since they are in on the decisions that have bumped shooting several weeks back, they must have agreed to a later screening date for it as well. It's going to shoot for nearly 4 weeks, and it will still need to be edited, and have the special visual effects done. I think what the network will see will be somewhere between a rough and fine cut...enough to get an idea...but work will still continue on it in the weeks after its submitted...

Unless they hate the pilot and cancel everything.

Not if you're not going to explain it to me.

I know what importance I attach to work and training in the theatre.  I was hoping you would expand upon why you think it is significant.

But never mind.

Old news - but still nice to see (particularly when our guy rates the photo  ):

Smith, Donovan, Rispoli Find Homes in Pilots

Do YOU think they would have hired someone who looked like a young Jonathan Frid for this role?  I doubt it.

Turning that on their head, why should they?  The role needs a talented, versatile actor, which you won't get by narrowing your search to a lookalike or a mimic. What's the point?  It might be a fair copy, but it will always be a copy.  Barnabas Collins is a broader character than simply Jonathan Frid's contribution, and there's no reason to assume that Alec Newman can't make the role his own.

Another thing I'd point out is that it's very easy for us to mutter darkly about casting choices, but we're not the ones making decisions that millions of dollars are riding on.  Jonathan's casting versus casting Barnabas today is a totally different ballgame.

In 1967, they were looking for a short-term guest for a daytime soap - today casting Barnabas entails finding the lead actor for a key primetime drama. 

I'm sure there will be enough time to have execs to view and approve the pilot for a series, but since they are in on the decisions that have bumped shooting several weeks back, they must have agreed to a later screening date for it as well. It's going to shoot for nearly 4 weeks, and it will still need to be edited, and have the special visual effects done. I think what the network will see will be somewhere between a rough and fine cut...enough to get an idea...but work will still continue on it in the weeks after its submitted...

Unless they hate the pilot and cancel everything.

Eek!!!  Nnnnnnnoooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for answering my question and providing all this info, Darren!!

Mary

Well, I must say this is interesting:


Posted: Tue., Mar. 30, 2004, 5:36pm PT

Warners' Teuton pic pact

Tube deal includes upcoming 'Batman,' 'Potter' releases

By ED MEZA, ELIZABETH GUIDER


HOLLYWOOD -- In a sure sign that the German TV market is starting to percolate again, Herbert Kloiber's Tele Munchen will plunk down as much as $220 million over two years for upcoming Warner Bros. movies as well as TV series, animation and library product.

Deal encompasses the Hollywood studio's feature film slates for 2004 and 2005, which include high-profile projects like "Troy," "Cat Woman," "Batman," "Scooby-Doo 2," "Ocean's Twelve" and "The Polar Express."

Package also includes several of the studio's ongoing movie franchises like "Harry Potter" 2 and 3 as well as New Line's second and third installments of "Lord of the Rings."

"I wouldn't say that we're returning to the irrational exuberance of the late '90s," said Warner Bros. Intl. TV prexy Jeffrey Schlesinger, referring to the period when prices for Hollywood product went through the roof abroad.

"But," he added, "the deal with Kloiber is indicative of renewed competition in the German market -- and the fact that we have one of the best packages we've had in years."

Deal comes as the media industry in Germany puts the Kirch Media and Neuer Markt debacles behind it, and the Teutonic TV advertising market shows new signs of a pulse.

Lotsa series, too

Kloiber has also contracted to take upcoming series produced by Warners for network primetime (seasons 2004-05 and 2005-06), including the "Friends" spinoff "Joey" and the latest John Wells drama, "Dark Shadows."

Warners is currently the prime supplier to the six U.S. networks and typically fields 30 potential pilots each May at the upfronts, with between 10 and 15 newcomers likely making it onto the skeds.

Deal came to light Tuesday at the Mip TV trade show in Cannes, though rumors that Warners was shopping its latest content to the two or three potential station program buyers in Germany surfaced weeks ago in Los Angeles. (In recent years, Warners has put together smaller packages for all the key broadcast players in that territory.)

The final pricetag Kloiber pays depends on certain guaranteed film grosses and on agreed performance criteria for the TV series.

Some of the Warner product could be earmarked for RTL 2, a commercial station in which Kloiber holds a 30% stake, while other product could serve to boost the profile of his wholly owned Tele Funf station, which up until now has been an also-ran.

But Kloiber is also a middleman and can sublicense to whatever Teutonic stations want to step up for whatever product. That likely means powerhouse commercial station RTL 1 or its rival ProSiebenSat1 or, for some product, pubcasters ARD or ZDF.

If one assumes 25 movies a year from Warners, just five a year from New Line and no other product in the deal, that would mean that WBIT would top out at $3.5 million a title on average, a substantial increase on the prices for movies being paid in that territory of late. Adding in the TV series and the library material brings that average down naturally to roughly between $2 million and $2.5 million a title, still a hefty sum for the Hollywood supplier.

The studio has been on a good run of late, coming in second behind Disney at the international box office in 2003, and scoring big-time with its franchises "Rings," "Potter" and "Matrix."

"If the studio can do something similar this year and next with 'Cat Woman,' 'Batman' and the like, then Kloiber may end up looking pretty savvy," said one international TV veteran on the Croisette.

...[/b]

Date in print: Wed., Mar. 31, 2004, Los Angeles

Well, maybe I'm naive, but this latest information posted by MB certainly gives me the hope that the WB is quite serious about the new Dark Shadows...especially if they're already marketing the series to the European market.

The casting choices sound damned interesting.  And the fact that most of these folks have strong theatre backgrounds make me think they're looking for actors who will really invest in the parts they're playing, committing to the time-honored gothic tradition, as they did on the original series.

While I'm sure that the new Dark Shadows will be totally different, still can't help dreaming that they'll really pull off something that resonates with dark doings and dark magicks.  Atmosphere!

I can dream, can't I?

if you've seen the ep then please let us know your thoughts about her.

i did see this episode and thought she was quite good even though the storyline was not up there in my favorites [spoiler]i know she was in denial but i would have let the old buzzard go ICK
we,ve had some much abuse in the news with our church scandal can't take anymore even fiction[/spoiler]
i'll be interesting to see them all in these old roles but it'll be hard ,as in any remake  of a much loved show ,to see new faces try and replace old ones. i did not enjoy 1991 for that reason even though there were some fine actors in it! trying to keep an open mind and as there isbn't too much on tv i like anymore. i know they are popular but reality BITES!

jennifer

Not sure if this has come up elsewhere in this thread. (It's 15 pages long, people!) Reuters carried a story yesterday about pilot casting mentioning actors we've already heard about, but they went on to describe some of the character relationships and plot developments:

[spoiler]Gould and Donovan will play the family's sons. Chastain will play a member of the Stoddard family who gets bitten by a vampire.[/spoiler]

I use the spoiler feature here with tongue firmly in cheek.

The full text of the article is here.

How amusing, Criseyde!

Sounds as if those six episodes (or however many have been commissioned) will be heavily recycling old storylines from the original series.

Just out of curiosity, did the Reuters story carry anything about storylines for Julia and Liz?  (One of my peeves about the 1991 effort was that Liz had NO storylines AT ALL.)

Steve