WB ORDERS FILMING OF NEW DS PILOT

Do you think they gave it any more than a very cursory glance?  My understanding was that by the time the pilot had been delivered, the WB suits had already decided upon a programmatic shift away from drama and into "reality" series programming.

I think "extreme myopia" is a highly charitable description of the typical H'wood studio exec's mental abilities.  C'mon, where's my "Grosse Point" DVD release???

As for the future of the pilot, perhaps MPI can release it one day with a "Making of" featurette on a single disc.  I can see it selling big in the market they've built for the episode releases.

G.

As for the future of the pilot, perhaps MPI can release it one day with a "Making of" featurette on a single disc.  I can see it selling big in the market they've built for the episode releases.

Hee hee, what about including it in the dvd boxset of the 1990 series? 

I've posted a mini-update and editorial on the restoration site.

www.nightofdarkshadows.com

 

They gave Willie a living, breathing girlfriend?!

Damn....now I really am disappointed.

(PILOT SPOILER)

[spoiler]Don't be..She's dead by act 3 anyway.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Really?  Lasted that long, did she?
 [/spoiler]

[spoiler]Don't be..She's dead by act 3 anyway.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Isn't it more that she's "dead"?[/spoiler]

I've posted a mini-update and editorial on the restoration site...Personally think the pilot is brilliant and totally underrated by the network.

Someone's got extreme myopia to miss the obvious quality in this pilot. It plays like a 41min feature and looks amazing visually. I love all the nuance and fresh approaches the new cast brings to it and the mind swells with possible intriguing directions the show can take and character layers it could probe...

If this thing does stay dead for TV, I cross my fingers that a studio like Lions Gate or Studio Canal will snatch it up, shoot another hr and turn it into a feature...

It's another case of an artistic film director delivering something amazing (like Mulholland Drive) and it getting quashed by narrow minded TV execs with little vision...

Remember Mulholland Drive got slammed and dropped by the network, never to air, but then was released as a feature and won best director at Cannes and was nominated for Academy Awards...

If only they'd shot the pilot as a 90min feature length pilot, a feature sale would be a given...

Thanks for posting this, Darren!  Holy cats, I hope SOMEBODY picks it up -- it sounds so cool!!!!!

Just came across an interesting Jenna Dewan (Sophia in the WB pilot) article dated tomorrow(?) in which she briefly comments on the the pilot situation:

In addition to the soap opera, Dewan ... recently filmed a television pilot, a remake of Dark Shadows, but she doesn't know if or when it will air. "That's kind of a bummer," she said.


'All She Wants to Do Is Dance'

The webmaster at www.horror-web.com/news4/news.php
is urging TNT to pick up the Dark Shadows Pilot in a prelude to discussing the high ratings scored by Salem's Lot.

Over at BarnabasUndead they are getting a mailing champaign started. You might want to check it out. It couldn't hurt to have people write to the different networks and tell them that they want to see the New Dark Shadows. The more people who write the more likely the show will get picked up.

Check it out.  at
http://www.barnabasundead.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125

Under the topic.
Do you want to see Dark Shadows 2004 get picked up?

Misa

Over at BarnabasUndead they are getting a mailing champaign started. You might want to check it out.

Thanks, Misa!

Because of the 10 Anniversary year slideshow for the pilot, I've transferred this topic to this board so that anyone who may want to can easily revisit the development of the pilot as it went through its various stages back in '04.

Enjoy! 

I think we should petition Ryan Murphy to do DS the way he does American Horror Story!

this came up on another board and I forgot what happened exactly but didn't Dan Curtis end up abandoning this project at some point even before the pilot was finished being filmed?

what was it? I seem to recall the whole enterprise ending on something of a sour note.