Dark Shadows Journal: Pilot Photos Posted

[Stuart]

http://www.collinwood.net - Dark Shadows Journal Online:


* Pilot Photos Posted

We are delighted to present two official publicity photographs from the recent WB Dark Shadows pilot, courtesy of Dan Curtis Productions. Larger versions of both images can also be downloaded as desktop wallpaper. Next week there will be another picture from the production posted on the site, so be sure to pay us a visit.


* Dark Shadows Memories Competition

Win a signed copy of Kathryn Leigh Scott's new CD audiobook in our competition!


Cheers

Stuart

[Philippe Cordier]

[No, I haven't been on board here for the last 12 hours straight - must have forgotten to log off before turning off my computer and leaving for the day ...  ]

Great photos, Stuart - the actors seem to really express their characters in those shots - I'm impressed.

I read your description of the pilot, too - everything you described sounded intriguing and visually this must have been stunning.  The terms "fantasy" and "fairytale" sound somewhat different from the DS we know, but potentially could have been a smart new direction to take a new version of the show.

Guess we'll never know ...

[Philippe Cordier]

Darn that 2-minute cutoff time to modify ... 

Meant to say that although the original DS DID have elements of the fairytale and fantasy within certain storylines or sequences, overall the show didn't have a dreamlike or otherworldly quality.  Not sure if I can express that any better at 1:30 a.m.  

 

[Stuart]

See, I'd disagree with that - I find a lot of the best periods of the show very fairytale...  Not in a twee Disney sense, but more in a dark, dangerous Brothers Grimm way.  I think 1897 in particular has that quality of slightly morbid whimsy, wonder and grand horror a great deal.

How that translates into the pilot is a bit more difficult to explain, but it's definitely there, and from the clips shown, it really seems to work.  On the surface it doesn't sound too faithful to the original, but I think it's a much closer sibling to it than the 1991 series was.

It really has that quality of a haunted neverland.  The stylised colours and lighting really bring out the claustrophobia and enclosed sense of the original show...  not literal claustrophobia, but a dramatic feeling of it.  It's like the environment reflects how desperately these people are trapped by their own secrets and history.

[Philippe Cordier]

See, I'd disagree with that - I find a lot of the best periods of the show very fairytale...  Not in a twee Disney sense, but more in a dark, dangerous Brothers Grimm way.  I think 1897 in particular has that quality of slightly morbid whimsy, wonder and grand horror a great deal.

Not sure if you're disagreeing with my first or second post.  There was one specific instance in the past that I described on the VantageNet forum as a "dark fairy tale," and that had to do with the Roxanne storyline; also the visit of Barnabas and Julia to the elderly Charles Delaware Tate's home in whichever storyline that was (the one where his head falls off or whatever) has a sort of fractured fairy tale quality.  But those instances stood out as unique, at least to me, from much of the rest of DS.  I'm not sure I can pinpoint now the precise qualities that made me think of and describe these as dark fairy tales (but I tried to do so in the past).

How that translates into the pilot is a bit more difficult to explain, but it's definitely there, and from the clips shown, it really seems to work.  On the surface it doesn't sound too faithful to the original, but I think it's a much closer sibling to it than the 1991 series was.

It really has that quality of a haunted neverland.  The stylised colours and lighting really bring out the claustrophobia and enclosed sense of the original show...  not literal claustrophobia, but a dramatic feeling of it.  It's like the environment reflects how desperately these people are trapped by their own secrets and history.

What you described in your article and characterized as a fairy tale quality or something beyond that -- a haunted fantasy -- does seem to me a new quality from the original DS.

There may well be other aspects of the show that remind people of fairy tales but it does sound like you see a lot more of that in the original show than I do.

[Gothick]

Stuart--what you say about the DS pilot sounds like Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, with a Dario Argento edge in the visuals.

I personally find this very different from DS, which I thought had a more muted quality to it, despite the occasional forays into the realm of Grand Guignol (Garth Blackwood--arrrrghhhh!)

I wish I had the chance to see the pilot and judge for myself.  I'll be surprised if it isn't eventually released on home video.

Steve

[Gothick]

Gosh, I hope they release another picture of Liz and Roger.  In this one, the Collins siblings look like a pair of disgruntled professors reacting to the news that there's no coffee available for the two hour faculty meeting they're chairing.

The shot of Barnabas and Victoria does look good.  Newman's very good at projecting character in these publicity photos.

Steve

[Patti Feinberg]

Steve, you crack me up!!

I thought they all looked waaaay too young!

Too perfect & beautiful. Ick.

IMHO,

Patti

[jennifer]

Steve, you crack me up!!

I thought they all looked waaaay too young!

Too perfect & beautiful. Ick.

i'm with you too Patti you can't go back! i think if any new DS is done it should
be a new generation!

jennifer
even sometimes going back to things we remember from childhood aren't the same
i say leave Ds alone! i remember the chill i got from seeing The old Ds again after all
that time when it first reappeared i don't get that feeling from the 1991 show!

[Misa]

Well I hope that they do eventually make a new Dark Shadows. There is no way a new version can hurt the original. I enjoyed both of the previous shows. I liked the original show better, but I also liked the 1991 version.

I still think they can do another great show with Dark Shadows. And I hope that they do.

Misa

[Misa]

I thought they all looked waaaay too young!

Too perfect & beautiful. Ick.

Just wanted to say that the original cast was good-looking too. Joan Bennett,  beautiful, Nancy Barrett, also gorgeous. Louis Edmonds, very distinguished. John Karlen, nice to look at. Jonathan Frid, just had it!. Briscoe, nice eye candy. David Selby, What a Sexy Hunk.

Anyway, I just don't understand what you mean that the new cast was too perfect and beautiful. The original cast was perfectly beautiful


Misa

[Stuart]

http://www.collinwood.net


* Another Pilot Photo Posted

View a beautiful official WB publicity still of IVANA MILICEVIC as Angelique in the 2004 Dark Shadows pilot, courtesy of Dan Curtis Productions.

* Hawkes Harbor

A detailed review of the new erstatz Dark Shadows novel

Cheers

Stuart

[Gothick]

Ooh, it's Miss October Penthouse Playmate!

hubba hubba!

[Josette]

Wow!  I wish we would have a chance to see it sometime.

[Cassandra Blair]

Wow, these pics really make me sad that the new version will never see the light of day.  Everyone looks perfect for the characters they're playing, esp. since it's an updating of the original.

And I'm with whoever it was that mentioned how attractive the original cast was - Alex Moltke was a raving beauty, as were KLS, Lara Parker, Kate Jackson and several of the other women.  While some of the gents might not have been the stunners that Briscoe, Selby and yummy Jerry Lacy were, they weren't too shabby either.  Jonathan Frid's voice alone gives me shivers...