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« on: April 09, 2020, 02:32:29 PM »
Hi Philippe!
Malcolm Marmorstein took credit for creating the character of Barnabas in a couple of interviews some years back. MM wrote a screenplay, Love Bites, produced in 1993 as a vehicle for Adam Ant who played vampire Zachary Simms. I have never seen the movie, but it sounds kind of like a precursor to the Burton-Depp film. The vampire "oversleeps for 100 years" and emerges from his coffin bewildered by changes in technology, society and culture. He falls in love with a mortal woman and tries to become human again so he can be with her in the mortal way. The film was done as a slapstick comedy and I have to wonder whether Tim Burton really likes the movie--sounds like there are some similar vampire pratfall moments in it.
I have read that Art Wallace claimed that he created a Barnabas-type character in his story plotting notes, but if he did write something, I have never seen it. Sam Hall wouldn't have ever claimed to have had anything to do with creating Barnabas, but he may well have come up with the Barnabas-Angelique-Josette triangle story set in 1795. I don't think many fans even today understand that that narrative was a complete reboot from what had been established in the 1967 storyline, in which Barnabas lived in the 1830s and Josette (originally surnamed La Freniere, if I recall aright) was the bride of his elderly uncle Jeremiah. I think I've read that they chose to set the origin story in the late 18th century because those were the costumes they were able to rent from a supplier.
I've read an interview with Bob Costello where he said he found the name Barnabas on an old tombstone. But he did not take credit for creating the character. And of course, Jonathan Frid's personal interpretation had a lot to do with how Barnabas actually manifested.
My conclusion is that the creation of Barnabas was a group effort. Interesting to see what impact this "vulnerable vampire" had in how media vampire culture evolved after the 1960s. Several Dracula films took on the Barnabas narrative of the vampire searching the world for the reincarnation of his lost love.
G.