It's official: Dark Shadows returns as a film with Johnny Depp

[Mysterious Benefactor]

An interesting exchange on the Robert Pattinson Life fan site about Johnny Depp usurping Pattinson's Edward as the #1 vampire once the Depp/DS film comes out.

Start reading the second post that begins:

Iluvthemovies said...

    I find the interviewer so cute. ITA that this is one of Robert's better interviews. Robert, people are not crazy for reading or watching anything vampire related, I am one of those people. I started at a young age when I use to watch a daytime soap opera with my mother called "Dark Shadows". I don't know...

And continue reading through the fourth post.

And, no - I don't frequent this site. The only reason I'm aware of this exchange is because I received an e-mail alert about DS being mentioned there. Though there's certainly nothing wrong with frequenting the site.    But there are barely enough hours in the day for me to keep up with this forum, much less regularly read other forums/blogs.  

[B.Collins]

well if people here liked his book than that also eases my mind as well. it also has eased my mind a LOT upon reading a little bit more about this guys book. & hearing people like it i mean. so in short who knows? ya know?

[Midnite]

The premise of the book seems over the top, but he approaches it very seriously, and, when you think about it, isn't that DS in a nutshell?

I didn't know what to expect either but found myself admiring Grahame-Smith as a storyteller.  There were a lot of I-did-not-see-that-coming moments.  Unfortunately, his writing style-- specifically, the sentence fragments-- annoyed the hell out of me, and it didn't help that Lincoln's journal was full of them too.  That's probably just my neurosis caused by demonic nuns who demanded complete sentences.  But that wouldn't be an issue in a screenplay, so I was not unhappy to hear he'd signed on to write the movie.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

neurosis caused by demonic nuns

Neuroses caused by demonic nuns? I bet a lot of us can relate to that.  


But getting back on topic, it's great to have another affirmation that he could do a good job. 

[Taeylor Collins]

Demonic nuns!? ROFLMAO  That sounds like something Buffy would say!

I read the book in three days after my friend sent it to me and I enjoyed it immensely!  I am a true DS fan through and through and I can totally see him writing the movie with a nice fresh approach.  I hope that gives you some more hope MB!   

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Definitely. 

[Taeylor Collins]

I just watched Alice In Wonderland and I am even more convinced that Burton/Depp Shadows will be outstanding!

Yay! This is my 2100 post! I cannot wait to become a GOD!

[B.Collins]

i   actually have that on Blue-Ray but i have yet to get around to actually watch it. i've been too busy working, & when i'm at home watching "DS"!  


& Congrats  on your 21000 post! i've still got a LOOOONG way to go until i become a GOD! he he

[Mysterious Benefactor]

A friend of mine said he heard the Depp DS project is no more, anyone know any more about this??

No offense to your friend, but he probably read one or more of the ridiculous reports that were posted on a few Web sites a few weeks ago. It all started with a misleading report in Entertainment Weekly

Hmm - it may take years, but apparently Entertainment Weekly does indeed own up to their mistakes. In next week's double issue (August 20/27, 2010) a section entitled "Our Best and Worst Predictions" appears - and in the "Way Off" section they list this gem:

Titanic
When the film got pushed back from a summer release in 1997, we thought it might be in trouble. "Sink: James Cameron," we wrote. "At least his reputation."

Sound somewhat reminiscent of an EW article from the October 10, 2008 issue? And the inherent danger of mixing fact and editorializing too closely is that your readership often has a hard time separating the two. It shouldn't be mixed that closely as often as it is - but then, some writers wouldn't know how to write a straight fact piece, one completely devoid of their own opinions, if their lives depended on it.   Reporting just the facts is a dying art form - one that's slipping farther away every day and dangerously close to having the life support plug pulled...

It would be fascinating to go back to '97 to see if what was written in that EW article about Titanic/Cameron was suddenly spread all over the Internet as if it was complete fact, as their misleading '08 reporting on the Depp/DS film was. Though somehow I suspect it probably wasn't because things weren't anywhere near as bad back then as they are today, what with so many entertainment sites falling all over themselves to report what supposedly qualifies as news but which all too often actually has no substance in fact...

[B.Collins]

thanxs for the news man. & i also find it funny how EW predicted all that WRONG! 

[jimbo]

The writer of this article says that Seth is reworking John August's script. Does this mean that Seth is not writing from scratch a new DS movie script? I don't know much about script writing but there is a difference between reworking a script and writing a totally new one?

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2010/08/17/sexy_vampires_from_rolling_stones_true_blood_cover_to_burtons_dark_shadows/

I hope EW is very fair to the DS movie.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Interesting since earlier reports made it appear as if Grahame-Smith was starting over from scratch. And there's that January start date again - though, again, the only source saying so would seem to be the deadline.com report (and it's anyone's guess where deadline.com got it because they don't cite a source). But one can only hope...

[jimbo]

It did appear for sure in the earlier reports that Grahame-Smith was hired to write a new script. I believe I read in some of the articles that Seth had replaced John August as the movie's screenwriter. Since as you say there are no sited sources, I have to leave open that John August will be a co-writer of the DS movie script unless we hear otherwise from confirmed sources. In either event January is not that far away.

[Sara Monster]

Someone recently uploaded a clip of Jim Pierson discussing the upcoming movie at Comic Con:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vStVOfsJIK8

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Thanks for the link, Sara.  

Should we be surprised that Pierson mentions DC more than he does Depp and Burton? Uh, no. But one DC-related remark definitely caught my ear and that was that everyone involved with the film is committed to making a film that DC would be proud of. And say what you will about DC (and we certainly have) but he would not like a film that makes fun of DS - so hopefully that means that any idea that the film will parody DS can be tossed out the window with a great deal of relief. Hopefully, anyway...

I also loved how, after KLS asked if Pierson knows the direction the storyline is going to go, he said it's under wraps (well. DUH!) but it's something that everyone is going to enjoy. From his mouth to you know who's ears!