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

[Mysterious Benefactor]

it appears that we won't know anything about the movie at the time of the Fest

I have to confess that given the writers' strike and the film load Depp already had in the wings, several DS friends and I laughed when we first saw that the Fest had set aside 30 minutes to discuss the Depp/DS movie because, even back when the schedule was first announced, it didn't seem as if there would be enough info available to fill 3 let alone 30 minutes - and that seems to be even truer now.

I can certainly understand the Fest wanting to set aside that much allotted time on the off chance that developments substantial enough to actually trigger a 30 minute discussion might take place between the drafting of the schedule and July 19th. However, at this point I'm still going with my initial reaction because, unless a lot of stuff is happening that not even the trades are aware of as yet, it seems unlikely there will be much news beyond what we already know in time for the Fest. Don't get me wrong - I would love for something to actually happen that would be worthy of a 30 minute discussion - it's just that with every passing day it seems less and less likely.

We've given this warning several times in the past, but it never hurts to repeat that a good rule of thumb so far as the Fests go is that it's often a smart idea to take the heralding of "surprise" announcements or even planned panels with a grain of salt. All too often they fall flat or even disappear altogether without any explanation whatsoever once the Fests actually roll around...

[jimbo]

it appears that we won't know anything about the movie at the time of the Fest

I have to confess that given the writers' strike and the film load Depp already had in the wings, several DS friends and I laughed when we first saw that the Fest had set aside 30 minutes to discuss the Depp/DS movie because, even back when the schedule was first announced, it didn't seem as if there would be enough info available to fill 3 let alone 30 minutes - and that seems to be even truer now.

I can certainly understand the Fest wanting to set aside that much allotted time on the off chance that developments substantial enough to actually trigger a 30 minute discussion might take place between the drafting of the schedule and July 19th. However, at this point I'm still going with my initial reaction because, unless a lot of stuff is happening that not even the trades are aware of as yet, it seems unlikely there will be much news beyond what we already know in time for the Fest. Don't get me wrong - I would love for something to actually happen that would be worthy of a 30 minute discussion - it's just that with every passing day it seems less and less likely.

..

MB I would like to believe that there are several behind the scene developments that are happening and that they will soon make one big announcement. It just seems that this project is on hold for whatever reason. At this point I doubt that there is internal fighting as to who the screenwriter will be. They have had sufficient time to hire a competent one. But if the project is indeed d.o.a. I would also hope that we would soon be told that.

As far as the Fest is concerned I guess it believed that at a minimum a director and screenwriter would have been named by this year's Festival. That makes sense to me. At least there may have been something to talk about. It is unfortunate that it now appears there will be 30 minutes of pure speculation and what could have been discussions. So we would be back to square one. The Dark Shadows Resurrected theme seems a bit empty at this time.

When Shadowgram indicated on March 2 that a writer would soon be named I thought this project was finally going to get off the ground. It is now April 29.  I guess something happened that was beyond Shadowgram's control and/or knowledge. My goodness let's get this baby going. lol

[Mysterious Benefactor]

When Shadowgram indicated on March 2 that a writer would soon be named I thought this project was finally going to get off the ground. It is now April 29.  I guess something happened that was beyond Shadowgram's control and/or knowledge.

The thing about SG is that Marcy reports what she's told. She trusts her sources - but if the one doing the telling is being overly optimistic and not necessarily telling her that, well, she has no way of knowing. And anyone who pays attention in fandom knows that one of the ones who often does the telling has certainly been known to be overly optimistic and/or to jump the gun with the hopes of things working out before it becomes obvious that what they said/did was overly optimistic. 

[jimbo]

When Shadowgram indicated on March 2 that a writer would soon be named I thought this project was finally going to get off the ground. It is now April 29.  I guess something happened that was beyond Shadowgram's control and/or knowledge.

The thing about SG is that Marcy reports what she's told. She trusts her sources - but if the one doing the telling is being overly optimistic and not necessarily telling her that, well, she has no way of knowing. And anyone who pays attention in fandom knows that one of the ones who often does the telling has certainly been known to be overly optimistic and/or to jump the gun with the hopes of things working out before it becomes obvious that what they said/did was overly optimistic. 

That has to be very frustrating for her as well. Marcy relies on news given to her as "confirmed".  And I know who you are talking about. lol

[Nancy]

Getting a movie off the ground can take a few years especially if you are an actor, writer or director involved in other projects.  It all seems like it's taking forever to get anything solid off the ground re the DS movie but that's because are focusing on that one project while the players behind the project are involved with several things at different stages right now.

Nancy

[LOOKE300]

dose depp own all the rights to ds or only the movie rights,if  in the unlikely event someone was interested in trying again to get a new tv show on the air would they have to buy the rights from depp or dose the curtis estate still own those rights?

[jimbo]

This article indicates in part that  Katheryn Leigh Scott sent Johnny Depp her entire DS book collection to help him prepare for the role of Barnabas Collins.

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/lunch/lunch_moguls_mavens_and_a_vampire_primer_83683.asp

[MsCriseyde]

Interesting. The link also indicates that KLS has sold Pomegranate Press.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Katheryn Leigh Scott sent Johnny Depp her entire DS book collection to help him prepare for the role of Barnabas Collins.

I hope Depp remembers enough about the show to filter out all the errors in the PomPress books.   

dose depp own all the rights to ds or only the movie rights,if  in the unlikely event someone was interested in trying again to get a new tv show on the air would they have to buy the rights from depp or dose the curtis estate still own those rights?

Interesting question. I believe the initial announcement articles implied Depp et al. have a movie rights deal, not the rights to any sort of other projects. But at any rate, the Curtis estate still owns all the rights to DS, so presumably anyone else would have to negotiate with them.

[retzev]

The main reason why *I* would like to see the Depp project bear fruit sooner than later is that I have this suspicion that without the big profile of the Depp project to push their insect-like mental faculties into action, TPTB are going to keep the hoDS/NoDS restoration project and DVD release on hold FOREVER.

Me too, G. I felt the same way about the '04 series. A "new" DS might be cool, but anything that could result in the WB green-lighting Darren's restoration is Aces in my book.

[madscntst]

Wow, the mention of KLS sending Johnny the books is great news!  It means that even if we don't hear day to day progress (or even month to month!) things sometimes do get done behind the scenes that we never hear of.  In the Depp fan world, we haven't heard of much going on with DS in the last few months; he's filming Public Enemies in Wisconsin and Illinois and seems to have a very full schedule. But the guy is a great multitasker- he was preparing for Sweeney Todd while still doing Pirates, and so on.  Oftentimes, we'll suddenly find out about some project that we had no idea he'd been involved in- for instance I just found out yesterday that he did some voice work for a Showtime show called This American Life that will apparently air this Sun.

I can't say for sure that Johnny is going to succeed in getting this movie made.  And even though I'm chomping at the bit for it, I realize that it will probably take years.  (Shantaram, which someone mentioned, has been in the works for 3-1/2 years, and The Rum Diary for even longer).  However, what I will say about him is that he is passionate about the things he does and wants to do, and never takes them lightly or on a whim.  I think he's going to do his darndest to get this made.  I'll be waiting and hoping!!

[jimbo]

Thank you cousin madscntst for your encouraging post. I guess by now you know that DS fans have been let down many times through the years with rumors of DS revivals that never materialized outside of the 1991 mini-series and the 2004 pilot. My question is, if you know, is it common in past Johnny Depp's movies that there is no announcement that a screenwriter or director has been made and they wait to release all details all at once?  I mean is it possible that the DS script has already been written and we don't know it? I have no frame of reference with Depp's movies. Any input from you would be greatly appreciated.

[madscntst]

Thank you cousin madscntst for your encouraging post. I guess by now you know that DS fans have been let down many times through the years with rumors of DS revivals that never materialized outside of the 1991 mini-series and the 2004 pilot. My question is, if you know, is it common in past Johnny Depp's movies that there is no announcement that a screenwriter or director has been made and they wait to release all details all at once?  I mean is it possible that the DS script has already been written and we don't know it? I have no frame of reference with Depp's movies. Any input from you would be greatly appreciated.

Uhhhh.... I dunno   Well, there's no established way that Johnny's people or now his production company update the Depp fan community.  So we sometimes find out about things as they're happening, but more often we hear things in spurts.  Occasionally (though not often) it's all at once, but usually there are *some* kinds of murmurs going on.  We hear things in announcements in trades like Variety, or from remarks by actors, screenwriters, directors, producers etc. that happen to get reported.  And even then, sometimes it's not completely accurate- for instance the Shantaram author Greg Roberts announced on his blog at one point that his screenplay for the film was done... but then we found out awhile later that Johnny was unsatisfied with it as is and had another screenwriter come in to revise it.  But I didn't know about that until after it happened.  I don't mean to scare you, but it's just to say that no matter how hard the fans go searching for news (and believe me, Depp fans will scour the net and other media quite thoroughly!!  Just as I'm sure DS fans do!!) there's a lot going on that the public just never finds out about. 

I've been rather hoping that the DS community may find out about some of the proceedings first!  I've been hoping that the fest discussion will somehow have some kind of progress report, though maybe that is optimistic of me!

All this said, I seriously doubt that a script has been finished.  Last we heard (and I think I posted this), a screenwriter had not yet been selected, and if I recall correctly, that was in the middle of the writers' strike, so no further progress could be made during that time, anyway.  Perhaps one is being written now that the strike is over, but I just don't think a good quality script could be finished in such a short time.  So... we may be in for the long haul.  I wonder if we'll even get any feedback about what the movie is going to be *about*    Will it be basically the HODS story, or will it incorporate more of the characters from the show, or will it go off in a new direction??  Do we even know that much yet?  I don't think we've heard anything about the plot from the Depp side, other than that it will include Barnabas!

Cathy

[jimbo]

Hi Cathy. Thank you for your informative response. It seems both universes should get together and hire a private investigator to try to find out about what is going on with the DS film. jk

As we know, there are some movie projects that never get off the ground. In this case it would appear that either the project is dead or that Depp's production company is looking to film this movie in 2011. That is the frustrating part-not knowing what the truth is. I don't see the reason why the production company would not release the name of the movie's screenwriter to the media. I mean this is not a top secret national security project we are talking about. I am tying to figure out is why would they intentionally withold information from the media. It makes no sense to me so I have to assume in the absence of a progress report that nothing is happening. We of course are hoping to hear some news from our side of the house. Your question is a good one. We don't know what the storyline will be. It could be the classic approach or a more innovative approach. We don't know who the director will be and how he or she may interpret the script.  Let's hope that we hear something soon and thanks for your enthusiasm to this project.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

As usual I've been late catching up on my e-mail notices, and when I first glanced down at the final paragraph in this article (the first one I came across on the subject of Wedge's deal), I thought for a fraction of a second that it was finally announcing the screenwriter for the Depp/DS film:

http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/8289

But no - it turned out to only be another mention that (Graham) King is collaborating with Depp on DS. 

But the good news in all this should be that anyone who might have feared the Depp/DS film was dead simply because there's been no news of late can now rest easy that it is not. Here's the announcement from Variety of Wedge's deal:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117985121.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

and it clearly states that the film is still in development.