Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

[Miss_Winthrop]

You didn't hear me say that I'm not going to see the movie despite the new BC look.  I'll attend the movie wearing my 'rose colored glasses' which will permit some sort of filtering I'm sure. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

This Web site has a few paparazzi photos that we haven't seen along with some that we have seen but which show more (I've tranlated the page through Google Tranlate, so hopefully that's the version of the page the link will bring you to ): Gallery

You need to scroll well down the page, and there are three postings in all. But while you're scrolling, you'll also pass by paparazzi photos (not on set) of Helena Bonham Carter that were taken on September 14, as well as a candid shot of Joel Harlow, the film's makeup department head, supposedly taken on set at some undetermined time. And here's Joel Harlow's page (hopefully) translated: Joel Harlow.

235 days 12 hours 19 minutes 25 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

According to IMDb, Naomi Collins has been cast, and she's being played by Susanna Cappellaro. Interestingly, though, she's listed on IMDb as being "uncredited," so apparently she won't figure in the plot all that much.

IMDb has also added: Ashley Bernard ... Canning Company Employee

235 days 12 hours 12 minutes 38 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

SfxLeon Leon Harris
#darkshadows sfx crew wrap party, its gonna be messy!
5 hours ago

Harris is a special effects trainee on the film. And it's interesting that they're already having their wrap party when we know there's at least a week of shooting left to go.


And while I was looking Harris up on IMDb, I noticed that I might have missed this earlier or it was recently added:

Matthew David McCarthy   ...    18th Century Gentleman (uncredited)

235 days 8 hours 37 minutes 58 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Cousin_Barnabas]

The following text is from the translated Joel Harlow site and it made me laugh... as it sounds far more ominous in the plural. 

"Dark Shadows", which are due for release May 11, 2012.

As for the news about Naomi Collins, that doesn't surprise me, as I expect that part of the 18th century won't take up more than 5 minutes of the actual film. 

[jimbo]

I think to have 90% of the movie outside of possible flashbacks to take place in present day 1972 is a huge mistake.  I always believed time travel was an attractive and necessary element to the DS universe. I understand that this will only be a 2 hour movie and is geared to a new younger audience. I don't think the new audience will care for example if Carolyn loves the Carpenters and Alice Cooper. I think Tim Burton and the writer wants to make this movie so vastly different than the o/s that it has lost sight of what DS truly represents. If the producers want to make Barnabas look like a freak in the daylight scene that is done at its own peril. The bottom line is that TB and TPTB don't really care a hoot of what DS fans think no matter their proclamations of how big DS fans they are. Actually the bottom line is they expect us to trust JD and TB and their protectiveness of the DS fandom and its legacy. I have lost a bit of faith but obviously they are not concerned with people like me.

[michael c]

the filmmakers are entitled to create an "atmosphere" for their story and for whatever reason burton and his team have chosen 1972 as their canvas. perhaps it means something plotwise or perhaps it's just a stylistic decision. we won't know until we see it.

so in terms of carolyn liking the carpenters it's part of that atmosphere so it's important. burton could have set it in 1967 and had carolyn liking the monkeys and that could have been part of that atmosphere but he didn't. or he could have set it in the present in dispensed with the aesthetic camp completely. again we won't know until we see it.

[Nancy]

We have to be careful not to confuse speculation with fact.  We have very few facts about this movie and far more speculation.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

As for the news about Naomi Collins, that doesn't surprise me, as I expect that part of the 18th century won't take up more than 5 minutes of the actual film.

Not sure about only 5 minutes, but it will most probably only last so long as necessary to setup Barnabas' backstory with his arrival in America as played by Thomas McDonell, with focus then shifting to Depp taking over as Barn and his relationships with Josette and Angelique, his betrayal of Ang (at least in her mind), and his cursing and burial.

My first thought when I saw that Naomi would be uncredited was that perhaps the reason is that she dies much earlier than in any other version of DS. Perhaps she is unable to outrun "the mysterious curse" that plagues their family in England? Some sort of tragedy seems to be alluded to in the WB Press Release's description of 1752 because it says something to the effect that even being an ocean away isn't enough to escape the curse. But we shall see...

That being said:

We have to be careful not to confuse speculation with fact.  We have very few facts about this movie and far more speculation.

Definitely.

And:

the filmmakers are entitled to create an "atmosphere" for their story and for whatever reason burton and his team have chosen 1972 as their canvas. perhaps it means something plotwise or perhaps it's just a stylistic decision. we won't know until we see it.

Exactly.

And I have to commend the film's Carolyn because to like both The Carpenters and Alice Cooper shows that she has a wide range of taste. They couldn't be more different!  

234 days 12 hours 19 minutes 50 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Wow - I just noticed that the Depp/DS film shot up from #610 to #205 this week on IMDb's MOVIEmeter, due chiefly to the paparazzi pics (with help from the Chloe Moretz' interview). But you know what they say: there's no such thing as bad publicity. And it might actually go to prove what several sites and tweets said last week, which was that thanks to those photos a lot of people who had never even heard that they're making a DS film are now well aware of it, WB and Burton & Co. couldn't have bought that much publicity if they'd tried, and if indeed it does turn out that Anthony Breznican is quite right that Depp doesn't look much like those paparazzi pics in the actual film, all the negative talk the pics generated isn't going to matter one whit - and Burton and Depp might just be laughing over the whole thing.

234 days 10 hours 36 minutes 36 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[michael c]

bella heathcote...or at least someone impersonating her...has a page on facebook that put up one of the paparazzi photos of her and depp in costume with the comment "are you getting excited?".

since heathcote likely signed the same confidentiality agreement as everyone else this makes me think an impostor is running the page. that and the pictures posted there are just pix of bella at publicity events that anyone has access to.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I honestly don't know what to think about that page on Facebook. The Twiiter account that several sources have claimed is her real Twitter account (@Bella_Heathcote), normally tweets whenever the page is updated with a new photo or photos and provides links, and it has also done so in this case:

Bella_Heathcote Bella Heathcote
Johnny Depp as vampire Barnabas Collins on the 'Dark Shadows' set - pictures http://fb.me/Cz9UIk7W
3 minutes ago

But there's another account on Twitter (@BLHeathcote) that claims to be "The Official Twitter of Bella Heathcote". However, neither account has been verified by Twitter - and there are all sorts of other unverified Twitter accounts for all sorts of other celebrities that claim to be their official accounts but actually aren't - particularly in the cases where there are multiple accounts claiming to be the official one.    Obviously they all can't be.    So an unverified claim of being official is pretty much meaningless.

For what it's worth, @BLHeatcote has only one tweet:

BLHeathcote Bella Heathcote
This is *still* the *only* official Bella Heathcote twitter.
8 Jun

Whereas @Bella_Heathcote currently has 29. It's not like she's very active regardless of which one might really be her...

234 days 8 hours 41 minutes 32 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[jimbo]

I recall about a month or so ago it was determined that it wasn't Bella's official FB page. I don't remember the specifics I think someone who knows her well posted that it wasn't her. That post may have been removed. I don't know. I don't know about her Twitter page. Either way I hope they make a great movie. Re: "Let Me In" I thought both kids performances were real good especially Chloe's. The movie underperformed in the US but did better internationally and in total grossed about 25 million plus 7 million in dvd sales. I think it was one of those films where they just didn't know how to market it and to which audience.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Given that they seem to be closely connected, it would be an odd case indeed if the Facebook page is a fake but the Twitter account is real.    But then sometimes very odd things happen on the Internet...

234 days 8 hours 15 minutes 38 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Not sure about only 5 minutes, but it will most probably only last so long as necessary to setup Barnabas' backstory with his arrival in America as played by Thomas McDonell, with focus then shifting to Depp taking over as Barn and his relationships with Josette and Angelique, his betrayal of Ang (at least in her mind), and his cursing and burial.

Here is my logic as to why I believe it will be relatively short:  If we have a movie that is 120 minutes and we know the majority of it takes place in the "present" (I love how we can still legitimately use that reference since it is so close to the actual "present" in the original series  ), we are looking at probably 100 minutes of the modern Barnabas story, as that is where the majority of the characters are located in the script.  We have 3 to 5 possible (known) characters that can play out the drama in 1772, though I believe it will be closer to 3.  And, since that time period is presumably more important than 1752 plot-wise, it will have more screen time.  I would actually be willing to give 1772 up to 15 minutes of the whole film, since I believe it is vital to setting up the present story, but can probably be told rather efficiently - especially if the WB plot synopsis is any indication.  Since we have no word on a young Josette or a young Anqelique, I envision 1752 to play out relatively quickly, probably focusing on the Collinses moving from England, settling in New England, building the mansion and finding out, somehow, that the curse is still with them.  1752 is obviously important to the story, but it can probably be told in about 5 minutes.  I speculate that this will be a point in time when there is some tragic event which helps to shape the Barnabas character and make him into the man we see in 1772.  And since Barnabas is the master of Collinwood in 1772, I am assuming that Joshua must be dead or dying at that point.  And if it is true that Naomi is uncredited, we can assume her role will be very small.  Again, all speculation, but I just thought I'd share some of my logic.

I do find it an odd departure that the curse of Collinwood is inherent.  Yes, the Collinses have always been seemingly ''cursed'', but Angelique was always seen as the de facto face of that curse, or at least the main proponent of it from the Barnabas side of things.  After all, the reason Barnabas lost everyone he loved was because of Angelique.  I wonder if this newly-inserted "official" curse will have any bearing on the curse which Angelique executes.  The curse of Barnabas Collins was probably the most tragic part of the original and 1991 series, as its results were far more devastating than just the transformation of Barnabas Collins.  The curse reached across the centuries and affected nearly everything Barnabas did and all of his relationships.  A new "official" curse on the family would seem to take away from the power of Anqelique's curse, imo.  But, we already saw that curse brilliantly (and powerfully) executed in the final episodes of 1991, so I guess it's time to look forward to a new take on that aspect of the story.  I guess it's really just going to put Angelique's curse in perspective when pitted against the curse of the whole family.