Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I just got done watching the two trailers for the Snow White (2012) films.  ... The two of them are like night and day.

Yes, I've seen the trailers for both and you're right - they couldn't be more different. Though in their case that's probably a very good thing as both are likely to find an audience and those audiences may not cross over with each other very much.

And not that I'm jealous. No, not at all. But Entertainment Tonight has been running behind the scenes set visits/interviews for Snow White and the Huntsman. No, that shouldn't phase any of us in the least. Not at all. I mean, just because that film is shooting at Pinewood and granted ET access to all sorts of things and we didn't get a single thing when it came to DS while it was shooting there. Nope, no jealousy at all. Not one single bit.

But seriously, once we learned of the confidentiality agreement, which we honestly suspected was in place long before we actually heard it for sure, we knew we weren't going to get coverage from the entertainment shows while shooting was going on. With Burton & Co., I suppose we should actually feel lucky that we've at least gotten two official articles so far and seen three official stills. And obviously more isn't going to come our way until Burton & Co. decides it's the right time, whenever that may be...

Snow White and the Huntsman is dark and serious.  And Mirror, Mirror is...  I don't know what it is to be honest.  Anyway, it is everything I hope Shadows WON'T be.  It appears to be a very bad comedy.  I hope that when we get a trailer for Shadows it looks more like Huntsman does, because I feel if it looks anything like Mirror, Mirror, nobody is going to be very happy.

I suspect DS won't be like either of them. We pretty much know that it won't be as serious as Snow White and the Huntsman, and I doubt it will be as comedic as Mirror, Mirror seems to be.

175 days 5 hours 10 minutes 19 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Cousin_Barnabas]

I just saw part of the series on Entertainment Tonight this evening.  Really would have loved to have seen something like this for DS.  Well, maybe it happened, and they just can't show it yet.   

Yeah, I hope Depp Shadows won't be like Mirror, Mirror.  I know it probably won't be like Huntsman either, but I hope it's more like the feel of that movie than anything remotely close to Mirror, Mirror.  When I saw this trailer, the whole "funny" and "comedy" comments came rushing back to me, and I said, "Oh no..."   

[jimbo]

As MTV promised another DS friday article. Re: Depp's costumes.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1674659/johnny-depp-dark-shadows-costumes.jhtml

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Interesting that it's Barnabas' courtship of Victoria that forces him to go out in daylight. That certainly explains the paparazzi photos. Though I can't wait to see what the explanation for that look is in the film. "Yes, Victoria, I sunburn very easily. I turn so red so quickly that it's almost as if I burst into flames!"  

Thanks so much for the link, jimbo.  

174 days 7 hours 27 minutes 34 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[michael c]

atwood's remarks certainly validate alot of speculation about depp's strange attire in those paparazzi pics...

that's he was heavily covered up to protect himself from exposure to sunlight. probably at some early point in dr.hoffman's treatments. and that he would not look so strange for the bulk of the movie.

how he's explaining his ghostly white appearance is still a mystery but some sort of illness would be the likely cover story.

[Gothick]

I'm envisioning a scene where Julia says:  "Barnabas!  Barnabas, if you insist on going outside during the day with Vicki, I have something you MUST use beforehand.  You MUST, Barnabas!"

Close-up shows a bottle labeled Sun-block SPF 175.

G.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

G, 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Julia simply MUST use the word must in the film! And use it frequently.  

What will be interesting will be to see if Julia smokes in the film. 1972 was still a period when barely anyone was paying attention to the Surgeon General's anti-smoking warnings, and Julia often smoked on the original show - especially during her first year on the show, so depicting her smoking in the film could in a way be a tribute to daytime Julia. But the MPAA does not look kindly on smoking in films as depicting anyone smoking is most often an automatic R rating because the MPAA's reasoning is that they don't want kids exposed to smoking on film.

173 days 9 hours 0 minutes 26 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[michael c]

remember julia brazenly lighting up off a candelabra in the old house? breathtaking!

another MUST for the new film, a series hallmark we've thus far heard nothing about, is a SCEANCE...

i'm not sure who the gang would be contacting(it would appear there's no sarah)but for the sake of tradition and the proper DS atmosphere it's a MUST.

[Gothick]

MB, that is fascinating about cigarette smoking meaning an instant R rating.  I notice so many 20 somethings, particularly bright hip ones, around Cambridge puffing away like nobody's business.  I assume that the cigarette companies targeted kids in middle school and high school, but of course this crowd also watches a lot of mid 20th century films and television shows and the old association of cigarettes and coolness seems to be back with us.  It's sooo sad. 

Even though Grayson claimed to have given up smoking in 1970, we all remember Julia with her cigarettes in hoDS.

It was touching reading an interview with Don Briscoe from a group of fans visiting him in the 1990s and he said that Dan Curtis had him smoke during a scene in a 1968 episode and it bothered him because of the bad example he was setting on a show popular with kids.  Don had such a huge heart.

I only watched the X Files intermittently but I remember noting that whenever a character lit up a cigarette it usually meant that within 5 minutes, the person would encounter a grisly death.

michael, I definitely agree that a seance (preferably pronounced a la Joan Bennett:  "SAY-awnce") is a MUST for the Burton film. I can think of a couple of possibilities from what has already been revealed about the plot...

G.

[jimbo]

It seems there will be a train scene after all. I was always hoping for the familiar Ms. Winters scene on a train. All we have is this actress in a train scene as a passenger.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4166944/

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Interesting. There might be that Victoria arrives on a train scene yet. Thanks so much for the link, jimbo.  

And I find it fascinating that more actors/characters continue to be added on IMDb. Besides Alexa Seabourne as the uncredited 1972 Train Passenger, I just noticed:

Frank Hellebrand   ...    Henchman

Who knows what sort of henchman - and a henchman for whom? Angelique, perhaps?

173 days 1 hour 5 minutes 30 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

MB, that is fascinating about cigarette smoking meaning an instant R rating.

I forget what the name of the film was (because it wasn't anything that interested me), but the producers had a big fight with the MPAA earlier this year over their film getting an R because it included smoking. But in the end the R rating remained. So, if Burton & Co. want a PG-13, I suppose Julia won't be seen smoking...

I notice so many 20 somethings, particularly bright hip ones, around Cambridge puffing away like nobody's business.  I assume that the cigarette companies targeted kids in middle school and high school, but of course this crowd also watches a lot of mid 20th century films and television shows and the old association of cigarettes and coolness seems to be back with us.  It's sooo sad.

Something about smoking is definitely getting kids in middle school interested again because the other day I saw two kids get off the bus from the local middle school and both of them couldn't wait to light up as they came walking down my street. I swear neither of them could have been older than 13. And it is quite sad. It's one things for adults to make the decision to smoke - but 13-year-olds should not be smoking. But we digress...

173 days 0 hours 51 minutes 53 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton Dark Shadows is released(ET)!!

[madscntst]

I don't think that smoking is an automatic R, though it might contribute to the rating.  (Didn't someone here tell me recently that even marijuana use isn't automatically an R?)  Earlier this year, Rango was rated PG, and even though it was animated, there was a huge uproar from parents' groups about the amount of smoking depicted in the film (they didn't like the language, either).  Maybe a live-action film would be different... I'm trying to think of other movies I've seen recently, but I believe that The Tourist was rated PG-13, and while Johnny's character was smoking electronic cigarettes through most of the movie, he did switch to real ones toward the end. 

Okay, I tried Googling this and all I could find is this 2007 article from msnbc- I don't know if it's up to date
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/18601051/ns/today-entertainment/t/mpaa-makes-smoking-bigger-factor-ratings/#.Tsj8l3Frfst

Oh, and Wikipedia says that Disney won't allow smoking in its new films.  And it mentions the Rango issue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Association_of_America_film_rating_system

[michael c]

interesting bit about the girl on the train...

given the plot outline we received it would seem that the film was going to open with barnabas' backstory and the stuff about his family leaving england, not vicki's arrival in collinsport in the present day(and i speak of 1972 as the "present day").

still, that opening voiceover(..."my journey is beginning"...)would be dreamy.