Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Production!!

[borgosi]

Just finished reading "Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter", the only complete novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, screenwriter for Dark Shadows.

Here's a quote from the acknowledgments. "And finally, to Abe - for living a life that hardly needed vampires to make it incredible..." So why write the book?

Truth is the story is pretty good. I could even see changing the central point of the story to someone like Bill Compton and using it as his back story on True Blood. It has some really good ideas in it, I just think it needs to be fleshed out a bit and changing the focal point would allow it to have susprises in it. I was susprised by nothing in it. But how can you be if you know your history. If Lincoln is fighting a vampire before 1860 you should know who's gonna win. The book is well researched, that gives me hope that the Dark Shadows movie will be as well.

His writing style I don't care for. It's like a R. L. Stine story with extra gore. I felt like I was reading something written for 5th graders.

We can only hope that the movie doesn't feel that way. Movies are a group effort and I sure the style of it won't be limited to he writing style of Grahame-Smith.

In an earlier post I compared what we have heard about the story to Blacula and Dracula A.D. 1972. I want to make it clear that I like both of those movies. I have both Blacula movies and every Hammer vampire film that I can get on DVD. I'm hoping for a new take on DS but I want it to remind me of DS, not some other movie or movies.

I don't care who plays whom in this movie as long as it's a great story and the actors play their parts as best as they can be played.

[Gothick]

Thanks for that book report.  Maybe they hired a separate writer for the dialogue?  I think as you say they often have multiple writers working on these things nowadays.

I find the whole current "Jane Austen with zombies" or "Abe Lincoln with vampires" trend profoundly uninteresting--I'm just hoping that by the time the DS movie is released, having any vampires on board isn't going to mean the instant kiss of death for the feature.

And nowadays a movie's opening weekend take completely makes or breaks it financially... it's kind of uncanny how the sleeper seems to be from the era "when dinosaurs walked the earth."

G.

[borgosi]

I'm with you. Why should people be allowed to screw with the classics? Nobody cares until it's their favorite book.

And why should people be allowed to make cartoon superheros out of histories greatest?

I think it's all about titles that pop. If a half-assed writer put out a book called "Jay and Silent Bob Meet George Washington" it's going to sell, good or bad people will buy it just because of the title.

[Brandon Collins]

Having some free time this evening, I've taken the time to start reading different reports that have been released about filming on the new DS movie. Undoubtedly many of the folks on this message board have already read these and are in the know.

From what I'm reading, the movie seems interesting but there are a few things that I'm not quite excited about. First of all, I read on the DS Journal website that Helena Bonham Carter did an interview where she described Julia Hoffman as "the alcoholic psychiatrist". Julia was pretty much crazy enough as it was so why is there the need to mix in alcohol? Is the added dysfunction going to really add anything to the story when she already has a severe dysfunction in falling in love with Barnabas?

I'm not sure how I feel about Barnabas being portrayed as the ladies man who was master of Collinwood. The way it was worded in the Warner Brothers press release was a bit off putting, but I suppose ultimately it serves the overall story because it makes Angelique more justified in cursing Barnabas for betraying her.

I love Michelle Pfeiffer, so her casting as Liz Stoddard is something I'm sure I'll enjoy. And Chloe Moretz as Carolyn is also a great choice.

While there may be a number of things I'm not particularly happy about, I'm still excited to see the movie and judge how all the aspects come together as a whole. The Warner Brothers press release says that John August and Seth Grahame-Smith plotted the story together, while the latter actually wrote the script. I've never read anything buy him so I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing. Ultimately I'm sure that if there were something in the script that wasn't working at all during the shooting process that it would be changed. Often, when a movie is in production, the script serves more as an outline for many directors and actors and the final film dialogue/actions sometimes display huge differences from the script. I have faith that Burton and Depp would strike out something that was completely wrong in the moment.

[LdyAnne]

The whole notion of boycotting an unseen (and unfinished) movie is pretty silly.  You have to wonder if someone is that close-minded over a movie (which in the scheme of things is unimportant) how are they about the really crucial day to day life issues?  That's scarier than any vampire movie!

Oh Nancy you put into words what I have been feeling. To Quote Wm Shatner "Get a Life" folks

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Another question answered:

EurocanLtd
We are in the movies! Supplying equipment for fish cannery set at Pinewood Studios for new Tim Burton film Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp
3 hours ago

309 days 16 hours 14 minutes 18 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And another visitor to Pinewood tweets about DS:

jjlevene
Oh wow. Have just walked about Tim Burton's Dark Shadows set. Unreal
2 hours ago

Though at least this guy is in the industry because his Twitter profile says he's a "short film-maker, editor."

309 days 13 hours 17 minutes 54 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS is released(ET)!!

[Brandon Collins]

It seems like there is a lot of trending interest for this movie on Twitter. Hopefully Warner Brothers takes advantage of the ready-made fan base that's already built in, and the fact that people are already talking about it to drum up support for the movie early and ride the wave all the way until the movie is released.

[jimbo]

At the end of this article the writer indicates that there is a casting call for a "young Quentin". I don't remember seeing this before but I may have missed it.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/first-look-new-johnny-depp-movie-dark-shadows

[Mysterious Benefactor]

It seems like there is a lot of trending interest for this movie on Twitter. Hopefully Warner Brothers takes advantage of the ready-made fan base that's already built in, and the fact that people are already talking about it to drum up support for the movie early and ride the wave all the way until the movie is released.

One would certainly hope that Warner Brothers does. There were definitely more tweets than usual the other day when there was so much action over the Collinwood set photos, but every hour of every day there seems to be several tweets about some incarnation of DS, including the audio dramas. Before I began to keep up with them because of the Depp/DS film I had no idea DS was so popular on Twitter. And the good thing is that Warner Brothers itself is also active on Twitter, so there's certainly a possibility that they're aware of how often the topic of DS comes up.


Changing reels, three other things:

Last week I was in Borders and noticed they were having a great sale on older Blu-rays (only $8.66), so one that I picked up was Johnny Depp's Secret Window. I finished watching it last night and one of the interesting things director David Koepp had to say was that, because Columbia was all too aware of Depp's huge teenage fanbase, he was contractually obligated by Columbia to make a PG-13 film (though he would have preferred to have been able to make an R film). I wonder if there's any such obligation between Burton and Warner Brothers or if Burton has been given free rein to make DS as bloody/gory/violent as he wants? Though in a way I almost hope DS does turn out to be PG-13, if just for the fact that PG-13 films tend to make more money.    And I could be wrong, but I don't think Depp has made many R rated films. (Certainly From Hell comes to mind - but that was hardly a movie that was made for teenagers.) But madscntst would be much more knowledgeable on that subject than I am.  

And I keep forgetting to mention that thanks to all the publicity over Alice Cooper's cameo and the Collinwood set photos, DS has climbed up from its recent low of 782 to 692 on IMDb's MOVIEmeter. Also on IMDb, I see where Alice Cooper has been added to the cast list - though in true IMDb tradition, he's listed as "rumored" even though his participation in the film has already been confirmed.  

And finally, though not that it's a big thing, but in the current Harry Potter-centric issue of Entertainment Weekly, DS is listed as Helena Bonham Carter's next film in the magazine's What's Next For Potter's Supporting Players section.

309 days 10 hours 18 minutes 53 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS is released(ET)!!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

At the end of this article the writer indicates that there is a casting call for a "young Quentin".

Actually, the article says 'there is a cast listing for a “young Quentin”'. 

I saw that article a couple days ago, but I dismissed that bit because I figured the writer was probably referring to the listing that has been on Facebook and Wiki (and even a few other sites) which would have appeared to be someone's idea of a joke because the person listed as playing Quentin, rather than being an actor, appears to be a big Internet jokster. But who knows? Having Quentin in this film would seem like biting off more than they can chew in an initial DS film that should only run 2 hours or so. But perhaps the film is far more ambitious and will run much longer than we're expecting - or perhaps Quentin will somehow simply make a brief appearance at the end as a cliffhanger...

At any rate, thanks for posting about it because for all we know it may turn out to be real.  

309 days 9 hours 56 minutes 34 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS is released(ET)!!

[jimbo]

Is there a difference between a cast listing and a cast call? Just curious.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

A casting call in a notice that there's a role available. A cast listing is generally a list of the actors who have already been cast in a project.    Like what's on IMDb.

309 days 9 hours 26 minutes 50 seconds until the day the Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS is released(ET)!!

[jimbo]

I think the writer of that article should reference where he obtained that information of a cast listing for a young Quentin. I'll be sure to quote stuff next time not to be spanked again.

[madscntst]

I finished watching it last night and one of the interesting things director David Koepp had to say was that, because Columbia was all too aware of Depp's huge teenage fanbase, he was contractually obligated by Columbia to make a PG-13 film (though he would have preferred to have been able to make an R film). I wonder if there's any such obligation between Burton and Warner Brothers or if Burton has been given free rein to make DS as bloody/gory/violent as he wants? Though in a way I almost hope DS does turn out to be PG-13, if just for the fact that PG-13 films tend to make more money.    And I could be wrong, but I don't think Depp has made many R rated films. (Certainly From Hell comes to mind - but that was hardly a movie that was made for teenagers.) But madscntst would be much more knowledgeable on that subject than I am.  

My ears must've been burning, because I just checked the forum before lunch, but had another minute free and just checked again, and saw several new posts  

Koepp's remark is interesting, and I had completely forgotten he said that (I'm sure I must've heard it because I do have the Secret Window DVD and remember watching the commentaries and extras).  Anyway, the DS rating is one of the things I'm most intrigued to find out.  I can really see it going either way (PG-13 or R; let's assume that PG is out of the realm of possibilities).  As you say, MB, PG-13 films tend to make more money, especially if they are targeted toward a young/teen audience.  However, for DS, I'm not sure of this.  Part of me wants the DS audience to be something other than the Twilight demographic, but another part of me wishes they could see it just so that they can see a real vampire film in comparison    And in general, I'd like for more people to be able to see it, and not everyone likes films that have a lot of graphic content.

But another part of me would like for them not to worry about what they have to do to keep the rating to PG-13- I'd rather let them have the leeway they want to make the film they want, regardless of the rating.  As an example, Tim Burton said early on in the Sweeney Todd production that he was very much aiming for an R rating, and promised that there wouldn't be any skimping on the blood.  And there wasn't!  I remember seeing one review of the film that was titled "There Will Be Blood" and the subtitle said something like "and we're not talking about the Daniel Day-Lewis film!"  But I think that they approached Sweeney Todd from the beginning as a film that was never going to have universal appeal- it is a musical about a serial killer and cannibalism, and it was always going to be a bit of a hard sell!  They might well want DS to appeal to a wider audience.  Anyway, I don't have any doubt that Tim and/or Johnny would be okay with making DS an R rated film, but the question is, is that the film that they *do* want to make?

In answer to your other question, Johnny has made many R rated films.  The Libertine was one that people thought/feared might even get the dreaded NC-17 rating, and while in the end it really doesn't seem NC-17-ish to me, it's still a pretty hard R.  Besides Sweeney Todd and From Hell, Blow, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, The Ninth Gate, Sleepy Hollow, Public Enemies and maybe even Ed Wood come to mind as rated R, and I'm pretty sure The Rum Diary will be R (I'm not sure if it's gotten its rating yet).  

Cathy