The gestating film adaptation of 1960’s gothic television soap opera “Dark Shadows” finally has a start date” and will go in front of cameras in January with Tim Burton directing with his longtime collaborator Johnny Depp in front of camera as vampire Barnabas Collins.
In another interesting twist, the script by John August (“Big Fish,” “Charlie & The Chocolate Factory”) will get a fresh draft by Seth Grahame-Smith, the novelist best known for penning “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” and “Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” both of which are also headed to the big screen (the former with David O. Russell and Natalie Portman attached; the latter with Timur Bekmambetov).
This news puts to rest the rumors about what Burton’s next project will be as he’s been linked to a number of potential vehicles including “Maleficent,” a retelling of “Sleeping Beauty” that would potentially star Angelina Jolie and has a script by ‘Alice’ scribe Linda Woolverton; “Monsterpocalypse” based on the board game; and a new, animated version of “The Addams Family” based on the original black and white cartoons.
As for Depp, it looks like his calendar is going to continue to be busy. He’s currently shooting “Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” will probably take a break after the shoot before doing press rounds for “The Tourist” in the late fall, and then joining “Dark Shadows.” But what about the pending Pancho Villa biopic “Wild Roses, Tender Roses” directed by Emir Kusturica and co-starring Salma Hayek? It was supposed to shoot in 2011, and it might still yet, however probably not until after “Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” hits theaters in May. Oh yeah, and there is still the completed “The Rum Diary” that will hopefully be coming out somewhere in the middle of that and Depp’s gestating documentary on Keith Richards. He’s a busy guy.
As for “Dark Shadows”? We’re gonna need some convincing in order to get remotely excited for it. Burton hasn’t done in anything in years we’ve been interested in, and we can’t help but feel it’ll be another half baked, gothic-esque film that he seems to rub out in his sleep. We also sort of wish Depp would’ve done something different rather than go from tentpole to tentpole to tentpole, but at the least he does occasionally switch gears and hopefully that Kusturica film is still on deck somewhere.