Dark Shadows "Spy" Photos Show Johnny Depp in Vampire Makeup
Posted 09.15.11 by BrentJS
It's pretty clear by now that Johnny Depp has a thing for playing characters with a decidedly anemic pallor. There's Edward Scissorhands (1990), Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow (1999), Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), the "Demon Barber" in Sweeney Todd (2007), and the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland. Heck, even the puppet Victor Van Dort in Corpse Bride was pale.
Well, add one more character to that growing list. The first "spy" photos have emerged from the English set of his latest collaboration with director Tim Burton, Dark Shadows. While not evident in the movie's teaser poster, these spy photos of Depp in full costume and makeup reveal that his character, the vampire Barnabas Collins, will be yet another pasty-faced anti-hero for the emo-goth crowd.
Dark Shadows is based on the Gothic soap opera of the same name, created by Dan Curtis, that aired on ABC from 1966 to 1971. Like most soap operas, the story in Dark Shadows is pretty convoluted and not easy to explain in a few short sentence. Evidence the movie's official, detailed synopsis.
In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas (Thomas McDonell), set sail from Liverpool, England, to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet — or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful, and an inveterate playboy... until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Brouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive.
Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles.
Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth's ne'er-do-well brother, Roger Collins (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter, Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Moretz); and Roger's precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). The mystery extends beyond the family to caretaker Willie Loomis, played by Jackie Earle Hayley, and David's new nanny, Victoria Winters, played by Bella Heathcoate.
Dark Shadows, currently in production, is slated to open on May 11, 2012. Burton is working with screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith, who also wrote Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which Burton is producing.