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Much has been made of the fact that the upcoming adaptation of Dark Shadows will be the eighth collaboration between actor Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton, but the movie is also the second teaming of Burton and actress Michelle Pfeiffer. It's been 20 years since the pair worked together on 1992's Batman Returns, but her role as family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard was a dream come true for the actress, a "diehard follower" of the original, late 1960s-early 70s Gothic soap opera that is the basis of the movie.
I was obsessed. It was the first vampire show ever on television. My mother probably assumed, given that it was on in the afternoon, it was safe for me to be watching, but I always felt like I was somehow breaking the rules because it was quite terrifying and sexy, too, especially for that time.
At the Dark Shadows press conference over the weekend, Pfeiffer revealed that it wasn't Burton that sought her for the movie. Rather, she called Burton and begged for a role.
more from pfeiffer and burton >> Posted 05.08.12 by Ryan -
Now that Marvel Studios' The Avengers has kicked The Dark Knight down a couple notches in box office rankings — besting the Bat for the top spot for midnight screenings with a take of $18.7 million and pushing The Dark Knight down to third place in highest-opening weekends — it would be understandable (if a little tacky) for Marvel Studios President of Production (and mastermind of the Marvel Cinematic Universe) Kevin Feige to crow about the accomplishment. But we're pretty sure he won't. Just a couple days before the theatrical opening of The Avengers in the States, Feige actually went out of his way to praise Christopher Nolan's revamp of the Batman franchise, calling it "the greatest thing that happened" to superhero movies because it "bolstered everything."
Before Nolan needed to save Batman from the creative black hole that the franchise plunged into when Joel Schumacher decided to introduce Bat-nipples and enough neon to make the Las Vegas Strip look classy, Tim Burton was considered the wunderkind of comic book movies. With Batman and its follow-up, Batman Returns, Burton helped to turn Batman into a cultural phenomenon (not many grown men would have been caught dead wearing Bat-symbol T-shirts in public before the movie) and made comic book movies a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. So what does Burton think of Nolan's Batman movies? If he appreciates them as much as Feige does, he's not saying. However, he does appear to be thankful that Nolan's Batman movies make his own Batman movies appear less "dark" by comparison.
what did burton & Pfeiffer say and what's this about a Whedon Batman? >> Posted 05.07.12 by BrentJS -
It may be hard to believe for those who obsessively watched the Dark Shadows TV series in the late 1960s/early '70s, but there were some that missed the gothic soap opera starring the late Jonathan Frid as the vampire Barnabas Collins. With director Tim Burton's big-screen adaptation set to open in less than two weeks, audiences unaware of the series may start to think of Dark Shadows as the "Johnny Depp vampire movie."
In order to introduce the other characters, Warner Bros. has released a new featurette that reveals the entire strange Collins clan: Michelle Pfeiffer as family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard; Jonny Lee Miller as her brother, Roger Collins; Chloe Moretz as Elizabeth's rebellious daughter Carolyn; Gulliver McGrath as 10-year-old David Collins; Bella Heathcoate as David's governness Victoria; Helena Bonham Carter as resident psychiatrist Dr. Julia Hoffman; and Jackie Earle Hayley as caretaker Willie Loomis. Then, of course, there's Depp as Barnabas, who rises from his 200-year-old grave and unites them all and saves the family business. As Pfeiffer says in the featurette's opening seconds: "The Collins family is odd." No kidding.
watch the featurette >> Posted 05.02.12 by Ryan -
We have a one-two punch of set photos for all of you Johnny Depp fans out there!
Currently in New Mexico filming Disney's Lone Ranger adaptation, Depp was captured on set in full costume as Tonto, looking far less menacing than he did in the first image tweeted by producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Here, he mugs for the camera longside Dr. Gayle Dine'Chacon, Surgeon General of the Navajo Nation.
If that's not enough, Warner Bros. has also released a new photo from the set of Tim Burton's Dark Shadows adaptation that shows Depp in full costume as his childhood hero, the vampire Barnabas Collins. Additionally, Warners released two new still images of Depp from Dark Shadows, one solo and one with Michelle Pfeiffer as the modern-day matriarch of the Collins family, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.
see Depp as Tonto & Barnabas Collins >> Posted 04.16.12 by BrentJS -
Apparently, superstar actor Johnny Depp wasn't just showing off his knowledge of early horror cinema when he recently revealed that his take on the vampire Barnabas Collins in director Tim Burton's Dark Shadows adaptation was inspired by "classic" movie vampires like Max Schreck in Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror. Empire recently released two new photos from the set of the movie — one featuring Depp as Collins, who was awakened in the 1970s after a 200-year slumber; the other featuring Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the matriarch of the Collins family in the '70s — and Depp's splayed (and sufficiently bloodied) talon-like fingers in one of the images immediately brings to mind that classic image of Nosferatu ascending the stairs from the 1922 movie.
see the new still images >> Posted 10.26.11 by BrentJS -
Recent "spy" photos from the set of the upcoming adaptation of Dark Shadows offered the first look at Johnny Depp as the 200-year-old vampire Barnabas Collins, and from the looks of it, Depp was wearing so much clownish goth make-up that it put his Mad Hatter role from Alice in Wonderland to shame.
Luckily, director Tim Burton has delivered a first look photo of the cast, where Depp, and the rest of the cast, look more like they just stepped out of the ABC gothic soap opera on which the movie is based. "I remember seeing a group photograph of the cast of the original series," Burton told EW. "For me it captured the weird Dark Shadows vibe in a single image. I had a brief window of opportunity to have our cast present at the same time, the day before principle photography began. We decided to stage a similar picture instead of rehearsing, to see if we captured the Dark Shadows feeling."
more about the strange Collins family >> Posted 09.23.11 by Ryan -
Last November, it was reported that Johnny Depp would start shooting Dark Shadows with director Tim Burton last month. Close enough.
Warner Bros. announced shooting has begun in England on the project, which is an adaptation of a Gothic soap opera created by Dan Curtis that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971 and centered around vampire Barnabas Collins (Depp), a role originally played by Jonathan Frid. Seth Grahame-Smith, the author of the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies mash-up novel, wrote the script for the movie based on a story by John August and Grahame-Smith.
The Warner Bros. announcement also included a movie synopsis, giving those who remember the show the first chance to see how the adaptation will compare.
read the detailed synopsis >> Posted 05.19.11 by Ryan -
Director Tim Burton has shown that he enjoys working with certain actors, which is why he is again teaming with Johnny Depp for the upcoming Dark Shadows, an adaptation of the 1960s soap opera that featured vampires, zombies, werewolves, and other gothic elements. Depp has long been cast as Barnabas Collins, a nearly two hundred-year-old vampire, and recent reports have Burton bringing more friendly faces along as well.
THR reports that Michelle Pfeiffer is in negotiations to join the cast as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the matriarch of the Collins family and owner of the Collinwood mansion in the fictional Maine town of Collinsport. Pfeiffer last worked with Burton in 1992's Batman Returns, playing Catwoman. The late Joan Bennett played the role in the TV series.
Who else might be joining? >> Posted 02.16.11 by Ryan