Tim Burton's Dark Shadows

[GreenScar]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Burton, but I know a lot of you are. I am interested in this project however...

Good news fans of Johnny Depp. Or fans of the vampire Barnabas Collins. Back in June, a few weeks ago, Depp told press that "Dark Shadows is happening." And that "when Tim is done with Alice and we get the script, which is very, very close, in order we'll probably attack it next year. It's exciting, very exciting. It's like a lifelong dream for me." Well, MTV talked with Burton recently and got a separate update that confirms that he is, indeed, shooting Dark Shadows next year. "That's something that [Depp and I] both love and are excited about," the director told them. "When I'm done with this I'll definitely focus on that."

"It's another challenge because it was such a weird soap opera," Burton explains. "Part of the energy of it was the tone and weirdness of it. That's our challenge, to try to capture that vibe." Dark Shadows was a horror TV show that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971, logging over 1200 episodes filled with ghosts, ghouls, vampires, zombies, werewolves, parallel universes, and time-paradoxes. That vibe Burton is talking about was "part campy melodrama, part dead serious—and decidedly odd—storytelling." So which direction will Burton take this in? "That’s a question and a challenge we talk about a lot. I haven’t arrived at the answer."

So there you have it - as long as things come together, we'll be seeing Depp as Barnabas Collins sometime late next year (or early 2011). I'm sure we'll hear a lot more from Burton coming up soon as he's appearing at Comic-Con. And I'm sure we'll have a big update by the time Alice in Wonderland hits next March.