Tim Burton and Johnny Depp Reimagine Dark Shadows
Perhaps one of the most anticipated remakes of the coming 2012 summer film season will be kicked off by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s remake of Dark Shadows. Within the last week, the buzz amidst the upcoming film has peaked with the release of the new cast photo.
Before Twilight, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood and that awful daytime soap opera called Passions. There was one that started it all, besides Dracula of course.
Barnabas Collins, the vampire of Dark Shadows, began the gothic romance that vampire tales have become today.
Dark Shadows was a unique entertainment property and the first of its kind in the 1960s. It was a supernatural daytime soap opera that came on every afternoon on ABC’s lineup. No one thought it could work; needless to say it did more than work. The daytime soap did more than lure housewives from their ironing; it was also a huge hit with children.
The show hit a chord with its stories around ghosts, werewolves, a phoenix, a headless man, séances, zombies and of course America’s favorite (and only) vampire in daytime. Dark Shadows was a hit and lured in nearly 20 million daily viewers at a time when there were less households with television sets. There were board games, comic books, bubble gum cards and pinups.
Although the modern cast photo for the 2012 film reimagining by Tim Burton and Johnny Depp doesn’t appear at the surface to be dissimilar, the entertainment climate has changed a lot in the 45 years since the daytime series debut. Dark Shadows will have to stand on its own and appeal to an audience that is largely unfamiliar with the original series; they will think it rips off Twilight. In all actuality it is Twilight that is the most serious of rip-offs.
The new Dark Shadows’ cast consists of Johnny Depp as the family vampire Barnabas Collins, Michelle Pfeiffer as the Collins matriarch, Eva Green as the witch Angelique and Helena Bonham Carter as good doctor Julia Hoffman. The cast also includes Chloe Grace Moretz, Jackie Earle Haley, Christopher Lee, Jonny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcoate and Thomas McDonnell.
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