Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows to start filming in early 2011

This is a bit of quickie Burton/Depp movie news.

The big-screen version of DARK SHADOWS will begin production in February 2011. As we all know, John August was originally writing the script, then it was handed to Seth Grahame-Smith. The author is responsible for “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” as well as “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”. Right now I am finally catching up on my reading and have just started the Jane Austen zombie tale. So far it’s a great take on the original story. It will be interesting to see what he does with this script.

Grahame-Smith apparently has recently turned in his draft for the film.

For those late in the game, DARK SHADOWS centered on Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp’s part) a nearly two hundred year old vampire. Barnabas was one of the sons in a successful family in the 1700s. His true love was a french girl by the name of Josette. Fearing that Josette did not love him back, he had a one-night stand with his families servant girl, Angelique. She of course became obsessed with Barnabas after he rejected her. Angelique put a curse on him and one night he was bitten by a vampire. A few days later he died and his father put him in a coffin then sealed him within a secret room in the family mausoleum. In the 20th century, Barnabas who is now a vampire is released by Willie, the family’s loyal servant.

That’s only the tip of the iceberg. There are several stories interwoven with that of Barnabas including time travel. The entire Collins’ family is plagued by terrible things. It was a really cool and one of a kind soap opera back in the 60’s. I sincerely hope they do right by it.

Both Burton and Depp were pretty into it as well. Burton explains, “Tim and I have tossed the idea for Dark Shadows over the years. It was a TV program in the States in the late 60s and early 70s that I remember watching as a kid. I was obsessed with this character, Barnabas Collins, who was a vampire. I came to find out many years later that when he was a kid, Tim ran home like I did to watch that Gothic soap opera. It was a very strange thing back then.We looked at ways to go, story-wise. We’ve started to come up with something interesting.”