Back in June the great Alice Cooper hinted that he would be cameoing in Tim Burton’s upcoming vampire romp DARK SHADOWS, which is of course based on the classic soap opera. Well it’s taken a few months but Cooper’s involvement in the film has finally been officially confirmed via The LA Times.
According to the Times’ Hero Complex blog Cooper will be playing himself in the film, which is set in 1972. Johnny Depp’s character, the recently revived vampire Barnabas Collins, hires the rock star to play a private ball at his seaside home in Maine. He’ll be playing the classic “No More Mr. Nice Guy.”
Apparently Cooper (above) was blown away while on the set of the film, not only by the actual set but by Tim Burton as well:
“They should take that set and make it a haunted house next year.”
“Rock and horror and comedy work together, that’s something I’ve known a long time and people like Rob Zombie know, and Burton knows that too. Sometimes the comedy is disguised a little bit, it’s dark, but it is there. You can’t do horror and rock with a punchline in a way. There’s the absurd stuff and there’s just that delivery of the ‘Oh!’ moment that is like a punchline. I just saw ‘Final Destination 5’ and I was laughing so hard. I mean, it was Wile E. Coyote, all these elaborate things leading up to this moment of impact, there’s something like that in our shows, too. Hitchcock would do it too. There’s the setup, the misdirect and then the delivery. Tim Burton knows it so well. He’s one of a kind. He’s a kindred spirit.”
The rocker is set to join Helena Bonham Carter, Chloe Moretz, Eva Green (below), Gulliver McGrath, Bella Heathcote, Johnny Depp, Ray Shirley, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller and Michelle Pfeiffer in the film.
In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, 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 has the world at his feet¡ªor 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. 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 has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman, to help with her family troubles.
Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth’s ne’er-do-well brother, Roger Collins; her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard; and Roger’s precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins. The mystery extends beyond the family, to caretaker Willie Loomis and David’s new nanny, Victoria Winters.
DARK SHADOWS is set to bite into theaters everywhere on May 11, 2012 so expect a lot more updates on this one as we get into the new year.
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