Depp will star in a Warner Bros. feature film based on the old 60s shock-soap DARK SHADOWS, slipping on the fangs to play self-loathing yet sympathetic bloodsucker Barnabas Collins. The long-running show (over a thousand episodes) about a Maine family dealing with bizarre occurrences still has a large and obsessive fan base, of which Depp apparently counts himself.
In addition to vampires, the show also featured a wide variety of supernatural elements including werewolves, ghosts, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks and time travel, all the more impressive considering its limited budget. It was briefly resurrected and remade in the 1990s with Ben Cross as Barnabas.