Jackie Earle Haley wakes up Johnny Depp in the Dark Shadows remake

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Johnny Depp is finally baring his fangs and seeing his pet project DARK SHADOWS rise from the mists, and he’ll be joined by another spooky visage: Jackie Earle Haley.

Deadline says that Haley (WATCHMEN) is in talks to join the Tim Burton-directed movie as Willie Loomis, a hopeless drifter who embarks on a grave-robbing spree at a mausoleum, unwittingly releasing vampire Barnabas Collins back into the world. Newly enlisted as the vampire’s slave, Willie gradually learns the value of compassion and respect.

Deadline also claims that actress Bella Heathcoate may play Victoria Winters, the governess of the Collins estate. Heathcoate was recently on the lengthy list of actresses up for the Snow White role in Universal’s SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (it looks like TWILIGHT star Kristen Stewart got that part).

The cult shock-soap from the 1960s followed a Maine family dealing with bizarre and supernatural occurrences involving vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks and time travel. The initial series lasted over a thousand episodes, and the show was resurrected in the 1990s with Ben Cross as Barnabas.

Writer Seth Grahame-Smith (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES and ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER) handled the script, and the movie is gearing up for an April start and a release some time in 2012.