Saw a report yesterday that Johnny Depp and Tim Burton may be teaming up to do a remake of the classic Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. Dark Shadows ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971 and covered a wide variety of supernatural/gothic elements including vampires, of course, but also werewolves, witches, ghosts, time travel, and even a parallel universe.
Burton revealed Dark Shadows to be his next project at the latest Comic-Con, if he ever gets finished with Alice in Wonderland, which also has Depp in it. Depp himself has apparently been fascinated with Dark Shadows since his childhood and has called the opportunity to play Barnabas Collins, played originally by Jonathan Frid, “a lifelong dream…”
Strange that my first posting as an official member of the Blogengamot should be about Johnny Depp, who I don’t particularly care for as an actor. But the Dark Shadows angle intrigued me. I never saw more than a dozen or so episodes of the program back when it was on the old Sci Fi Channel – now renamed SyFy. How original. Anyway, I found Dark Shadows to be fascinating, if not incomprehensible, to watch. I loved Jonathan Frid’s portrayal of Barnabas Collins, a vampire always searching for his lost love and never quite totally comfortable being a vampire. I remember one of the story arcs involved a search for a cure for vampirism.
Doing a little more research on Dark Shadows, I found that it was acclaimed for taking classic gothic themes and reworking them in a plethora of ways. I found this interesting in light of all the discussions we’ve had here and also over at Hogwart’s Professor regarding the use of genres and the reworking of genres, including the Gothic, in the Harry Potter series.
The original story on Depp and Burton may be found here.
Interested on your thoughts.
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The news that Depp/Burton might be teaming up to do Dark Shadows leaves me almost – but obviously not suffficiently – speechless.
Let me start with the preamble that I’ve seen a lot of the soap, and even used to be a Frid fan. And nowadays I am a Depp fan, which means that I enjoy his performances (“Are you a Mexi-can or a Mexi-can’t?”) and am interested in how he approaches his craft. Because of that, I’ve read a lot of interviews with him.
What I’ve learned from those interviews, and what I’ve seen of his performances leads me to believe that his approach will be totally irreverent – which is fair, as Frid’s performance encourages ridicule. But Depp will go beyond irreverent. He will find an angle which will be fascinating and mocking and insightful in a grotesque sort of way. Remember this is the man who played Captain Jack Sparrow as Keith Richards, played Willy Wonka as Michael Jackson, and based on reports from the set, is playing the Mad Hatter as so genuinely deranged that it’s frightening to look into his eyes. I can’t even begin to conjecture how he’ll play Frid. Well, I can, but my thoughts are not for this forum.
PS Nice first post, revgeorge
RR, you took the words right out of my mouth, lol!
Since I can’t hope to express my delight at this news even half as wonderfully and concisely as you did, I’ll simply say that I echo your sentiments entirely.
Revgeorge, great job jumping right into the thick of things with a great first post!
I have never heard of this series, so I found the post really interesting. Of course being 9 years younger than the end date for the series might have something to do with it.
Get the original teevee shows on VHS from eBay!
John, Good advice, although I’d have to go find VCR!
This sounds really interesting. I’d love to see it- the original series too.
Red Rocker,
Depp isn’t always out there, though. Ninth Gate and… was it Secret Window(?) he played straight forward horror roles. I like his performances. Do you reckon its the Tim Burton factor that will allow him to go where he wants with the performance?
I’ve never seen Dark Shadows before, but there are 12 episodes from the first season online. I think I’ll check one out tonight.
Dark Shadows. Wow. Blast from the past. Yeah. Sort of an addicting eeriness. It will be interesting to see if they can reproduce the sort of darkness from all sides feeling when watching that show.
Great first post, revgeorge. I looked up Johnny Depp on Wikipedia and discovered I’ve never seen a single one of the movies he’s been in (nor 21 Jump Street), nor have I ever seen Dark Shadows. On the other hand, according to Wiki, Alice and Wonderland will also star Alan Rickman, so an added incentive to go see it (and Helena Bonham Carter, if you fancy her)!
Definitely added incentive, Lily Luna, lol! If you want a preview of the wickedly delightful combination that is Depp-Bonham Carter-Rickman-Burton, I can’t recommend Sweeney Todd enough.
So excited to watch the 12 episodes on Hulu…although I did see that the Hulu episodes are remakes of the original. Still looks like great fun!
Frid aka Barnabas the vampire did not join the show until a bit later:
Barnabas: episode 211 (March 22, 1967) to 365 (November 17, 1967) Barnabas Collins, a nearly two-hundred-year-old vampire, is released from his coffin by Willie Loomis and brings terror to Collinsport. Doctor Julia Hoffman is called to investigate the strange kidnapping of Maggie Evans, a Collinsport waitress whom the vampire believes to be the reincarnation of his long lost love, Josette du Pres.
But in looking this up I came upon a reference which should bring a smile to fans of Cthulhu:
The Leviathans: episode 885 (November 14, 1969) to 980 (March 27, 1970) An ancient Lovecraftian race of beings coerce Barnabas into joining their ranks. Together they attempt to enslave the Collins family and bring the town under the thrall of their mysterious leader, Jeb Hawkes.
Korg, I think that Depp is quite capable of weird and wonderful performances without the help of Burton: e.g. Jack Sparrow, Agent Sands (Once Upon a Time in Mexico), Rochester (The Libertine), Raoul Duke (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), to name the ones I’m familiar with.
But he seems to find a truly off beat frequency with Burton: e.g. Sweeney Todd, Victor Van Dort (Corpse Bride), Willy Wonka, Ichabod Crane, Ed Wood and of course the wonderful Edward Scissorshands. To which list we can safely add the Mad Hatter.
Sorry I haven’t commented on my own post but I’ve been gone all day, church duties called.
In regard to Barnabas Collins, yes, his arc was later in the series & was not originally intended to last but the character took off.
Regarding Depp, thinking about it, I can only remember seeing bits & pieces of “Edward Scissorhands” & the first “Pirates” movie. I did like him as Captain Jack Sparrow, but otherwise I really find him to be entirely too creepy for my tastes. I can’t even look at his Mad Hatter picture for “Alice in Wonderland” for more than a few seconds without starting to get the heeby-jebbies.
Here’s a bit of a six degrees thing. Denise Nickerson played Amy Jennings in Dark Shadows. She also played Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Johnny Depp played Willy Wonka in the remake Charlie & the Chocolate Factory & is now possibly going to play Barnabas Collins in a remake of Dark Shadows. There you go!
My first experience with Dark Shadows involved an appendectomy and a morphine-induced haze. I had to lay on my back for two days, and despite the chemical assistance, I couldn’t get any steady sleep. I found a Dark Shadows marathon on Sci Fi (SyFy). I watched five or six episodes and could not make the least bit of sense out of what I was seeing. I’m sure the morphine didn’t help!
But I never could catch the show on Sci Fi again. It was on either while I was at work, or they simply quit running it.
I’m excited about this. revgeorge, you should check out What’s Eating Gilbert Grape or Benny & Joon for less off-the-wall Depp performances that are still extremely good. Gilbert Grape, especially. It’s a fantastic movie.
Nice post, revgeorge!
Dave, it’s quite likely that being whacked out on morphine helped your viewing experience of Dark Shadows.
It really doesn’t make any more sense seeing it sober minded.
Well, I watched 2001 A Space Odyssey when I was half cut and it became one of the most meaninful, profound and touching movies I have ever seen. I GOT it.
I watched it again sober and I didn’t quite get it.
Benny and Joon was filmed here in Spokane. I couldn’t watch it because my brother is bipolar/schizo, and I read this film (and such films are usually like this) had the typical, rather romantic view of mental illness, which drives me crazy (heh).
I watched Dark Shadows when it first came out (my mid-teens) and gave up after two weeks. For those of you planning to watch it, put on jackets to endure the glacial pace. Soaps are just toooo drawwwwwnn ouuuuut fooooooooor meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Hey AF, you just have to know how to watch them. It’s been a while since I watched, and the rules might have changed, but this is how it used to work:
1) Nothing of importance will happen between Tuesday and Thursday, inclusive: the Ice Age that you write of.
2) Every Friday will end with a cliff hanger, accompanied by a rising crescendo of music
3) The resolution on Monday will not be quite as earth shattering as was promised on the Friday. But the cast will talk about it as if it changed thier lives.
4) The cycle will repeat endlessly.
A few more corollaries for Dark Shadows,
a) Jonathan Frid will muff every third line.
b) He will eye every nubile young thing to come on the show; the nubile young things will ignore him. He in turn will ignore his middle-aged co-star, whose breathless cry of yearning, “Barnabas!” , still echoes in my memory banks.
c) A new gothic novel/genre will be milked every three months or so. No one will be secure: Bram Stoker, Henry James, Robert Louis Stephenson, Mary Shelley, the aforementioned Lovecraft, the Bronte sisters (imagine, if you will, Frid as Heathcliff, courtesy of a parallel universe), Daphne DuMaurier, Shirley Jackson, werewolves, Orlac, and witches and reincarnations galore.
I remember as a “youngster” back in the late 60′s early 70′s about ‘Dark Shadows’ being banned from the ABC station in Buffalo. I believe the station exec thought the material in the tv series was too “scary” for sensitive young minds such as myself back then. It was on during the family hours of viewing in those days.
My, my, things have changed in that regard, with what’s on tv prime time today, Dark Shadows wouldn’t even get a second thought.
My wife and I picked up the DVD version (sorry John, the library doesn’t have much on VHS anymore) in the season where Jonathan Frid comes in as Barnabas. The series certainly sets the mood for mystery and gothic/horror, but as Arabella stated it was way too slow and boring at times to make us want to go on to the next season.
Looking at the blockbusters in recent years that the Burton/Depp team have given us in the movie realm, I think these guys will reset the movement of Dark Shadows to fit the “modern” fast pace culture in which we live.