A Little More on "Dark Shadows"

Producer Graham King spoke with Shock Till You Drop's Perri Nemiroff on the current status of Dark Shadows and a bit of its development:

Can you talk a little about Dark Shadows?

King: [Laughs] I said to someone last week in L.A., I said, "You know, I think, you know the script's being rewritten – I know that the studios are hoping to move it next fall," suddenly it's on the internet everywhere I said the movie's going next October. Waiting for a script. I know Johnny wants to do it and Tim wants to do it and just has to get the script.

How'd you get introduced to the idea in the first place? Will you maintain the show's original tone in the film?

King: Through Johnny's company [Infinitum Nihil]. You know, I have a deal with Johnny's company and Johnny was really interested in it and we have a great great relationship. I didn't know of Dark Shadows. We didn't have it in the U.K., so I went out and got a bunch of DVDs. I started watching this thing and I said, yeah, I'd love to be involved. I'd love to come in and produce that. To answer your question, I think we have to wait to see.

There are over 1,200 episodes. Will you include a little of as many as possible or make an origin story?

King: I'll know as soon as I get the script.

So you're not dictating how this will come together?

John August is writing it. Yeah, again, this is me and more notes and I think when Johnny and Tim – I've never made a movie with Johnny and Tim - but when they make a movie, they've got it down pretty much what they want and you don't really get involved in that process.

"Dark Shadows" Begins Production Fall 2010

Tim Burton is keeping plenty busy as of late. Producer Graham King has announced that he'll begin production on Dark Shadows, his next live-action feature, in the fall next year:

We're actually going to shoot that film next September/October with Tim Burton and Johnny [Depp].

We've been working on the script a lot, even though he's working on Alice. We've been given a script. John August wrote the first screenplay. We're making some changes, but the film's going to be in production, as I say, September or October of next year.

Depp was a huge fan of the original TV series, and will be playing the lead role of the vampire Barnabas Collins.

"Frankenweenie" Character and Plot Details Revealed

Casting has begun on the new stop-motion animated version of Frankenweenie. Right now, Disney is looking for voices for characters between the ages of eight and eleven years old. Bloody-Disgusting.com has provided some information from an official fax. There are a few minor SPOILERS, but it gives you a good idea of how the new film will differ from Burton's original 1984 short:

[EDGAR] A Caucasian Male 8-11 years old. Edgar is a needy little kid who wants desperately to be accepted by the cool kids in his class. Naturally a little nerdy, he gravitates to Victor and basically annoys him until he agrees to let him be his lab partner. He is more than a little gullible and is easily tricked into giving away Victor’s precious secret and unwittingly starting the whole mess with the other monsters.

[TOSHIAKI] A Japanese Male 8-11 years old. Toshiaki is the natural leader of the cool kids in Victor’s class. He is a good athlete, and an avid little league baseball player but Toshiaki has a mischievous side. He is the one that ultimately manipulates E into giving up the secret of Sparky and it is his idea to turn the other animals into monsters. He is Japanese and his monster creation is a little Godzilla lizard.

[BOB] A Caucasian Male 8-11 years old. Bob is the dumb, jockey kid. He has more brawn than brains. He follows Toshiaki and Nassor around even when it means that he has to be the one to test the home made jet pack that Toshiaki has created.

[NASSOR] A Middle-Eastern Male 8-11 years old. Nassor is the star of the little league team and just goes along with Toshiak’s plan. He is a bit more serious than the others but still doesn’t see the impending chaos when he chooses to bring his hamster mummy back to life.

[WEIRD GIRL] A Caucasian Female 8-11 years old. She has a very dark and ominous take on even the most mundane occurrences and jumps at the chance to bring some dead animals back to life.

[ELSA] A Caucasian Female 8-11 years old. Elsa is a sweet girl who likes to follow the rules and not cause too much trouble. A bit of a “goody two shoes,” she is not afraid to speak up and even corrects the teacher when he makes a mistake. She is excited about the festivities planned for the town’s Dutch Day parade and even has a solo dance number in the show.


A shooting date has not been announced yet. John August (Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) will be writing the screenplay.

"Frankenweenie" Updates

John August (Getty Images photo)

It has been many months since we last heard anything about the upcoming stop-motion animated feature length remake of Tim Burton's Frankenweenie. But finally, more information has surfaced.

The film is clearly still in pre-production. John August (who wrote the scripts for other Burton movies) will be writing the screenplay. Allison Abbate, a producer on Corpse Bride and other animated films, will still produce Frankenweenie alongside Burton, and Disney producer Don Hahn will serve as an executive producer. Many other artists and crew members from Corpse Bride will be involved. Frankenweenie will also be shot in black and white at this point, like the original short film.

Burton has wanted to adapt his original 1984 live-action short Frankenweenie since it was first made nearly 25 years ago. From the looks of it, that will eventually become a reality. Frankenweenie is aiming for a release in Disney Digital 3D in participating theaters in 2011.

Burton + Depp + August = "Dark Shadows"?

IESB.net has stated that director Peter Segal recently said that John August has written a screenplay adaptation for the TV series Dark Shadows -- and that Tim Burton is attached to direct it and Johnny Depp is (supposedly) to star in it.

Dark Shadows was a television series which ran from 1966 to 1971. It was a popular gothic soap opera, featuring vampires, werewolves, and other ghoulish creatures.

An image from the original series Dark Shadows.

This could be the secret project that John August wrote on his website late last year.

John August wrote the screenplays of Tim Burton's Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride.

Rumors of Burton and Depp teaming up for a big-screen version of Shadows came up on the Internet months ago. And this more official claim seems to encourage those beliefs. But just because Burton is attached to direct the film, it doesn't mean that he necessarily will. Months ago, Warner Bros. had Burton attached to helm an adaptation of the fantasy novel The Spook's Apprentice. But eventually, Burton moved to other projects (his upcoming Frankenweenie and Alice and Wonderland at Disney), and Kevin Lima is now currently signed on to direct Apprentice.

We'll have to wait and see what the future holds for Burton, Depp, and this planned Dark Shadows movie.

John August: Hinting at Unknown Future Burton Films?

On his official website, screenwriter and Burton collaborator John August wrote in his blog that, contrary to claims made on such websites as IMDb.com (which have now been changed), he will not be writing the screenplay for Burton's upcoming stop-motion adaptation of the director's short film, Frankenweenie. August wrote the following on his blog:


"I had a meeting with Disney Animation about a year ago, in which they pitched the idea of doing a feature version of Tim’s Frankenweenie short film. They even had production art for it. Then, separately, I had a conversation with Tim about doing another stop-motion animation project like Corpse Bride.

"But they’re not the same thing. And as far as I know, I won’t be working on either one. (That said, I didn’t think I was working on Corpse Bride until I was halfway on a plane to London, so never say never.)"

John August first worked with Tim Burton when he wrote the screenplay for 2003's Big Fish. Directly after that fanciful odyssey, August wrote the screenplay for Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the final draft for Corpse Bride, both released in 2005. August also helped composer Danny Elfman adapt and write the whimsical lyrics for both Charlie and Corpse Bride.

August's blog entry is made even more interesting in the following excerpt:

"To further confuse matters, there’s a different and as-yet-unannounced Tim Burton project (live action) which I almost certainly will be writing post-strike. And yes, I’d love to tell you what it is. But I can’t."

This project can't be Burton's upcoming Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which will also be made at Walt Disney Pictures. Linda Woolverton already has the credit of writing the screenplay for that future literary adaptation. So John August seems to be hinting at possibly two unknown future Tim Burton films, one live-action, the other in stop-motion animation. What could these films be? We'll have to wait for future articles to appear...