Dark Shadows: Johnny Depp As Barnabas Collins?

Let’s be honest: vampires are cool, and Johnny Depp is awesome, so the idea that Depp wants to create a vampire movie is… well, coo-awesome. Okay, maybe we’re not breaking ground with new vocabulary here, but neither is Depp with his vampire project – a big screen adaptation of the 1960s supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows.

While Depp is helping produce the Dark Shadows movie along with Graham King and Warner Brothers, nothing else about the project was known, until now. Our friends over at IESB picked up a scoop on a few names set up to write and direct the movie adaptation.

The director isn’t that far of a stretch if you know anything about Depp. In fact, it’s pretty much what we’ve been assuming all along if the rumor is true. If it’s a Johnny Depp flick and it’s even somewhat supernatural or gothic, then Tim Burton must be at the helm. Not that I’m complaining. When you have an incredible team like Burton and Depp who can continue making movies together without it feeling like the same flick rehashed a dozen times, I say keep making movies!

The rumor for the film’s screenwriter is a little more of a concern for me. Writer John August has worked with Burton three times before. He wrote Big Fish which I loved, but also Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which disappointed me and Corpse Bride which I was pretty neutral on. I’ll have to revisit those later two and see if it was the execution of the picture that disappointed me or if they were problems that started at the script level. Regardless, August is the rumored scribe behind Dark Shadows.

The news actually comes through a whole other project. IESB’s Robert Sanchez was talking with Peter Segal about his upcoming flick Get Smart and asked about his next project, Shazam, which August is writing. Segal let it slip that August was bouncing back between Shazam and Burton’s Dark Shadows. I guess that means there’s some room for a misunderstanding if anyone wants to deny what was said, but this sounds pretty darn logical to me.

Still no word as to whether Depp himself will appear in the project or not, although it seems pretty likely if Burton is directing.

Dark Shadows Johnny Depp Barnabas Collins
Dark Shadows Johnny Depp Barnabas Collins