Director Tim Burton brings the cult classic series 'Dark Shadows' to the big screen featuring an all-star cast, led by Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter. In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet—or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive.
Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles. Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth's ne'er-do-well brother, Roger Collins, (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Moretz); and Roger's precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). 'Dark Shadows' is released in cinemas May 11th. Look out for a more in-depth interview with Johnny Depp and the rest of the cast closer to the films release.
I know you and Johnny Depp were a fans of the original 'Dark Shadows' series. Johnny had been speaking to you about this project for a while right?
Tim Burton: Yes. This is a case where Johnny came to me, it was something that was very close to him. He grew up watching the show, it was something that inspired him as well – and it was also the same with Michelle Pfeiffer. It was lucky we got her because she was a fan of the series as well. Between Johnny and her, of all the actors, they were the ones that knew the series and had a bit of a short hand in trying to capture that weird kind of tone of it. Which was very helpful. There's a certain kind of internal dynamic that happens in each family, so that was the thing that interested me. The working and the melodramas of a family.
Having this gentleman from the 18th century coming back to the 70s, the many contrasts that brings, I can image that being one of the dynamics that interested you?
Johnny Depp: It sparked a whole series of ideas, the idea of this very elegant man having been cursed, as the un-dead, in a box for 200 years, then he comes back to 1972.…which is perhaps the worst time in human existence aesthetically (laughs). Everything is absurd, kids of that era, or people of that era accepted weird little troll dolls, lava lamps, pet rocks, macrame owls, resin grapes. So we thought it was great way to incorporate having this vampire come back, 200 years later, to 1972, and basically being the eyes that we never had back then. The eyes that can see the absurdity (laughs).
The approach and tone of this adaptation of the series heightens the universe a bit….
Johnny Depp: Yeah. It is 'Dark Shadows,' but it is a very different angle on what the series was. It's sort of taking what they did on the series, and heightening the universe and that world a little bit. Heightening the reality of things. It's kind of a fine line between soap opera and reality. Without Tim, we'd never have achieved what we did with it, in terms of tone and quality and humour. Just his inventiveness, you know?
Tim Burton: I could see right away that Johnny had a passion for 'Dark Shadows' when he came to me, and he really wanted to do it – we'd be talking about doing it for a couple of years, several years. So I knew it was something that was stewing inside of him for a long period of time. And he always puts 100% into his characters, so I was really excited what this one would be, Barnabas Collins, in this absurd time, with this family.
How was it having Michelle Pfeiffer on board as Elizabeth, seeing as she was a fan of the series like the two of you?
Johnny Depp: What I found amazing was that Tim called me and said, "I've just spoken to Michelle and she was huge fan of the 'Dark Shadows' show at the time as well," because Tim and I were both on top of that show, when we were kids. So he went on and said, "So what do you think, wouldn't she be great as Elizabeth?" You couldn't get more perfect, Michelle was amazing.
And Tim, you hadn't worked with Michelle since 'Batman Return'?
Tim Burton: Yeah. Even before I got really involved with 'Dark Shadows,' she called me, I hadn't worked with her since 'Batman Returns,' when she played Catwoman, which was actually one of my favourite performances of anybody I've worked with. But I really hadn't talked to her for a long time, and she called me out of the blue and said, "I heard you might be doing 'Dark Shadows,'" and she said, "I never do this," which I know she doesn't (laughs), "But, I'd be really interested." So we were really blessed to get her, because like I said, she was somebody who really was into the series, in fact she watched it every morning in the makeup chair. She'd be like, "Look at this one, remember that one?" (Laughs).
The look of the film is striking, how was it for you working on practical sets Tim?
Tim Burton: The house and the environment is a character in it, you know? Collinwood is a character. So it had to go from being a newly built Manor to a decayed Manor….the details of that were really important. Also, after previous movies having worked a lot on green screen, it was nice to work with sets again because it's not really heavy on special fx. The environment was very important and also I think it helped the actors, in terms of trying to get the right tone. Being on the sets, feeling the textures of rooms, things like that
http://www.flicksandbits.com/2012/04/30/johnny-depp-tim-burton-interview-for-dark-shadows/25106/
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