‘Dark Shadows’ star tells Robert Pattinson that ‘there’s room for two vampires on this block.’ By Jocelyn Vena Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson Photo: Warner Bros./ Summit In a recent interview with this big screen vampire, Johnny Depp opened up about any potential vampy face-offs with fellow heartthrob and big-screen bloodsucker Robert Pattinson. When asked if there’s any sort of blood feud with the “Twilight” star, Depp noted that it’s all cool between the two actors. “There’s room for two vampires on this block — as long as he remembers I am the Alpha Vampire,” he told UsMagazine.com at the London premiere of his campy vampire flick, “Dark Shadows,” which opens this weekend. Of course Edward Cullen and Barnabas Collins aren’t really cut from the same vampire DNA. Where Edward is brooding and sullen, Barnabas is on the other end of the spectrum, with his oddball charm and old-world demeanor. And their transitions to the modern world are quite different. While Edward had been living in the world over the course of his vampire life, Barnabas had been in a coffin for 200 years before emerging in the 1970s. When MTV News spoke to Depp about the film , he noted that exploring Barnabas’ evolution in the contemporary world was what drew him to the story. “Playing a kind of reluctant vampire, in a sense, the reluctant vampire who has been locked in a box for 200 years and his misfortune to be let out in an age when things are probably at their most surreal in terms of 1972,” Depp said. “It’s a very odd period. Things are changing radically; the sort of peace and love thing was over with, and we were rapidly approaching disco, so musically and aesthetically, that was the fun of it, to place this hyper-elegant figure from the late 18th century into one of the weirdest times of all time.” The film is the latest collaboration between Deep and director Tim Burton. It’s the big-screen adaptation of the 1960s soap opera of the same name. Who do you think is the Alpha Vampire: Edward Cullen or Barnabas Collins? Leave your pick below! Check out everything we’ve got on “Dark Shadows.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Videos MTV Rough Cut: ‘Dark Shadows’ Related Photos Dark Shadows
Conspiracy theorists? Take notice. This is the day you’ve been waiting for. There is a very good chance Tupac Shakur is alive and well, and in hiding, according to the man who was with him during the (allegedly) fatal shooting. Former Death Row Records kingpin Suge Knight came on 93.5 KDay in L.A. and threw gasoline on the fire of the urban legend that simply will not die. Tupac Coachella Performance Maybe we weren’t so far off after all when we posited that the Tupac hologram was the real deal. According to Suge, the rapper FAKED his own death. Knight’s theory on why the killer was never caught? There was no murder: “Maybe the question is … Pac’s not really dead … Pac’s somewhere else.” Asked if he ever saw Tupac’s body following the 1996 drive-by shooting, he adds, “Nobody seen Tupac dead.” Well, that’s one way of putting it. Suge Knight explains , “The person who supposedly cremated Tupac … this guy got about 3 million dollars .. personally from me. Cash … and next thing I know I never heard from the guy or seen him again … he retired and left.” Oookay then. You tell us: Is he really dead ?
Canadian actor Jonathan Frid, star of the original Dark Shadows, has died at the age of 87. He passed away Friday in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario. Frid was best known as the benign vampire Barnabas Collins on ABC’s gothic soap opera from 1967-71 and in the 1970 movie House Of Dark Shadows . Jonathan Frid also has a cameo in Warner Bros’ upcoming Dark Shadows reboot, directed by the great Tim Burton, as an older version of Barnabas. He meets up with the younger version of himself, played by Johnny Depp. While Frid wasn’t in Dark Shadows during its 1966 debut, his elegantly fiendish Barnabas quickly became the star when he joined several months later. After the series ended, Frid returned to theater, performing Edgar Allen Poe, William Shakespeare and a long run on Broadway in Arsenic And Old Lace.
Tim Burton opts for gonzo comedy that should please many but may rile fans of the original soap opera. By John Mitchell Johnny Depp in “Dark Shadows” Photo: Warner Bros The wait is over! With less than two months to go before the May 11 release of “Dark Shadows,” we finally have a trailer, and it’s a doozy. We’re going to come right out and say it: We love the trailer. It’s Tim Burton doing what Tim Burton does best. The look is dark and Gothic, but the feel is certifiably gonzo with a heaping side of camp and comedy. Based on its soapy source material, Burton could have taken “Shadows” one of two ways: He could have stripped it of the over-the-top camp and played it as a straight romantic drama where the protagonist was a conflicted vampire, which is what the creators of the early-’90s TV remake did, or he could turn the volume all the way up and have a little fun, flipping the super serious vibe of the original soap opera upside down and making a blood-splattered comedy. He clearly chose the latter, and that’s just fine with us. “Shadows” stars Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, a rich and powerful playboy who is turned into a vampire and buried alive by the jealous witch Angelique ( Eva Green ). Two centuries later, in 1972, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb by thief Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley) and finds the world quite changed and his once great estate, Collinwood Manor, in disrepair. His descendants, including reclusive family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard ( Michelle Pfeiffer ), her drunken, snobby brother Roger Collins (Johnny Lee Miller) and bratty teenage daughter Carolyn ( Chloe Moretz ), haven’t fared much better. In the present, not only does he have to again face Angelique, but he has to contend with nosy psychologist Dr. Julia Hoffman ( Helena Bonham Carter , who has more than a few secrets of her own. Here are our five key scenes from the “Dark Shadows” trailer: First Glimpse of Barnabus as a Vampire After a fleeting look at a pre-vamp Depp in his 18th-century prime (and seriously, can we talk about how this guy never ages?), we see Angelique working her evil magic and casting her spell. Cut to Depp’s Barnabas taking in his monstrous new self from the crashing waves at the bottom of Widows’ Hill, the cliff where his love, Josette duPres (Bella Heathcote), took her own life. “What have you done?” he yells up at her. The aesthetic created for Widows’ Hill is pure vintage Burton. The dark, rocky facade builds up to a point that looks like something from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” brought to life. Which means it’s pretty awesome. Meet the Collins Family Sitting around the dinner table to welcome their long lost relative, we get introduced to all the key players in the film. “Who the hell is this?” Bonham Carter’s straightforward Hoffman asks.”I’m a vampire, Madame,” Barnabas responds. The whole gang — Miller, Moretz, Pfeiffer, Bonham Carter and Gulliver McGrath (David Collins) — is there, and boy are they curious about this pale-faced creeper in some very vintage wares, but Barnabas is ready to hit the road to take care of business. “How soon can the horses be ready?” he asks. “We don’t have horses; we have a Chevy,” Pfeiffer admits. “What Sorcery is This?” Barnabas just can’t seem to grasp the technological innovations that happened while he was chained up in that casket for a few hundred years. Of particular concern is the television, which he seems certain is nothing more than witchcraft. “Reveal yourself, tiny songstress,” he demands before tearing into the back of the set. It’s a pretty random scene, but it perfectly sums up the tone of the humor the film seems after. Things are so weird nowadays, you guys, and the old dead guy just can’t wrap his head around it. Depp’s delivery is spot-on though, and we can see why test audience reaction to this scene was so warmly received. Angelique Rides Back Into Town Burton has taken many liberties with his film, but the most interesting of them might be his characterization of Angelique as a sassy fox with a mean-girl streak and plenty of attitude. When she returns from the late-1700s, she isn’t wearing her old corsets and talking about the old days; she pulls up to Collinwood in a cherry red convertible wearing modern clothes. “You cursed me to be this hideous creator,” Barnabas cries. “You may strategically place your wonderful lips upon my posterior and kiss it repeatedly.” Barnabas and Angelique’s Freaky, House-Trashing Makeout Even though she, you know, cursed him to eternal damnation because he just wasn’t that into her, we can certainly see why Barnabas can’t keep his claws off Green’s sexy witch. At the end of the clip, Depp and Green engage in some very rough foreplay. The magical pair throw each other from wall to wall before ending on the floor, where Angelique gives Barnabas one last lick with her very long tongue. “That was a regrettable turn of events,” Barnabus says, taking in the destruction left in the wake. So “Dark Shadows” fans, are you loving the fun and campy way Burton decided to tackle the sudsy soap? Or do you think he should have gone a different direction? Let us know in the comments below and hit me up on Twitter @JohnMitchell83 with your thoughts and suggestions on all things “Shadows.” Check out everything we’ve got on “Dark Shadows.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Photos 5 Key Scenes From The ‘Dark Shadows’ Trailer
Vanity Fair character portraits prove Tim Burton is sticking with the aesthetic of the ’60s series. By John Mitchell Johnny Depp in “Dark Shadows” Photo: Warner Bros Another week has passed, and we still don’t have a “Dark Shadows” trailer . For those keeping tabs, we’re just over two months out (70 days, to be exact) from the scheduled release of Tim Burton’s campy vampire blockbuster. But to whet increasingly impatient fans’ appetites, in this month’s Vanity Fair, Burton and company have released some character portraits of Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, Eva Green as Angelique Bouchard and Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman. The images — which are not yet available on Vanity Fair ‘s website but you can see here — are nothing we haven’t seen before. But hey, at least it means Warner Bros. is doing some promo, right? Taking a close look at the portraits — and, really, we might as well, because there isn’t much other “DS” material to stan over — it’s striking just how closely Burton and costume designer Colleen Atwood have kept Depp’s big-screen styling to the Barnabas “Shadows” series creator Dan Curtis developed for actor Jonathan Frid all the way back in 1967. The more we see of Depp in character, the more we’re reminded of Frid, who also appears in the film. “Johnny’s very open about what things are in the process, but he really lets people present things to him. He never really pushes at all,” Atwood told MTV News late last year about Depp’s costuming for “Shadows.” “Sometimes he doesn’t even look in the mirror in his fittings. It’s so funny. It’s pretty amazing. People would be surprised, because I think they have this image of Johnny, because he’s so stylish always, but he really feels his costumes, more than looks at them, and the movement and the feeling in them is really important.” From the hair and pale, monstrous makeup to the penchant for 18th-century bling, it’s kind of amazing how closely Burton is hewing to the look already established for the characters in the late-’60s series. And that’s true of nearly all the key players in his adaptation: He’s taken famed brunette Eva Green blonde, as Angelique (played by Lara Parker) was on the show, given Bonham Carter’s eccentric Dr. Julia Hoffman the same sweeping ’60s ‘do worn by Grayson Hall and has Pfeiffer sporting dark, regal ensembles similar to those worn by Joan Bennett to play Elisabeth Collins Stoddard. One notable exception is Chlo
With just 77 days until the film’s release, we’re still waiting for even a taste of the campy Johnny Depp feature. By John Mitchell Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer in “Dark Shadows” Photo: Warner Bros. Today is February 24. Tim Burton’s anticipated summer blockbuster adaptation of the vampire soap opera “Dark Shadows” is set to hit theaters on May 11. There are 77 days between now and the release of the film. And we still don’t have a trailer — not even a teaser. Special-effects-heavy blockbusters opening much later in the summer, including July’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” have already debuted multiple trailers to satisfy the bloodlust of fans hungry for just a taste of the movies they are counting down the days for. But we “Shadows” devotees have been kept waiting in the dark too long, not unlike Barnabas (Johnny Depp) locked up in a coffin and hidden away in the Collins family mausoleum. But lo, what’s that in the distance I hear? Buzz that consumer surveying of two potential trailers, a shorter teaser and longer full trailer, took place earlier this week. To be fair to all involved, by “buzz” we really mean “Internet gossip,” but it’s pretty much in line with what we’ve been able to pull together about the film from interviews with Burton and Helena Bonham Carter from late last year — namely that the director is injecting the film with an undercurrent of dark comedy. The GIF warriors over at Oh No They Didn’t got word on Tuesday from a variety of tipsters that testing on varied trailers was underway. And the buzz is … good? We’ve long been hopeful that the film would be “vintage Burton.” By that we mean dark, weird and kind of funny, and from what the ONTD tipsters are saying, that’s exactly what we may be getting. At his best, the director was capable of a balancing act few others would dare attempt. He made us care about a very odd man who had scissors for hands, after all, and laugh at the strange and colorful suburban world around him. Much of the comedy in the film appears to stem from Barnabas’ trouble acclimating to the modern world (well, 1972) when he is aroused from his centuries-long slumber by Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley). According to tipster Ross2287, Depp’s delivery is spot on when he hears a car for the first time and calls out, “Show yourself Satan!” Later, during a fight with Eva Green’s evil witch Angelique, Depp earned laughs from the audience when he requested she “strategically place your wonderful lips upon my posterior and kiss it repeatedly.” More choice one-liners arise when Barnabas is introduced to his descendants. Based on these accounts of the alleged in-the-works trailers, it’s looking like the always lovable Chloe Moretz (who plays Caroline Collins) may well be a scene stealer. When Depp’s Barnabas is introduced to her and finds out she is 15, he can’t help but warn, “And no husband? You must put those birthing hips to good use at once lest your womb shrivel up and die.” Later, in what is said to be the full-length trailer, Depp sees television for the first time and is astounded, asking, “What sorcery is this?” before he rips the back panel off and yells, “Reveal yourself, tiny songstress!” Moretz then looks to her 200-year-old vampire cousin and says, “Are you stoned or something?” Is any of this even true? Looks like we’ll have to wait and see, though we decided to run with it because it’s all we have. Do you hear that, Tim Burton? It’s all we have. When it comes to this trailer, we can’t help but repeat one of Depp’s lines from the alleged mystery trailer: “Show yourself!” Do you think the ONTD tipsters have it right? Is Tim Burton readying a dark comedy with his “Dark Shadows” adaptation? Sound off in the comments below and tweet me @JohnMitchell83 with your thoughts and suggestions for future columns! Check out everything we’ve got on “Dark Shadows.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com .
Photos show Tim Burton’s vision of the vampire is much less human than the ’60s soap original. By Eric Ditzian Bella Heathcote and Johnny Depp on the set of “Dark Shadows” Photo: Andrew Lloyd/ Splash News Johnny Depp promised that his take on the vampire Barnabas Collins in Tim Burton’s adaptation of “Dark Shadows” wouldn’t diverge greatly from the “classic look” of the character in the ’60s-era gothic soap opera. “I think it’s going to be somewhere in that arena, with maybe just a couple of different touches here and there,” Depp told MTV News . Perhaps, though, things have changed more than a touch since then. Photos snapped of Depp on the U.K. set show a vampire less like the familiar Barnabas than something out of Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Depp’s take, complete with pancake makeup, reddened lips and wacky blue glasses, makes the vampire look decidedly inhuman. That’s a stark divergence from Jonathan Frid’s original Barnabas, who was kind of creepy but also a dapper gentleman with an aesthetic that didn’t scream, “Hey, world, I’m totally a supernatural creature!” At the same time, what else were we expecting? This is a Depp-Burton joint, after all, and this duo is hardly known for subtlety or a reluctance to mess with the pop-culture past. So let’s not get crazy or cynical and swear off this new “Dark Shadows” based on a few paparazzi photos. Recall the deep affection Depp has for the ABC show, which premiered in 1966 and pulled in elements of gothic romance, ghost stories, time travel and a whole lot of weirdness over its 1,255-episode run. The actor has long held out a hope of bringing the material to the big screen and portraying Barnabus. The new storyline begins in the 18th century, when Barnabas is turned into a vampire by the brokenhearted witch Angelique (Eva Green) and buried alive. The film then flashes forward two centuries, as Barnabas is freed from his tomb and returns to his home and the dysfunctional relatives who now reside there. “We’re changing it a little bit,” Burton told us last fall. “I wouldn’t do it if it felt like it was just doing the same thing. For me, it’s about trying to go back to the original drawings and kind of capture that spirit a little bit more of what the drawings are. It feels different even though it’s a similar story, but we’re kind of expanding it a bit. Check out everything we’ve got on “Dark Shadows.” For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com . Related Photos Spotted! Daily Celebrity Sightings
