This Week's News

• The latest issue of horror magazine Rue Morgue features a tribute to departed Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis, with screenwriter William F Nolan sharing his memories of their long association. For more information, click here.
• Author Stephen Mark Rainey is interviewed on the FearZone horror blog about his new Dark Shadows audio drama The Path of Fate. To read the article, click here.
• And finally, a welcome reunion of two of the 2004 Dark Shadows pilot cast took place on the January 29th episode of CBS' Eleventh Hour, which featured a guest appearance from Ivana Milicevic (2004 Angelique) alongside reigning regular Marley Shelton (Victoria).
• Broadwayworld features a news story on Marie Wallace's new play The Chiselers. To read it, click here.

Odds and Ends

A couple of quick updates. I've been busy re-listing some lost content to the Articles and Features section of the site, restoring dozens of classic features, reviews and interviews which have been unavailable for some time. Enjoy!

Also, Amazon have started selling Frank Borzellieri's new book The Physics of Dark Shadows, a fun collection of academic speculation about the show's weird and wonderful use of time travel and other scientific theories. The site interviewed Frank about his writing earlier in the summer, which you can read here, and you can order the book by clicking here.

Marie Wallace Onstage

Marie Wallace (Eve) is to appear in Mark Finley's The Chiselers, a new comedy featuring as part of the Emerging Artists Theatre's Spring Eatfest 2009 in New York City.  Performances run from 9.30pm on February 26-28 and March 5-7 at the TADA Theatre. 

For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

News in Brief

• Amazon.com has recently re-stocked the Majestic Studios Barnabas Collins action figure, a rare piece of merchandise issued in 2006. The deluxe 12-inch articulated figure of Jonathan Frid as the present day Barnabas sold out shortly after its release, and has never been re-issued, as Majestic have since ceased trading. The figure includes a detailed costume, an alternate 'Old Barnabas' head and the character's trademark wolf's head cane, and is available whilst stocks last. To order, click here.
• The Ford's Theatre has posted a selection of rehearsal photos from their upcoming production The Heavens are Hung in Black, which stars David Selby (Quentin). To view them at the venue's Facebook group, click here.
• Researcher Darren Gross has launched a Dark Shadows blog of his own, detailing the latest on the ongoing efforts to restore the 1971 movie Night of Dark Shadows. To visit it, click here.
• And finally, birthday greetings to Mitchell Ryan (Burke Devlin), who turned 80 on January 11.

The Wicked and the Dead

Big Finish Productions have confirmed their next Dark Shadows dramatic reading CD, which is due out at the end of January. The Wicked and the Dead stars Jerry Lacy and John Karlen in an all-story based on the 1897 flashback storyline. Here’s the synopsis:

“Sometimes a devout man must do evil in the name of the greater good...”

Collinwood in the year 1897. The Reverend Gregory Trask has been walled alive inside Quentin’s room in punishment for his crimes against the Collins family and is close to death. As his loneliness degenerates into madness, a stranger appears to him with an intriguing offer – one that might set Trask free... or condemn him to the darkness forever.

The script is by Eric Wallace, who writes for Sci-Fi’s Eureka. He says: “I tried to remember what it was like watching that storyline for the first time. I wanted to tap into that same sense of amazement and surprise I initially felt way back when. The extreme nature of the story's setting - a man's final hours on earth - helped tremendously as it gave the play a sense of immediacy that made channeling Trask and Carl all the more easy. It also created a charged and heightened sense of reality, the kind that makes writing and watching Dark Shadows stories so much fun. Yes, sometimes dramatic limitations can be blessing! And I think the actors felt it, too, because Jerry and John deliver some truly intense and wonderfully emotional performances here. Watching them was like being in 1897... even if it was just for a moment.”

The CD is available to order by clicking here.

DVD Bargains

Want to kick start your Dark Shadows DVD collection? Well, Amazon have a couple of New Year bargains on the MPI range of episode box sets. Dark Shadows DVD Collection 1, featuring the first 40 Barnabas episodes, is now available for just $23.99 (a saving of 60%), whilst Dark Shadows: The Beginning Collection 2, featuring the show's early storylines, is reduced to $31.49 (almost half price). Click on the hyperlinked titles to order now.

Into 2009...

2009 promises to be another exciting year for Dark Shadows, as the development of the Johnny Deep movie continues, and the original series lives on in special events, new merchandise and DVD releases. The recent release of Dark Shadows: The Beginning Collection 6 now means that the entire Dark Shadows archive is finally available on DVD, and the Big Finish range of CDs continues to expand, with the recent release of The Path of Fate, and a host of new titles due out throughout the next year.

In 2008, we sadly said goodbye to some members of the extended Dark Shadows family, including longtime director John Sedwick, movie production designer Trevor Williams and most recently Mary Cooper, who played Josette Collins in the 1841 storyline. Yet, hearteningly, Dark Shadows seems to quietly tick along in the public consciousness. With vampires suddenly becoming hot property in entertainment with HBO's True Blood and Twilight doing big business at the cinema, the media have picked up on their debt to Dark Shadows in numerous articles, while everyone from Johnny Depp to Julianne Moore has proudly shared their enthusiasm for the show in interviews.

As for myself, I'm currently busy with a co-writer on the second series of full-cast Dark Shadows audio dramas for Big Finish, which is going to be brilliant mad adventure reuniting plenty of great characters, plus I'm editing on the second edition of Craig Hamrick's book Barnabas & Company: The Cast of the TV Classic Dark Shadows. Craig was a very talented journalist and photographer, who had wrote about the show extensively up until his death in 2006. With Craig's blessing, I'm working with his partner Joe Salvatore to edit the book from his almost completed manuscript, and we should have that out later in 2009.

And for the faithful viewers, Collinwood will always remain that elusive, glorious kingdom where hearts are broken, things go bump in the night, and the demons come out to play. Make no mistake, Dark Shadows lives on.