Thursday, July 15, 2010

New Writer For Dark Shadows Movie

Deadline New York reports that the Dark Shadows movie project has recruited a new writer, as pre-production continues. Novelist Seth Grahame-Smith is now on board to write the screenplay, replacing frequent Tim Burton collaborator John August.

Seth Grahame-Smith is best known for his novels Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the latter of which has been optioned by Tim Burton. Current reports suggest that production on Dark Shadows will now begin in January.

1 comment:

JP Evans said...

Not too sure about this anymore as more info comes along. I’ve always had my concerns that with Burton and Depp onboard it might unwittingly become another exercise in style and atmosphere over content (i.e. Sleepy Hollow, which I enjoy for what it is), and these historical/classic ‘with zombies/vampires/werewolves etc’ novels seem like a high concept idea or punch line in search of a book.
Equally you have to bear in consideration that whilst Burton made Batman and Beetlejuice he also made Planet of the Apes – it could go either way.
Whilst I’m sure they might love the show, one thing it doesn’t deserve is a camp rinsing or a knowing update like say Starsky and Hutch, for an example. I’ve never found it camp, or deserving of that label. The Barnabas story is a classic about the delirium of love, guilt, loss and betrayal, and a straight, creepy horror tale to boot – it needs to be respected. Anyway, I hope that they give it the treatment the show, the company and the fans need it to be.