{"id":2829,"date":"2011-09-25T11:23:03","date_gmt":"2011-09-25T07:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/?p=2829"},"modified":"2011-09-25T11:23:03","modified_gmt":"2011-09-25T07:23:03","slug":"johnny-depps-true-dark-shadows-vampire-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/johnny-depps-true-dark-shadows-vampire-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Depp’s true ‘Dark Shadows’ vampire revealed!"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
From EW<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

Photo by Leah Gallo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Behold the real visage of Johnny Depp\u2019s vampire from\u00a0Dark Shadows<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Last week, long-range paparazzi shots of the actor wearing ghostly white makeup, large sunglasses and a pulled down fedora made fans of the original 1966-71 supernatural soap opera bristle nervously, with complaints he looked simply too strange.<\/p>\n

Nevermind that he\u2019s playing a 200-year-old vampire, which is strange enough.<\/p>\n

As you can see from this cast shot, Depp\u2019s bloodsucking pater familias Barnabas Collins actually borrows heavily from\u00a0the aged-little boy look<\/a>\u00a0of original\u00a0Dark Shadows<\/em>\u00a0star\u00a0Jonathan Frid<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 not that anyone would be happy to see this guy show up as your prom date either.<\/p>\n

Still, this official First Look may reassure those die-hard fans of the original series, memorably offbeat ABC daytime drama about a vampire whose extended family are bedeviled by ghosts, witches, and other gothic woes.<\/p>\n

Depp, who fought for years to make this movie, is one of those fans. \u201cI do remember, very vividly, practically sprinting home from school in the afternoon to see Jonathan Frid play Barnabas Collins,\u201d the actor says. \u201cEven then, at that age, I knew \u2014 this has got to be weird.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weird certainly sums up this particular family portrait \u2014 a shot director Tim Burton, who also obsessed over\u00a0Dark Shadows<\/em>\u00a0as a boy, staged in the early days of production.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember seeing a group photograph of the cast of the original series,\u201d he tells EW. \u201cFor me it captured the weird\u00a0Dark Shadows<\/em>\u00a0vibe in a single image. I had a brief window of opportunity to have our cast present at the same time, the day before principle photography began. We decided to stage a similar picture instead of rehearsing, to see if we captured theDark Shadows<\/em>\u00a0feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s who those family members are, one by one.<\/p>\n

Barnabas Collins (Depp)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 He was an 18th<\/sup>\u00a0century gentleman, a businessman just before the Revolutionary War, who was transformed against his will into a vampire and buried in a tomb for two centuries. After he finally emerges, uncovered by construction workers in the year 1972, he seeks out his descendants \u2014 as well as some long-ago foes and a possible lost love.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been alive this whole time and very hungry, with no idea what\u2019s going on outside,\u201d says screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith (author of\u00a0Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter<\/em>, which Burton is producing as a film.)<\/p>\n

Barnabas is one vampire who is just as frightened of our times as we are of him, says producer Richard D. Zanuck: \u201cTwo-hundred years later, he\u2019s suddenly walking into the town he saw being built and seeing girls in skirts, cars for the first time. It\u2019s a man-out-of-time, supernatural horror story, but I put \u2018horror\u2019 in quotes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his confusion, he\u2019s still a ladies man. \u201cIn some sense he can be a terrifying killer; on the other hand, women have a weakness for him and he has a weakness for women,\u201d Grahame-Smith says. \u201cHe can be a very well-mannered, well-meaning vampire most of the time, until his stomach is empty or someone challenges his beloved Collins family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s that family, from left to right:<\/p>\n

Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter) \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0From\u00a0Alice in Wonderland<\/em>\u2019s Red Queen, to the cannibalistic cook Mrs. Lovett in\u00a0Sweeney Todd<\/em>, Burton can\u2019t help but cast the mother of his children as a deranged person. This prim and proper psychiatrist, who has taken up residence with the Collins family to care for their troubled youngest boy, might seem to break that trend \u2014 but don\u2019t bet on it. \u201cDr. Hoffman\u2019s been there for years, working with David [the little boy in the photo] but not making any progress. He still claims he sees ghosts and talks with his dead mother,\u201d Grahame-Smith says. \u201cShe\u2019s crazy but brilliant. Obviously she\u2019s an eccentric, and definitely likes a drink or two. She\u2019s definitely a little bit off her rocker, and is a woman with a lot of secrets herself.\u201d The writer teases: \u201cShe\u2019ll also become interested in Barnabas in more than one way. \u201c<\/p>\n

Carolyn Stoddard (Chlo\u00eb Moretz)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Though she played a voracious child vampire in the acclaimed (but little seen)\u00a0Let Me In<\/em>, Moretz is on the human side of the spectrum in\u00a0Dark Shadows<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 though that doesn\u2019t mean this cousin of young David Collins (and daughter of Michelle Pfeiffer\u2019s character, seen on the far right) isn\u2019t without her own peculiarities. \u201cCarolyn is your typical early-1970s teenager,\u201d Grahame-Smith says. \u201cShe likes her music and likes her magazines, and does not like anyone in her family. She likes to keep her door closed and keep to herself. She\u2019s pretty normal, but appearances can be deceiving. I wouldn\u2019t say there is a normal person in this photo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 The Bond girl from\u00a0Casino Royale<\/em>\u00a0turns up here as the villain of the story. \u201cAngelique is a witch who has known Barnabas since the 1700s, when they had an affair that went sour. She is the one who cursed him to be a vampire and locked him in that box,\u201d Grahame-Smith says. \u201cSince he has been away, Angelique has made it her life\u2019s mission to destroy the Collins family. So when Barnabas turns up again after all these years, she\u2019s not very happy to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Collins (Gulliver McGrath)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Lonely, confused, and neglected by his pompous father (Jonny Lee Miller, over on the right next to Pfeiffer), David has no one to confide in except his bizarre psychiatrist \u2014 and the dead people he claims to see. Grahame-Smith describes him as \u201ca sweet, curious, precocious little boy whose family has branded him as slightly crazy.\u201d Then he finally gets a new caretaker to look after him \u2026<\/p>\n

Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 This young woman arrives to become David\u2019s new governess, only to find herself swept up in the vampire-witch melodrama. \u201cWhen Barnabas meets Victoria, he\u2019s instantly reminded of the woman he lost in the 1700s, before he was cursed to be a vampire,\u201d Grahame-Smith says. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say he falls in love with her, but there\u2019s an instant attraction, an instant connection.\u201d Is she the reincarnation of his doomed lover Josette du Pres? \u201cWe get the sense at the beginning she has a secret past, and that\u2019s unraveled as it goes on,\u201d the screenwriter says.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Johnson (Ray Shirley)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 \u201cPoor old Mrs. Johnson \u2026\u201d Grahame-Smith sighs when talk turns to the old woman seated in the back behind Depp. \u201cShe is the mostly blind, mostly deaf maid, who has been with them for decades and decades. You might find her polishing a piece of silverware with a slab of baloney because she thinks it\u2019s a polishing cloth. I don\u2019t think she actually says anything in the entire film. She\u2019s just sort of there.\u201d He laughs: \u201cAdding her was Tim\u2019s idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 How awesome is it to play an actual Groundskeeper Willie? The Oscar-nominee for\u00a0Little Children<\/em>\u00a0is a slightly more competent servant than Mrs. Johnson, but that\u2019s not saying much. \u201cHe\u2019s the guy who takes out the trash, mows the lawns, and fixes the cars, except he\u2019s usually so drunk and so disinterested that he doesn\u2019t take his job seriously anymore,\u201d Grahame-Smith says. \u201cThe lawn is overgrown, the house has fallen into disrepair, and all the cars are on cinder blocks. His heart\u2019s definitely not in the job anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roger Collins (Jonny Lee Miller)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 This scion of the once-great Collins family is one of the main reasons the aristocratic clan has fallen into such disgrace. \u201cHe\u2019s a creepy, self-centered guy who likes to order Willie around, likes to pretend the family is still on top of his game,\u201d Grahame-Smith says. Not only is he a bad father to David, but he is a poor manager of whatever meager wealth the family retains. \u201cWhen Barnabas shows up and has some very specific ideas about how to make things right, he\u2019s obviously going to bump heads with Roger Collins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 The mother of Carolyn Stoddard, and mother-figure to David, she\u2019s the one adult member of the Collins clan who is at least slightly competent. \u201cElizabeth is the rock of the family. She\u2019s the matriarch,\u201d Grahame-Smith says. \u201cShe\u2019s the keeper of the Collins history, and a fierce protector of what remains of her family. She\u2019s the one that insists on the best care for the children, even though money isn\u2019t what it used to be. She\u2019s a very strong woman who unfortunately has been dealt a very difficult deck.\u201d With a witch perpetually trying to destroy her, and a long lost vampire relative turning up to reclaim control, \u201cthere\u2019s just too much for her to handle,\u201d Grahame-Smith says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From EW Photo by Leah Gallo Behold the real visage of Johnny Depp\u2019s vampire from\u00a0Dark Shadows! Last week, long-range paparazzi shots of the actor wearing ghostly white makeup, large sunglasses and a pulled down fedora made fans of the original 1966-71 supernatural soap opera bristle nervously, with complaints he looked simply too strange. Nevermind that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1opIU-JD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20413,"url":"https:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/near-dark-now-a-series\/","url_meta":{"origin":2829,"position":0},"title":"“Near Dark” Now A Series?\u00a0","author":"Forbidden Panel","date":"May 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A TV series remake of Kathryn Bigelow\u2019s 1987 vampire neo-Western cult classic \u201cNear Dark\u201d is reportedly in the works at A24.","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/MV5BOWQ5YTQ0YmMtOWVjYi00M2M2LWIwZjktYjcwZTRlMDg5ODlmXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_.jpg?fit=789%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/MV5BOWQ5YTQ0YmMtOWVjYi00M2M2LWIwZjktYjcwZTRlMDg5ODlmXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_.jpg?fit=789%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/MV5BOWQ5YTQ0YmMtOWVjYi00M2M2LWIwZjktYjcwZTRlMDg5ODlmXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_.jpg?fit=789%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/MV5BOWQ5YTQ0YmMtOWVjYi00M2M2LWIwZjktYjcwZTRlMDg5ODlmXkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_.jpg?fit=789%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5652,"url":"https:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/skyfall-duo-plan-vampirelxg-tv-series\/","url_meta":{"origin":2829,"position":1},"title":"“Skyfall” Duo Plan Vampire\/LXG TV Series","author":"Forbidden Panel","date":"November 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Skyfall\" co-writer John Logan and director Sam Mendes are re-teaming for a TV drama series being shopped around to premium cable networks. 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