Tim Burton is teaming up with usual suspect Johnny Depp for a film adaptation of the gothic television drama Dark Shadows. Depp has for a long time wanted to play Barnabas Collins, the main character of the series that ABC broadcast from 1966 to 1971.
According to Deadline, Warner Bros. has been trying to get this project off the ground for the past several years, it took the duo of Burton and Depp to fully ignite interest in this eccentric series. Seth Grahame-Smith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and head writer for the MTV series The Hard Times of RJ Berger, will be scripting the film. John August, who collaborated with Burton on Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride, was the initial choice to pen the script.
Under Burton’s direction, Depp has been able to give a variety of bizarre yet amazing performances, leading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Ed Wood, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, just to name a few. The two had a misstep with their most recent venture, Disney’s blockbuster Alice in Wonderland, but this adaptation could be their grand return to fantastic filmmaking.
Production for Dark Shadows is set to begin in April, having been pushed back from January. This would mean scheduling conflicts for Depp with the Kathryn Bigelow drama Triple Frontier, which will begin production this upcoming February. Though Depp wanted to work with Tom Hanks and was interested in the role itself, Dark Shadows is under his production company and therefore his priority.
