After months of speculation, it was reported in several places earlier today, most notably Yahoo! Movies, that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are officially moving ahead with Dark Shadows as their next project. Burton will direct and Depp will star, as the duo has done seven times before in the past.Apparently it was Depp who initiated the project, as the original 1960s/70s vampire TV soap opera has always been a bit of an obsession for him, and he had long desired to play lead vamp Barnabas Collins. For the longest time, it had basically been a foregone conclusion that the dynamic duo of surreal cinema would be moving on to Dark Shadows after wrapping up Alice in Wonderland, but now it's apparently for-real for-real. Although I think Burton has his feature-length Frankenweenie remake happening somewhere in there, as well--and Depp will be donning the mascara once again for a fourth Pirates go-round before then, too.
Not sure what took so long for the news to be officially disseminated, as sources are claiming that Depp himself announced it last week during a showing of Alice in Wonderland footage at the San Diego Comic Con. Nevertheless, these "official confirmations" have not been coming out till today. Hopefully this isn't some kind of elaborate jumping-of-the-gun. A Burton-Depp Dark Shadows has "WIN" written all over it...
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While I'm still up, I'd like to make mention of a new sidebar feature I've added, the Zombie Haiku of the Day. I'm taking them from Ryan Mecum's excellent Zombie Haiku collection--with the author's blessing, of course. In fact, Ryan was good enough not only to give me permission to do this, but also had some kind words to say about the Vault as well, which you'll find in the "Shameless Self-Promotion" section. Thanks, Ryan!