Burton and Depp keep on Burtoning and Depping in...Dark Shadows!

yeah i don't anyone involved in the PotA remake really felt good about it. burton says it was the low point of his career. everybody just seems to wish it hadn't happened. maybe they'll say the same about alice in ten years, i dunno.

alice made more than a billion dollars theatrically, so probably not

I saw Apes when it came out, didn't read any reviews, just met up w friends beforehand and got slightly toasted. I had a blast.

"Batman Returns" is the best Burton imo. Recently I was showing someone clips of it on youtube and we ended up practically watching the entire thing that way.

ed wood is just such a special movie to me, it is so perfect.

beetlejuice and pee wee's are also all-time. those are my top 3 i guess.

much of pee wee is totally out of what became tim burton's artistic "character." i like the tonal and visual looseness, the fact that he doesn't think to control every element of the mise-en-scene.

I also think Pee Wee works well because there was already a really specific framework for him to work within, Pee Wee's Playhouse already had its look, and Burton put a great shine to it. Not to say Burton didn't do anything, but like with Sweeney Todd (and I know there's dissension on that but w/e), the bones are established enough to not tempt him to fuck with them. Which is why Alice in Wonderland pisses me off so much. He would have done a much better job leaving well enough alone.

ya it's a great collaboration, is what it feels like. xp

wait i believe pee wee's playhouse post-dated PWBA.

but i don't think the movie (except for a few passages) looks anything like the TV show!

xpost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOGWbzUM-y8

this was comedy GOLD when i was seven

but i don't think the movie (except for a few passages) looks anything like the TV show!

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, March 17, 2012 6:42 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this too

'PWBA' is just about perfect.

Even if Large Marge and "Tequila" had been the only funny things in the movie it might still be all-time, but yeah, it's amazing from start to finish.

http://www.caseengaines.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Large-Marge.jpg

Edward Scissorhands
The Nightmare Before Christmas (controverhul)
Ed Wood
Beetlejuice
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
Sleepy Hollow
Mars Attacks
Batman Returns
Sweeney Todd
Batman
Corpse Bride
Big Fish
Alice in Wonderland
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Planet of the Apes

amateurist's list was pretty much spot on. i've moved things around a bit, but not much. and regardless of who gets the director's credit, i figure the nightmare before christmas deserved to be counted as a "tim burton movie". dude's made 10 or 11 films i at least like. in that list, it's only at big fish that i start to have strong reservations.

Carol Channing is Johhny Depps Mom

You're johnny depp's mom

besides pwba mars attacks is the best...it's definitely his most cynical movie, and probably his funniest; it's like an alternate universe version of independence day (they make a great party night double-header btw).

also it's the one that least blatantly looks like a "tim burton movie"

I must admit, I am a woman and I did let a Depp got from my Utey

Not my idea of a successful publicity stunt.

I am saddened.

And that movie looks so bad.

there are posters ALL OVER buses and bus stops here in Chicago, kinda surprised at how big the ad campaign is so far

nobody in the US knows this show. movie is not going to do well.

dunno if that matters really

what was the last summer blockbuster based on little-known material that succeeded

you can strike "summer" from that entirely if you like

Iron Man was a minor player in the public's consciousness of the comic universe, methinks.

but tbh this will do nowhere near the box office Iron Man did.

again, remaking 40-year-old TV "properties" reminds me of Steve Martin's Sgt Bilko movie.

Iron Man was a minor player in the public's consciousness of the comic universe, methinks.

nah - Iron Man cartoons have been in TV rotation in America for at least a decade, and he's all over the comics. Nothing about Dark Shadows has been in wide distribution in America for decades.

Burton, Depp, vampires, comedy, how can it lose? I think the people that will stay away *are* the ones that are familiar with the source.

The trailer's winning, the subject's of the moment, and the Depp/Burton team-up is still a big enough draw to get a good opening weekend crowd in the seats. If enough people come out thinking it is funny and charming, then the obscurity of the source material probably won't matter at all. It'll just be "that funny vampire movie with Johnny Depp".

nickn otm

And I'm an exception to my prediction, I loved the show in the original run (as a pre-teen, and probably into my teen years), and think this looks good.

The original developed a whole teen fandom thing, along with Bobby Sherman, Partridge Family, etc - the mags referred to it as "DS."

RIP Jonathan Frid

what was the last blockbuster based on little-known material that succeeded

Eventually, John Carter.

lol by what standards did that succeed...? I thought it bombed

According to boxofficemojo, counting worldwide receipts it made back its cost with a little profit, but since the studio only gets half of that, still a bomb.

Half of the profit, or half of the gross minus all of the cost? Obviously it's not what anyone there was looking for when they green-lit it, but I thought it was interesting that a staggeringly mismarketed film could overcome terrible first-week sales by dint of word of mouth (also, being a good film, which I do not suspect Dark Shadows will be).

Also likely to make a lot on DVD sales I suspect.

the old formula was that a movie needed to make around 3x its budget in worldwide ticket sales for the studios to expect a profit. this has probably changed with the advent of dvd/blu-ray/netflix/etc.

The trailer for this was actually kind of....funny?

is it true that he died becuase the new movie is terrible?

Yes, yes it is.

i have to admit the trailer made me realize i'll be watching this at some point in the next few years on pay cable whereas you couldnt force me at gunpoint to watch burton's last few trips up his own baroquely whimsical asshole.

Have we posted this bit about the production of the show:

http://badassdigest.com/2010/12/14/terror-tuesday-how-burtons-dark-shadows-could-be-great-but-wont-be/

Also, an obit:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rip-jonathan-frid-dark-shadows-barnabas-collins,72682/

While going into the offscreen lives of the cast members, that article didn't even mention that one of them was later the mistress of Claus von Bulow.

OTM about the "panic filled frames" of Frid's performance-so endearing! Also one of the main sources of suspense on the show.

voting for Sweeney Todd in the horror poll btw

Am I the only one who remembers the early 90s remake of Dark Shadows? I've never seen the original series, but I really liked the remake as a kid. I guess it wasn't very popular though, because it only lasted for one season; frustratingly enough, the final episode ended with a cliffhanger, with the female protagonist discovering the guy is a vampire.

I remember that the remake existed, but I haven't seen it.

I was thinking of nominating the earlier, Todd Slaughter version of the Sweeney Todd story in the horror poll, but didn't because I don't remember a thing about it.

From wiki

In 1991, a short-lived primetime remake was produced by MGM Television and aired on NBC from January 13 to March 22. The revival was a lavish, big budget weekly serial combining gothic romance and stylistic horror. Although it was a huge hit at introduction (watched by almost 1 in 4 households according to official ratings during that time period), the onset of the Gulf War caused NBC to continually preempt or reschedule the episodes resulting in declining ratings. It was canceled after the first season.

The final episode ended with a cliffhanger: Victoria Winters (Joanna Going) learning that Barnabas Collins (Ben Cross) was a 200-year old vampire. It has been reported[who?] that the opening episode for a proposed second season would have had Victoria collapsing, after seeing Barnabas, and losing her memory of his terrible secret.[citation needed]

It also starred veterans Jean Simmons as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard and Roy Thinnes as Roger Collins, British character actress Lysette Anthony as Angelique Collins, Barbara Steele as Julia Hoffman, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as David Collins.