Monday, April 30, 2012

Videos: See 9 Clips from "Dark Shadows"

Nine clips from Dark Shadows have appeared online. Needless to say, there may be some SPOILERS in these short excerpts from the film:

"Why Have You Done This to Me?"
:



"What is Your Age?":



"Welcome Home, Barnabas Collins":



"There's Always Been Something Pulling Me Here":



"Stay Away From That Man":



"People Don't Throw Balls Anymore":



"Look Into My Eyes":



"A Vampire!":



"Locked in a Box for 200 Years":

Videos: Depp, Bonham Carter, Chloe Moretz on "Dark Shadows"

HollywoodTeenTV has posted three videos with cast members discussing Dark Shadows and working with Tim Burton: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Chloë Grace Moretz.  Here they are, and watch out for a few potential SPOILERS:

Johnny Depp:



Helena Bonham Carter:



Chloë Grace Moretz:

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Photo: Burton, Bekmambetov, Lemley Color Timing "Vampire Hunter"



Producer Jim Lemley has posted a photo of himself, director Timur Bekmambetov, and producer Tim Burton wrapping up post-production on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter at the color timing session.

Photos: 16 New Stills from "Dark Shadows"

UPDATE:  You can find high-resolution versions of these images, and without a watermark, at this link.

Dread Central has posted sixteen new stills from Dark Shadows, including shots of Tim Burton directing his cast. Click the images below to enlarge them:

















"Dark Shadows" Soundtrack Details


In addition to the soundtrack featuring Danny Elfman's score, WaterTower Music is also releasing "Dark Shadows - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack." The album will feature the following songs:

01. Nights In White Satin - The Moody Blues
02. Dark Shadows - Prologuea - Danny Elfman
03. I'm Sick Of You - Iggy Pop
04. Season Of The Witch - Donovan
05. Top Of The World - The Carpenters
06. You're The First, The Last, My Everything - Barry White
07. Bang A Gong (Get It On) - T. Rex
08. No More Mr. Nice Guy - Alice Cooper
09. Ballad Of Dwight Fry - Alice Cooper
10. The End? - Danny Elfman
11. The Joker - Johnny Depp

"Dark Shadows - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" will be made available for purchase on May 8th, 2012.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Video: Burton Receives Empire Legend Award



Tim Burton was the recipient of the Empire Legend Award at the 2012 Jameson Empire Awards. Danny DeVito presented the award to the filmmaker, and opens by talking about his fond memories and hilarious anecdotes of collaborating with Burton on three films: Batman Returns (1992), Mars Attacks! (1996), and Big Fish (2003). Here is the video for DeVito's opening and Burton's acceptance speech.

Video: Burton on "Frankenweenie," "Dark Shadows"



Tim Burton talked about Frankenweenie and Dark Shadows on the red carpet at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. In this video interview, the filmmaker talked about why he's making the very personal, unique Frankenweenie film now after so many years, the balance of honoring the classic Dark Shadows while making his own vision of it, working with Johnny Depp, and much more.

Video: Bekmambetov Talks "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"



Shock Till You Drop spoke with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter director Timur Bekmambetov. The filmmaker covered numerous topics in this video interview, including what he thinks 3D will bring to the film, his working relationship with producer Tim Burton, why he is attracted to stories about American history, and how this film, which will earn a hard "R" rating in the U.S., will not be a "vampire movie for girls," alluding to Twilight and its like.

Video: Burton Didn't Consider "Dark Shadows" a Comedy


In an interview with MTV News, Tim Burton explained the recent reactions to the trailer for Dark Shadows. He expressed that he didn't consider the film to be just a goofy comedy. "Everything that's in [the trailer] is in the movie," Burton told MTV News. "It's a funny film for me, because I never considered it a comedy. I was always trying to capture the weird vibe of 'Dark Shadows,' which is a weird thing to try to capture. It was a weird daytime soap opera."

"It's not like I'm being campy with it or anything," Burton said. "The guy's been locked in a box for 200 years, and [when] he comes out ... something weird is going to happen."

Burton also talked about the interviewer's comparisons to Edward Scissorhands. "Edward Scissorhands was more of a naive character. Barnabas has been around the block a few times," Burton told MTV News with a laugh. "There is something about a character who doesn't quite fit into the world, which is similar, just in this case, he's been around a long time."

He also briefly responds to questions regarding a sequel to Beetlejuice, and whether or not he would make another Batman or Pee-wee movie. "I think I have enough on my plate," the very busy filmmaker replied.

Video: "Dark Shadows" Behind-the-Scenes Featurette Explores Vampires

A new behind-the-scenes featurette for Dark Shadows has surfaced online. This new video, Explore the Legend of the Vampire, investigates a long history of influential vampires in film and television, such as Christopher Lee, Bela Lugosi, Max Schreck, and Jonathan Frid (the original Barnabas Collins of Dark Shadows). We also get a chance to see plenty of new footage, including legendary actor (and former Dracula) Christopher Lee in the movie. Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, actor Jackie Earle Haley, and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith contribute their thoughts. Beware -- this video contains loads of SPOILERS!!:


Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Tim Burton Collection Blu-Ray Exclusive Set


Amazon.com will be releasing an exclusive Blu-Ray box set on May 1st, 2012: The Tim Burton Collection. The box set will also include a book, and includes Tim Burton's seven films made with Warner Bros.: Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Mars Attacks! (1996), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Corpse Bride (2005). Click this link for more details.

Video: Burton on Returning to "Frankenweenie"

The Los Angeles Times spoke to Tim Burton at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. After mentioning Johnny Depp's surprise appearance to promote Dark Shadows, the interviewer asked Burton why he decided to return to Frankenweenie a quarter of a century after he made the original short film, and why he thinks audiences will gravitate toward this unique, black-and-white, stop-motion animated film:

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Pfeiffer on "Batman Returns," Burton's "Catwoman" Movie


Michelle Pfeiffer, who will be appearing in Dark Shadows, spoke with Empire Magazine and looked fondly back to twenty years ago -- when she first collaborated with Tim Burton, playing Catwoman in Batman Returns. When did she take the iconic role? "Immediately," the Dark Shadows star said. "I was halfway through the script when I said yes. Someone else was cast in the part and I remember being absolutely devastated and calling my agent and saying, 'How have I not had a meeting about this? Why have I not heard about it?' It was one of those things where Tim had someone in mind and went directly to them. So I was really bummed, but it was okay. When she [Annette Bening] fell out of it I was just leaving the country and got a call to say Tim wanted to meet me. So I went and he gave me the script and I got halfway through and said yes. But you know, honestly, I would have done it anyway, even without reading the script. But I was very happy that she was actually very well written."

"I think that she was someone so dark," added the actress on what it was that made the character so appealing to her. "Dark characters are always more interesting and she's really very dark. That whole split personality is interesting." Pfeiffer went on to reveal that she very nearly played Catwoman in a solo film helmed by Burton. "For a while, like a brief time, Tim was interested in maybe doing a Catwoman movie, but that didn't really last very long."

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Video: New "Dark Shadows" Footage in Chinese TV Spot

Some new footage from Dark Shadows can be seen in this recent Chinese TV spot:

A Visit to the "Frankenweenie" Set

Jamie Portman of dose.ca had the opportunity to visit the London set of the stop-motion film, Frankenweenie. Posted below is the in-depth article in its entirety, offering insights into Tim Burton's approach to revisiting this material, the expansion of the story from the original live-action short from 1984, the work of the animators, and much more. Beware of a few SPOILERS!:

LONDON - It's an undistinguished low-slung building on Sugar House Lane, a dingy street whose picturesque name belies the cheerlessness of this East London neighbourhood. Yet if you penetrate its drab exterior, you enter a wonderland -- the wonderland of filmmaker Tim Burton's spooky imagination.
This is where Burning Windmills Productions has taken up residence -- an appropriate name for the company behind Burton's upcoming animated feature, Frankenweenie. Both the company name and the film's title evoke memories of the legendary 1931 film, Frankenstein, and the scene where the townsfolk react in frenzy to the rampaging monster in their midst.
"Remember the scene where they run up to a burning windmill at the end?" producer Allison Abbate asks. "That's why we're calling our company that. And we definitely have a burning windmill in our movie!"
That, and a lot more. Frankenweenie, which Disney has set for autumn release with a high-powered vocal cast that includes Winona Ryder, Martin Short and Martin Landau, is Burton's much-anticipated full-length reworking of his 1984 animated short of the same name. Then, as now, with this tale of a boy named Victor who restores his dead dog Sparky to life, Burton was rendering affectionate homage to the horror films that enchanted him in his childhood.
That enchantment permeates the labyrinthine corridors of this astonishing studio. You arrive at the homemade laboratory where the young Victor, the kid who loves monster movies, goes to work on Sparky in the aftermath of his pet's fatal collision with a car -- and if you're reminded of the creepy setting in which Boris Karloff creaked into life in the original Frankenstein, Burton will be delighted.
Move on and you'll find the gloomy pet cemetery, which plays such a crucial role in the story.
"Of course, there's a graveyard, since this is a Tim Burton movie," Abbate says cheerfully.
Then you're suddenly in the midst of the actual filming of a dramatic moment. A dedicated science teacher has lost his job, condemned by the community for encouraging a spirit of inquiry among Victor and his fellow students. You watch the kids' beloved Mr. Rzykruski leaving a hostile PTA meeting, moving sadly down the aisle of the auditorium while a sea of faces watches his humiliation.
This sequence has a live-action intensity that surges out at you in playback. But of course, it's not live action at all -- and this is the miracle being wrought during every second of filming.
The scene is being shot in a tiny playing area maybe half the size of an average living room. As with all the production's 35 shooting units, Burton's artistic team is working in a toy-sized setting, where every prop is reduced to scale. And while Mr. Rzykruski and his tormentors will loom large on the big screen, just as the diminutive King Kong did nearly 80 years ago, they are, in actuality, small and brilliantly engineered puppets whose movements -- right down to the flicker of an eyelash or twitch of the lip -- are being meticulously created frame by frame by the tiniest of adjustments and manipulations.
Animator Mark Waring towers over his miniature performers as he sets up the shot. Remote-control cameras are in place, but that's only the beginning.
"There are 40 characters who've got to move, and I'll be right in the middle, trying to duck up and down out of the way of a shot," Waring says. "Rzykruski's going to be walking down this pathway, and all the other characters are watching him go, and will be turning as he passes. So I'm doing this literally frame by frame. All these heads turn a tiny degree. And I do it again and again."
Mr. Rzykruski's shifting facial expressions help heighten the drama of the moment -- which is why another animator, Danail Kreve, is available with a choice of 36 different miniature mouths to slot into the embattled teacher's jaw.
Welcome to the old-fashioned world of stop-motion animation. Its distinguished antecedents include: the 1933 King Kong; Ray Harryhausen's science-fiction adventures of the 1950s; Wallace and Gromit; and the groundbreaking contributions of Canada's National Film Board.
Burton brought the process into an eerie new dimension in 1993, when he produced The Nightmare Before Christmas, and then explored it further with The Corpse Bride.
The original Frankenweenie lasted only 28 minutes, but Burton is convinced there's an audience out there for a full-length version.
"We've added more to the beginning, so you get more of a sense of the relationship that the kid has with his dog," Abbate says. "We also added to the ending, so that now, it's not just about Sparky and whether the townspeople accept and embrace him.
"Here, the secret gets . . . out, and other people try to do the same thing, with disastrous results. So you set up that nice conflict of Sparky being different from other creations, because he was created out of love, not out of competition or power."
Burton also has a screen version of Dark Shadows currently in the works, so he isn't on hand today. But his inventive spirit is present everywhere. The puppetry, including an intriguing collection of Burtonesque monsters, is a prime example.
"They're all out of Tim's imagination," Abbate notes. "He's personally created them. He did the character designs, and they've been transferred directly from his drawings to sculpted puppets. Not since Nightmare Before Christmas has there been something which has spun so purely from the mind of Tim as this one."
The Victor puppet is a little over 15 inches tall. Sparky is 4.2 inches long, and there's one small puppet which is only five-eighths of an inch in size.
Burton's credits -- Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd, a controversial Alice In Wonderland, Beetlejuice, to name only a few -- reveal a filmmaker who shuns the conventional. Frankenweenie is no exception. Yes, there will be a 3-D release, but it's being shot in old-fashioned black and white -- and that, Abbate acknowledges, "makes it both controversial and exciting at the same time.
"This particular story hearkens back to a movie Tim was inspired by. He got excited about making movies by seeing those old black-and-white horror films. And he really feels that black and white underlines the emotional quality of the movies and the bereft feeling that Victor experiences when Sparky passes. He felt it was the only way he could tell the story."
Abbate is the award-winning producer of some of the most innovative animated movies of recent years - among them, The Fantastic Mr. Fox and Corpse Bride. She's a huge fan of the stop-motion process.
"It's not just that it's fun, but that it's so old-school. Yet it still works. Everything that people do here is so creative. Everyone here is an artist, down to the tiniest prop."
And those props are tiny. Many can be held in the palm of the hand. "This is Victor's chair," Abbate says, passing over a miniature chair. "Feel how heavy this thing is." She's now holding a weighty thumb-sized book and lets it fall with a thump. Every tiny prop is meticulously crafted. Yet they aren't fragile. "That's because everything has to be so stable."
As with all classic horror movies, events start going horrifically wrong, as Victor's friends try to repeat his experiments using their own pets, often with hilariously creepy results. Abbate is mum on details, but she does drop tantalizing hints about a "mummy" hamster, a ferocious werecat, a Godzilla turtle, and monkeys who become something out of Gremlins.
So what is Burton creating here? An animated horror movie? A dark comedy? Not exactly.
"Most of the time, it's a heartfelt love story between a boy and a dog," Abbate says matter-of-factly. "But it's done with real affection for the old movies of that genre that inspired Tim."
© Copyright (c) dose.ca

Friday, April 20, 2012

Depp Remembers Jonathan Frid


In a statement to People Magazine, Johnny Depp paid tribute to the original Barnabas Collins of Dark Shadows, Jonathan Frid, who died on April 13th.

Depp said, "Jonathan Frid was the reason I used to run home from school to watch Dark Shadows. His elegance and grace was an inspiration then and will continue to remain one forever more. When I had the honor to finally meet him, as he so generously passed the torch of Barnabas to me, he was as elegant and magical as i had always imagined. My deepest condolences to his family and friends. The world has lost a true original."

In 1991, on the 20th anniversary of the TV show's demise, Frid told People: "I only did the part for some pocket money to go teach on the West Coast. And, of course, because I didn't particularly want the job, I got it. An audition room full of cadaverous-looking creeps, and I must have really looked the part."

He added, "I always thought I looked like this damn silly ass. I couldn't believe people were ever really scared."


Photo credits: ABC/Getty; Warner Bros.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Jonathan Frid, 1924-2012



Jonathan Frid, the actor who originally played the vampire Barnabas Collins in the TV series, Dark Shadows, passed away peacefully on April 13th at age 87.

Frid's last onscreen role will be in a cameo appearance in the upcoming Dark Shadows film.

New "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" Poster

ComicBookMovie.com has posted a new poster for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Click the image below to enlarge it:

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Elfman on "Dark Shadows" Score

Danny Elfman gave a few comments regarding his unique score for Dark Shadows, which seems to be something quite different from many other scores he has composed for his long-time collaborator, Tim Burton:

"Tim had some specific ideas about the music on Dark Shadows," says Elfman. "I knew that the bigger dramatic scenes would be played in a rather grand theatrical manner, but the real treat was tapping into the retro pallet Tim had imagined. He wanted something that payed homage to both the original TV series and other '70s horror genres as well. For that we kept it minimal, eerie, and atmospheric with only electronics and a few solo instruments carrying the melodies."

ComicBookMovie.com provided the information, but beware of SPOILERS in the link!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Photos: Nine New "Dark Shadows" Images

ComicBookMovie.com has provided nine new images from Dark Shadows. Click the images below to enlarge them:










Saturday, April 14, 2012

Friday, April 13, 2012

Monday, April 09, 2012

Grahame-Smith on Future Burton Stop-Motion Film

The Hollywood Reporter recently spoke with writer Seth Grahame-Smith. Grahame-Smith talked about several forthcoming projects, including a script he is writing for Tim Burton for a new stop-motion animated film, currently titled, Night of the Living.

Grahame-Smith said, "I'm right in the middle of writing an animated movie for Tim Burton right now called Night of the Living." He continued: "Night of the Living is an idea I have had around for years that I'm doing with Tim Burton. When we were shooting Dark Shadows last year I worked up the nerve to tell Tim about it because I always thought it would make a good movie. When I saw what he had done with Frankweenie and Corpse Bride, it always struck me as a great idea for that form. I'm writing it at Warner's Bros. for him (as a stop-motion monster movie). As soon I'm done with that draft, I'll move into Unholy Night, probably in a matter of weeks."

He also reiterated his plans to write a script for a Beetlejuice sequel. "The first opportunity to tackle that will probably be later this year," he said.

Video Interview: Bekmambetov, Grahame-Smith on "Vampire Hunter"

Comic Book Resources has posted a video interview with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter director Timur Bekmambetov and writer/executive producer Seth Grahame-Smith. They discuss how Tim Burton learned about the story and decided to make a film based on Grahame-Smith's original book, why Bekmambetov gravitated to the premise, and how Abraham Lincoln has a superhero-style origin story, among other topics:

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Hear Danny Elfman's "Dark Shadows" Score


WatchTower Music has released free samples of Danny Elfman's Dark Shadows score. Click here to listen, but beware of SPOILERS for the film in the titles of the clips.

The soundtrack will be available for purchase on May 8th at $11.99 on Amazon.com, and is currently available for pre-order.

Video: New 60 Second "Dark Shadows" TV Spot

A fifth Dark Shadows TV spot has appeared online, weighing in at sixty seconds and featuring some new footage:

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Video: Burton's Final Wish to WonderCon, "Vampire Hunter" Fans

Tim Burton was ill and unable to attend WonderCon a few weeks ago and present Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Instead, he provided this video message to attendees of the convention:



Starring Tim Burton, Glen Mexted, Glen Jr., Aiko Horiuchi, Leah Gallo. Directed by Derek Frey. Puppeteering by Tim Burton, Voiceover Artist Tim Burton.