Now that filming on the Dark Shadows reboot is underway, some set photos have surfaced of Collinwood Manor, the castle-like domicile of the ancient Collins family. Artistically inventive and somewhat macabre, Tim Burton is the perfect choice to helm this cult favorite, originally a ’60s-era gothic soap opera.
Burton is directing the feature-film version of the vampire-ridden gothic soap, which made a name for itself not only for breaking day-time TV tradition with its supernatural themes, but also for its ridiculously low production values and bloopers.
With a powerhouse cast led by long-time Burton collaborators Johnny Depp as aristocratic vampire Barnabas, and Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman, this is definitely one reboot I can get behind. Not to mention the script was penned by Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter scribe Seth Grahame-Smith, and co-stars include Chloe Moretz, Eva Green, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonny Lee Miller and Bella Heathcote.
Here are the pics, taken by a rabid fan and available thanks to Fan Pop. Looks like the Collins’ home base is shaping up nicely, with some great gothic architectural elements.
Do you think this reboot will stay true to the spirit of the original soap? Or perhaps a cinematic waste of space like Burton’s Alice in Wonderland?
In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas has the world at his feet—or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Brouchard. A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive.
Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman, to help with her family troubles.
Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth’s ne’er-do-well brother, Roger Collins; her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard; and Roger’s precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins. The mystery extends beyond the family, to caretaker Willie Loomis, played by Jackie Earle Haley, and David’s new nanny, Victoria Winters, played by Bella Heathcote.