Source: Apple | Posted By: Dan Geer
Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows barely slipped out of PopcornMonster.com’s Top 10 Movies to See This Summer list, but it is nevertheless still on my radar. Today, Apple has released a new behind-the-scenes featurette for the film, featuring segments on the history of vampire films, as well as Johnny Depp and Tim Burton’s love for the genre. It even gives us a peek at the cameos of Christopher Lee and the late Jonathan Frid (the original Barnabas Collins) in the film. Hit the jump to watch!
Official Plot Synopsis:
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 (Johnny Depp) 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 Bouchard (Eva Green). 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 (Michelle Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles. Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth’s ne’er-do-well brother, Roger Collins, (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Moretz); and Roger’s precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). 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.
Of course, the featurette does not go into why Tim Burton and the gang made the choice to go for comedy with this film, when the original series was never a comedy. However, it will be nice to see Burton and Depp return to a film much like the dark comedic Burton films of the past like Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands.
Dark Shadows, directed by Tim Burton, stars Johnny Depp, Eva Green, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonny Lee Miller, Helena Bonham Carter, Christopher Lee, Chloë Grace Moretz, Gulliver McGrath, Jackie Earle Haley and Bella Heathcote. The film hits theaters May 11th nationwide!
