If done properly, there’s nothing better than a self-referential cameo to get audiences excited about a re-make or adaptation (fingers crossed for Johnny Depp in “21 Jump Street,” and director Fede Alvarez recently confirmed Bruce Campbell‘s appearance in “Evil Dead‘). Bloody Disgusting has reported that at a “Dark Shadows” panel at Comic-Con 2011, it was announced that four original cast members of the cult ’60s show will be making cameos in Tim Burton‘s long-gestating adaptation, starring Depp. Stars Lara Parker (Angelique), Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans and Josette du Pres), David Selby (Quentin Collins) and the one and only Jonathan Frid (who played Barnabas Collins in the TV show, the role Depp has taken over) spent three days filming at Pinewood Studios. No word on what their roles will be or how they will fit into the movie.
Starring Depp, Jackie Earle Haley, Eva Green, Bella Heathcote, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Chloe Moretz and Jonny Lee Miller the film is a big screen adaptation of the vampire soap that centers on the playboy Barnabas (Depp) who breaks the heart of the witch Angelique Brouchard (Green) in 1752, and in her fury, she turns him into a vampire and buries him alive. When he reawakens in 1972, he returns to Collinwood Manor to find his estate and family in ruins. The script was written by Seth Graeme-Smith (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter“) and sounds like perfect material for another Burton/Depp collaboration. We’re still waiting final confirmation regarding a rumored Alice Cooper cameo in the film as well.
Warner Bros. plans to release “Dark Shadows” on May 11, 2012. Hit the jump for the full 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 Brouchard (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.
