Dark Shadows Filming Has Begun

Vampires.com is reporting that filming is underway, and has the press release explaining the backstory and how we find Collinwood in the 1970s.

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.

 

Go read the rest and check out the guy they have playing young Barnabas. He has a marked resemblance to Johnny Depp.

Courage

Just a thought for today.

My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage! — Aunt Frances, “Practical Magic” (1998)

I’ve always loved that quote, and I love that movie, which is substantially different from the book by Alice Hoffman on which it is based. The aunts are barely in the book. I would still love to see a television series based on this movie of four amazing women who flout convention and live by their own rules. Good stuff.

Just a Question

UPDATE 4/14/11 – For anyone interested, here’s an interview with Idris Elba, who, interestingly, was born in Norway.

UPDATE: 4/12/11 — My bad, Idris Elba is being cast as Heimdall, not Odin. Thanks to MaryJBlog for catching that.

And I mean this quite sincerely. I readily admit I don’t fully understand the issues (’cause quite frankly I’m not that bright), so I throw it out to you folks to help me comprehend.

When the movie Thor was being cast and word got out that a black actor was being cast as Odin, the interwebs went nuts defending this move. Now granted, this is one actor out of a cast of I-don’t-know how many. So maybe it’s apples to oranges, but…

The Twitterverse is now going nuts over the use of white actors in Akira. Is it because the cast is entirely Caucasian? Would one Caucasian actor have been acceptable if the rest had been Asian? Or should they all have been Asian since it is a Japanese story? And if so, why cast an African-American as a Norse god?

Frankenstein’s Army

Hand to god, I am not making this up.

Here’s a mash-up that probably falls into the category of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

Dutch director Richard Raaphorst is trying to revive (pun intended) his WWII Nazi-zombie horror project, which began life as ‘Worst Case Scenario’. The gist of it is Hitler starts smelling defeat towards the end of the war, and not wanting to waste all those years of obsessive occult research turns to Dr. Frankenstein’s example and raises and army of the undead. I can’t embed the trailer here, but you can see it here on the Moviefone blog. But fair warning: It’s graphic, and not for the squeamish (it is a horror movie, after all). That said, if zombies are your thing, you might like it. It’s a blend of actual WWII newsreel footage, and Raaphorst’s own filmmaking.

Mary Shelley is no doubt spinning in her grave like a turbine.

Horror! Pass the Smelling Salts…

They’re making a movie of On the Road!!! NOOOOOOOO!!! This is BAD!! Look at the cast so far:

Sam Riley as Sal Paradise (Jack Kerouac). He’s a Brit, that’s all I know about him. Kerouac was American/French-Canadian, born in the same town I was (Lowell, MA).

It gets worse.

Kristen Stewart as Marylou. ACK! Yes, that one. The perpetually pouty, eternally stoned-looking, she of the bad red carpet look Bella Swan of Twilight fame. Give me strength.

Kirsten Dunst as Camille. Seems like the best of the bunch so far. I don’t know, I don’t know…

Garrett Hedlund as Dean Moriarty. I know, who? Does not look promising from his little bio on IMDB.com. I’m all about putting unknown actors in what could become iconic roles, he just doesn’t fit the picture in my head of Dean. I realize everyone has their own picture of Dean (and the rest of the characters), I need to get the book back out and see how much actual description Kerouac gave of Dean. I had him pictured very tall, lanky, kind of spacey, high energy, rapid talker.

Is it just me, or does anyone else smell “travesty” here? Jack must be spinning in his grave like a turbine. I wonder if they’ll cut Terry (Teresa) out of the movie, and if not who’ll get the part? Quick, someone name some cute Latina actresses who could do this.

Executive producers are Francis Ford Coppola, Gus Van Sant, and John H. Williams (best known for the Shrek series). Van Sant I can almost get on board with here. Actually if he were the right age, he’d almost make a good Dean. He’s weird enough. It’s in pre-production right now, looks like they’re targeting a 2011 release. Van Sant has a talent for casting unknowns, hopefully he had a hand in casting the male leads at least.

I’m just having a hard time believing this could be translated to the silver screen, and done right.
:::wringing hands:::