I wasn’t expecting much from Dark Shadows, the latest in the ubiquitous onslaught of vampire films, so to say the film lived up to my expectations may be a bit misleading as far as its overall quality. Tim Burton’s latest collaboration with Johnny Depp is good enough to amuse, but not quite good enough to do anything else. It’s not overly funny, though it’s supposed to be a comedy, and it’s not scary at all, though it has elements of horror running through it as well. So the result is a hodgepodge of tonal inconsistencies, and though it has brief moments of the Burton we used to know, Dark Shadows is, ironically, a vampire movie with no bite.

Depp plays Barnabas Collins, a member of an industrious English family that moves to America to start a fishing business. When he spurns the love of his household servant, Angelique (Eva Green), he’s messed with the wrong girl: she’s actually a witch, and proceeds to murder his parents, kill the love of his life, turn Barnabas into a vampire, and then bury him alive for 200 years. Yikes. He’s released in 1972, and the rest of the movie is a series of culture shocks mixed in with a meandering story about Barnabas attempting to restore the family to its former glory. The modern-day Collins family is kind of a mess: Michelle Pfeiffer plays the matriarch, barely keeping their floundering business afloat; Chloe Moretz plays a testy teenager with an attitude; Gulliver McGrath is David, a young boy who can see ghosts; and Jonny Lee Miller plays the young boy’s philandering father. The rest of the supporting cast includes Helena Bonham Carter as a live-in doctor who is supposed to be helping David, Jackie Earle Haley as a drunken servant, and Bella Heathcote as Victoria Winters, David’s nanny and the new love interest for Barnabas.

Burton and Seth Grahame-Smith, the screenwriter, seem much more interested in comedy than horror here. They’d be lost, however, without Depp’s performance as the proper 18th century Englishman; his delivery of verbose dialogue provides fodder for many humorous encounters with 1970s technology, such as when he sees a car for the first time coming at him through the forest and yells at Satan, “mark me not with your strange luminance!” Ultimately, though, these moments alone aren’t enough to keep us laughing throughout. There’s only so much of that one gag we can take before it starts to fall flat, and while the rest of the cast is undoubtedly talented, the script doesn’t give them much to work with in the way of comedy.

Also inconsistent are the rules of vampiric lore, which seem to be played as a punch line when convenient and ignored elsewhere. Barnabas literally catches on fire at one point when he’s hit by a beam of sunlight (typical in the vampire mythos), but other times he carries on conversations while standing in the sun, sometimes not even fully covered by an umbrella or dark clothing. It’s a sign of laziness on the screenwriter’s part, wanting to have it both ways so Barnabas can operate during the day and interact with the 70s setting instead of being confined to the night (as he should have been). And speaking of inconsistencies, the love story between Barnabas and Victoria Winters seemed totally out of nowhere and completely unearned. There’s a revelation near the end that, despite describing the reasoning for her character being there, still doesn’t really make a ton of sense, and then a series of events during the film’s climax that is still baffling to me. Proper setup and payoffs apparently weren’t high on anyone’s priority list.

Eva Green’s performance is the only other worth mentioning, since she did some great work as the jealous witch. Her character is one of the few that I felt really committed to the classical melodrama the film was attempting to recreate (there’s a nice scene at the beginning when she turns Barnabas into a vampire), and her cracking facade near the film’s end was one of the coolest visual effect tricks in a movie that was surprisingly boring in that regard (especially considering Burton’s proclivity for cartoonish designs).

There’s a nice message in Dark Shadows about how family is the only true measure of wealth, but sadly that’s one of the few things that’s actually clearly presented in this zany story. Burton and Depp have been in a comfortable groove for a long time, and I can’t help but wonder if they’d both be better off working together in a totally different type of movie, one that ditches the gothic setting and idiosyncratic characters in favor of something fresh and new. At the same time, though, I appreciate the fact that Burton has carved out a place for himself in the movie landscape, as it’s always difficult for artists to establish a voice in this marketplace. I just wish he’d sing a different tune once in a while. (Big Fish, anyone?) Until next time…

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With the movie less than two months away we’ve finally been given the first trailer for Tim Burton’s latest, Dark Shadows. In my opinion the movie looks funny at the very least, so color me interested.

Watch the trailer below:

Based on the 60′s cult TV series with the same name, Dark Shadows is a gothic horror tale centered around vampire Barnabas Collins, played by Johnny Deep.

In 19th century, Barnabas is a rich playboy in Collinsport, Maine, master of the Collinwood Manor. When he breaks the heart Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green), a witch, she turns him into a vampire and buries him alive. The year is 1972, two centuries have past when Barnabas is accidentally freed from his coffin and returned to basically a new world. Here he finds the Collinwood Manor in ruin and the remnants of his family, a dysfunctional bunch, residing there.

Directed by Tim Burton, Dark Shadows stars Johnny Deep, Eva Green, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jackie Earl Haley and obviously Helena Bonham Carter, can’t have a Burton film without her now can we.

Dark Shadows opens May 11th in theaters and IMAX.

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Producer Jerry Bruckheimer today tweeted our first look at Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in costume on the set of The Lone Ranger. In the film Hammer plays the title character and Johnny Depp plays the Ranger’s Native American companion Tonto.

The Lone Ranger is currently shooting under the direction of Gore Verbinksi and also stars Ruth Wilson, Tom Wilkinson, Barry Pepper, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale and William Fichtner. Disney has set the release date for May 31, 2013.

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If you’ve never heard of the West Memphis Three, I’d encourage you to seek out one of many documentaries about the three boys wrongly accused of child murder back in 1994 and the real-life drama that followed. The Paradise Lost films sparked nationwide interest in the case and got the attention of Peter Jackson, who produced an exhaustive chronicle of the events in a documentary called West of Memphis that played at Sundance 2012. Johnny Depp, Eddie Vedder, Natalie Maines, Henry Rollins, and more have been fighting for the boys for years, and now Depp will produce a movie based on an upcoming memoir written by Damien Echols, one of the accused.

Depp’s company Infinitum Nihil has optioned the rights to the book (via The Playlist), which is set to be released in September of this year. Echols and his wife Lorri Davis will executive produce the film version, which will “spotlight the controversial conviction and imprisonment of the then 18-year-old who’s now in his mid-30s and present his life before conviction as well its twists and turns leading to release.”

The West Memphis Three have been big in the news recently, since West of Memphis provided new evidence in the case during its Sundance premiere a couple of weeks ago. And Atom Egoyan (Chloe) is already directing a movie called The Devil’s Knot about the case, which is starring Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth, so Depp will have to compete with another big budget take on this insane true story once things get rolling with this version.

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Before Disney pulled the brakes on The Lone Ranger in order to trim the budget British actress Ruth Wilson (Luthur) was in talks to play the female lead and Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton) was being eyed for the villain.

The movie eventually got the green light but with the start of filming delayed from October to February there could have been some scheduling issues preventing the actors from appearing. Luckily for Disney both are free, and Deadline reports that Wilson and Wilkinson will star in the film as originally planned.

The site also notes that Barry Pepper, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale and Dwight Yoakum are having their deals worked out, having been attached previously but not confirmed.

The Lone Ranger, which stars Armie Hammer as the title character and Johnny Depp as the Ranger’s Native American companion Tonto, is to be directed by Gore Verbinksi and will be released May 31, 2013.

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Many A-list actors adopt a “one for them, one for me” mentality: they make one big movie for a studio so they can make a smaller passion project for themselves. Considering Depp’s relationship with Hunter S. Thompson (the infamous novelist/journalist whose novel provides the basis for this film), it’s clear The Rum Diary falls into the latter category. It’s just too bad that the “one for him” wasn’t a better movie.

Written for the screen and directed by Bruce Robinson, The Rum Diary follows the story of Paul Kemp (Depp), a washed out novelist who goes to Puerto Rico to write for a local newspaper. Soon, he’s intoxicated not only by the alcohol he’s constantly swilling, but also by a beautiful girl named Chenault (Amber Heard). She’s with Sanderson (Eckhart), a wealthy playboy with a ton influence working on an illegal land development scheme. Sanderson invites Kemp to be a part of the project and, after a ton of stumbling and drunken debauchery, Kemp and the rest of the guys at the paper take it upon themselves to bring down “the bastards” by blowing the whistle on their operation.

There are a lot of elements that I liked about this movie. It’s hard to knock gorgeous locales, solid acting, and an intriguing plot – especially when you consider I have a bias in favor of stories involving journalism. But at a certain point, the movie itself begins to take on characteristics of its main character: it seems to drag for an interminable amount of time, bouncing from point to point with a “hey, look over there!” attitude and waiting far too late to attempt to wrap things up in a neat little package in the third act. It’s not as “out there” as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - the other Hunter S. Thompson project in which Depp has starred – but it kind of tries to have it both ways with trippy drugged-out sequences tossed into the middle of a narrative that is, admittedly, a lot more cohesive than Fear and Loathing‘s. The main problem with The Rum Diary is the structure: by having the first two thirds of the film as this breezy, stumbling, quasi-romantic discovery piece, it feels forced and unnatural when the final act arrives and story elements have to be quickly wrapped up.

Depp has made himself a superstar by playing these types of roles, so it’s not much of a departure from his past work. Even if you removed Fear and Loathing from the equation, simply mix his lead character in Rango with Captain Jack Sparrow and you’ve got Paul Kemp. I was much more interested in Bob Salas, the sidekick character more inhabited than played by former “Sopranos” actor Michael Rispoli. He was gruff but lovable, and seemed like the kind of guy you’d want to hang out with in an unpredictable island environment. Aaron Eckhart was great as the guy you love to hate, but this also wasn’t that big of a change (or challenge) for him. Giovanni Ribisi really went for it with his portrayal of Moberg, a guy who drinks 400 proof alcohol and listens to Adolph Hitler speeches on vinyl. Richard Jenkins was really entertaining as the editor of the San Juan Star, playing “the man” as it were, forcing Kemp to curtail his writing to fit in with an idealized version of the American Dream.

Though the novel was written back in the 1960s, much of this film is especially relevant today with the Occupy Wall Street movement going on and this movie essentially railing against corporate greed. Our buddy Vince Mancini at FilmDrunk liked it far more than I did, and even with all of the meandering in the middle of the movie, it’s easy to see how The Rum Diary would have a special charm to fans of Thompson’s work. That said, I don’t think I’d ever watch this movie again – and if you’ve read this far, that probably tells you all you need to know. Until next time…

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With The Lone Ranger budget trimmed and back on track Disney, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and director Gore Verbinski are now aiming to begin filming in February with Armie Hammer as the title character and Johnny Depp as the Ranger’s Native American companion Tonto.

In a new interview Bruckheimer revealed it was “a shock” when Disney halted production back in August, but the team have now reduced the budget to $215m from $260m with most scenes left intact, so as to compete with the “fierce” competition.

From THR:

How did you do it?
…we bunched the sequences that were big together, and for the smaller scenes [we] laid off the extras, the effects people, the makeup people. It costs an enormous amount with 150 extras on the set. It’s not the extras, it’s the people that support the extras. You’re still carrying all the wardrobe, makeup and hair people. We bunched together scenes with Tonto and the Lone Ranger, so we had a much smaller crew. We saved about $10 million just by doing that.

Then we looked for the best break in tax incentives. We found that Louisiana gave us a better tax incentive than New Mexico — that was another $8 million. We’re still shooting in New Mexico, and we might [also] go to Louisiana.

Did you have to lose sequences from the script? There was talk that some train sequences were cut back.
We cut a sequence involving a coyote attack — supernatural coyotes — and a small animated segment. The train [scenes] are intact. We trimmed it a little bit. Gore made some sacrifices creatively, but nothing that would hurt the film.

Disney would have much preferred us cutting stuff out of the script. But the competition is fierce. You can’t compete with The Hobbit, you can’t compete with Transformers if you do that. The audience will stay home.

Because you missed your original start date, how do you feel about Disney moving the release from December 2012 to May 31, 2013?
It’s a better date. Before, we were up against The Hobbit and World War Z. Now we’re a week after Fast and Furious and a couple weeks before Superman. The competition is not as bad. There are a lot of movies jammed in at Christmas. In the summer, you have a longer run. You’re cut off after the first of the year on a Christmas release.

As well as Depp and Hammer, The Lone Ranger will also feature Ruth Wilson, Dwight Yoakam, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale and Barry Pepper.

Bruckheimer also said they were at “the outline phase” with Pirates of the Caribbean 5, but “decided we could do better” with the script, so re-writes will likely take place before it moves forward. I felt the script for On Stranger Tides was pretty weak, so improving the next film (which is coming whether we like it or not) will be better for everyone.

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Nowadays, it’s become just an average everyday occurrence that we come to expect when Johnny Depp is given a new role to play. He’s played so many diverse characters from Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of The Caribbean franchise to John Dillinger in Public Enemies, so it’s no surprise really that, according to The Hollywood Reporter, his next role will be literary icon Dr. Seuss, also known as Theodor Seuss Geisel.

Depp has played a famous writer before (shocking right?) in Finding Neverland as the man who created Peter Pan, James Matthew Barrie, so taking on Dr. Seuss will be familiar territory for him. Universal, along with their Illumination Entertainment production house, will be working on the biopic. Even though the two companies are responsible for the CGI hit Despicable Me and also working on an adaptation of Seuss’ The Lorax, don’t expect a heavily colorful and CG heavy environment a la Alice and Wonderland.

However, a few animated elements may still come into play considering Seuss is responsible for literary classics such as The Cat in The Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and Horton Hears a Who among others. The film will also take a look at Seuss’ life before he hit children’s book fame, including his career as a magazine illustrator in the 1920s and later as a political cartoonist during World War II.

Depp seems like the perfect candidate to pull it off and his schedule continues to grow, including this year’s The Rum Diary and even as Tonto in the long-stalled The Lone Ranger, so it’s safe to say we will be seeing a lot of him for the next few years. Other than Depp producing as well, no more news regarding production details has sprouted but we’ll keep you posted when more comes about.

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According to THR Billy Ray (Shattered Glass and Breach) has been brought on to write The Thin Man which will reunite Depp with his Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides director Rob Marshall.

The original movie released in 1934 was based on a Dashiell Hammett novel, which centered on former private detective-turned-professional drunkard Nick Charles, his lovely socialite wife Nora and their dog Asta. The book saw the couple investigate a murder involving an eccentric inventor and his bizarre family.

Warner Bros. has had a number of writers working on the project, however the visions of Jerry Stahl (Bad Boys II) and David Koepp (Angels & Demons) didn’t match with the director’s, forcing them to seek a new writer.

THR says The Thin Man is a priority for the studio, but then again no studio wants to wait around when you have Johnny Depp attached to a movie. Depp is currently finishing off shooting Dark Shadows with Tim Burton and will be re-teaming with Gore Verbinski early next year for The Lone Ranger, so The Thin Man could begin production sometime in 2012.

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After Disney pulled the brakes on The Lone Ranger last month due to budget concerns producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski tried to bring the budget down from $250m to $215m, while still trying to keep enough spectacle to attract worldwide audiences and earn sequels.

We previously heard that Johnny Depp wouldn’t make the movie without his Pirates of the Caribbean director, putting pressure on Disney to agree on a budget, but it looks like things have been worked out and filming could take place early next year.

From Deadline:

I’m hearing that the studio is likely to have everything resolved by next week, and can start rehiring crew so that the picture will be ready to begin production in January or February. How that late start impacts the Dec. 21, 2012 release date remains to be seen, but Johnny Depp will get to play Tonto (Disney wouldn’t make the movie without him), and Armie Hammer will be back in as the title character. Ruth Wilson, the scene-stealing killer from Idris Elba’s British cop series Luther, is also expected back as the female lead.

The Lone Ranger was originally looking to shooting in October in New Mexico, which will offer the studio tax breaks. While production has been delayed it could still shoot there, but the December 21, 2012 release date will probably be pushed back to summer 2013 or later. As well as Depp and Hammer, the movie is also set to star Dwight Yoakam, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale and Barry Pepper.

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