'Dark Shadows' on-set exclusive: Johnny Depp, Tim Burton back in black

March 23, 2012 | 12:14 p.m.

Tim Burton, left, and Johnny Depp are making their eighth movie together. Their May release, "Dark Shadows," is the most recent in their ongoing collaborations. Here's a look at all of them. (Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.)

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Dianne Wiest and Johnny Depp in "Edward Scissorhands," the 1990 film that began the Burton-Depp collaborations. (Zade Rosenthal/20th Century Fox)

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Johnny Depp says his favorite Tim Burton film may be 1994's "Ed Wood." Depp, left, played the eccentric title role, and Martin Landau channeled Bela Lugosi. (Suzanne Tenner/Touchstone Pictures)

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Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci in Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" (1999) -- a movie with 18 decapitations. (Clive Coote/Paramount Pictures)

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"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (2005): Johnny Depp says his Willie Wonka was based in part on Howard Hughes. (Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.)

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Johnny Depp had never been a voice actor for an animated feature film before Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride" in 2005. (Warner Bros.)

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"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (2007) teamed Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. One or both have been in every Burton film since 1996. (Leah Gallo/DreamWorks Pictures)

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"Alice in Wonderland" (2010) is the first Tim Burton film to break the billion-dollar mark in worldwide box office. (Disney Enterprises)

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Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer were passionate fans of the "Dark Shadows" television series. (Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.)

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The cast of "Dark Shadows": Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman, Chloe Grace Moretz as Carolyn Stoddard, Eva Green as Angelique Bouchard, Gulliver McGrath as David Collins, Bella Heathcote as Victoria Winters, Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, Ray Shirley as Mrs. Johnson, Jackie Earle Haley as Willie Loomis, Jonny Lee Miller as Roger Collins and Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. (Leah Gallo/Warner Bros.)

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Johnny Depp plays vampire Barnabas Collins, and Eva Green plays Angelique Bouchard, the witch who harbors love-hate feelings for him. (Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.)

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Johnny Depp uses his long fingers to hypnotize people as Barnabas Collins in "Dark Shadows," said costar Jackie Earle Haley. "I'm watching ! them and his eyes and listening to his voice, and it kind of started to work a little bit," Haley said. "I was like, 'Wow, this guy could be the real thing.'" (Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.)

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"There's an elegance to this guy that's kind of fun; Barnabas is a good one," says Johnny Depp of his character in "Dark Shadows." (Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.)

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Reporting from London Theres a night and day difference between the soundstages of Tim Burtons Dark Shadows and his previous movie, Alice in Wonderland, and, no surprise, this is a filmmaker far more comfortable in the darkness.

The digital ambitions of Wonderland required numbing weeks of work in a green-screen chamber, and by the end of it Burton was desperate to get back to his roots building a cinematic house and then haunting it with his unique brand of cemetery cabaret. For Dark Shadows, an eccentric vampire romance starring Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Eva Green, hes staged a minor one-man rebellion against CG imagery; the story has some digital effects, but where the script called for a Maine fishing towns waterfront, circa 1972, Burton persuaded Warner Bros. and the films producers to build it on the back lot of Englands storied Pinewood Studios instead of on a computer screen.

Its so nice to come to work here not everything is green, Burton said last summer as he roamed the gothic, crushed-velvet trappings of the mansion that is home to Depp! s aristo cratic bloodsucker, Barnabas Collins. Its a soap opera or started as one and that really means working with the actors. And the sets help everyone. And its just more fun.

Dark Shadows, which doesnt arrive until May 11, is a curious creature and an ongoing mystery. A trailer recently premiered to mixed reactions; its winking tone possibly suggested that the film is an elaborate goof on the overwrought Twilight movies, but actually, like so many Burton projects, this one is a fractured valentine to the pop-culture obsessions of his youth.

In the film, Depp plays Collins, the 18th century playboy of Maines high society whose lothario ways earn the wrath of Angelique Bouchard, a witch portrayed by Green. She transforms him into a vampire and dispatches him to an underground crypt where he is imprisoned until 1972. Thats when an unlucky construction crew sets him free, and in a world of lava lamps, glam rock and Richard M. Nixon, he finds purpose in the new era. The ensemble cast features a number of Burtons regular players in addition to Depp and Pfeiffer, theres the directors romantic partner, Helena Bonham Carter, Chloe Moretz and English horror legend Christopher Lee.

Tim Burton (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times)

The setup and characters are taken from the truly weird TV series also called Dark Shadows, an ABC soap opera that logged 1,225 episodes before it went off the air in 1971. Created by Dan Curtis, who later did the landmark The Winds of War miniseries, the show starred Jonathan Frid as tortured Barnabas and brought ghosts and ghouls to the afternoon hours that usually belonged to handsome surgeons and conniving heiresses.

Unlike The Addams Family and The Munsters, this monster-mash ! of a sho w was a fringe taste, which is why it attracted the young outsiders who would be called goths today. Three of them were Burton, Depp and Pfeiffer, and they have nearly identical memories about racing home from school to catch the same strange transmission.

It was a real thing for me, I had to watch it, and it was tough because youd miss the beginning it started at like 3 p.m., but thats when we got out of school, said Depp, who grew up in the sunbaked suburb of Miramar, Fla. And then it moved later because all the kids wrote in letters. When you met someone who knew the show and loved it, there was an instant connection.

That connection doesnt exist with young moviegoers today, however, and the producers of the new movie arent going to encourage anyone to check out the originals because, well, it wasnt, technically speaking, a great show. I think, Burton said evenly, you could say it was actually awful.

So what exactly was its appeal? The London-based filmmaker searched for the right words.

Its a different animal, Burton said. If I go back and watch something like Star Trek, its not that hard to analyze what the appeal was, and even if the show is dated you identify what it was that made it work. The Dark Shadows appeal was a little more abstract. What I loved about it was the fact that it was a melodramatic soap opera, and, well, that flies in the face of any modern studios interests as far as moviemaking. But what weve gone for is a mixture, and thats always what Ive been interested in; I think most of my movies are mixtures of light and dark and serious things and things that have humor in them.

Johnny Depp pl! ays Barn abas Collins in "Dark Shadows." (Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.)

On the set, during one scene last summer, Depp emerged from the shadows in costume and full makeup with a sort of gliding majesty. He couldnt hear Bonham Carters playful whisper teasing him about a previous role as she watched from a nearby corner.

Just look at him, she said with a wink. He only does parts if he can wear eyeliner. The Tourist? Should have had more makeup.

Depp has one of the most famous faces in Hollywood, but in many of his roles he hides it. I dont think about it that way, I just go to the role that feels right, said the 48-year-old star.

Between takes, he offered his hands to a visitor for inspection each of his fingers was extended into talons with rubbery prosthetics, and one held the weight of an especially opulent ring.

Theres an elegance to this guy thats kind of fun; Barnabas is a good one, Depp said as, over his shoulder, Burton chatted with Bonham Carter next to a laboratory vat of vampire blood. And just look around theres nothing like working with Tim.

The filmmaker and star clearly adore each other this is their seventh live-action collaboration. Sleepy Hollow producer Scott Rudin memorably quipped that Depp is basically playing Tim Burton in all of his movies, which doesnt really hold to scrutiny but the actor does know he faces a greater challenge each time he steps into Burtons universe to play yet another spooky soul.

Have I been in this arena before? Thats the thing you have to watch, said Depp, who joked that Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd and Ichabod Crane would enjoy a tour of the Collins mansion.

The actor paints portraits of his characters as he dials into their minds and hearts, and to get their voices right he counts backward from 10 hes himself at the top but the accent and affectations gather with each digit until he is a vampire at zero.

Costar Jackie Earle Haley, who plays caretaker Willie Loomis, said whatever tricks Depp uses,! they ar e good ones.

He was using those long fingers in one scene where he has to hypnotize me, the Watchmen star said. So Im watching them and his eyes and listening to his voice and it kind of started to work a little bit. I was like, Wow, this guy could be the real thing.

Johnny Depp plays Barnabas Collins in "Dark Shadows." (Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.)

Dark Shadows is built around the comedic timing of Depp and the immersive world of Burton, the Edward Gorey of Hollywood. Just as hes assembled many of his usual team in front of the camera, hes relying on previous collaborators behind the scenes, including costume designer Colleen Atwood and composer Danny Elfman. Production designer Rick Heinrichs, who won an Oscar for his work with Burton on Sleepy Hollow, may be in the running again with his Dark Shadows sets. Yes, those were real boats in the water of the fake Maine harbor that was built on an elevated platform and covered a wide plain of the Pinewood lot it was cheaper and logistically more practical to construct a fake port than use one in Maine, and the counterpart fishing harbors in England are constructed differently.

A few months ago there was just string here to show where the road would be and the canneries and the pier, Heinrichs said as he strolled past. Itll be a little sad when we tear it all down. These buildings say a lot about the families. Once there was a competition, but now the Collins Cannery is derelict as is much of the town but the AngelBay Cannery is thriving, and you get the feeling its sucking the life out of the town.

Heinrichs smiles when asked if he was part of the Dark Shado! ws cult during the original run.

I was in school when Dark Shadows was on, but I didnt particularly run home to watch it every day, but I know a lot of girls did. It was the Twilight of its time, really. What Tim and Johnny like is that theres a slightly overwrought soap-opera feel to the families and the town and this gothic horror story beneath it all. Theres the innate humor in it too, the layering and juxtaposition of putting the courtly, 200-year-old Barnabas in that decadent post-hippie, pre-disco era.

Johnny Depp and Michelle Pfeiffer in "Dark Shadows." (Peter Mountain/Warner Bros.)

Burtons previous movie, Alice, made more than a billion dollars worldwide, but the quirks of Dark Shadows has Hollywood wondering if this will be an overly eccentric misfire like his 1996 sci-fi spoof, Mars Attacks! (which, interestingly, was the last Burton film without Depp, Bonham Carter or both in the cast). Of course, many also doubted 2005s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which made roughly $475 million.

All of Burtons films since 2001 have been produced by Richard D. Zanuck, now 77. He has been making movies since the 1950s, but that understates his experience. As the son of Hollywood mogul Darryl Zanuck and silent-film beauty Virginia Fox, he grew up in the business and may be the only working producer today who can say hes visited a movie set in nine decades.

Ive never seen a movie like this one; its like no other, Zanuck said of the film, penned by Seth Grahame-Smith, a writer perhaps most famous for his literary mash-up novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Its like five movies in one. Its a comedy, its a romance, its! got spe cial effects, its got action, its got some horror elements of a kind. I think its got a lot of great things going for it. We just have to find a way to let people know what it is and what it offers.

The cast of "Dark Shadows." (Leah Gallo/Warner Bros.)

There have been dark shadows under Burtons eyes every day of 2012 and with good reason. In addition to the exhuming of Barnabas Collins, hes got two other films that reach theaters this year (hes the director of Octobers Frankenweenie and producer of Junes Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) and long-range projects (such as the just-announced Alice in Wonderland Broadway musical) always nibble at the corners of his mind and the edges of his schedule.

In late February, his exhaustion was clear even across international phone lines. I forget how hard it is at the end, just to get the movie done, but thats probably a good thing, the 53-year-old said. The filmmaker knows that soon he will have to put his strange creation in front of the world and hope that it survives the searing judgments and bottom-line numbers.

I cant think about all that right now, Burton said. The thing with this one was trying to get it done right. And I think we have but, well, thats what I think.

Geoff Boucher

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