Dark Shadows Coming to Blu-ray in October
In time for your Halloween party planning Warner Home Video has announced the October 2 release of Dark Shadows. The Tim Burton/Johnny Depp was not the faithful adaptation of the Dan Curtis soap opera some expected and yet it was an affectionate tribute to the ABC series. Here’s the formal press release with details:
Burbank, CA, July 31, 2012 – Vampires, werewolves and a family of quirky characters collide as Dark Shadows comes back to life, arriving onto Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and Digital Download on October 2 from Warner Home Entertainment Group. Directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, Dark Shadows follows a vampire awoken from a multi-century sleep only to find that the family business is near ruin, his descendents are struggling and his past may come back to haunt him.
Burton directed Dark Shadows from a screenplay by Seth Grahame-Smith, story by John August and Grahame-Smith, based on the television series created by Dan Curtis. The film was produced by Oscar® winner Richard D. Zanuck (Alice in Wonderland, Driving Miss Daisy), Oscar® winner Graham King, (Rango, The Departed), Johnny Depp, Christi Dembrowski, and David Kennedy.
Johnny Depp leads the acclaimed cast, which also includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, Bella Heathcote, Chloë Grace Moretz, Johnny Lee Miller, Gully McGrath and Jackie Earle Haley.
Dark Shadows will be available on Blu-ray Combo Pack for $35.99 and on single disc DVD for $28.98. The Blu-ray Combo Pack features a hi-definition and standard definition copy of the film and UltraViolet; and the single disc DVD features a standard definition copy of the film and UltraViolet. UltraViolet allows consumers to download and instantly stream the standard definition theatrical version of the film to a wide range of devices including computers and compatible tablets, smartphones, game consoles, Internet-connected TVs and Blu-ray players.*
SYNOPSIS
Director Tim Burton brings the cult classic series Dark Shadows to the big screen in a film featuring an all-star cast, led by Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter.
In the year 1750, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from England to start a new life in America, where they build a fishing empire in the coastal Maine town that comes to carry their name: Collinsport. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of falling in love with a beauty named Josette DuPres (Bella Heathcote) and 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.
Nearly two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972, a stranger in an even stranger time. Returning to Collinwood Manor, he finds that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin, and the dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets.
Family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) is the one person Barnabas entrusts with the truth of his identity. But his rather odd and anachronistic behavior immediately raises the suspicions of the live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), who has no idea what kind of problems she’s really digging up.
As Barnabas sets out to restore his family name to its former glory, one thing stands in his way: Collinsport’s leading denizen, who goes by the name Angie…and who bears a striking resemblance to a very old acquaintance of Barnabas Collins.
Also residing in Collinwood Manor are Elizabeth’s ne’er-do-well brother, Roger Collins, (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Chloë Grace Moretz); and Roger’s precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gully McGrath). The longsuffering caretaker of Collinwood is Willie Loomis (Jackie Earle Haley), and new to the Collins’ employ is David’s nanny, Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote), who is, mysteriously, the mirror image of Barnabas’ one true love, Josette.
BLU-RAY AND DVD ELEMENTS
Dark Shadows Blu-ray Combo Pack contains the following special features:
- See how the brilliant imaginations of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp created Dark Shadows with nine behind-the-film Focus Points.
1) BECOMING BARNABAS – It takes more than just a set of prosthetic fangs! Get the scoop from directly from Johnny Depp on his reimagining of this infamous and undead cult character.
2) WELCOME TO COLLINSPORT! – Explore every strange nook and peculiar cranny of the most spectacularly detailed city to never exist!
3) A MELEE OF MONSTROUS PROPORTIONS – Join the fight and experience the thrilling final battle sequence in a way that only Tim Burton and Johnny Depp could imagine.
4) ANGELIQUE: A WITCH SCORNED – Johnny Depp and Eva Green reveal the lurid details of their character’s centuries old lascivious and tumultuous relationship.
5) RELIVING A DECADE – From groovy bell bottoms to classic rock & roll, strut through the Collinsport of the 70s and discover the topsy-turvy world that Barnabas finds himself in after centuries in the grave.
6) DARK SHADOWY SECRETS – Watch out for exploding buildings and all manner of bizarre, supernatural occurrences as Tim Burton’s spectacular props and special effects wizards bring this eccentric world to crazy life.
7) THE COLLINSES: EVERY FAMILY HAS ITS DEMONS – Become scarily familiar with this creepy cast of quirky characters as Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and their co-stars reveal their unique working relationship.
8) COOPER ROCKS COLLINSPORT! – Shock rock the night away with the master of musical horror himself, Alice Cooper, as Johnny Depp and the cast invite him to rock the roof off of Collinsport Manor.
9) VAMPIRES, WITCHES AND WEREWOLVES, OH MY! – Uncover the method behind Tim Burton’s madness as he twists and tweaks his favorite classic movie monsters for the gothic universe of Dark Shadows.
- DELETED SCENES
Dark Shadows Standard Definition DVD contains the following special features:
- THE COLLINSES: EVERY FAMILY HAS ITS DEMONS – Become scarily familiar with this creepy cast of quirky characters as Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and their co-stars reveal their unique working relationship.
DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION ELEMENTS
On October 2, Dark Shadows will be available for download from online digital retailers including iTunes, Xbox, PlayStation, Amazon, Vudu and CinemaNow.
The film is also available digitally in High Definition (HD) VOD and Standard Definition (SD) VOD from cable and satellite providers, and on select gaming consoles.
ULTRAVIOLET
*UltraViolet allows you to collect, watch and share movies and TV shows in a whole new way. Available with the purchase of specially marked Blu-ray discs, DVDs and Digital Downloads, UltraViolet lets you create a digital collection of movies and TV shows. Services such as Flixster and VUDU allow you to instantly stream and download UltraViolet content across a wide range of devices including computers and compatible tablets, smartphones, game consoles, Internet-connected TVs and Blu-ray players. Restrictions and limitations apply. Go to ultraviolet.flixster.com/info for details. Learn about VUDU compatible devices at vudu.com.
BASICS
PRODUCT SRP
Blu-ray Combo Pack $35.99
DVD $28.9
Standard Street Date: October 2, 2012
DVD Languages: English, Latin Spanish, Canadian French
BD Languages: English, Latin Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Canadian French
DVD Subtitles: English SDH, Latin Spanish, Parisian French
BD Subtitles: English SDH, Latin Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Parisian French
Running Time: 113 minutes
Rating: PG-13 for comic horror violence, sexual content, some drug use, language and smoking
DLBY/SURR DLBY/DGTL [CC]
Finally! I’ve been waiting!
When i saw the first trailer, i said to myself, “I can wait till that comes out on DVD to not see it.”
I’m getting tired of this press by the studios to force everyone to buy TVs they don’t need to accomodate the Blu-Ray players (which apparently only work with HDTVs) in order to get the extras that *used* to come on the second DVD of the “Deluxe 2-Disc DVD” combos or, even as part of the single-disc package. When you’ve got TV shows on DVD’s you can get 3-4 hour-long episodes (okay, each episode is actually about 48 minutes long, but I digress) on a single disc PLUS the discs may contain 30-60 minutes’ worth of “extra features.” So we’ve got a disc containing anywhere from 4 to 5 solid hours of content. But with the current crop of “single-disc” movies coming out, we’re lucky to get a full 2 hours of content if the movie itself runs 90 minutes or less (but it seems that most of the “bonus material” on these now consists of language options–because, yeah, I really need the option to watch the movie dubbed into Thai with Korean subtitling for a DVD that’s not playable anywhere but the US and Canada instead of how the filmmaker pulled off that awesome CGI effect or an interview with the star explaining why he/she wanted to play the role).