After Mad Hatter, Johnny Depp Does Barnabas Collins
Producer Richard D. Zanuck told Collider that plans for a feature film adaptation of Dark Shadows is still happening and Johnny Depp remains attached to the project as Barnabas Collins.
He confirmed that Tim Burton, currently directing Depp as the Mad Hatter in his Alice in Wonderland movie, is also on board. The two reportedly will segue right from the Looking Glass to Collinwood Manor. Depp’s work in a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film and The Lone Ranger are therefore expected to follow.
Zanuck told Collider that Depp has long been obsessed with the cult soap opera series, the first to tackle the supernatural, which ran on ABC from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. Depp has said in the past he would sneak out of school early to make it home to watch the show.
Various other adaptations of Dan Curtis’ show have been tried in the past including an NBC prime time revival with Ben Cross as the cursed vampire. The CW nearly went with a pilot written by Battlestar Galactica’s Mark Verheiden but Curtis’ interference marred the creative direction and the result was something the network felt it could not air.
Zanuck said production should begin in summer 2009 in London.
In addition to its new audio dramas based on Doctor Who, 
Big Finish
So a bunch of us Mixologists were having dinner in a suburb of Chicago having what EIC Gold claims are the best hamburgers in the world (pretty good, but that’s another post) and we started talking about who looks down on whom — Doctor Who fans looking down on Dark Shadows fans, who in turn look down on Forever Knight fans, and so on — and I mentioned that the Geek Hierarchy already existed. Multiple Michaels Davis, Gold, and Raub were all disbelieving that such a hierarchy existed, let alone that it had standing.
Yep, you read that headline right. Johnny Depp will be playing the Barnabas Collins role in the upcoming Dark Shadows movie. Turns out, he’s fulfilling a life long dream. (Editor’s note: originally Mike typed "live long dream", which may or may not be a typo.)
Bryan Talbot’s legendary British graphic novel of the 70s and 80s, The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, has been adapted to a full-cast audio drama by the folks at 
Doctor Who fans have been getting all-new full-cast audio adventures for years. Recently, Dark Shadows has been invited into the club. And now, GraphicAudio has signed DC Comics up for the ride.
