DARK SHADOWS First Cast Photo

Hey horror hounds! Courtesy of our friends at Entertainment Weekly here’s our first look at the cast of Tim Burton’s big screen version of the small screen classic, DARK SHADOWS. Now this is not the first time the Collins clan have made it to the movies. In 1970 MGM released HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS based on the daytime drama and starring most of the TV cast. NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS followed.

Here’s a bit of background on the cult favorite. Dan Curtis (BURNT OFFERINGS) created the “soap opera ” which debuted on ABC-TV in 1966. The main focus of the first episodes was the arrival of Victoria Winters in Collinsport, ME and her interactions with the secretive Collins family. The program languished at the bottom of the ratings until Curtis, in order to save the show from cancellation,decided to take a gamble and introduce a vampire into the Gothic series. Barnabas Collins as played by veteran stage actor Jonathan Frid caused a sensation on the daytime TV landscape. Youngsters flocked to the show, turning the mature Frid into a teen idol (featured many times on the cover of Tiger Beat and other magazines) and giving the producer a merchandising bonanza. Board games, model kits, comic books, paperback novels, and posters flooded the stores. There was even a comic strip in daily newspapers! A record album of the show’s eerie score by Robert Colbert was a huge hit and spawned a top 40 single, “Quentin’s Theme”. Unfortunately not even the additon of witches, werewolves, and other ghoulies could keep the mania going and the final episode aired in 1971.

Ah, but like any good vampire Barnabas did return. The show was soon syndicated to local stations. Devoted fans staged conventions featuring reunions of the cast members. Innovation produced new comic books in 1991. NBC revived the show as a prime time hour long drama in early 1991 while Warner Brothers TV produced a new two hour pilot film that never aired.

And now,long time fan Tim Burton is taking this Gothic epic to the big screen. Lets’ take a look at the residents of Collinwood. Starting from the far left is Helena Bonham Carter (THE KING”S SPEECH) as Dr. Julia Hoffman, psychiatrist, friend of the Collins family and (in the TV show) an aide of Barnabas. Next is Chloe Maretz (LET ME IN) as Carolyn Stoddard followed by Eva Green (CASINO ROYALE) as Angelique Bouchard, the witch who cursed Barnabas. The young lad is the disturbed David Collins played by Gulliver McGrath with his governess Victoria Winters played by Bella Heathcote (she’s also the spitting image of Barnabas’s long lost love Josette). Speaking of Barnabas, in the center is Johnny Depp (THE TOURIST) as the centuries old vampire. Seated is the family housekeeper Mrs. Johnson played by Ray Shirley. Next is Collinwood groundskeeper Willie (yup, Groundskeeper Willie!) Loomis played by Jackie Earle Haley (WATCHMEN) who releases Barnabas and soon becomes his ‘ familiar’. He’s followed by Roger Collins played by Jonny Lee Miller (TRAINSPOTTING) and family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard played by Michelle Pfieffer (BATMAN RETURNS).

Synopsis:

In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet—or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of 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.

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.

Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth’s ne’er-do-well brother, Roger Collins, (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Moretz); and Roger’s precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). The mystery extends beyond the family, to caretaker Willie Loomis, played by Jackie Earle Haley, and David’s new nanny, Victoria Winters, played by Bella Heathcote.

This group (along with horror film icon Christopher Lee and several original TV cast members) will welcome moviegoers back to Collinwood (cue the cascading waves and Colbert theme) when Warner Brothers releases the film on May 11, 2012