Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are pretty much a match made in–well I was going to say “heaven,” but that might not be the right word. It’s not hell either, but rather some weird and dark place in between with lots of hairspray and makeup. They’re teaming up on their eighth movie together and according to Deadline it will begin shooting this January. The movie is Dark Shadows and is based on the 1960’s serial television show of the same name.

The Dark Shadows movie has been on the table for a couple of years now and the premise is right up the Burton/Depp creepy alley. The original 1960s-70s television series had a gothic feel with a number of different monsters making appearances, a relative first for daytime television. Six months into the series the vampire character Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) showed up and helped to boost ratings. Depp will reprise the role of Collins in the movie remake which, if it stays true to the television series, will feature an assortment of zombies, werewolves, ghosts and witches.

Depp and Burton last teamed up on Alice in Wonderland. Depp is currently filming the next Pirates of the Caribbean installment while Burton is in pre-production on Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Seth Grahame-Smith wrote the novel and screenplay for the latter and is lined up as writer for Dark Shadows.  [Source]

Johnny Depp, 46, confirmed rumours he is narrating for a movie about rock legend The Doors.

Depp said he will provide voiceover for the documentary When You’re Strange, named for an unforgettable Doors ditty, the UK Sun newspaper reports.

‘I am as proud of this as anything I have ever done,’ said Depp, who has been filming for The Tourist alongside Angelina Jolie.

Depp, who has a dozen film projects in development and a half-dozen more in production – including a Keith Richards documentary – will also lend his voice to a soundtrack album for the movie that is due out on April 6. The movie will include archive footage of that most famous Doors member, the iconic Jim Morrison, allowing him to play ‘himself’, and will be released at a later date.  [Source]

Johnny Depp’s dreams of becoming a rock star were put on hold last night after he was told he couldn’t perform with Sheffield band Babybird.

The Hollywood star is a huge fan of the indie group, best known for their You’re Gorgeous in 1996, and played guitar on a track on their new album.

The group are kicking off their new UK tour next week, but had to decline Depp’s offer to join them on stage due to security worries.

Frontman Stephen Jones said: ‘It would have been madness.

‘Johnny Depp genuinely wanted to come and play on the tour, but logistically it was never going to happen.’

So while Depp can’t join them on stage, he’s had to settle for being their back-up guitarist on their new album Ex-Maniac, which he partially funded.

Jones admitted: ‘The album was paid for by Johnny Depp.

‘His help has been a Babybird lifesaver. His generosity is boundless and he’s a lovely guy.

‘He started the whole thing off by setting me up with a producer and then came into the studio and played guitar on Unloveable.’  Read full article.

The soundtrack album for a forthcoming Doors documentary will feature 12 of the band’s classic songs, five rare clips – and 15 tracks of Johnny Depp reading poetry. The actor appears on almost half of the record’s cuts, reciting verse written by Jim Morrison.

Depp provides the narration for When You’re Strange, a film by Tom DiCillo. The documentary draws on hundreds of hours of footage of the Los Angeles group, from their early beginnings to Morrison’s death in 1971. It recently played at the Berlin film festival, where Doors drummer John Densmore said he “got a little teary” when he saw footage of the band’s late singer.

“It shows Jim in the beginning, his innocence and shyness and everything, and I love seeing that – that’s the Jim I knew,” Densmore told Mojo. The film also suggests that the Doors would have reunited, even after Morrison left the US to live in Paris. “[Jim] asked how [Doors album] LA Woman was doing and I said, ‘Great,’” Densmore recalled. “I told him that Love Her Madly was the single and that they wanted a second single. He said, ‘Well, maybe I’ll come back.’”

Morrison published only two volumes of poetry before his death, but more of his books have been issued since then. Recordings of Morrison reading his own work have also appeared on various Doors anthologies.

The soundtrack to When You’re Strange will be released by Rhino on 6 April.  [Source]

A rep for Johnny Depp has confirmed that the actor will direct a documentary on Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, Variety reports. News of Depp working on a doc about the guitar god first surfaced in an interview with Russia’s Politika, where Depp said his editor is in the process of going through miles of archival footage. “I’m very touched that Keith agreed to show up in front of my cameras,” Depp said.

Depp has long credited Richards for inspiring his portrayal of Capt. Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, and Richards made a surprise cameo as Sparrow’s pirate father in At World’s End. Richards and Depp appeared together on the cover of Rolling Stone before the film’s release, and the pair displayed an almost father-son relationship. “I was almost afraid to meet him for a long time, because there is always a fear that your heroes are going to be shitheads,” Depp joked to RS.

According to Variety, in addition to the documentary, Richards’ autobiography is due in fall 2010.  [Source]