Time to get ready for even more vampires at the cineplex. After Hollywood’s long zombie fixation, Twilight brought the children of the night back into vogue and now vampires are crawling out of the woodwork. HBO has True Blood, Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant opens in October, and news recently broke that Robert Downey Jr. is in consideration to play Lestat in a relaunch of Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles. Now, Johnny Depp might be playing a vampire as well in a Tim Burton-directed remake of the creepy 60s TV series Dark Shadows, which was basically a soap opera with a twist: the lead character, Barnabas Collins (played by Jonathan Frid), was afflicted with vampirism. Depp said:

I was obsessed with Barnabas Collins. I have photographs of me holding Barnabas Collins’ posters when I was five or six.

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Johnny Depp is hoping to take his favorite childhood television show Dark Shadows to the big screen. Depp and director Tim Burton, hope to turn the hit Vampire thriller 60s series, about a man with a vampire curse, into a movie franchise. The actor says, “I was obsessed with (lead character) Barnabas Collins. I have photographs of me holding Barnabas Collins’ posters when I was five or six.” Burton, who has worked with Depp on hit movies Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is admitting work is already under way. The director says, “That’s the plan. There was something very weird about (Dark Shadows), it had the weirdest vibe to it. I’m sort of intrigued about that vibe. It’s early days on it, but I’m excited about it.”  [Source]

We’ve suspected it for a while, but Terry Gilliam has now officially confirmed that Johnny Depp won’t be returning for a second go at The Man Who Killed Don Quixote when the long-gestating production finally begins filming again next year.

“I can now honestly say that I’m not working with Johnny on Don Quixote,” Gilliam told The Independent.  “He’s booked himself up on a lot of other films.”

Depp’s slate does have a roadblocked look to it, with Pirates Of The Caribbean 4, The Lone Rangerand Dark Shadows all scheduled to begin filming in 2010, or soon after, although Gilliam had hoped he’d find a way to reprise his role as a marketing executive transported back to the 17th century. Sadly that hasn’t proved possible.

“I want to shoot Don Quixote next year,” said GIlliam. “He [Depp] said he’s not available and we have both agreed that I’m going to die soon, so it would be nice to get this film under my belt.”

As the director told us at Comic-Con, he’s full steam ahead with his second attempt to film Cervantes’ classic tale: “We’ve written it and we’re out there hunting actors and money as we speak.”  [Source]

I added the international trailer of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, to the Multimedia Zone so, you can go there to watch this online, comment or download this.

2009 – The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus U.K. Trailer

Walt Disney is putting their plan in motion to get the fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean” in production come 2010, with Johnny Depp back as the odd, yet savvy Captain Jack Sparrow, according to a report by Variety.

Disney has tabbed director Rob Marshall to take over the reigns of the next film, with Gore Verbinski moving on to direct the film version based off the hit video game “Bioshock”.

Verbinski had directed all three installments of the Pirates franchise under famed film and television producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who will continue to serve in that capacity.

Rob Marshall’s credits include his directing debut of the Oscar-winning musical “Chicago”, and currently wrapped up work on another film musical, “Nine”, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson, Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard and screen legend Sophia Loren, that is due out in theaters November 25.

Disney wants to get started with the next installment before Depp begins work on the big-screen reboot of “The Lone Ranger”, in which he was casted in the role of Tonto, while the search continues for an actor to play the masked avenger.  [Source]