Seth Grahame-Smith, the Charles Dickens of the mash-up novel who began the craze with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, has been signed to write the screenplay for a feature film based on the long-running vampire soap, Dark Shadows.  Johnny Depp is attached to star as Barnabas Collins (see “Gothic Revival: Depp Does Dark Shadows”) and Tim Burton will direct, a combination that pretty much insures that the Dark Shadows film will have a great chance to be a blockbuster, if it gets made. 

 

Warner Bros. has not yet announced a date for the film, though Variety reports that it was included on a list of up to 20 films that Warners plans to release via IMAX through 2013.  Scheduling for Dark Shadows is complicated, because Johnny Depp reportedly wants to take some time off after finishing Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (see “Burton Could Helm Monsterpocalypse Movie”) and Burton is involved in numerous projects.

 

Grahame-Smith is already working on an adaptation of his historical mash-up Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter for Burton (producer) and Timur Bekmanbetov.