We knew very little about this new Tim Burton film and even less about the 60s TV sitcom it’s based upon.

Johnny Depp continues his long time collaboration with director Tim Burton for their latest film Dark Shadows and if the trailer is anything to go by it looks like  Bettlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow have all been crammed into a gothic blender and whipped up into a frothy… black comedy which…is also Gothic…and tastes a bit like…Jesus H Christ where are we going with this?

*slams hand in drawer*

Right, this film looks like it has all the dark and quirky hallmarks of Burton’s previous works which we’re huge fans of and has a stellar supporting cast consisting of Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Johnny Lee Miller, Christopher Lee, Helena Bonham Carter, Jackie Earl Haley and Alice Cooper. The plot for Dark Shadows rattles along like so:

n 1752, the Collins family sails from Liverpool, England to North America. The son, Barnabas, grows up to be a wealthy playboy in Collinsport, Maine and is the master of Collinwood Manor. He breaks the heart of a witch, Angelique Bouchard, who turns him into a vampire and buries him alive. In 1972, Barnabas is accidentally freed from his coffin and returns to find his once-magnificent manor in ruin. It is occupied by dysfunctional Collins descendants and other residents, all of whom have secrets.

Apparently the original 60s TV series which the film is largely based upon wasn’t played for laughs like the forthcoming movie and there were two unsuccessful attempts to revive the series, once in 1991, (which starred a 10 year-old Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and a pilot episode in 2004 which never aired.

Before Third Rock From The Sun there was Dark Shadows.