Burton & Depp set to F*ck up another classic movie

Quote :

Johnny Depp is set to play the lead role in a remake of the 1971 Horror Classic “The Abominable Dr. Phibes.”

The original film starred Vincent Price as a man bent on revenge against the team of Doctors whom Phibes blames for the death of his wife. Following the Ten Plagues that befell Egypt as the model for the murders, Dr. Phibes is a cult classic film and considered one of Vincent Price’s most signature roles.

Director Tim Burton, a longtime fan of Vincent Price and the Phibes films, is on board to direct the updated version of the movie which is at its heart, a gothic love story.

Depp has stated before his genuine affection for the original film and its lead character Dr. Anton Phibes. Director Burton, whose first film was “Vincent” a tribute to Vincent Price, says that “Dr. Phibes was a childhood favorite of mine, a mix of pathos, horror and dark humor.”

Burton even attended the Film’s Los Angeles premiere in 1971 at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre as a 12 year old boy. Everything comes full circle!

Jesus, someone stop them.




http://www.naughtybutnicerob.com/johnny-depp-to-star-in-the-abominable-dr-phibes-remake/

Dark Shadows bombed so badly that I find it hard to believe a studio would be willing to pony up the funds for another retro-update of a film most people under 30 have never even heard of.

Dark Shadows box office:

Domestic Total Gross: $79,727,149
Distributor: Warner Bros. Release Date: May 11, 2012
Genre: Horror Comedy Runtime: 1 hrs. 53 min.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Production Budget: $150 million

Total Lifetime Grosses
Domestic: $79,727,149 32.5%
+ Foreign: $165,800,000 67.5%
= Worldwide: $245,527,149

On the surface it appears that the film made some money, but in reality the studios only get about 50% of the box office receipts (the rest of the box office gets split between distributors, theaters, etc). So going by that equation the film only made roughly $123 million which means it didn't even come close to breaking even.

The production budget also doesn't include the amount of money used to promote the film which can often cost at least $50 million for a film this size and sometimes as much as $100 million. So all told I would guess the studio lost at minimum around $80 million on Dark Shadows.

I sure as hell wouldn't green light another vanity project for the Burton/Depp team.

Good god. That is one film that does not need remade. A long time favorite of mine that will just be ruined. Well, I can always just ignore it.

Honestly, I've had about enough of Tim Burton... all of his stuff is starting to look the same. "Look how quirky and goth I can be! I'm such a maverick skirting on the fringe of the mainstream!"

...ummmm, no you're not. Your Indie cred went out the window as soon as you made "Batman."

I never saw the original, so this re-make news means little to me. However, after seeing their last couple collaborations, I think the Depp / Burton honeymoon is over. For the most part, I don't mind Depp's performances, but Tim Burton needs some new material instead of re-hashing the past.

I agree with most of what has been said.Tim Burton is a has been who hasn't had an original idea in years and Johnny Depp is wasting his talent hanging around him all of the damn time.

I agree with all the above posts.

Put me in the camp that says Burton's seeming obsession with proving how weird he is is out of control and the camp that says no one, NO ONE, is going to top Vincent Price in the role of Dr. Phibes.

The original (and it's sequel) are horror classics; leave them alone already.

oh boyyyy. Well, I sure wouldn't mind if in fact he were to create an actual gothic film, but so far as I know that hasn't happened with a big studio since Coppola made Dracula.

Wouldn't the recent version of "The Wolfman" (2010) qualify as a gothic film?

S.D. wrote:

Wouldn't the recent version of "The Wolfman" (2010) qualify as a gothic film?

Yep. ...and with Emily Blunt to boot.

I too am not impressed with the majority of Burton's work. Very flawed and flat when it comes to story and characters. He seems to be more about concepts with flair than passionate filmmaking. However, I am a lover of his first two Batman movies. All that said, I'm tiring of his remakes, reimaginings and homages. Time to get back to the Scissorhands Burton that first grabbed our attention.

S.D. wrote:

Wouldn't the recent version of "The Wolfman" (2010) qualify as a gothic film?

And a much better film than it's given credit for, I think.

I'll freely admit I skipped over that, because, remakes. But I may give it a shot now.

I like Burton's animated movies like Nightmare Before Christmas (writer) and Corpse Bride (writer/director) and I'd probably like Frankenweenie but I haven't seen it yet.

tohostudios wrote:

I like Burton's animated movies like Nightmare Before Christmas (writer) and Corpse Bride (writer/director) and I'd probably like Frankenweenie but I haven't seen it yet.

Frankenweenie was good, I liked it and my kids loved it. Nightmare is great too - never saw Corpse Bride. I haven't see most his recent live action output, I had no interest after seeing the trailers

I don't know, I quite enjoyed Dark Shadows. And the trifecta of Burton, Depp and Elfman is a good thing imho.

More power to him, better than most movies and at least they are far from mainstream.

martinsane wrote:

I don't know, I quite enjoyed Dark Shadows. And the trifecta of Burton, Depp and Elfman is a good thing imho.

More power to him, better than most movies and at least they are far from mainstream.

I tried to get through Dark Shadows, but got bored. If I had paid for it On Demand, I would have stuck with it, but I caught it on cable and the temptation to switch channels to something else was far too great. I still might give it a shot though, just to see it through.

Dark Shadows was watchable, had a few interesting sequences but I just kept thinking to myself; "They spent $150 million on THIS?!"

The film pissed off fans of the original Dark Shadows series because the comedic tone was completely opposite from the series...and it also didn't really work as a parody for modern audiences since so few young people now have ever heard of Dark Shadows.

It was just not a good idea and neither is rebooting "Dr. Phibes". If you gathered 100 people 25 years and younger and asked them if they'd ever seen the original Dr. Phibes you'd probably mostly get blank stares. And that's the age demographic the studios covet for films like this.

Count me in that demographic. I never saw the original 'Dark Shadows' or the original 'Dr. Phibes', so I don't have anything to compare them too.

But after I saw what Burton did with 'Planet of the Apes' and 'Charlie & the Chocolate Factory', my admiration for the guy went in the crapper.

Never cared to see Charlie & The Chocolate Factory but Planet Of The Apes was a huge disappointment. It had great visuals and all but something was just missing.

I never saw the original Dark Shadows because it just wasn't available when I was growing up, they didn't rerun the show and it didn't come out on home video for a really long time.

Dr.Phibes I saw when I was about 11 or 12, one of those films they used to play on "Friday Fright Nights". I would watch anything starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing...bonus points if more than one was featured together in the film.

It is considered a cult classic, I just don't think there's going to be much of an audience for it now, at least not from the average multiplex patron.

When I saw that Burton and Depp were doing a Dark Shadows film, my wife and I were a bit excited because Sweeney Todd was in fact a rare gem from Burton that we enjoyed. Of course we are also huge Dark Shadows fans.

When I found out it was going to be a comedy, confusion and rage ensued. The show had a decent, albeit derivative, story that could translate well with a modest budget--but instead they overspend on a mockery. It's about as insulting as how Geoff Tate treats his fans.

I pretty much ignore burton now. Its not really my cop o tea anymore.