How a 60s soap opera about a vampire became a blockbuster movie of today.
by Sara Paige
DR. JULIA HOFFMAN: Every year I get half as pretty and twice as drunk.
– Dark Shadows (2012)
The concept was simple: a mysterious girl on a train, acting mysteriously. A scene that had been etched on the brain of writer Dan Curtis, and stayed there to haunt him. Somehow, this pitch spawned funding, which resulted in a show. The first scene? A girl acting mysteriously on a train. So all that funding and all that pitching? …

Based on the Dark Shadows TV series created by Dan Curtis (ABC, 1965-1971)
Story by: John August and Seth Grahame-Smith
Written by: Seth Grahame-Smith
Directed by: Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham-Carter, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Jonny Lee Miller, Bella Heathcote
US Release Date: Friday, May 11th, 2012
In Short: Barnabas Collins, who was cursed as a vampire in 18th-century Maine, returns to Maine in the early 1970s to help re-build the collapsed Collins empire, in his own unique way.
Recommended: Yes?
JOSHUA COLLINS: The strongest thing you can build is your family!
I feel …