Those who were rooting for Casino Royale‘s Eva Green to become the female lead in The Dark Knight Rises (and everyone else, really) should be pleased to hear that the French actress could be gracing the big-screen again soon enough, opposite Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows adaptation.
Green is close to landing the lead female role in Burton’s Gothic undertaking, which could also feature some solid supporting talent and might begin filming this spring – assuming Burton and Depp’s schedules allow for it.
Deadline says that Green is in negotiations to appear in Dark Shadows as Angelique Bouchard, a gorgeous sorceress who has an all-too-tempestuous relationship with the charismatic vampire Barnabas Collins (Depp). The two characters were just a couple of the supernatural entities featured in the original 1960s TV show, which mixed conventional soap opera drama with ghoulish atmosphere and set design that harkened back to German Expressionism/horror films of the 1920s like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
Burton and Depp have both confessed to being heavily influenced by the stylized look, campy tone, and Victorian horror-inspired storylines of Dark Shadows, and a film adaptation involving the pair has essentially been in the works since 2008. Current pop-culture writer Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is tackling scripting duties on the project.
Besides playing Vesper Lynd in Daniel Craig’s first outing as James Bond, Green’s resume includes appearances in big-budget Hollywood spectacle like Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven and the fantasy novel adaptation The Golden Compass. She’ll also be appearing in the new Starz period drama Camelot and should continue to make a name for herself by starring in Tim Burton’s latest film.
While Dark Shadows won’t find either Burton or Depp (or all-but-guaranteed composer Danny Elfman) treading on new territory, their passion for and admiration of the source material will hopefully result in a cinematic version that feels inspired and creative – and not another by-the-numbers kooky movie full of psychedelic F/X and creepy, pale-faced creatures. Their previous collaborations have offered loads of twisted imagery and macabre yet picturesque visuals, but have often times been a bit thin in the story department. That probably won’t change much with this project, but it’s what fans of the duo probably ought to expect at this point anyway.
Dark Shadows could potentially reach theaters by the first half of 2012.
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