Burton calls the Dark Shadows series “awful” and we get two new pics

For those who have actually seen the original DARK SHADOWS soap opera, you realize it has it’s place in time. You watch it now and it’s corny as shit. While Johnny Depp may have loved it as a kid, Burton realizes that it wasn’t really that great. “I think,” Burton said evenly, “you could say it was actually awful.”

So why even pursue it? “It’s a different animal. If I go back and watch something like ‘Star Trek,’ it’s not that hard to analyze what the appeal was, and even if the show is dated you identify what it was that made it work. The ‘Dark Shadows’ appeal was a little more abstract. What I loved about it was the fact that it was a melodramatic soap opera, and, well, that flies in the face of any modern studio’s interests as far as moviemaking. But what we’ve gone for is a mixture, and that’s always what I’ve been interested in; I think most of my movies are mixtures of light and dark and serious things and things that have humor in them.”

Depp spoke of his admiration for the show when he was younger, “It was a real thing for me, I had to watch it, and it was tough because you’d miss the beginning — it started at like 3 p.m., but that’s when we got out of school. And then it moved later because all the kids wrote in letters. When you met someone who knew the show and loved it, there was an instant connection.”

Oh and I’ve got two new photos for you. Check them out below. If you want to read the entire interview between Depp and Burton, head on over here.