Sometimes the dead stay dead–the Collins clan will not make another small-screen appearance with Dark Shadows on The CW after all.
Horror News Network reported last year that the cult classic soap opera/horror TV series from the late 1960s would be rebooted on The CW as either Dark Shadows: Reincarnation or Dark Shadows: Resurrections, but those plans now are dust, as reported by JoBlo.com.
Mark B. Perry reportedly was writing a pilot script for the series and fans were understandably excited…but now reports say the reboot “never made it to the pilot stage and, at this point, is no longer in development at The CW.”
Plans had called for Tracy and Cathy Curtis–the children of original series creator Dan Curtis–to act as executive producers of the show, alongside Perry, Michael Helfant, Bradley Gallo and Tracy Mercer.
The CW remake was to be a modern-day continuation of the “strange, terrifying and sexy saga of the Collins family of Collinsport, Maine–a mysterious, influential, publicity-shy group hiding a ghastly secret.” And that secret was? “For the past 400 years, they’ve lived under a curse that bedevils their blue blood with every imaginable supernatural creature and horror.” Sure sounds ghastly.
The original series–that ran on ABC for 1,225 episodes from 1966-1971–was created by Curtis, with Lela Swift, John Sedwick and Henry Kaplan on board as directors. The show really took off with fans when vampire Barnabas Collins (played by the legendary Jonathan Frid) appeared 10 months into the run. Building off that success, the series also featured ghosts, werewolves, zombies and all sorts of things that go bump in the night.
As fans know, the show was translated to the Silver Screen in 2012 by director Tim Burton and stars Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer and Helena Bonham Carter. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $245.5 million worldwide on a budget of $150 million.
Keep reading Horror News Network to see if Dark Shadows gets yet another lease on life from another network.
