Johnny Depp will stir Dark Shadows in 2011

Johnny Depp

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s eighth movie collaboration will finally head into production in April next year.

Dark Shadows has been attempting to jostle its way into the pair’s ever-crammed schedule for years, and now finally they’ve found a gap to make it.

Based on the ‘60s gothic daytime soap, Dark Shadows sees Depp donning fangs as vampire Barnabas Collins, a 175-year-old neckchewer who’s searching for lost love Josette.

The character essentially did for Dark Shadows what Joan Collins did for Dynasty , boosting ratings to such an extent that Barnabas became the show’s main star. Depp's mentioned it is his "childhood dream" to play the role.

Pride And Prejudice And Zombies novelist Seth Grahame-Smith is currently redrafting a version of the script originally scribbled by John Big Fish August.

Despite Depp and Burton's last collab reaping the messy Alice In Wonderland , we're hopeful their return to gothic horror could result in one of their best films in years.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.