Tim Burton's been chatting about making a film version of gothic soap opera Dark Shadows for a while now, but he's always talked off it as being a long way from shooting.
Well, now it looks like we have an actual start date, courtesy of producer Graham King. Out in LA promoting the US release of The Young Victoria, King was prodded by Sci Fi Wire, which got him to confirm a likely shoot.
"We're actually going to shoot that film next September/October with Tim Burton and Johnny (Depp)," he said, before going on to reveal the work that the team have been doing to prepare.
"We've been working on the script a lot, even though he's working on Alice. We've been given a script. John August wrote the first screenplay. We're making some changes, but the film's going to be in production, as I say, September or October of next year."
For the uninitiated, Dark Shadows ran in a daytime slot on US network ABC between 1966 and 1971, where it stretched the boundaries of the format with shorelines involving time travel, supernatural creatures and its iconic central figure, vampire Barnabas Collins.
At last, we might actually get to see what a vampire film directed by Burton and starring Depp looks like. Suck it, Cullen!