Tim Burton to start shooting vampire soap opera movie next year

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The Tim Burton film adaptation of cult '60s supernatural soap opera Dark Shadows will begin production in January 2011. In yet another collaboration with the director, Johnny Depp will star in the film as vampire Barnabas Collins, a role which he has described as "a childhood dream", reports Deadline.

Author Seth Grahame-Smith, whose novels Pride And Prejudice And Vampires and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter have both been optioned as films, has written the script for Burton's take on the groundbreaking series.

Dark Shadows ran from 1966 to 1971 and became a cult classic – it featured vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, time travel and a parallel universe.

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