Depp to star in Night Stalker remake

[Rats Riley]

http://images.search.yahoo.com/imag...t1&sigi=15p49jegj&sigb=11vo63e56&fr=yfp-t-701

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2012/02/23/johnny-depp-edgar-wright-night-stalker/

Just came across this... Loved the original show as a kid! I think what was so eerie about the show back then was the lack of cellphones and how gritty TV film stock seemed. Almost as if it was news stock..... it kind of made it believable especially since I was in grade school!

Personally I'm picturing the Crane impression he portrayed in Sleepy Hollow.... I'd see it!

 

[Feraud]

This could be interesting.
I picture Depp as we saw him in The Ninth Gate. A bit dishevelled, smoking, lugging around a shoulder bag of research and slightly out of his element.

 

[bunnyb.gal]

Disney's adaptation? [huh] Doubt in that case he'll be smoking.

I loved this show, too, probably my favourite from that time period. I think because Kolchak was such a throwback to the 30's hardboiled reporter, and the music was great. Everything was a bit grainy and murky and that definitely added to the creepiness of it.

I think Depp could pull it off.

 

[RBH]

Depp seems to be drawn to roles where he wears a hat.

Pretty cool in my book as Johnny wears a hat real well.

But I would love to see him wear a better looking hat than the original Kolchak wore.

And this is just my opinion on the hat.

One like this would be cool and he would give his own spin on the character.

 

[RBH]

By the way I was 11 when I watched the original on TV.
Man ... that was something else.
I still remember how it made me feel.

[video=youtube;7OcuzDAnMQA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OcuzDAnMQA[/video]

 

[Worf]

The original "Night Stalker" was the FIRST vampire movie to make me sweat, shiver and stay up awake all night. The vampire Janos Skorseny (extra points if you know the exploits of the REAL man by that name) made me believe in a walking, talking blood draining murder machine. He scared me, he seemed real although he never said a word through out the entire movie. The battle with the police... masterful, the showdown, thrill a minute. I hope they don't screw this up. Problem is, if you modernize it, everyone would believe he was a real vampire after the footage is placed on Youtube or facebook.

Worf

 

[Rats Riley]

Here's the intro!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xfl0m6U8IE

AS a kid I called the music "the monster walking music".

There was the headless biker episode

The witch episode

The dinosaur episode

I don't remember the vampire one though. But damn was that show was scary to a young kid who believed in that kind of thing. Again, it was a time before you could just grab your cellphone and call for help or jump on the computer to find the legends and lore for every creepy crawler.

Another good one from that time was Salem's Lot. Scared the crap out of me with the little kid floating at the window... Still kinda creeps me out when I think about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIbJ2rQ59ZE

BTW: if you want creepy scifi... anyone remember Space 1999 or the Planet of the Apes?

 

[Edward]

Wasn't this something they used to talk about in the early mid 90s as having been one of the inspirations for the X Files? It does look good. I've yet to see Depp in anything I didn't like, so.

 

[Feraud]

Yes it was an inspiration for the X-Files.

 

[Doctor Strange]

So, Dark Shadows hasn't even come out and flopped yet, and Johnny's rushing into another big-screen revival of a campy old TV series?!? Oy.

As much as I loved both shows in my youth, I predict that both Dark Shadows and The Night Stalker will flop big-time. Firstly, because the things that made them fun in the first place - their low budget and crappy production values, over-the-top acting and plotting, super-fast shooting schedule that meant leaving in mistakes and bad performances, etc. - will be missing from the big-budget films. Secondly, the all-important youth audience simply doesn't know either of these series, and most won't be curious enough to find out about them or see the films. (After all, The Artist just won five Oscars including Best Picture... but still did less than $4 million in domestic ticket sales last weekend: today's audience just doesn't embrace the unknown and unusual!)

Heck, even my own response as a fan of these classic fantasy series is a definite Meh...

 

[Wally_Hood]

So, Dark Shadows hasn't even come out and flopped yet, and Johnny's rushing into another big-screen revival of a campy old TV series?!? Oy.

As much as I loved both shows in my youth, I predict that both Dark Shadows and The Night Stalker will flop big-time. Firstly, because the things that made them fun in the first place - their low budget and crappy production values, over-the-top acting and plotting, super-fast shooting schedule that meant leaving in mistakes and bad performances, etc. - will be missing from the big-budget films. Secondly, the all-important youth audience simply doesn't know either of these series, and most won't be curious enough to find out about them or see the films. (After all, The Artist just won five Oscars including Best Picture... but still did less than $4 million in domestic ticket sales last weekend: today's audience just doesn't embrace the unknown and unusual!)

Heck, even my own response as a fan of these classic fantasy series is a definite Meh...

re: Dark Shadows, does anyone else think that since shadows are by nature dark we shouldn't say dark shadows? We wouldn't say bright shadows, would we? (Somebody cue Woody Allen explaining the void he feels as an "empty void.") Meanwhile, I'll go back to the Irrational Grousing thread...

 

[Nathan Dodge]

Depp can't capture the seedy, seen-it-all worldliness that was etched on Darren McGavin's mug. McGavin, cliched as it is, WAS Kolchak. You can see elements of that character as far back as when he was playing Mike Hammer.

However, those who want an effete, mannered, and downright wusslike Kolchak will love this. Those who love the original will just have to watch the old double-sided dvds.

Now Depp portraying "Thin Man" detective Nick Charles...now that's one I think he CAN do well.

 

[Feraud]

Johnny Depp has been playing drug-dealing/using, bottom feeders in films going back to Blow, The Ninth Gate, and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas.
I am sure he can manage the gravitas to play a reporter investigating quirky stories.

 

[John in Covina]

So often they can't make the movie version of a TV show without turning it into an annoyingly idiotic "supposed" comedy.

 

[Edward]

So often they can't make the movie version of a TV show without turning it into an annoyingly idiotic "supposed" comedy.

Sometimes it works (Charlies' Angels , Starsky and Hutch), sometimes it doesn't (Green Hornet - never seen the original, but wasn't much impressed with the film). I don't think they're for doing this with the Lone Ranger, though. I think it's more or less run its course now, though, hasn't it?

 

[Worf]

Sometimes it works (Charlies' Angels , Starsky and Hutch), sometimes it doesn't (Green Hornet - never seen the original, but wasn't much impressed with the film). I don't think they're for doing this with the Lone Ranger, though. I think it's more or less run its course now, though, hasn't it?

The "Lone Ranger" already had one disasterous big screen retelling. I'm sure which was worse, that or what they did to Doc Savage.

Worf

 

[Worf]

I don't remember the vampire one though. But damn was that show was scary to a young kid who believed in that kind of thing...... Another good one from that time was Salem's Lot. Scared the crap out of me with the little kid floating at the window... Still kinda creeps me out when I think about it.

The "Vampire One" was a made for T.V. movie, you could consider it a pilot if you want it was an hour and a half long and predated the Night Stalker show by about a year. It's ratings were so consistently high, even on reruns, that they decided to make a series. "Salems Lot", the orginal T.V. adaptation by George Romero was so frightening that the first half had the CBS switchboards melting from irate parents who's kids were so freaked they couldn't get the sleep. CBS toyed with the idea of NOT showing the seconded half but relented.

Worf

 

[bunnyb.gal]

So often they can't make the movie version of a TV show without turning it into an annoyingly idiotic "supposed" comedy.

Sometimes it works (Charlies' Angels , Starsky and Hutch), sometimes it doesn't (Green Hornet - never seen the original, but wasn't much impressed with the film). I don't think they're for doing this with the Lone Ranger, though. I think it's more or less run its course now, though, hasn't it?

Speaking of Le Depp, I was going to link to a trailer on YouTube of the new movie of 21 Jump Street, but I only managed to watch about the first minute out of 3, during which about 5 of the f-word and about the same of various other cuss words. Just conversationally, mind you. Cue bro hugs, hi-fives, and lots of macho posturing. Can't remember when I've seen so much moronism packed into such a short section of celluloid.

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

Mixed emotions on it. I like Depp, but I adore Kolchak. That show scared me quite nicely as young teen. Especially the night I watched it all alone in the house. *shudder* I don't want my proto-X-Files, B movie inspired love pillaged.

For what it's worth, there were two made for TV movies: The Night Stalker (Janos the vampire) and The Night Strangler (Dr.Richard Malcolm, elixir of life maker/serial killer). Both did very well. The TV show is available as a box set, the movies are on one disk. Mine get a bunch of usage .

Salem's Lot. The movie terrified me. The book terrified me. Not in a fun way. More in a "hang cross around neck, sprinkle garlic salt around home, stay up till the sun comes up" way.

 

[Atomic Age]

I saw the original tv movie when it first aired. I was about 6 years old, and I remember the next day being out in the front yard, riding my big wheel. I went around the side of the house, and i realized that I was completely alone! (mind you it was broad daylight) Instantly the vampire from The Night Stalker popped into my head. I leaped off of the Big Wheel and raced into the house! I refused to be alone for weeks after that!

Doug