Jakie Earle Haley and Bella Heathcote appear to be the next two cast members to be joining director Tim Burton’s big screen adaptation of the 1960s cult gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. Haley is reportedly in talks to play the role of Loomis, a con man who inadvertently releases the vampire Barnabas Collins from his two century imprisonment. Meanwhile, Heathcote is reportedly under consideration for the lead role of Victoria Winters, the young woman hired to be the governess for the Collins family, the 21st century descendants of the vampire Barnabas.

Long-time Burton collaborator Johnny Depp has long been attached to play the part of Barnabas. Filming is set to begin in April.

Via Deadline.

It’s been on their “To Do” list for sometime now, but it looks like Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton are finally getting around to their big screen adaptation of the 1960s Gothic cult soap opera Dark Shadows.A report from Deadline states that cameras should begin rolling in the film next April.

Depp will star as the vampire Barnabas Collins, who is looking for the reincarnation of his long-lost love among the scheming members of his family’s descendants in modern day Maine.

The project had been discussed for some time now, with John August first turning in a script almost three years ago. Novelist Seth Grahame-Smith, who’s popular horror historical mashup Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is in the process of being developed as a film, is currently taking a pass through the script prior to filming.

Unfortunately, with Dark Shadows going ahead in the spring puts Depp’s participation in Katheryn Bigelow’s Triple Frontier in doubt. Depp was scheduled to star opposite Tom Hanks in a story about Latin America organized crime.