Renowned comic book author Neil Gaiman currently has a bestseller in the US. The Graveyard Book tells the story of young Nobody Owens brought up by ghosts and ghouls in a graveyard.

Speaking to MTV Gaiman has now confirmed that there will be a film version of The Graveyard Book that he himself will produce. Encouraging news is that instead of going with the big Hollywood studios, Gaiman has opted to work with British special effects company Framestore. According to Gaiman: “I don’t think it’s going to be transported to a graveyard in Los Angeles where they’ve been burying bathing beauties or anything. I think we’re actual going to stick with where the book is written and film that.”

Sounds promising.

Some bad news from Entertainment Weekly: the proposed Johnny Depp/Tim Burton movie Dark Shadows looks to be on permament hold. The project has been pushed into the long grass because there are now plans for Depp to appear yet again as Captain Jack Sparrow in a fourth installment of the Pirates series. Given that so far each Pirates movie has been worse than the previous one this news doesn’t exactly fill me with joy.

Dark Shadows was, of course, a famous or infamous TV series from the 1960s. Back then there was no time for retakes so it’s full of fluffed lines and malfunctioning scenery. Yet it still gained cult status, especially after it mutated from sub-standard daytime soap into a fully fledged vampire and monster infested gothic delight.

Dark Shadows is a show that – unlike some – is well suited to a big screen remake and a Depp-Burton partnership would have been fascinating. Unfortunately it doesn’t now look like it’s going to happen any time soon.

The UK media is reporting that the Mary Whitehouse descendant Mediawatch is upset at the BBC’s plans to broadcast – post watershed – a new supernatural drama series about exorcism.

Apparitions, created by and starring Martin Shaw and produced by Lime Pictures, apparently includes a scene of a man being flayed alive in a gay sauna and another of the exorcism of Mother Teresa. Sounds like a laugh a minute.

Of course there are even worse offences to public decency in the show. According to Mediawatch-UK director John Beyer: “They’ve got people sitting on crucifixes. It will cause very serious offence.”

Yeah, right.

Shaw is quoted as saying: “I’m not going to pretend this is the most positive show on Earth. We’re talking about the end of all things but the message is that love conquers all.”

Oh dear, I do hope they don’t ruin it with a happy ending.

I don’t know about you but I’m really looking forward to Dead Set, the new mini-series where the inhabitants of the Big Brother house face a horde of zombies. E4 have organised eight preview showings at towns across the UK (mainly England) and are running a competition to win free tickets:

Win Dead Set premiere tickets

The final preview showing is in London on Sunday 26th October so I’m guessing that the show will air on TV the week after that.

If you feel like I do about the TV show Big Brother then the idea of the set being invaded by an army of flesh-eating zombies sounds like a great idea. The news that UK show host Davina McCall is one of the victims is a definite bonus!

This is all part of Dead Set, a new five part mini-series coming soon to TV channel E4. Dead Set is written by journalist and comedy writer Charlie Brooker. According to Brooker:

“Dead Set isn’t an out-and-out comedy, but an unashamedly populist horror-thriller with blackly comic undertones. Think 24 with zombies. And housemates. And gore.”

Brooker quotes Romero’s 1978 Dawn of the Dead as inspiration, pointing out that the BB house is an aspirational symbol for today’s society in much the same the shopping mall was in the 1970s.

No official word as to when the programme will be shown, if you find out before I do please let me know in the comments. Until then, here’s a trailer: