With Dark Shadows and Frankenweenie at various stages of completion, Tim Burton is a busy man at the moment. Jolly good of him, then, to dazzle our peepers with a new batch of character posters - sent, we'd like to think, from his personal email account.

The posters of Barnabas Collins and co. augment the most recent batch of stills and this week's exceptionally promising trailer (see below). Dark Shadows isn't a property immediately familiar on this side of the ditch, but all the signs are there that Burton and Johnny Depp have rebottled their Edward Scissorhands / Ed Wood lightning. The trailer's comic beats land and the design look is as lovingly outlandish as you could wish for.

In case you're not familiar with the US TV series, the premise sees 18th century playboy Collins cursed and turned into a vampire, before eventually reawakening into '70s America. Like a toothier 'Ted' Theodore Logan, he finds himself out of time and madly adjusting to a world of pouting teens, shrinks and high-maintenance matriarchs. And, judging by that trailer, 'madly' seems like the operative world.

Fingers crossed that Dark Shadows turns up the silliness and gives its outstanding cast - Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Chloe Moretz, Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green and Jonny Lee Miller included - plenty to work with. It looks like it will. See for yourself when it hits UK cinemas on May 11.