The film will star Johnny Depp as vampire Barnabas Collins, Jackie Earle Haley as Willie Loomis, who frees Barnabas from the sealed coffin he's been trapped within for two centuries; Bella Heathcoate as Collinwood governess Victoria Winters, and Michelle Pfeiffer as family matriarch, Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard.
Carter's character, Dr. Hoffman, inadvertently discovers that Barnabas is a member of the undead, and they are initially enemies though over time that evolves into an uneasy alliance and, ultimately, a deep friendship, with Hoffman very much in love with Barnabas.