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Alan Ball Says Season Two of True Blood Is "Sexier and Gorier"

BuzzSugar — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:30:41 -0700

The second season of HBO's True Blood kicks off tonight and doesn't waste any time jumping into the scary murder madness that has engulfed the citizens of Bon Temps.

According to the show's creator, Alan Ball, everything intensifies this season: vampires are more monstrous, sex scenes are even sexier, shape-shifters become more, er, shape-shiftery, and the anti-vampire movement becomes even more zealous.

Here are more highlights from the conference call Ball recently held with reporters:

Talking about the serial killer: "The first season we, the audience, did not know who the serial killer was. In this season, as the show progresses, we know there is a character who is up to no good and is dangerous long before any of the other characters on the show know it."
Describing the anti-vampire cult and whether or not it's a metaphor for our current political climate: "That whole conflict becomes deadly serious. Given the nature of the political debate in this country, I think it's very easy to look at it in a satirical light. I've been clear from the beginning: they really believe they have a mission to save the world."

To see what Ball has to say about Evan Rachel Wood's character and the real-life romance between the show's two stars, Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, read more.

On Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer's real-life relationship: "They are such consummate professionals, both of them, that it doesn't affect filming whatsoever. It only affects filming in the sense that they're incredibly comfortable with each other and their chemistry translates to the screen."
Talking about the changes Ryan Kwanten's character, Jason Stackhouse, will go through in season two: "In the books, Jason is very much the hot guy in town who is the womanizer. Once we started to flesh him out, no pun intended, we saw that he is sexually compulsive. Ultimately, Jason is a scared little boy that has been abandoned by everyone he has ever loved. In the second season, he is very much aware of the deep hole in his soul and he’s looking to fill that. As many people do, he latches onto religion and becomes part of an organization that makes him feel special. But of course, as time goes on . . . let’s just say Jason can’t leave his clothes on too long."

On making Alexander Skarsgård's character Eric, even scarier, and not shying away from the sexiness of the show: "This season, I did not feel like we needed to up the ante just to up the ante. I did feel like it was important to make Eric more frightening and see more of his monstrous side because as we progress we see more of his more human side. There is a scene where Sookie and Bill make love in the first episode that basically on the page it said 'Sookie and Bill make love.' Then I saw the dailies cut together . . . and I was like ‘Oh, wow! OK.’ I love it and I think that’s part of the appeal of the show. I don't think we do anything gratuitously. But it's important to show that between Sookie and Bill, there is this incredible, erotic chemistry."
On who Ball thinks is the most evil character: "I would hesitate to say Maryann is the most evil but she revels in chaos and destruction. She doesn't look at it from the polarities of good and evil."
Describing Evan Rachel Wood's character: "She is going to be playing the vampire queen of Louisiana. Each state has a king or queen and the buck stops there in terms of the [vampire] politics. Evan's really beautiful and very, very pale. And she looks like a vampire to me!"
On feeling any pressure to win awards or live up to the show's hype in season two: "I don't really think about those things. I feel like that is a real trap. I just feel like I try to do the best I can do. I don't feel more pressure, I really work very hard to stay in a little bubble in that regard because otherwise you go crazy."

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Where Are the Best Roles for Actresses: TV or Movies?

BuzzSugar — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:30:00 -0700

Considering that television holds second-rate status to film in a lot of people's minds, it's amazing to think of all of the stellar silver screen actresses who are currently working on TV. In a recent panel organized by The Hollywood Reporter, a whole bunch of them - including Sigourney Weaver, Regina King, January Jones, Anna Paquin, Rose Byrne, and Mary McDonnell - talked about the great roles available for women on the small screen right now.

That got me wondering if TV is providing actresses with better opportunities than film. But then there are actresses like Kate Winslet, who prove that meaty, interesting movie roles for women are still out there.

Take a look at this discussion and then tell me: Are the best roles for women on TV right now? Or are women getting more interesting opportunities in the movies?

First Look: True Blood Season Two

BuzzSugar — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:30:23 -0700

I was jealous of the folks at the Paley Festival in LA last week when they got to see a sneak peek of the second season of True Blood. Well, kudos to HBO for slipping this clip out to the rest of us, because it's a dark and creepy first look at season two of the vampire series.

The clip focuses on Sookie, Bill, and Bill's new little vampire girl, Jessica. They're in a car together in the woods, and Sookie storms off after an argument. Bill's sure Sookie will come back eventually, despite Jessica's disdainful comments that Sookie wants him to chase after her. But then there's this . . . thing. Lurking. With long fingernails.

Alan Ball has continued to say that the show will follow Charlaine Harris's books pretty closely, so I bet some of you reading might know what's happening here. If so, are you pleased? If not, what do you think is going on? To check out the clip, just read more.

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TV Preview: True Blood

BuzzSugar — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 12:42:31 -0700

I don't think it will be a revolutionary statement that how one feels about Alan Ball's new HBO series, True Blood, will have a lot to do with how one generally feels about vampires. Me, they've never really been my thing; they're OK and all, but the mere mention of fangs wouldn't necessarily get me to tune in. This review, then, is for (and by) the vampire-agnostic.

So here's the takeaway: I don't doubt at all that True Blood could develop into a deeply fascinating series for people at all points on the vampire-fan spectrum. But in the two episodes HBO sent me, the vampire parts were something I just needed to get through so I could get back to Alan Ball's witty writing in the more human realm. The second episode is stronger than the first; I've heard from some critics who got a full batch of five episodes that each one gets better. But the fate of many a TV series has been determined in episode one, and in True Blood's case, that's cause for some concern.

True Blood's protagonist is Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a Louisiana waitress with an unfortunate "gift" for reading people's minds that makes her daily life a struggle to tune out the thoughts of those around her. It's somewhat of a relief, then, when a pale stranger named Bill (Stephen Moyer) settles himself into her bar one night and asks for a drink of Tru Blood, the synthetic blood substitute that has made it possible for vampires to live among humans. Sookie can't read his mind but still quickly figures out that Bill's a vampire; "Am I that obvious?" he drawls in return. Why yes; you just asked for fake blood at a bar at night. It's not hard to guess. For more on the highs and lows of True Blood, just read more.

What Ball has done best - in American Beauty, and then in Six Feet Under - is give a voice to people's unspoken fears: that intimacy is scary, that suburbia is soul-sucking, that death is really the end, or not the end. I'm not convinced that talent translates to the unspoken fears of the immortal. Bill's lines are the clunkiest, his characterization spotty. The second episode fixes that somewhat, giving Bill a set of chivalrous, 1800s manners, but in the first episode, I had a hard time understanding why Sookie was so attracted to this bloodsucker.

Part of that might be because of Sookie, who also could use a little more character development. Sometimes she's a Southern tart; sometimes she's a complete innocent. The second episode hints more at her family backstory, which was a relief; every little bit I learned about her helped. But in the first episode, I had such a hard time justifying her actions that finally I gave up trying to make rational sense of it.

The Sookie/Bill story gets some support from wild cast of supporting characters, some successful and some less so. To date, my favorites are Sookie's "My stars!"-saying grandmother and her sassy best friend, Tara, who can't stop running her mouth. Sookie's brother, the lady-crazed Jason, is introduced in a fairly odd way, but there's enough hinting at a dark past that I'm curious about him.

There's been a lot made of True Blood's sex and violence (or, maybe more accurately, violent sex), and it's true - there's a lot of it. There's definitely a spirit of abandon about the whole thing, which is something Ball's other shows have definitely lacked. It's more melodrama than drama, despite the occasional heavy reminders about how vampires are an oppressed class just trying to find their way in a world set on denying them their rights, and at times it's very, very enjoyable. But is it enough to - sorry, sorry - sink your teeth into? Well . . . that might well just depend on how you feel about vampires.

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TV Preview: Alan Ball's Next HBO Show, True Blood

BuzzSugar — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:30:03 -0700

At Comic-Con, I was lucky enough to catch some footage of True Blood, Alan Ball's (Six Feet Under, American Beauty) HBO adaptation of the book series by Charlaine Harris, and I was hooked. Now there's a trailer for the series, which premieres on HBO Sept. 7, so we can all discuss the show: whether or not it looks to be of the same caliber as Six Feet Under, how distracting the Southern accent attempts may be, how smitten we are or are not by Anna Paquin in this role, etc.

In the series, Paquin plays a telepathic waitress in a Louisiana town who meets a vampire when he walks into her bar and she discovers she can't read his mind.

Have you read these books? Does the show look like it will do the book series justice? To watch the preview for True Blood, read more.

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True Blood Sucks In the Enthusiasm at Comic-Con

BuzzSugar — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:30:33 -0700

If you combine small-town drama and sexy vampires, the result would be True Blood, the forthcoming HBO series from Alan Ball, the man behind Six Feet Under. The show's cast and creator - along with Charlaine Harris, who wrote the Southern Vampire book series on which the show is based - showed up at Comic-Con on Thursday to explain to a cheering crowd what makes their show different from other vampire stories.

True Blood, which premieres Sept. 7, is the story of Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress in a Louisiana town who meets a vampire when he walks into the bar where she works and she discovers she can't read his mind. The trailer we watched showed a mix of vampire effects (spiky teeth, bite marks) and small scenes of family life that would look familiar to any SFU fan - I could have sworn one dinner scene was shot in the Fisher family kitchen.

Ball promised the show would be free of "vampire cliches," which he defined as "blue light, contact lenses, and opera music." Instead, "we're trying to keep the magic as mundane as possible," he said, showing how it's just a regular part of the universe where the characters live. In this world, vampires have come back to live among humans now that a synthetic blood substance can keep them satiated, but (as Sookie learns) that doesn't mean there's no danger.

To meet the main characters, and to hear about some of the viral marketing HBO is doing for the show (including setting up a vampire/human dating service), read more.

Sookie - played by Anna Paquin, she's the telepathic waitress who gets wrapped up in the vampire underworld (not without some sarcasm - I loved the tone of her voice in the trailer when she found out the big vampire hangout was called Fangtasia).
Bill - played by Stephen Moyer, he's a vampire who's returned to town to try to live a normal life but is instantly attracted to Sookie because he wants to know why she's different.
Jason - "It is fun to be Jason," said Ryan Kwanten, who plays Sookie's womanizing brother.
Lafayette - one of the more colorful characters, Lafayette sells contraband blood, has a gay-porn website, and escorts. "So he's an entrepreneur," said actor Nelsan Ellis.
Tara - "On the inside, she's a very sensitive, very delicate flower," said actress Rutina Wesley, who plays Sookie's best friend - but Tara's also had a tough past.

While I've gotten wary of viral marketing of late, I kind of love the way True Blood is going about it. Posters are everywhere for Tru Blood, the synthetic blood supplement that makes vampires able to live in society (on the site, you can figure out which blood type would most appeal to you; if the product were real, Ball said, it would be a mixture of "V8, Valium, Vicodin, and Viagra"). There's also a Dateline-style news show explaining the return of vampires to the modern world and - my favorite – LoveBitten, a human/vampire online dating site. Here's one of the LoveBitten ads:

And here's part of the Blood Copy news report:

Photo courtesy of HBO

"Six Feet" Creator Brings Vampires, Paquin to HBO

Molly — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:23:53 -0700

Great news for "Six Feet Under", vampire and Anna Paquin fans alike - "SFU" creator Alan Ball is coming back to HBO and bringing a little bit of all those things with him. Ball is signed on to create a new series, "True Blood" about modern day vampires who live among humans in Louisiana and survive on a Japanese-manufactured synthetic blood. The show will be a mix of horror and humor, which is exactly the kind of awesome combination that only flies on pay cable. The pilot has already been shot and stars as mentioned Anna Paquin alongside smaller names like The Starter Wife's Stephen Moyer.

I absolutely adored "Six Feet Under" and can't wait to see Ball's trademark dark humor back on HBO. I also love seeing recently Emmy-nominated and Oscar-winning Anna just about anywhere. I had just about given myself over to Showtime exclusively in terms of my favorite cable dramas, but "True Blood" may draw me back to HBO.

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Katie Holmes Is Feeling Romantic

BuzzSugar — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:30:53 -0800

Katie Holmes in on a roll. Fresh off last week's Cocktail on Broadway news, the star has now jumped on board an indie film. Holmes is joining the comedy, The Romantics, taking over a role from Liv Tyler. (No reason has been given for Tyler's departure.)

Romantics follows a group of college friends who come together one night for a wedding. Holmes will be playing the maid of honor to the bride (Anna Paquin), and both women have a long history with the groom (Josh Duhamel). Malin Akerman, Elijah Wood, and Adam Brody round out the cast.

The storyline sounds cute, even if it's not the most original concept - a few eighties Brat Pack movies come to mind. I'm also interested in tracking this one because Holmes is making her debut as an executive producer. I'm glad to see her taking on more of a business role in Hollywood for a change, instead of letting Tom have all the clout.

What do you think about this new project? And what do you make of the ensemble? (Kind of a weird mix of actors, isn't it?)