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Ball bringing new "Blood" to HBO

Alan Ball is returning to HBO's primetime lineup as the pay cable network has picked up his drama pilot "True Blood" to series.

The number of episodes and the premiere date for the vampire drama starring Anna Paquin is yet to be determined. Production on the show's first season is slated to begin in the fall.

Based on the "Southern Vampire" book series by Charlaine Harris, "True Blood" takes place in a world in which vampires can buy Japanese-made synthetic blood. Their integration into a small Louisiana town causes quite a stir, and a love story ensues between a vampire, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) and Sookie Stackhouse (Paquin), an innocent waitress who can read people's minds.

"It's an absolute pleasure to continue our relationship with Alan Ball," HBO Entertainment president Carolyn Strauss said. " 'True Blood' proves that Alan continues as a master of his craft."

Ball's first series for HBO, the critically praised "Six Feet Under," bowed out in 2005 after five seasons.


The pilot cast of "True Blood" also included Brook Kerr, Ryan Kwanten and Sam Trammell.

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HBO rolls with Ball's 'True Blood'
'Six Feet Under' creator to act as showrunner

Alan Ball is back in HBO's court, as the paycabler has officially picked up the vampire series "True Blood."
Ball, who created the hit "Six Feet Under" for HBO, will exec produce and showrun "True Blood," which is based on the novel series "Southern Vampire" from author Charlaine Harris

Net is still ironing out an episodic order and airdate, but "True Blood" is expected to go into production this fall. Ball, who wrote and directed the pilot, already has penned several more episodes.

"'True Blood' proves that Alan continues as a master of his craft," said HBO entertainment prexy Carolyn Strauss.

Ball first started working on the project in October 2005, when he signed a two-year overall pact with HBO. The project was eventually rolled to this year, and was shot earlier this summer with stars Anna Paquin, Ryan Kwanten, Sam Trammell, Stephen Moyer and Brook Kerr.

Set in small-town Louisiana, series follows the world of vampires, who are able to co-exist with humans by drinking a Japanese-manufactured synthetic blood. While spooky, the show also contains a dose of humor alongside the horror.

"Charlaine has created such a rich environment that's very funny and at the same time very scary," Ball told Daily Variety after first selling the project in 2005. "I bought the book on impulse and I just couldn't put it down."

Paquin plays Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress who winds up falling for the vampire Bill Compton (played by Moyer) and who has powers of her own. Carrie Preston and Michael Raymond-James round out the cast.

Ball recently directed the film "Nothing is Private." Ball's Your Face Goes Here Entertainment shingle will produce "True Blood" with HBO.

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True Blood
Created by Alan Ball. Cast: Anna Paquin, Sam Trammell, Stephen Moyer, Brook Kerr. Premieres this fall on HBO, air date TBA.

In the press these days it's very en vogue to talk about HBO, more specifically on the declining state of its original programming. Yes, it's true that such HBO standbys as Sex and the City, Rome, Deadwood, Six Feet Under and The Sopranos have all either been cancelled or have simply called it a day. And, yes, I doubt anyone would be calling this a banner year for its original programming. Entourage has slipped more and more into the realm of broad, goofy humor (a recent episode had the boys bumming a ride on Kanye West's jet) and there's been endless water-cooler debates about either the brilliance or idiocy, depending on your perspective, of the The Sopranos series finale.

Plus, there's the little matter of Showtime kicking ass. Between The Tudors, Weeds, Californication, Masters of Horror and Dexter, Showtime built a stable and critically beloved cluster of original programming. These shows may not have the prestige or sheen of the HBO projects, but they do a lot to move the cable channel out of the ghetto of second-run movies and soft-core skin flicks. These days, Showtime is looking more and more like legitimate competition.

Because the cable channels work on a more internalized system of checks and balances (instead of advertising dollars they make decisions based on subscriptions and pay more credence to critical reactions and surveys), it's hard to know when a show isn't working or when it's fallen out of favor. Think about how long Arliss ran on HBO before someone gave them the memo that it wasn't in the least bit funny. And I think it may be too early to be lamenting HBO's loss of creative steam. After all, Flight of the Conchords is easily the weirdest, funniest, most gutsy (and sweet) comedy since Arrested Development's brief, brilliant run. (And what's more—it's been renewed for next year.) But a sitcom about a couple of gawky New Zealand folk singers trying to make it in New York doesn't generate the kind of deafening buzz that HBO is gunning for, no matter how hilarious it might be.

There is a project like this in the pipeline, however, and I cannot wait for it to be unleashed on the unsuspecting cable subscriber.The show is True Blood and its creator is Alan Ball, who guided five dysfunctional years of Six Feet Under. It is an adaptation of cult writer Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire novels and stars Anna Paquin as tough-as-nails barmaid Sookie Stackhouse. Excited yet? What if I told you Sookie was telepathic and that the show takes place in a world where vampires have come "out of the coffin."

Before you can claim that this is yet another instance of HBO's misguided loyalty (as many felt with Deadwood creator David Milch's difficult but underrated John from Cincinnati), I am here to say that it is not. This is the real, and really entertaining, deal.

I have read the pilot script and I must say that it is a big fat multi-layered club sandwich of brilliant. It's a violent, visceral, sexy page-turner for sure; I can only imagine what it'll be like when it's realized visually.

Considering there's no premiere date set (online reports indicate this fall but considering HBO's juggernaut of a marketing department, you'd think we would have seen something by now), I won't spill too many beans except to say that it's the closest thing we have to a scary, funny successor to Buffy's insurmountable genius. True Blood is self-referential without being obnoxious, the characters are genuine and it adds much to the mythology (in an opening scene we have an Ann Coulter?like vampire advocate spitting insults at Anderson Cooper), both in relation to the vampires and how humans deal with them.

True Blood is packed with the kind of itchy, must-see-next-week's-episode agitation last experienced in season one of Lost; it's the stuff heated message board posts are made of—and it's looking more and more likely that a vampire show could bring HBO back from the dead.

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Op maandag 16 juni 2008 21:49 schreef Tim86 het volgende:
Waarom zo vroeg een topic?

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Op woensdag 18 juni 2008 09:36 schreef Liquidootje het volgende:
homo-kut

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maar ik begrijp het even niet.