Here’s some interesting bits and peices from the writer’s panel at teh Paley Center. 

Enjoy! Kelly

true-blood.net

The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills is hosting a True Blood writers panel this evening, featuring Alan Ball, Alexander Woo, Nancy Oliver, Brian Buckner, Kate Barnow, and Elisabeth Finch. The panel is being moderated by PopWatch’s Alynda Wheat. As usual we have operatives in place to report back to us with juicy tidbits in advance of a full report coming later. The panel begins at 7PM PT; keep refreshing for the latest and beware of spoilers!

On the Red Carpet

• Raelle Tucker’s favorite character to write for – currently – is Jessica.
• Alexander Woo says that the scenes at the Fellowship of the Sun when the vampires and humans are fighting were among his favorites to shoot.
• Alan Ball claims that all of the characters are his “babies”, but he especially likes writing for Jason. Alan also reveals that his favorite parts of season 2 include “the growing sexual attraction between Eric and Sookie, the Dionysian revelry, and Jason watching Sarah.”
• Alan confirms that Alcide will appear beginning in episode 3.03. He has not yet been cast.
• Regarding Bubba, Alan says that he loves the character in the books, but “because he’s Elvis there’s no way we can do it” on the show.

The Panel

• Alan says he’s not a fan of stunt casting. Looks like Snoop Dogg won’t be getting his wish.
• Alan thinks episode 1.05, “Sparks Fly Out”, is where True Blood hit its stride.
• Alan: “I will admit to oftentimes saying, ‘Come on, can we just get his [Ryan Kwanten's] shirt off?’”
• Nancy Oliver feels lucky to be on pay cable because pretty much anything goes. “We can do a story about priapism.”
• Our girl Raelle Tucker on Sookie: “What makes Sookie an amazing character is that she feels as though she has a disability, she feels hopelessly flawed.”
• Alexander Woo says True Blood fans are the best looking fans in the world. (Yeah we are!) Brian Buckner says he has to hide from fans, Alan appreciates the enthusiasm, and Raelle thinks True Blood fans have great costumes.
• Raelle reveals a soft spot for Lafayette: “I am a dirty little slut for Lafayette, even if I’m not his type.”
• Expanding on comments made on the red carpet, Alan says he enjoys writing for Jason and Lafayette, Raelle enjoys writing for Hoyt and Jessica, and Brian likes writing for Eric.
• Alan knows what the fans want: “Alexander Skarsgard appears without most of his clothes in the very first episode of S3.”
• We find out where Bill is in episode 3.01.
• Fans in the audience are expressing their unhappiness with Evan Rachel Wood as Sophie-Anne. Alan takes it in stride.
• Nothing new coming out of the fan part of the Q&A: lots of new characters in season 3, including possibility of the Newlins; Maryann is totally dead; the theme for season 3 is “identity”; Sookie will be driven to find out more about what/who she is/
• Ah, some reassurance for Team Bill: “Bill will not be marginalized. Bill and Sookie will have troubles, but Bill and Sookie have a connection that will not die.”
• And something else for Team Eric: Alan confirms that Eric will get amnesia in season 4.
• The fans gave Alan a standing ovation for the last scene of Six Feet Under.
• Alan says we’ll see more Pam and Nan Flanagan in season 3, groans at mention of pink spandex.
• Godric’s death scene was partially live, partially green screen and they got it in only two takes!
• Alan confirms that we’ll see Godric again in flashbacks in season 3.
• Alan also confirmed that season 3 will launch in June 2010.

That’s a wrap! Our reporters on the spot are sticking around to get more photos and (hopefully) some autographs. We’ll have photos and a full report tomorrow.

This is from Ausiello on Entertainment Weekly’s website.

For a backwater burg with only a single watering hole, Bon Temps sure does have a lot of colorful characters passing in and out (well, those that end up making it out). Case in point: Check out the motley crew Alan Ball and Co. are introducing in season 3 (premiering next summer). While Ball teased some of these arrivals in my recent Q&A, there’s nothing like sinking your teeth into the actual casting notices.

* Tommy Mickens is a grungy but handsome man in his early ‘20s who just so happens to be Sam Merlotte’s long-lost younger brother. Apparently, at some point he’ll be showing his unadorned backside, which, with Sam’s similar feral tendency towards the “full moon,” proves that they really must be related after all.

*After his mysterious abduction, Bill finds himself with the latest addition to the True Blood Gallery of Impossibly Attractive Male Vampires (or the TBGIAMV). Talbot, a bitingly (har har) sarcastic vampire with a model’s looks, will appear starting in the second episode as a guide of sorts for the kidnapped vamp.

* More news on the PYT front is the appearance of Jesus Velasquez, an unordinary orderly with a heart to match his good looks.

* In a friendly bit of one-upmanship, Tara gets her very own over-protective vampire buddy. And a “sexy, sexy, sexy, sexy” one at that. That’s right, four sexys. Eat that, Sookie. The neckbiter, Franklin Mott, is also clearly in the running for TBGIAMV status.

* We’ve had vampires, shape-shifters, and demi-gods, and now the next supernatural spook to waltz through Louisiana is…rednecks?! Well, maybe they aren’t so unearthly, but they can sure pack a punch and we can expect a group of them, led by a guy named Coot (of course), to unleash their mobile home magic on some of our dear characters.

* Jason Stackhouse will find that his notoriously limitless libido has taken a hit, when two NYU girls, Jen and Missy, ménage à try to get him into the sack to little avail.

* Yvetta, Fangtasia’s new Czechoslovakian dancer, is tremendously hot and comfortable being in the buff. Oh, and she makes lots of sexy time with Eric. (Don’t shoot the messenger!)

* Tara’s ever-distraught mom turns to the church for comfort (and maybe a little more) in the form of the honorable Reverend Daniels.

… for a People’s Choice Award.

C’mon you guys, I know you want everyone from the show to get an award… so this is your shot to get your “guy” to get a nod.

VOTE!

XOXO,

~M.

“I’ve signed a contract to write three more after the one that’s coming out in May, and they may be the last three,” Harris told CNN. “Probably by then I will have lived with Sookie long enough.”

Harris said she doesn’t want to keep the books going if Sookie’s stories start feeling played out. “I hope I have enough sense to walk away before that happens.”

_________________________________________________________________________

Okay… well we have three more years after May and then we may finally get to see Sookie have her fairy tale ending… or whatever…

~M.

By Andy Welch- www.herald.ie

What do sex-crazed vampires and bored US marines have in common? They’re both the subject of shows on Channel 4 which star Alexander Skarsgard. The Swedish actor, son of Mamma Mia! star Stellan, is set to become as big as his father, thanks to his roles in HBO series Generation Kill and True Blood, which are currently shown on Wednesday nights.

Alexander, who plays True Blood’s Eric Northman and Sgt Brad ‘Iceman’ Colbert in Generation Kill, may be a rising star now, but the truth is he’s already had one successful acting career. He retired back in 1989 when he hit the ripe old age of 13.

“I did my first movie when I was seven, and then I worked for about six years, doing movies and television in Sweden,” he begins. “Then I quit.”

“Back then, I did a movie for television, and it had a huge impact. Suddenly people recognised me wherever I went, and it made me uncomfortable.

“I didn’t know how to handle it, and I was very self-conscious and stressed out about the whole situation. So I quit.”

celebrity

His father, Stellan Skarsgard, has starred in films such as Ronin, Exorcist: The Beginning, Good Will Hunting and Angels And Demons, so you might think Alexander would have been able to get some tips from his old man, but his celebrity preceded his dad’s, who, back in the late 80s, was a jobbing actor in Stockholm theatres.

“He wasn’t that big a star when I grew up. The thing that took him to Hollywood was Breaking The Waves, the Lars von Trier movie, in 1996. I was already 20 years old by that point,” says Alexander. “Growing up, he was mostly a stage actor, and although he did movies as well, they were small Swedish ones.

“I’ve got younger siblings, and it was different for them; they did more of the travelling around the world, being on sets and all of that exotic stuff. For me, it was running around backstage at the theatre.”

If you haven’t already seen either True Blood or Generation Kill, they’re well worth the time.

The HBO stable can generally be considered a mark of quality. The US broadcaster, owned by Time Warner, is responsible for some of the very best TV of the last 20 years. The Sopranos, Deadwood, Sex And The City, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage and The Wire. They’re now some of the biggest-selling DVD box sets available, with millions of fans around the world.

Continuing the connection with The Wire, Generation Kill was also penned by David Simon and Ed Burns, creators of the aforementioned Baltimore-based series. They adapted the seven-part series from Evan Wright’s 2004 memoir, written about his time with an elite Marine unit, the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

deployed

The 1st Recon often spearheaded military operations, and despite not being deployed in the way they had been trained — as a reconnaissance team — they were extremely effective in breaking down Iraqi defences, making way for fellow soldiers on their way to Baghdad.

“Everything on the show happened in real life,” says Alexander. “One of the actors [Rudy Reyes] is a real Marine, and plays himself on the show. We had two other guys from 1st Recon with us for the duration of the shoot, which was seven months in South Africa.

“They were behind the camera for every single take every single day, making sure that everything was legit and was real. It was very important to us to show exactly what happened, and not make it into a Hollywood movie where everything is dramatised, and things are added or removed.”

True Blood

True Blood’s Season 3 won’t return until next summer, but we can still bring you the scoop on what’s happening when the HBO series returns. “It’s a crazy season,” executive producer Alan Ball tells TVGuide.com. “It picks up right where we left off and things get weird really fast.”

True Blood executive producer: Someone will die

As Ball already spilled, someone is going to die and we’ll be pretty happy about it. Find out what else he teases, including the juicy relationship between Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) and Sookie (Anna Paquin), and the addition of some new characters. Also, get a few extra tidbits from your favorite shaggy dog, star Sam Trammell.

Theme of Season 3: “It seems to be that it’s about really embracing one’s identity,” Ball tells us. “Season 2 was more about how religions can make people do things that maybe they wouldn’t do otherwise; it gives them the freedom to do things. This season is a lot about what it means to be who you are, or what you are.”

Sookie’s background: “Sookie still doesn’t know exactly what she is. She will get closer to figuring out why she has these random powers that show up when they do,” says Ball. (Spoiler alert: In the books, Sookie discovers she has fairy blood running in her.) “She is definitely part of a different race,” adds Ball. “In terms of fairies, like perky fairies with wings, like Tinkerbell, no, they’re not like that. If it is fairies, they’re fierce. They’re not pretty, soft, glamorous, gossamery things. They’re really, really, really powerful and primal creatures.” 

Mega Buzz: When will we find out who took Bill on True Blood?

Sookie and Eric: Sookie’s been seeing visions of her and Eric getting — ahem — friendly. Will their romance actually progress, not just in her head? “I can definitely tell you [we'll see that] in the show. I don’t know if it will necessarily be in Season 3. Of course they’re going to come together, it’s fated. It’s not something that’s going to happen right off the bat.”

Sam’s real family: “There’s some new shape-shifters who may be Sam’s biological family,” teases Ball. Adds Trammell, “As I understand it, I’m going to be trying to find my biological family, who put me up for adoption or abandoned me. I have a feeling they’re going to be very creepy, sketchy, weird, shape-shiftery weirdos. They’re going to be bad news.”

Sam’s love life: “Can he ever trust a woman again? I don’t know if he can, so he may have to just turn into an animal, stay an animal and seek love that way,” jokes Trammell. “I hope he does, in all seriousness, but it could take a season or two for him to build up that confidence again.”

Who’s coming back? “The Queen is coming back,” Ball reveals. “Godric is coming back for an appearance, a flashback. There’s some new vampires in town, there are some werewolves. We do have a lot of werewolves coming in, male and female, but we haven’t started casting for the show yet.”

Hi Everyone! Bitten by Books will be hosting a 2 hour Q & A with Charlaine Harris on Thursday, October 22. They will also have a contest to give away 3 autographed Sookie Stackhouse books as prizes. Check all of the information here.

Have fun,
Debbie

By MICKEY O’CONNOR AND ADAM BRYANT-tvguide.com

Here’s the buzz on True Blood from this edition of TV Guides Mega Buzz.
Kelly

How soon before we find out who took Bill on True Blood? — Dyan
MICKEY: “We will discover who has Bill right off the bat in Season 3, but it’s going to take the people on the show a little bit longer to find out,” executive producer Alan Ball tells us. Sookie will even consider the possibility that he left of his own volition. “It’s not easy for her,” Ball says. “She feels really bad because she’s not sure whether he just left because he was upset because she didn’t say yes right off the bat. But in her heart she believes he was taken and she doesn’t know who took him. She’s going to fight to find him.”