True Blood behind the scenes; Bill's house, the new and improved ?

Well--- I love the old house and I have been to the house many, many times. I even had fans from all over the country fly to Dallas and we've taken driving tours of Louisiana and many of the locations used in the filming of True Blood.

Bill house is real and was in bad shape when Ball and True Blood first filmed in it 2007 - it has since undergone a massive renovation but it is not the house used this season  in the scene in the Season 4 when Sookie walks over to talk to King Bill.

You can see the new house in the photo it is obviously not the same old ( real house ) of Bills . I bet it's a facade that has been built on a back lot or maybe on the property where Sookie's house and cemetery are located.

This photo is from a recent visit - you can see all the construction and you can see how the left side of the house really looks. The big difference is the height of the new " fake" Bill's house,  its so low the actual house is very high off the ground. 

Awww .. everyone say awwww together. Here is the first peek we get of Bill's house from Season 1 episode 2.

The real Bill's house is called Roseneath Plantation and has been owned by the Means family since it was built in 1846. I have lots more about it here 

Ep. 38 Clip: Sookie Sees Bill's Revamped House

Alexander Skarsgård on the cover of Louisiana’s Scene Magazine

Check out the pdf magazine here and look at all the cool movies filming in Louisiana these days

HERE

Movie extras needed for "Battleship"

NBC Universal’s feature film “Battleship” starring Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, Liam Neeson, Tom Arnold and Rihanna will start principal photography Oct. 14 at the Celtic Studios in Baton Rouge. Please send resumes to hopperBR@gmail.com.

Do you wanna be an extra in an Alex Skartsgard or Stephen Moyer movie !

The independent feature film “The Big Valley” starring Jessica Lange, Richard Dreyfuss, and Ryan Phillippe is scheduled to begin principle photography July 5 in the Baton Rouge area. Please send resumes to extrasrock@gmail.com.

NBC Universal’s feature film “Battleship” will start principal photography Oct. 14 at the Celtic Studios in Baton Rouge. Please send resumes to hopperBR@gmail.com.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/entertainment/97098429.html

True Blood house for sale!

** I've been there 3 times and it's really known as the Ogilvie-Wiener House, I have some great photos of it here

Are you a true blue True Blood fan? Well now you can own a piece of television history!

The beautiful Victorian house featured in the opening credits of the show is currently up for sale. Not only has it been featured on the HBO hit show but it was once known as The Florentine Club where the likes of Ethel Merman, John Wayne, and even Elvis Presley frequented!

It is 7300 square feet historic home that dates back to 1896 and sits on seven lots. The three story structure has a wrap around deck, fifteen foot ceilings and is one of the largest Queen Anne’s available in Northern Louisiana.

read on accidental sexiness

Viewers seek out Sookie's haunts

For a tiny pocket of a place, Bon Temps is a mighty interesting corner of Louisiana.

It's got a country bar, old farmhouses and at least one sweet telepathic barmaid with Southern manners and a sense of hospitality no matter how strange the company.

And it's got vampires.

At least it does in the mind of author Charlaine Harris and the producers of HBO's "True Blood."

But Bon Temps can't be located on any Louisiana map, despite how familiar the place seems to fans of the show and Harris' Southern Vampire Series and waitress Sookie Stackhouse.

That doesn't keep some folks from seeking it out.

In their quest, many have inquired in Shreveport and Monroe, two cities that have seen their share of action for our heroine and telepathic waitress.

Shreveport, for example, has the distinction of being home to the fictional Fangtasia, a vampire bar that has seen its share of danger in nine books and two television seasons.

"Everybody wants to know about the 'True Blood' bar," said Brandy Evans of the Shreveport-Bossier Convention & Tourist Bureau.

"We don't have a vampire bar, but we do have lots of other bars."

Here are some places in Shreveport and Monroe that might offer a taste of the landscape that inspired Bon Temps. Shreveport

About 15 miles from the Texas border, Shreveport and Bossier City straddle the Red River.

Sookie fans know Shreveport as the home of Fangtasia, a bar run by handsome but not-to-be-trusted vampire Eric Northman. It is also the workplace of Alcide Herveaux, one of Sookie's werewolf friends.

The two cities and surround? ing areas have many attractions for human visitors.

Louisiana Boardwalk: A trolley runs through the collection of shops nestled by the Red River. The area also has multiple restaurants and a movie theater. You can board the Spirit of the Red River Cruise here.

Film Trail: Shreveport has been a stand-in for places as diverse as Paris, New York and Kodiak, Alaska. In addition to "True Blood," "The Guardian" and "Mr. Brooks" have filmed there. Check out www.shreve?port-bossierfilm.com for a guide to Shreveport in the movies.

Casinos: Five riverfront casinos and one casino/racetrack lure the betting kind. But the casinos also offer restaurants, entertainment, spas and pools. www.shreveport-bossier.org/casinos.

R.W. Norton Art Gallery: The museum sits on 47 acres in a residential neighborhood near downtown. The museum's collection includes 19th-century American and European art, antique dolls dressed in the Louisiana fashions of 1720-1920 and antique firearms. The grounds feature more than 20,000 azaleas that bloom in late March or early April. Admission is free. www.rwnaf.org.

Dorcheat Bayou: Mark Norris fell in love with the bayou and its moss-draped cypress and tupelo trees when he took a canoe trip as a child. Now he runs Norris Canoe Outfitters, which offers guided half-day to weeklong tours of the waterway.

Depending on the day, paddlers may see any of up to 50 species of birds, "some native and some not so native," Norris said. And alligators. Plenty of alligators. His office is at 731 Main in Minden, about 30 miles east of Shreveport. (318) 588-0166.

read on

HBO's chillingly good series 'True Blood' comes to Louisiana, and the cast and crew taste and feel the real thing

from the Times Picayune [Nola.com]

CLINTON -- It was a characteristically steamy July day, and the grounds surrounding the East Feliciana Parish Courthouse were strewn with trash and clothing as if the town's residents had gone crazy from the heat.

Jeans and blouses in the trees. Lingerie draped on the stone Confederate officer stationed in front of the same courthouse that previously served, appropriately enough, as a location setting for the 1958 film "The Long Hot Summer." "Bacchus Rocks" graffiti scrawled on the base of the 1909 United Daughters of the Confederacy statue.

The lascivious litter was the work of spell-casting party girl Maryann Forrester, a character in the hit HBO vampire drama "True Blood," which came to the Clinton area late in its second season for several days of location shooting.

"Sorry, people of Clinton," said Adam Davidson, director of the episode for which the streets of Clinton had been strategically messed up. "Forgive us."

Not a problem.

Clinton was officially delighted to become the physical manifestation of Bon Temps, the show's fictional small-town Louisiana setting, and not just for the midsummer entertainment the production provided townsfolk, several dozen of whom toted lawn chairs to watch the action from off-camera.

Baton Rouge was the production base for the long-weekend shoot, so much of the food-, beverage- and hotel-room budget for the cast and crew of about 110 wasn't spent in Clinton. But the town did well, and may do very well in the future, by "True Blood."

During filming, traffic had to be routed around Clinton's downtown, creating a minor nuisance for cross-parish travelers, but more than 50 Louisiana residents were employed by the show, including Audrey Faciane, executive director of the parish's Chamber of Commerce and a parish tourism commissioner, who got a small part as one of the Bon Temps residents turned crazy by Maryann's mood magic

read on

True Blood Season 2 finale: Sookie and Bill dance the jitterbug

Nice little tidbit of news can be found about the True Blood season 2 finale in the 'Sookie and Bill take on the heat of Louisiana" article this morning.

After the Clinton shoot, production shifted indoors to the Stockade Bed and Breakfast in Baton Rouge. Once a Civil War stockade, the B&B is listed on the National Register of Historical Places as an archaeological site.

The Stockade's great room — an open space with a balcony, baby grand piano, large wood-burning fireplace and floor-to-ceiling glass wall — was transformed into a restaurant for the shoot. A nearby breakfast room, filled with antiques and hummingbird and botanical prints, became a makeshift studio for directors and script supervisors to watch the scenes unfold on monitors.

The sequence shot on this day was a dance scene. Paquin, in a sundress with her hair in a sleek up-do, and Moyer in black suit, do a modified jitterbug to the Jerry Lee Lewis song "Before the Night Is Over." Between takes, the actors chill out in a back room at the B&B where stylists touch up their makeup.

Footage from the Louisiana shoot will appear in upcoming episodes and the season finale, set to air on Sept. 13, which is expected to include the dance scene.

Here is the beautiful room in the Stockade Bed and Breakfast in Baton Rouge [http://www.thestockade.com/]

Here is Jerry Lee singing "Before the Night Is Over"

True Blood behind the scenes: Sookie and Bill take on the heat of Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. – Sookie Stackhouse and her brother Jason are returning from Dallas to the tiny Louisiana town of Bon Temps. But something is wrong: Newspapers drift in the steamy air; fruit stands and flower stalls are overturned; graffiti assaults signs and a courthouse statue; and trash and clothes litter streets and lawns.

A force of nature? Or something brewed by Maryann, the dark, mysterious newcomer in HBO's hit vampire drama, "True Blood"?

Cast and crew of the show, based on Charlaine Harris' best-selling Sookie Stackhouse stories, were in Louisiana to soak up the antebellum atmosphere of Clinton, a community of 2,000 people, 30 miles north of Baton Rouge. Main Street and the town's courthouse, surrounded by sprawling, moss-covered oak trees, were perfect as backdrops for the tale of vampires living among humans, thanks to the invention of mass-produced synthetic blood.

The sticky heat, mossy greenery, white columned houses and slow-moving lifestyle also added to the allure, and gave a dimension and authenticity to the series that can only be captured here.

"The moment you step off the plane, you feel you're in the world of the show," said "True Blood" writer Alexander Woo. "You don't have to imagine you're there."

read on

True Blood filming in Clinton, LA

Thanks to everyone for the great photos

'True Blood' season 2 film crew takes over Clinton, La., then heads for New Orleans

From Times- Picayune

Clinton, La. -- Standing in for fictional downtown Bon Temps, La., the blocks surrounding the East Feliciana Parish Courthouse looked like they'd been hit by a lusty tornado over the weekend.

The steamy HBO drama "True Blood" came to Clinton for several days of location shooting, and the town's streets (and trees) were strategically strewn with trash but mostly clothing, for a saucy storyline to play out in a few weeks on the show's 10th episode of the current season.

Saturday, shooting started at about noon and concluded after 2 a.m. Sunday. Wilting heat and humidity prevailed, broken occasionally by light rain.

read on

True Blood in Louisiana

HBO, is making Clinton, the final resting place, for it's popular series, True Blood.

The cast and crew, spent the last week, in Clinton, filming for the current season.

The producers, announced the town of Clinton will be the center of all the action, as the fictional town of Bon Temps.

"Well, we were looking for a town that had a nice small town feel like our town of Bon Temps is supposed to have and Clinton fit the bill very closely",says executive producer, Gregg Fienberg.

"The locals they come up, they talk and you get that real authentic accent and that Louisiana swagger and you just sort of incorporate it, said Nelsan Ellis. Ellis plays the character "Lafayette", a short-order grill cook at Merlotte's.

Producers say they plan on shooting in Clinton as long as the town will have them.

True Blood comes to Louisiana

Clinton, La. — Cast members of the hit HBO show True Blood spent some time near Baton Rouge today, shooting scenes for the steamy vampire drama.

Set in the fictional Louisiana town of Bon Temps, the series follows waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her relationship with the dashing Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) — a 174-year-old vampire.

Paquin and other cast members — including Ryan Kwanten, who plays Sookie’s wild brother Jason, and Nelsan Ellis, who plays the eccentric short order cook and drug dealer Lafayette Reynolds — were in Clinton today filming scenes for the tenth episode of the show’s second season, which premiered June 14.

“It’s beautiful down here,” Paquin said. “Nothing really looks like the South except the South ... It’s really important to come down here and capture it.”

The cast and crew spent some time filming in Shreveport for True Blood’s first season and are hopeful to return to filming in Clinton if the show is picked up for a third season.

True Blood was created by Alan Ball, the man behind HBO’s popular series Six Feet Under and the Academy Award-winning film “American Beauty,” and is based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.

More here

HBO's "True Blood" Behind the Scenes in Clinton, Louisiana

HBO show "True Blood" comes to Baton Rouge area

CLINTON, LA (WAFB) - Parts of Louisiana are looking more like Hollywood lately. A new tax credit law to bring more motion pictures to the Bayou State is enticing many productions.

9 News spent the day on the set of "True Blood." It's a new HBO show about vampires living in Louisiana.

It takes place in a fictional town in North Louisiana, but HBO decided to shoot a lot of its second season near Baton Rouge.

"The whole atmosphere is suited for what we do and a sound stage isn't," said actor Nelsan Ellis who plays Lafayette Reynolds on the show.

The show's creators spent weeks scouting locations for the fictional town of Bon Temps. They tell 9 News they found what they were looking for in Clinton, the town in East Feliciana Parish. The production will also film in Baton Rouge at several locations.

"It's really important for them (the actors) to get a chance to be in Louisiana and feel the heat and see the town," said executive producer Gregg Fienberg.

Governor Bobby Jindal on Thursday enacted a law that would give projects like "True Blood" a 30 percent tax credit on whatever is spent in the state.

"We see a strong message going out to the rest of the world that Louisiana is building a stable industry that's providing Louisianans with work," said Christopher Stelly, the director of film and television for the state.

"Nothing really looks like the South except the South, so our show is set in Louisiana and that's a big part of what works and what it is and it's important to come down here and capture it," said actress Anna Paquin, who plays the show's lead character, Sookie Stackhouse.

The state has several upcoming projects, including a few in Baton Rouge. Those behind the projects are keeping their lips sealed.

"True Blood" will finish its second season of filming in the area over the weekend.

©2009 WAFB. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

True Blood behind the scenes: Sookie's Dad is a member of the Blue Man Group - What the hell ?

Why- Yes, he is and her mom was a ballerina !

NO, I am not making that up...haha

Jenni Blong plays Michelle Stackhouse in True Blood Season One : Episode 1, First Bite

Jenni's IMDb and Facebook page
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0089093/
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jenni-Blong/551796934
She is a former ballet dancer

Jeffery Nicholas Brown plays Corbett Stackhouse True Blood Season One : Episode 1, First Bite

Jeffreys's IMDb page
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1467955/

* is one of the Blue Men in the "Blue men group"
* played a vampire in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' in 2002

** We do not know the name of Sookie's mother from the books.

Here are some behind the scenes photos from the set in Louisiana










We see Sookie and Jason as children and meet their parents in this True Blood clip ( 3:13)

Vampire Bill's house featured on The Exterminator -it's a Racoon haunting

Ha Ha, this has really tickled me, Poor Bill. Thanks to my birdie for the tip!

Does this house look familiar ? It's vampire Bill Compton's house in Bon Temp from True Blood. I have done tons on research on it HERE

His house was infested by raccoons and was featured on a recent edition of the A&E program called, The Exterminators

'The Racoon Haunting' --haunting/ hunting get it, huh? Ha !
Watch the video HERE

Travelogue to Louisiana Part Deaux : Dallas and friends tweet their way through Northern Louisiana

Saturday, March 7, 2009

7:30am ObjectDesire (OD) picks up Nocturnalinnc and Arianwyn (henceforth NC and Aria) at their hotel then drives to Dallas' house. This is a bit early as we had a late night drinking margaritas and listening to Latin Jazz the previous evening (whoosh, Dallas can boogy, especially after a couple of drinks; NC and Aria not too bad either!).

8:30am Depart the metroplex with Dallas behind the wheel. Have many road snacks, but Dallas is peeved that OD forgot Cheezits.

9:00am Stop at Starbucks. Need coffee...

10:30am Stop to buy Cheezits.

11:00am Cross into Area 5, Lousiana (we have previously obtained permission from Sheriff Eric Northman). Visiting wiki girls are required to "raise the roof" and "woot, woot" as we cross the border. They comply.

11:30am Pass FotS church. Double-take then note location for later reconnoiter.

11:50am Yippeeee! Bill's house is still fabulous and beautiful. No construction foreman is present today so we can loiter a bit longer taking pics of house and each other in front of house. Dallas leaves gravel on driveway, but NC swipes a rock.

12:15pm Enter Mansfield--visit courthouse and magic tree (Bubba's establishment is still there). Park near Mansfield Police Station trying to decide if it stood in for BonTemps station in TrueBlood. It is a close call, so we then debate whether it is against the law to take pictures of a police station. Sneek a few shots with much anxiety. Dallas pulls out in path of only other car on road in Mansfield and we narrowly miss a collision. Now we are really rattled and fear arrest at any moment. ( Oh-- it wasn't that bad, but it was the only other car in Mansfield and it was right in front of the police station-"D")

12:45pm Having avoided arrest, we decide sustenance is in order. In honor of Sookie, we eat footlong chili cheese dogs at Sonic (Sookie likes Sonic doesn't she?). Dallas whips out iphone and begins Twitter roleplay with @SookieBonTemps.( Dallas also DID NOT have a footlong chili cheese dog!)

Afternoon: *Times now blurry to protect secret location of Jason's house and Rattray's trailer*
YES, WE FOUND JASON'S HOUSE! No glamouring was involved, unless you count Dallas glamouring her computer. We are able to identify the various outbuildings and the picnic spot from Stackhouse family flashbacks.
A short way down the road, we find the spot where the Rattray's trailer was upended by our Bill.

2ish: Much pleased with ourselves, we head back toward Shreveport.
Sneak stealthily up on FotS Church. Jump out and "snap, snap, snap" take photos. Drive around back...even creepier back there. Hold breath until we finally make it out of parking lot and back on the road.

2:45pm Take NC and Aria past the Shreveport filming locations--site of Monroe vamp house, Lucky's Liquors and Ogilvie-Werner House seen in opening credits, and the Strand theatre.

3:30pm Drive to Lake Bistineau to see if we can find where Terry and Andy fished and Sam ran nekkid through the trees. Lake is beautiful and we find some likely spots. Take more photos.
We take a good look around on drive to and from Lake Bistineau because this is the route Sookie, et. al. would take to Shreveport from Bon Temps.

5:00pm Arrive at Ralph & Kacoos for dinner (this is where Sookie and Quinn dine on their date). See stuffed tiger in lobby--hope it is no one we know. Order way too much food, attempt to eat as much of it as possible.

6:30 Back on the road home. Twitter role-play is heating up. Aria has had instructions in iPhone and Twitter and reads tweets to the rest of us. Much hilarity ensues, with Dallas having to pull over to tweet responses. Aria given new instructions on iphone keypad after we pull over in one too many dark spots and (I swear this is true) a coyote stares us down. We are laughing so hard, OD (who has a cold, stops breathing--okay, okay just gasping for breath).
We laugh hysterically all the way back to Dallas. Plans are made for a June trip to Los Angeles. Sookie is invited via Twitter.
Stay tuned :-)

haha -this is great thanks so much OD!

Yes, we can't disclose the location of the Jason house or the Rattray trailer ( known as Four Corners ) as they are located at private homes and the owners have not disclosed the location in any other interviews. Bill's house has been written up many times so that's not disclosing any secrets. I love this area more and more every time we go back.

I can't disclose who this is in the photo at least one person is one of the 3 other people on the trip and I took the photo.

**We did do the radio show last Monday night with @SookieBonTemps and all the girls called in and talked about the trip and the twitter hilarity if you missed the show you can listen here

** OD writes these great travelogues for all our trips others are here ( Houston to meet Charlaine and our first trip to Bon Temps http://lovingtruebloodindallas.blogspot.com/search/label/travelogue

True Blood behind the scenes: More on the Monroe vamp house

You guys all remember the burning of the Monroe Vamp house in True Blood last season . That was supposedly the recently purchased home of Malcom, Liam and Dianne. It was set on fire by 'the Rednecks' at the end of Episode 7 , Burning House of Love and and we see Sookie visit the site and view the results in episode 8 , The Fourth Man in the Fire

We just got back from Shreveport, so I've now visited the site twice, well, it's where the house once stood before it was destroyed in a "control burned " for the show. It is now just an empty lot but in digging around a little I found that the buildings that were once there are still visible on Google earth. Here are the Google Earth shots from early last year and my photo of how the site looks now.


I have other posts on this filming site here :

http://lovingtruebloodindallas.blogspot.com/2009/01/true-blood-behind-scenes-monroe-vamps.html

http://lovingtruebloodindallas.blogspot.com/2009/01/true-blood-behind-scenes-4th-man-is-in.html

Louisiana and our visit to Bon Temps was just wonderful !!!

We thoroughly enjoyed our day trip to North Western Louisiana. We visited many of the True Blood filming locations, some we had visited before and 3 new ones!

We went to the actual geographic location of Charlaine Harris's Bon Temps as well as the Alan Ball'S True Blood location...

If you follow me on Twitter, I am actually still there ( as "Dallas" role playing with the True Blood twitter gang) and staying at Sookie's house. When we got there late last night, we seemed to have disturbed Eric and Sookie's game of Scrabble. If you follow them on Twitter you know exactly what Scrabble is an euphemism for. :) When we felt like we were possibly disturbing them , we left and went to theBon Temp Sonic for milkshakes.

When we came back later, we were greeted by both Sookie and Eric. Eric was very gracious and even kissed us all on the cheek when we arrived. The ladies who accompanied me on the trip all swooned and vowed they would not wash that side of their faces in the morning.

We all spent the night @ SookieBonTemps house and the other girls headed back to Dallas this morning, I am staying to do some more interviews for the blog. We have more twitter goodies brewing, so stayed tuned to @trueblooddallas and @SookieBonTemps for more excitement.

Thanks (as always) to the wonderful ObjectDesire and our out-of-town guests this weekend
(who flew all the way in specially from North Carolina and Ohio) our friends from the HBO True Blood Fan Wiki, Arianwyn and Nocturnalnnc.

The weather was gorgeous, the company was so much fun and a great time was had by all...

More photos coming, as well as another one of Object Desire's hilarious road trip travelogues ...

If you don't twitter you need to ...I tweeted all along yesterday. You can set up a free twitter account here : http://twitter.com/

and find me here: http://twitter.com/trueblooddallas

(*note Sookie's house as it appears in True Blood is in California not in Bon Temps, LA but you can pretend ;D)