True Blood' star works with panthers

NEW YORK —"True Blood” star Ryan Kwanten, pictured, says he's the "go to guy” when a production calls for working with panthers, even though he has a healthy fear of them.

Real panthers were used in the HBO series, and Kwanten said recently that he was supposed to work with a panther in his new Australian Western, "Red Hill,” until he learned the feline turned on its owner in a deadly attack.
Instead, Kwanten acted while writer/director Patrick Hughes pretended to be the feline off camera. Kwanten joked that it was his "finest bit of acting to keep a straight face and try to stay in it while my director was licking his paws and carrying on.” Another panther was filmed for scenes added in later.
Kwanten, who plays Jason Stackhouse in "True Blood,” said the hairs on his back stand up when panthers are on the set, but the animals are always chained.
"You're definitely on your toes” when working with the big cats, he said.
The Associated Press

Read more: http://newsok.com/true-blood-star-works-with-panthers/article/3510531#ixzz14JuLGRXv

The CW to adapt 'Vampire Diaries' writer's, L.J. Smith, 'The Secret Circle'

According to Kristin Dos Santos, the CW’s new pilot Secret Circle, based on the book series authored by The Vampire Diaries scribe L.J. Smith, is expected to help fill the Life Unexpected void midseason. There are also some rumors of other pilots in development for the network.

“The Secret Circle” is a series of books about witches. A 16 year old girl named Cassie moves, with her mother, to New Salem, Massachusetts. Her new highschool is ruled by a group of girls known as ‘The Club’. The girls in The Club are witches, descended from the original Salem witches, and Cassie is a witch herself.

Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, are writers and producers who were also involved with creating The Vampire Diaries show (and were involved with Buffy, Angel and Dollhouse). They’re now spearheading the adaptation, while screenwriter Andrew Miller is writing the pilot episode.

read on

Best television adaptations of science fiction and fantasy novels

This is a fun list !

Can a book really become a decent television show? Yes, and here's the proof! Here are 12 shining examples of science fiction and fantasy books that actually got turned into television series that are worth watching in their own right.

The other day, we listed the worst TV adaptations of SF books, now here are the best. If The Walking Dead and A Game Of Thrones turn out to be awesome, they'll join the select club that already has these dozen members:

True Blood.

And then there's the other vampire TV show based on a book series. Alan Ball and company haven't been afraid to make Charlaine Harris' best-selling Sookie Stackhouse series their own, taking huge liberties with the source material, but they've also paid tribute to the characters and concepts that made the books great in their own right. Few TV shows have become day-after watercooler material to the extent that True Blood has, and they've made characters like Lafayette (who survives on the TV series despite dying in the books) their own.



read on

MOVIE GEEKS UNITED interviews True Blood's Ryan Kwanten

Listen to internet radio with MOVIE GEEKS UNITED on Blog Talk Radio

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Starry Eyed

True Blood • Starry Eyed

TopazVSOnyx

Stephen Moyer talks True Blood with Jive in Brisbane, Australia

Set in the near future in a fictional Louisiana town called Bon Temps, True Blood is a sexy, romantic and gloriously Gothic world where vampires – not to mention werewolves, shapeshifters and telepaths – mix freely with humans. Moyer plays 173-year-old vampire Bill Compton who falls for a waitress, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin).

In True Blood, vampires have emerged from the shadows thanks to the invention of mass-produced, synthetic blood, which means that they no longer need to prey on humans for their fix. Although for some, the lure of true blood is too hard to resist.
The series was created by Alan Ball and is based on the best-selling novels by Charlaine Harris. Moyer credits Ball, an Oscar winner for American Beauty who also created the highly acclaimed Six Feet Under, and his team of writers with making the very best cutting edge television that stands alongside great US shows such as Breaking Bad and Mad Men.
read on

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Lorena, Unlucky in love.

True Blood. Lorena. Unlucky in love.

arrgentum1 

Anne Rice Calls 'Twilight Saga' A 'Failure Of The Imagination'

Oh snap! The grand dame of vampire literature, Anne Rice, had some not-so-nice things to say about Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight Saga" universe in a recent interview with New Jersey's The Star-Ledger while promoting her new novel "Of Love and Evil." We're wondering if this will spark a verbal smack-down in the bloodsucking book world!
"['Twilight']’s based on a really silly premise: that immortals would go to high school. It's a failure of imagination, but at the same time, that silly premise has provided Stephenie Meyer with huge success," Anne said. "The idea that if you are immortal you would go to high school instead of Katmandu or Paris or Venice, it’s the vampire dumbed down for kids. But it's worked. It's successful. It makes kids really happy."
It's not too surprising that Anne had less-than-sweet nothings to whisper about the series that has made vampires the hottest supernatural property around and virtually diluted a genre that had been a sophisticated cultural metaphor. Still, wow, those are some pretty harsh words towards Stephenie! Anne did add that "it's almost like a stroke of genius to put vampires in high school," but that still sounds a bit derogatory to us.

read on

Vampire Diaries -Stefan Salvatore costume

Nina Dobrev tweeted this- thought everyone needed a laugh !

@iansomerhalder as "Stefan Salvatore" for Halloween! Brilliant!!!

James Frain joins Twitter and gets some help from others in the True Blood cast

You can find James here:

James " Franklin" Frain http://twitter.com/James_Frain

Other cast member are here:

Allan " Godric " Hyde http://twitter.com/Allanhyde

Kristin "Pam" Bauer http://twitter.com/BauervanStraten

Mariana "Lorena" Klaveno http://twitter.com/KlavenoFarmGirl

Marshall " Tommy" Allman: http://twitter.com/MarshallAllman

Jim " Hoyt" Parrack: http://twitter.com/parrack120

Lindsey "Hadley" Haun: http://twitter.com/HaunSoloProject

Sam "Sam" Trammell http://twitter.com/SamTrammell

Thanks Kathryn
Others ???

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Sleep Alone - Eric/Sookie/Bill (True Blood)

Sleep Alone - Eric/Sookie/Bill (True Blood)

Lawliettte

True Blood Music Video of the Day: This Is Halloween - Marilyn Manson (True Blood)

This Is Halloween - Marilyn Manson (True Blood)

JackieSandraLunaP

Werewolves tonight on Syfy with a take on the Little Red Riding story : 'Red: Werewolf Hunter'

Felicia Day, star of The Guild and Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog, who also played “Vi” in the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, will portray a descendant of Little Red Riding Hood in Red: Werewolf Hunter, debuting Saturday, October 30, at 9PM (ET/PT).
Red (Day) brings her fiancé home, where he meets the family and learns about their business — hunting werewolves.  He’s skeptical until bitten by a werewolf.  When her family insists he must be killed, Red tries saving him.  Red: Werewolf Hunter also stars Kavan Smith (Stargate Atlantis)and Stephen McHattie (Watchmen).

Christ’s evil twin? The vampire’s religious roots

It takes more than a theological stake to the heart to kill the vampire legend.

Stories of dark-eyed seducers who prey on unsuspecting victims to suck their blood have persisted for more than five centuries. They have haunted our dreams and films, moving from place to place. And they are reborn in every generation. Today these parasites-on-the-living seemingly are everywhere.

From the television series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight books and films to the current HBO saga, “True Blood,” fascination with these so-called creatures of the night permeates contemporary life, albeit in modern forms. Thousands of living Americans even consider themselves vampires.

So why is this mythic figure so long-lived and potent?

Sigmund Freud said vampires represent our repressed sexuality and aggression, while Carl Jung argued that they are a universal type of “shadow,” or dark side of the human personality. They embody aspects of ourselves that we reject, hide or are ashamed to confront.

read on Salt Lake City Tribune

Will The Walking Dead do for zombies what True Blood did for vampires?

Andrew Lincoln of This Life plays an all-American everyman in a grisly post-apocalyptic drama from the writer of The Shawshank Redemption

There is a moment at the start of the most gore-laden, bloody and grisly TV episode ever made when you will think to yourself: "What's Egg from This Life doing in an American cop's uniform?"

But this thought won't occupy you for long: you'll have more to think about than just Andrew Lincoln's transformation from Brit actor to all-American blue collar hero. Like zombies: lots and lots of zombies. Zombies with flesh peeling from their faces to reveal bits of skull, zombie grannies, zombie psychos, zombie toddlers and – in one tasteful early scene – a legless, half-eaten, decaying zombie woman who's dragging herself slowly around town like a human slug. It is very probably the most unpleasant thing on mainstream TV since Kim Woodburn forced down a kangaroo testicle on I'm A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!

read on

Premiers Halloween night !
http://www.amctv.com/originals/The-Walking-Dead/

Vampire Diaries Season 2 Episode 8 - Rose Extended Preview

Wow and when did you grow up Stephen R McQueen ????!

Vampire Expert Ian Holt: ‘Vampires Do Exist. I Have Met Them.’

Author Ian Holt wrote a sequel to Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Dracula the Un-Dead) alongside Stoker’s great-grand nephew, Dacre Stoker. Holt also serves as writer and producer for the supernatural thriller film, Episode 50. We caught up with this vampire expert just in time for Halloween.

Q: Why are vampires portrayed as sexy monsters?

A: That was just a happy accident. As written, Bram’s character of Count Dracula was old, he smelled like the grave, he had hair on his palms and the facial features of a rodent. Bram’s Count Dracula was not at all sexy.

read on