Sunday, March 22, 2009

Things I've learned from True Blood (10)


New vampires don't like True Blood.

Lettie Mae owes Terra $445.

Maenads have nice cars and homes.

Andy is surrounded by assholes and morons.

I learned that while Sam is taller than Bill but that Bill's pants were too long on Sam.

'Dead and Gone' No, not that one, the one with Justin Timberlake!

T.I. - Dead And Gone ft. Justin Timberlake


Charlaine doesn't mind at all that she shares the " Dead and Gone " stage with Justin Timberlake !

She even says "Justin Timberlake and I have a deep mystical connection. "Charlaine Harris. I think we can surmise that Ms Harris is a JT fan....

Justin Timberlake and T.I. from the album Paper Trail

The Ten Best Vampire Movies of the Modern Era from Video Hounds

From Video Hound here are the top 5, I still need to see 'Near Dark' and it's sure amazing how 'Let the Right One in' has zoomed to the top of Vampire movie list.

With Underworld: Rise of the Lycans opening earlier this year, Let the Right One In winning awards right and left (but getting snubbed by the Oscars), and every casting rumor about the Twilight sequel, The Twilight Saga's New Moon, turning the internet into a message board-posting rampage, blood-sucking creatures of the night are the "in creature" for 2009. A few years ago it was all about zombies and maybe Benicio Del Toro can bring it back to werewolves with The Wolf Man, but we are undeniably in the year of the bat.

5. Cronos (Guillermo Del Toro, 1993)

If you're late to the Del Toro party, having learned about the great Mexican director from films like Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, do yourself a favor and go back and revisit arguably his two best movies - The Devil's Backbone and Cronos. The latter is his debut and co-stars the big red guy himself, Ron Perlman. The film is about an antique dealer who finds an ancient device that essentially turns him into a vampire. Moody, atmospheric, and very dark, Cronos clearly heralded the arrival of a talented new filmmaker when it premiered at Toronto in 1993. A decade-and-a-half later, Guillermo Del Toro has a loyal following and is prepping to do The Hobbit. Check out where it began with one of the best vampire movies ever made.

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4. Fright Night (Tom Holland, 1985)

If you had asked me to write this list when I was thirteen, Fright Night would have been at the top. Heck, if you had asked me to list the best movies ever made, Fright Night might have been at the top. I loved this '80s action/adventure/comedy flick, a perfect example of the kind of tongue-in-cheek horror they made more often in the era of Ghostbusters and Gremlins. Come to think of it, why DON'T they make as many mainstream horror comedies anymore? It's weird. Watching it now, what I love about Fright Night is its recognition of the fans. It's a film about a horror movie fan made by horror fans for horror movie fans. The adoration of the genre comes through in every frame. Director Tom Holland was chosen for Showtime's Masters of Horror primarily for Fright Night (secondarily for Child's Play and not at all for The Temp).

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3. Bram Stoker's Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992)

Yes, Keanu Reeves is goofy and no one likes to think anything positive about Winona Ryder any more, but before you knee-jerk response to this choice, check it out again. Coppola's Dracula is a grandiose spectacle of a film, which is exactly what this story demands. Over-the-top set pieces with ridiculous dialogue not only work for this kind of material, there's no other way to pull it off successfully. Gary Oldman gives one of the best performances of his career, and we'll take Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing over that Oscar host any day of the week. But the real key to the mesmerizing charm of Bram Stoker's Dracula is there in the design. The bloody, insane, gorgeous design.

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2. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)

I hate it when critics and viewers try to claim all of a certain kind of horror movie is the same. There is a wide variety within the subgenres of "zombie movie," "ghost story," "slasher flick," etc. and snobby people often lump things together. As if this list hasn't proven the unpredictability within the "vampire movie" already, take the case of Let the Right One In. Tomas Alfredson's riveting adolescent drama couldn't be much more dissimilar from the over-the-top style of #3 or the action extravaganza of #1. Where most movies about bloodsuckers are action or horror flicks, I would almost call Let the Right One In a vampire drama. It's a beautiful dissection of adolescence and longing for a true relationship, even if it's with a vampire.

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1. Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987)

It's been twenty years since Kathryn Bigelow rocked our worlds with Near Dark and yet it is still one of the very first movies I think of when I hear the word "vampire", modern era or otherwise. Near Dark is a masterful combination of varying themes and ideas from vampire mythology as a whole, playing off both the allure and danger of being a creature of the night. Who hasn't thought about being sucked into a more exciting world than their own? Face it. Being a vampire would be pretty cool. Hanging with Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen all night at biker bars? Sign me up. Near Dark is a Western/horror/biker movie hybrid that feels like nothing else in the subgenre of vampire flick. It stands alone. It is weird, unusual, riveting, action-packed, romantic, old-fashioned, gory, clever, and exceptional. Near Dark rules.


True Blood : Cutting Edge Camera Work


Interesting article in American Cinematographer magazine, it can be a little technical but it's fascinating.

True Blood

by Jay Holben

When writer/director Alan Ball hired Checco Varese, AMC to shoot the pilot for HBO’s horror fantasy True Blood, the cinematographer spent the next several nights “doing my homework,” he says. “I watched everything I could that was on TV at 10 p.m. I flipped to one channel, and it looked fantastic; the show was moody and had lots of camera energy and a bit of a blue tone. Then I flipped the channel, and that show looked great, but it looked just like the first one. Then I flipped again, and again, and saw that most of the shows looked the same. That’s not the case now — there are a lot of great shows with a lot of great looks — but at the time, they all looked the same to me! I thought True Blood merited a very different look, something sweaty, hot and sexy, which is what Louisiana feels like. Alan, [production designer] Suzuki Ingerslev and I decided to make it a saturated show, with red reds and green greens.”

Another key component of the look is humidity, which had to be artificially created for the Los Angeles-based production. “When you’re in a very humid climate, there isn’t any dust,” notes Varese. “So whenever we shot an exterior, I made sure every inch was wet down.” Fire hoses were used to wet down the vegetation in the background and Hudson sprayers were used to saturate the closer greens. “I was obsessed with that detail because I think it really refines the look,” says Varese. “When you see those details in the trees in the background and the sheen in the foreground, it really looks like Louisiana. The constant wetness was tough on the actors, but it really enhanced the look.”

Set in the sleepy town of Bon Temps, La., True Blood is based on Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Series, which was begun in 2001 with the publication of Dead Until Dark. The invention of synthetic blood has enabled vampires to integrate themselves into human society, but the transition has not been smooth. Tensions in town reach a boiling point when a comely local, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), takes up with a vampire, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), and Sookie’s associates and loved ones begin turning up dead.

Read on here

True Blood goes to the movie : Anna Paquin stars in Castle in the Sky

Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta (1986) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_in_the_Sky

Director : Hayao Miyazaki

Release Date : 2 August 1986 (Japan) Anna did the English Disney English audio dub in 1998

Genre : Animation, Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Cast : Mayumi Tanaka as Pazu (voice), James Van Der Beek as Pazu (2003) (voice: English version), Anna Paquin as Sheeta (2003) (voice: English version), Keiko Yokozawa as Sheeta (voice), Kotoe Hatsui as Dola (voice), Cloris Leachman as Dola (2003) (voice: English version), Mark Hamill as Muska (voice: English version), Minori Terada as Muska (voice), Richard Dysart as Uncle Pomme (2003) (voice: English version), Fujio Tokita as Uncle Pomme (voice), Jim Cummings as General (voice), Ichirô Nagai as Shogun Mouro (voice), John Hostetter as Boss (voice: English version), Hiroshi Ito as Oyakata (voice), Machiko Washio as Okami, Mrs. Daffy (voice)

You gotta love this plot text !

Plot : A infantile boy furthermore a gal as well as a anathema bright must race hostile pirates furthermore unfamiliar agents inside a pursuit as a legendary hanging castle.

True Blood Music Video of the Day :Ice by Sarah McLachlan



Ice by Sarah McLachlan LYRICS