Alan Ball Interview Creator of HBO’s True Blood Series

From Buzzy Media

Charlaine Harris’ “Southern Vampire” books concern the goings-on in the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, resident telepath waitress Sookie Stackhouse and a whole lot of supernatural beings. These creatures include vampires, who have recently revealed themselves to humans worldwide after the development of the synthetic blood substance Tru Blood. Harris’ books appeal to a wide range of readers. One of these was Alan Ball, an Oscar winner for his original screenplay for American Beauty and creator of HBO’s highly-acclaimed series Six Feet Under, which ran for five seasons.

Dead Until Dark, he says he became enthralled. “I got into Sookie and the world and the characters, and I looked forward to going to bed every night, because I knew I was going to read the book before I went to sleep, and I would tell myself, ‘Okay, I’m just going to read two chapters,’ and I would read seven. I just felt, ‘This is kind of a phenomenon.’ I read first four books, [which] at that time [was what] had been published, and I wanted more. So I called [Harris]. At that time, she had given the rights to a film producer, but those rights were set to run out in a couple of months. They ran out and I convinced her to let me take a stab at it.”

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