Wednesday, May 12, 2010

'True Blood' seeps from books to TV and, now, to comics


Vampires are everywhere these days. And now the steamiest bloodsuckers of the bayou have a comic book of their own.

For those who can't get enough of HBO's True Blood, which returns for a third season in June, a six-issue comic book miniseries from IDW Publishing will make its debut at the San Diego Comic-Con in July.

Creators of the blood-drenched show have teamed with comic veterans for new stories of Sookie Stackhouse, her undead lover, Bill Compton, and the rest of the sex-crazed cast of mythical Bon Temps, La.

The first issue includes four alternate covers and a story line that traps the cast with an unnamed beast in Merlotte's Bar.

With Twilight and Vampire Diaries grabbing audiences by the throat, what gives True Blood its distinctive bite?


read on

True Blood Season 3 promo poster # 8 Bewere


In the latest in a series of promotional posters for the hit vampire drama True Blood, HBO is hinting at things — namely werewolves — to come.

Joe Manganiello has signed on to play werewolf Alcide Herveaux, a season 3 love interest for Anna Paquin‘s Sookie Stackhouse.

In the books by Charlaine Harris that the show is based on, Alcide helps Sookie search for her beloved vampire beau Bill Compton (played by Stephen Moyer), who went missing at the end of season 2.

http://tvwatch.people.com/2010/05/12/true-blood-werewolves-poster-alcide-herveaux/

Why Are True Blood Costars Mocking Skarsgård?

We know why the True Blood star Alexander Skarsgård is so hot (that Swedish swagger, deelish bod and nonchalant almost bisexual attitude), so why then, do some of his castmates poke fun at our fave TV vamp?

While at the Victoria's Secret What Is Sexy party last night at the W Hotel in Hollywood, only one thing came to mind when we tried to answer that question: because of his womanizing ways, of course.

"We do, we tease him," joked Skarsgård's Blood costar Carrie Preston. "In the makeup trailer we'll have all the magazines out and there will be photos of him with [a new girl] or some funny Q&A, so we have to razz him."

Read more: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/the_awful_truth/b180674_why_are_true_blood_costars_mocking.html#ixzz0nlzgvjVD

Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball team up for HBO film based on the nonfiction best-seller "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"


NEW YORK — Oprah Winfrey is joining with Alan Ball to produce an HBO film based on the nonfiction best-seller "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks."

The network said Wednesday that Ball, creator and executive producer of HBO's drama series "True Blood," will develop the project with Winfrey and her Harpo Films studio.

Written by Rebecca Skloot, "The Immortal Life" tells the true story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Without her consent, pieces of the tumor that killed her were removed and used for medical exploration and to build a billion-dollar research industry.

No production schedule or air date for the film was announced.

HBO is owned by Time Warner Inc.

Buy and read the fascinating book




Newsweek's Article on Gay Actors Raises Hell in Hollywood

It's 2010. Celebrities are coming out of the closet left and right. Over the span of a few weeks, Ricky Martin, Chely Wright and Anna Paquin declared themselves as gay, lesbian and bisexual, respectively, and the entertainment-watching world barely batted an eye.
Actress shocks Hollywood by coming out as a bisexual in new gay rights PSA.

But late last month, one writer broached a question that brought the gay vs. straight in Hollywood debate back to the 1950s: Can an openly gay actor convincingly play a straight role?

read on

Charlaine Harris reading in Seattle Thursday night : Interview with a Vampire (Writer): Charlaine Harris

Charlaine Harris will be reading from her latest novel Dead in the Family at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 13, at Town Hall Seattle. Tickets are $5.

Whether you've read her books, or know her name primarily from the HBO hit series True Blood, Charlaine Harris has been feeding thousands of blood-thirsty fans with her Sookie Stackhouse Series of vampires, shape shifters, and the supernatural for almost a decade now. Some may consider Harris' "Sookieverse" to be the crack Twilight for adults, but regardless, Harris was dead on in thinking her readers may just need some vampires in their lives--before Meyer (who's plagued our rainforest with pilgrims) and the many others that have followed, trying to feed off of the current vampire sensation.

If you love True Blood but are yet to have read Harris' books, be prepared--you've got about a summer's worth (or more) of catching up to do--Dead in the Family is the 10th book in the Sookie Stackhouse Series and the show is still working from the third book in the upcoming season.

Having had her novels described as "cozies with teeth," Harris has seen almost all of her fantastical books soar to the top of the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists and with the help of True Blood, her fan base is only growing larger. And honestly, like many others, we just can't seem to get enough of it all. For us, it's almost like a newer take on the Southern Grotesque genre that we love so dearly--this time only with vampires, more blood and guts, and the supernatural replacing a time of Calvinism, lynchings, and Jim Crow.

So Dead in The Family is the 10th book in the Southern Vampire/Sookie Stackhouse Series. What do you think about the latest book? Where is Sookie at in her life right now?

What do I think about the book? I think I'm glad it's finished! Yes, I have been busy the past few years, and I don't see it letting up much. Sookie, as always, is facing new challenges as the characters of the people around her become more and more clear under the stress and strain of the politics of the supernatural world.

Can fans look forward to more "Sookie" books in the future? Do you have an idea of how many more will be included in the series, or do you have a particular ending in sight?

I've signed for 13 books total, but I may extend that. I do know how the series will end.

The Sookie Stackhouse Series is set primarily in the South, where you are from as well. Did you plan on having the series take place in Louisiana because of your knowledge of the area or was it rather because you felt that the area fit the characters best?

A combination of those, plus Anne Rice had done such a great job with southern Louisiana, I felt it was time to give northern Louisiana its day in the sun. Or under the moon.

Much of your work as a genre writer revolves around mystery and fantasy. Do you primarily identify most with being a mystery writer?

Yes, I still think of myself as a mystery writer, because those are my roots. But I'm probably more of an urban fantasy writer now, though I actually write rural fantasy.

read on

True Blood Season 3: Invitation to the set !

Thanks @SookieBontemps!

Reading with Charlaine Harris- Portland Tonight !


Reading with Charlaine Harris
Bagdad Theater
3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Tonight, 7 p.m.
$26, includes admission and copy of Dead in the Family

Charlaine Harris, No. 1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, will be visiting the Bagdad Theater tonight to talk about the latest installment of the Sookie Stackhouse book series Dead in the Family. The book is the 10th book in the series, and the basis for the hit HBO television show True Blood.

Dead in the Family, which was released last Tuesday, continues the story of Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in a small Louisiana town called Bon Temps. In the latest book, Sookie is learning to deal with the effects of a war that changed her family and the world she lives in.

It wasn't just any war though, and the town of Bon Temps isn't any old regular southern town. In fact, Sookie isn't just a regular girl, either.

Bon Temps is a place where the immortal live among the mortal. Vampires interact and live among humans—in part because of an invention of synthetic blood that replaces the vampires' need for human blood.

Sookie is mortal, but not without her own powers. She's telepathic, and is misunderstood by her fellow mortals in the community. Because of her powers, she finds it easier to be around vampires, since for some reason she can't read their minds. Her past boyfriends, as well as Eric Northman—her boyfriend in Dead in the Family—are vampires.

Vampire and human relations are generally looked down upon in this fictional world, and in the latest installment, we see the problems this causes for not only Eric, but for Sookie, too.

We hear about Sookie's complicated family history that was explained in the previous books, and the repercussions of the Fae War that she has to deal with now.

Don't be mistaken—the Sookie Stackhouse series isn't your run-of-the-mill vampire novel—there's more to the story than you might expect. Throughout the series we see new and interesting dynamics of an untapped supernatural world with elements of sex, crime and humor.

Harris, who grew up and lives in the south herself—in Arkansas—has been publishing novels for the last 25 years. Harris wrote most of those novels all while raising her three children.

Harris primarily wrote mystery books until she shifted into the booming market of supernatural literature—vampires in particular. Her books are known to cross genre lines though, infusing romance, adventure, supernatural, mystery and science fiction.

Season three of True Blood is expected to continue this summer, and Harris has said there will be at least three more books in the series that will eventually be released.

Whether you're a True Blood fan, a Charlaine Harris fan or a vampire fan, many have found the novels and the TV show positively entertaining. Her visit to the Bagdad will surely be a fun event for all ages.

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Everything About You



Everything About You
Thanks, ToddMarty