I'm just ready to see MaryAnn die. That shit better look cool too.
HBO's True Blood...did anyone watch dat shit?
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We Almost Lived in a World Where Benedict Cumberbatch Played Bill on True Blood
By Diane Gordon
This is not Benedict Cumberbatch. This is Alan Ball. Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for New York Magazi
On the tenth anniversary of True Blood’s debut, the show’s creator Alan Ball came to Vulture Festival Los Angeles to watch the pilot episode with fans and share some memories about the making of the breakout HBO hit.
Jaws dropped when Ball talked about how difficult it was to find the right actor to play smolderingly attractive vampire Bill Compton, and described how the search took him to London, where one of the actors he met with was none other than Benedict Cumberbatch. Let’s think about that for a minute: The man we’ve come to know and love as Sherlock and Dr. Strange almost played one of TV’s sexiest vampires. (Sadly, Ball didn’t reveal why Cumberbatch didn’t land the part.)
More fun facts we learned:
• Anna Paquin read for the role of Sookie Stackhouse five times before the producers were convinced she could play Southern enough. Ball casually mentioned that Jessica Chastain also auditioned for the role of Sookie, while an underage Jennifer Lawrence auditioned for a “were-panther girl” in season three.
• Talking about the Sookie/Bill chemistry that evolved into the real life relationship and marriage between Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, Ball said he told Paquin that when Bill stares at Sookie in the scene at Merlotte’s near the end of the first episode, “she has to feel it in her vagina.” And apparently, she did!
• Watching the late Nelsan Ellis’s first scene as Merlotte’s chef Lafayette in the pilot episode, Ball reacted, “Oh, Nelsan. It breaks my heart. I’m usually not a fan of actor’s ad-libbing but he ad-libbed this entire scene and I stood back and went, okay.”
• The pilot episode was shot entirely in Los Angeles at the Warner Brothers backlot, Malibu Canyon and the Disney ranch. Production hung lots of Spanish moss to make it look more like Louisiana.
• Ball revealed that after the pilot was shot, HBO spent six months deliberating if they were going to put it on the air. Apparently, it didn’t feel like “an HBO show” — “it was too pulpy, too genre,” Ball said. That, of course, didn’t turn out to be the case, as True Blood wound up changing the definition of what it meant to be “an HBO show.” Noting that the channel’s two biggest hits are now Game of Thrones and Westworld, Ball summed it up, “HBO owes me a lot.”
By Diane Gordon
This is not Benedict Cumberbatch. This is Alan Ball. Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for New York Magazi
On the tenth anniversary of True Blood’s debut, the show’s creator Alan Ball came to Vulture Festival Los Angeles to watch the pilot episode with fans and share some memories about the making of the breakout HBO hit.
Jaws dropped when Ball talked about how difficult it was to find the right actor to play smolderingly attractive vampire Bill Compton, and described how the search took him to London, where one of the actors he met with was none other than Benedict Cumberbatch. Let’s think about that for a minute: The man we’ve come to know and love as Sherlock and Dr. Strange almost played one of TV’s sexiest vampires. (Sadly, Ball didn’t reveal why Cumberbatch didn’t land the part.)
More fun facts we learned:
• Anna Paquin read for the role of Sookie Stackhouse five times before the producers were convinced she could play Southern enough. Ball casually mentioned that Jessica Chastain also auditioned for the role of Sookie, while an underage Jennifer Lawrence auditioned for a “were-panther girl” in season three.
• Talking about the Sookie/Bill chemistry that evolved into the real life relationship and marriage between Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, Ball said he told Paquin that when Bill stares at Sookie in the scene at Merlotte’s near the end of the first episode, “she has to feel it in her vagina.” And apparently, she did!
• Watching the late Nelsan Ellis’s first scene as Merlotte’s chef Lafayette in the pilot episode, Ball reacted, “Oh, Nelsan. It breaks my heart. I’m usually not a fan of actor’s ad-libbing but he ad-libbed this entire scene and I stood back and went, okay.”
• The pilot episode was shot entirely in Los Angeles at the Warner Brothers backlot, Malibu Canyon and the Disney ranch. Production hung lots of Spanish moss to make it look more like Louisiana.
• Ball revealed that after the pilot was shot, HBO spent six months deliberating if they were going to put it on the air. Apparently, it didn’t feel like “an HBO show” — “it was too pulpy, too genre,” Ball said. That, of course, didn’t turn out to be the case, as True Blood wound up changing the definition of what it meant to be “an HBO show.” Noting that the channel’s two biggest hits are now Game of Thrones and Westworld, Ball summed it up, “HBO owes me a lot.”
‘True Blood’ Reboot In Works At HBO
By Denise Petski
Denise Petski
Senior Managing Editor
HBO
HBO is developing a reboot of its hit vampire drama True Blood, Deadline has confirmed. The premium cabler has been working on a new version of the series for nearly a year.
Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and NOS4A2 creator Jami O’Brien will co-write the pilot, and O’Brien also will executive produce. Original series creator Alan Ball also is attached as an executive producer.
The original True Blood is based on Charlaine Harris’ series of novels, The Southern Vampire Mysteries. The series aired for seven seasons on HBO from 2008-2014, winning a Golden Globe and Emmy during its run. It revolved around Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress living in the fictional rural town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgård, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Lauren Bowles, Carrie Preston, Chris Bauer, Deborah Ann Woll, Joe Manganiello and the late Nelsan Ellis also starred.
By Denise Petski
Denise Petski
Senior Managing Editor
HBO
HBO is developing a reboot of its hit vampire drama True Blood, Deadline has confirmed. The premium cabler has been working on a new version of the series for nearly a year.
Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and NOS4A2 creator Jami O’Brien will co-write the pilot, and O’Brien also will executive produce. Original series creator Alan Ball also is attached as an executive producer.
The original True Blood is based on Charlaine Harris’ series of novels, The Southern Vampire Mysteries. The series aired for seven seasons on HBO from 2008-2014, winning a Golden Globe and Emmy during its run. It revolved around Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress living in the fictional rural town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgård, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Lauren Bowles, Carrie Preston, Chris Bauer, Deborah Ann Woll, Joe Manganiello and the late Nelsan Ellis also starred.
I hasn't even been ten years since the last one.
Raw bothSookie & Baby Vamp Jessica Would Have Been Preggo on Set Got Dammit
@playahaitian is that truest blood podcast actually a good listen?
You gotta be a fan fan.
I mean bought the drink and bought the books and watched every episode.
i watched every ep and bought the drink to try it but never read any of the books
Then you should be good.
You were smarter than me. I watched to the first episode of the last season. After that episode I shut it off & to this day have no clue how it ended. I tolerated a lot with that show. It felt like a show of disappointments. They build something up just for it to be really nothing. Werewolves, Faires, Super old vampires etc. All were not that big of a deal to the main characters.
I think if they were to reboot the show with the structure of today's TV it might be good (forced LGBTQ notwithstanding). Needing to "pay off" each finale with the disposal of the big bad killed the show. The next season introduces the next big bad threat. I still feel that first season was one of my favorite seasons of HBO TV from that era.
I thought the first two seasons were good. I forgot the exact turning point in Season 3 but I remember thinking ok this is getting kind of silly. I think the next season started off with the Fairies in a fire fight with vampires and that did it for me. Didn't bother with the season or the show from that point on.
The wife and I started rewatching the series on HBO Max. We are on season 3 now. Somethings we remembered. Some we forgot. Watching it with an open mind though. If this came out now the way it is, we would probably not watch.
You mean the homo erotic vampire show created by gay ass Alan ball who's also behind other homo erotic shows like oz about a dizzy telepathic waitress who's dumb life choices caused her to call for the bad boy vampire and brought death to her family and all kinds of misery to her town?
Yeah I watched it.
Yeah I watched it.
Joe Manganiello reveals the most graphic 'True Blood' fan fiction he's seen: 'They f---ed'
Joe Manganiello shares the wildest, X-rated 'True Blood' fanfic ever while on 'WWHL.' He complimented the author before reading it and found out 'they f---ed.'