According to an interview with Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, Vampire Diaries' Vicki (Kayla Ewell) was supposed to be staked by Elena's brother, Jeremy, rather than Stefan. "In the original script," she detailed, "Jeremy kills Vicki. And that's what we shot. Jeremy is forced to choose between saving the love of his life or his sister, and he chooses his sister. We shot the whole thing and I [moved back to] L.A. Then about a week and a half later, I got an email from Kevin and [co-executive producer] Julie Plec asking me to come back to Atlanta to reshoot my death scene -- only this time Stefan kills me."
November 01, 2009
"I KISSED A VAMPIRE" DEBUTS
SOURCE: Entertainment Business Newsweekly DATE: November 1, 2009 Episode 1 of the new musical web series I Kissed A Vampire is now available for download exclusively on the iTunes store (www.iTunes.com). The series stars multi-talented actors/singers Lucas Grabeel (High School Musical, Milk), and Drew Seeley (Another Cinderella Story, The Little Mermaid on Broadway) and introduces musical talent Adrian Slade. I Kissed A Vampire is a musical take on what it's like falling in love when you're in the middle of becoming a vampire! Dylan (Grabeel) is terrified when a nasty bat bite transforms him into one of the living dead. His world is turned upside down, and he has to figure out how to balance his budding romance with Sara (Slade), the girl next door, and the bloodthirsty desires his magnetic vampire mentor Trey (Seeley) is constantly urging him to give in to. The first episode of the three part series is available today, October 13th, exclusively on iTunes, with the second and third episodes available October 20th and October 27th, respectively. iTunes customers can purchase and download the episodes at www.itunes.com/ikissedavampire. Episodes will be available for $1.99 each. Also available for download is a free, behind-the-scenes featurette about the making of the series. The series was co-written and directed by Emmy-winning director Chris Sean Nolan, co-written and produced by Laurie Nolan, and executive produced by Mike Slade. The series features five original pop/rock songs from musician Frankie Blue, including "Outta My Head," "Love's In Vein" and "A Little Peck." In addition to the episodes, all the original songs are available for download exclusively on iTunes. "I Kissed A Vampire gave us the perfect opportunity to bring our collective passion for music and storytelling together in one place," says producer Laurie Nolan. "We couldn't be more pleased than to have Lucas, Drew and Adrian bring the musical to life. We're also thrilled to make I Kissed A Vampire available for download exclusively on iTunes." I Kissed A Vampire will have a New York premiere screening of all three episodes tonight, Tuesday, October 13th with a public, first-come first-serve event at the Landmark Sunshine Theater in New York City (143 East Houston Street, New York, NY 10002). Lucas, Drew and Adrian will be in attendance for an audience Q&A immediately following the screening, moderated by celebrity blogger Jared Eng from www.JustJared.com and www.JustJaredJr.com. Fans can watch the trailer at the official I Kissed A Vampire website, www.ikissedavampire.com, or become a fan on facebook at www.facebook.com/ikissedavampire.
JONATHAN FRID INTERVIEW
ARTICLE TITLE: Interview with the vampire;
AUTHOR: THANE BURNETT
SOURCE: Edmonton Sun (Alberta)
Before Twilight.
Or the taste of HBO's True Blood.
A generation removed from today's top grossing blood-suckers, there was Barnabas Collins -- a vampire you could believe in. Or at least, I did.
Centuries ago, the fears of children were born from village lore. In the 1800s, it came from dark prose in eerie novels.
But as a child of the 1960s and '70s, all my monsters lived large inside our small television.
If I even recall the 1969 pilot of TV's Night Gallery -- in which a painting owned by a murdered old man changes shape -- what little hair remains on the back of my neck stands up. And screams.
Thanks to the Exorcist, I still bite my nails.
And because of Barnabas Collins, the dark bat-man of the gothic TV soap opera, Dark Shadows, I suspect almost everyone of being a closet vampire.
The series ran on ABC from 1966 to '71, and was dying before Canadian actor, Jonathan Frid, flew in as a 175-year-old anti-hero.
The character was only supposed to stick around for 13 weeks. Instead, the hypnotic magnetism of Barnabas made Dark Shadows one of the most popular shows on daytime television.
Playing in the afternoons, and filled with parallel universes, witches, zombies and werewolves, Dark Shadows was a must-see for kids.
For me, all other vampires paled when compared to Barnabas.
Critics dismissed Dark Shadows as campy. But fans -- who gather still for Dark Shadows conventions -- recognized Barnabas as a figure with heart. However unbeating.
So, when news came that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are collaborating on a movie version of Dark Shadows, I knew I had to resurrect Barnabas -- or at least his human side.
I find Frid in a secret lair, somewhere outside Hamilton, Ont. The mystery is for his protection. Fans still stalk one of the greatest vampires of the 20th century.
The actor is 85 years old and retired. Over the decades, he's played countless one-man shows and Shakespearian plays. And from the start, he never thought fangs fit.
We sit in the basement of his bungalow, surrounded by memories stacked in folders and bound in albums.
When he first took the roll of Barnabas, he was relieved it didn't immediately air around his home turf of Hamilton. That meant his friends wouldn't have to see it.
"But suddenly, it took off," he recalls. "And I was getting 5,000 pieces of (fan mail) every week."
His followers waited daily outside the studio in New York. Frid would run up to the glass doors, and scare them so badly, he feared stampedes would flatten someone.
But after Dark Shadows ended, Frid gladly moved on.
Over the years, he embodied living characters, and never wanted to dig up old bones.
"I thought I was ... dreadful. Awful," he adds of his work on the series.
"I tried to fight the vampire for years."
June 04, 2009
BEING HUMAN: LENORA CRICHLOW (ANNIE)
But the combination of an original story grounded firmly in real life immediately impacted on Lenora. "I thought it was really funny and it was a script with heart. It's really quirky and light in some places, but it's got quite a dark undertone. It's just a really fresh take on dealing with life."
Lenora believes that the characters are also very appealing, and that everyone will be able to tap into some part of each of them. "All the characters' unusual qualities are grounded in real stuff — addiction, self-esteem, anger, love — all of them are dealing with being human, just on a really extreme scale."
Annie and Mitchell share a very strong relationship, which Leonora describes as almost paternal. "Mitchell is the father figure or older brother of the house; he's kind of in charge and Annie looks to him to make sure everything's OK. He gives her a lot of reassurance and she feels safe in his presence. He's so old, he's been there, done it all. He seems to be a bit more knowing. He's there for Annie; he's her rock."
On working with Aidan Turner (Mitchell) and Rusell Tovey (George), Leonora says, "They're wicked. I couldn't ask for two better guys to be working with. we spend time together off set and on set — they're both very brilliant and I love watching their work. I think we really have a lovely chemistry... I'm going to stop gushing now."
June 01, 2009
VAMPIRE NEWS BITES: JUNE 1, 2009
Seth Grahame-Smith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (from Quirk Books), has announced that this next effort will be Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. As he told The New Zealand Herald, "It's kind of a gimmicky horror history, but this time it's wholly original; a reimagined biography. It's one of those things where I had it all written out and thought, 'Wouldn't it be nice if I got to write that one day.' And now the success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has generated interest in it. It will have that same comic spin and it's a very different thing to write a biography and have it read funny — that's my goal, to have it a mix of fiction, humor and factual accuracy." The book is expected in 2010.
BBC America is making the switch to a HD network beginning on July 20th, and among the shows benefitting will be Being Human (the drama about a vampire, werewolf and ghost sharing a house). Other genre shows to be broadcast in HD are Torchwood: Children of Earth, the last four Doctor Who specials and the third season finale of Primeval.
Not surprisingly, Twilight came in a winner at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, taking home Golden Popcorn trophies for Best Movie, Best Fight, Best Kiss, Breakthrough Male Performance and Female Performance.
BEING HUMAN: AIDAN TURNER (MITCHELL)
Aidan Turner, who plays effortlessly cool vampire Mitchell on Being Human (which begins airing July 25th on BBC America), says he was hooked on the first reading of the script for the show. "From the first episode it really works," he says. "It's a great premise, it's all in the title really -- it's very realistic situations and deals with tons of real issues. It's dark and witty -- Toby [Whithouse] is a fantastic writer."
What also appealed to Aidan was the sense of reality which shone through the characters and the story. "When tackling a supernatural subject, I sometimes find it difficult to invest in the characters because they dont' really exist -- but there's so much heart to this story, so much reality to it, it's easy to relate to the characters. Certainly George, Annie and Mitchell, because they are three normal guys, which is evident from the first episode. They're not flying around putting spells on people -- they work in the hospital, live in an apartment together, watch TV and go to clubs. I hope that people watching think, 'I'd like them to be my friend.' I think that's important."
For Aidan, the fact that Mitchell is a vampire was a big attraction to the role. "Everyone wants to play a vampire -- it's something I've always wanted to play. It's just one of those parts. Also, when you research into vampires there are all these cults around the world that are influenced by them one way or another, so that was a really interesting aspect to discover."
The fact that Mitchell is a vampire, and has therefore been around a long time, makes him a complicated character to play. As Aidan explains, "Mitchell is 118 years old and to play someone like that is brilliant. With his maturity he has a certain kind of responsibility and a worldly experience that not all people have. He's not bothered by a lot of things -- that side of him I aspire to be like."
Finally, Aidan believes that audiences will relate to Mitchell and his struggle. "Everyone has a dark side that they don't expose too often -- but when they do, you know about it."
May 31, 2009
NEW MOON EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: SCREENWRITER MELISSA ROSENBERG, PART 1
While Stephenie Meyer is the creator of The Twilight Saga, the task of adapting it tothe big screen has fallen to screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, who, if all goes according to plan, will be the sole writer of all four adaptations. In the first part of this exclusive interview with editor Edward Gross, Melissa discusses the challenge of writing New Moon with the project under such public scrutiny, as well as what she feels director Chris Weitz will be bringing to the saga that will differ from Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke. Look for part two of this interview on Wednesday.
May 30, 2009
BBC AMERICA ANNOUNCES "BEING HUMAN"
A vampire, a werewolf and a ghost share a house....
Sounds like the start of a bad joke, but in reality it's the premise of Being Human, one of the most innovative and effective genre shows coming from England that will make its American debut on BBC America on July 25th at 9:00 PM ET/PT.
Mixing the mythic with the commonplace, the farcical with the horrific and the domestic with the epic, Being Human is a witty and extraordinary look into the lives of three twenty-somethings and their secret double-lives -- as a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost. Russell Tovey (Doctor Who, the History of Boys), Lenora Crichlow (Sugar Rush, Doctor Who) and Aidan Turner (The Clinic) star as housemates trying to live normal live,s despite their strange and dark secrets.
George (Tovey) and Mitchell (Turner) work in anonymous drudgery as hospital porters. They lead lives of quiet desperation under the burden of a terrible secret -- Mitchell's a vampire and George is a werewolf. Deciding to start life afresh and leave behind the dark side, they move into a house, only to find that Annie, the ghost of a woman killed in mysterious circumstnaces, haunts it. As the monster threesome deals with the challenges of their new life together, they're united in their desire to blend in with their human neighbors.
By all appearances, George is a mild-mannered geeky guy, except for one night a month when he's a flesh-hungry, predatory werewolf. Mitchell is good-looking, laid-back and, unlike George, has an easy confidence with the ladies. But he's also suffering withdrawal from the blood he craves. Annie (Crichlow) is chatty, insecure and desperate for company and now that death has separated them, she longs for her fiance, who owns the house she haunts.
But with unwelcome intruders into their world, a threatened revolution from the vampire underworld and constant threats of exposure -- on top of the day-to-day issues faced by young people -- the only thing they may be able to rely on in their heightened world is each other.
"We had to re-imagine how these supernatural creatures would be if they really did exist," offers producer Matthew Bouch. "We have very real and human characters with adult dilemmas, placed in a fantasy context. Being Human has elements of comedy, horror, soap and supernatural. But what makes it a rich mix also makes it potentially quite tricky as you don't want to allow any one of those elements to dominate too much. I think with a combination of Toby's script and the brilliant cast, we've pulled it off."
Adds series creator Toby Whithouse of his storyline, "I like the idea of suggesting that there is some kind of underworld, another life, another story that is going on in the world that we're unaware of; that's hidden. I wrote an episode of Doctor Who a couple of years ago that was set in a school. The Monday after it transmitted I heard reports that teachers were walking out to the front of their class and saying, 'Physics, physics, physics,' which is what the Doctor said. It made the kids wonder if their teachers were really aliens."
Look for much more on Being Human coming soon.
May 29, 2009
VAMPIRE NEWS BITES: MAY 29, 2009
Reviewing Robert Pattinson's Little Ashes, The Washington Times noted, "Teenage girls -- or their mothers -- drawn to Little Ashes by the prospect of devouring with their eyes brooding Twilight star Robert Pattinson have a few surprises in store -- tortured sexuality, life-and-death politics and slice eyeball, for starters... The film's emphasis on the personal relationships comes at the expensive of the professional. Dali was a visionary, but we never discover how he actually created himself. We get little sense of Bunuel's vision, either. Here, the director of L'Age d'or comes off as a rather obtuse reactionary. Still, these men are enaging enough to carry the film on their own. Matthew McNulty is commanding as Bunuel, but the sensitive Javier Beltran consistently steals the show as the tormented Lorca. Mr. Pattinson has taken on a much bigger challenge than playing a vampire -- bringing a legend to life. He does an admirable job playing one of the strangest and most imaginative men to walk the earth. He's shy and trembling when he arrives at the dorm, bombastic and determined when he leaves it. The transformation is striking."
Entertainment Weekly offers up a piece on New Moon, discussing, among other things, the break-up of Edward and Bella and teh challenges it represents. Offers director Chris Weitz, "When you get broken up with, it really is the worst thing in the world. Meyer gives a kind of supernatural context to people's real feelings, which sums up what we all go through." In terms of Edward's minimized role in the film, Weitz added, "Rob was the first guy to say to me, 'You know, you don't really need to have too much of me in this film.' I don't want him too present, so his apparition will be a subtle, flitting effect, clearly a reflection of Bella's will and desire to see him."
Library Journal Reviews raves about David Wellington's 23 Hours: A Vengeful Vampire Tale (coming in June from Crown), "Strange as it may seem, the key to good supernatural fiction is realism. Readers have to believe in the world that has been created in order to suspend their disbelief of the creatures set loose in it, and Wellington (Monster Planet) excels here. Most of the action takes place inside a women's prison, where vampire hunter Laura Craxton has been incarcerated and is being stalked by Earth's last vampire, Justina Malvern. This could easily have dissolved into B-movie stereotype but instead seems intensely researched and utterly believable. The characters are likewise fully formed and consistent. VERDICT: Since this is the third book in a series (after 13 Bullets, full-text available on the author's web site, and 99 Coffins), series readers may expect the principals to escape, but the cleverly managed ending avoids predictability. Wellington's voice continues to grow. Highly recommended for horror and vampire fiction fans."
May 26, 2009
NEW "BUFFY" FEATURE FILM?
Ever read something that instantly gave you a headache? That's kind of the response to a story in today's Hollywood Reporter that Vertigo Entertainment is working with Fran Rubel Kuzui, director of the feature film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, on a new feature that will relaunch the franchise but not include elements from the television series. And among those elements not included is creator Joss Whedon (hence the aforementioned headache).
"Vertigo and Kuzui are looking to restart the story line without trampling on the beloved exciting universe created by Whedon," says the story, "putting the parties in a similar situation faced by Paramount, J.J. Abrams and his crew when relaunching Star Trek. One of the underlying ideas of Buffy allows Veritgo and Kuzui to do just that: that each generation has its own vampire slayer to protect it. The goal would be to make a darker, event-sized movie that would, of course, have franchise potential...Kuzui, who is prepping to direct a movie in Japan in the fall, added, 'Everything has its moment. Every movie takes on a life at some point, and this seems like the moment to do this.'"
One might be able to work up a little more excitement if it wasn't for the fact that Kuzui has already taken a crack at Buffy. The evidence speaks for itself.
May 19, 2009
ROBERT PATTINSON CONFIRMS "BREAKING DAWN"
Robert Pattinson has confirmed that he has committed to starring in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, though he's not sure when it will go into production as he's tied up in a number of projects (not the least of which is, of course, New Moon and Eclipse). In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he noted that when filming wraps on New Moon he'll jump into Summit Entertainment's Remember Me, before assuming the role of Edward Cullen again for Eclipse.
In the same article, he discussed New Moon, pointing out that for much of the story Edward is a "voice in Bella's head." The actor expressed with a laugh, "You're playing a figment in Bella's imagination, so I was trying to do it in a 2-D way. I hope it doesn't translate onscreen as being boring."
March 21, 2009
VAMPIRE DIARIES: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH LJANE SMITH, PT. 1
LJane Smith is the author of, among others, The Vampire Diaries book series. What follows is an exclusive interview with the author conducted by Vampires & Slayers editor Edward Gross. This interview is an extensive one and will be broken into several parts.
VAMPIRES & SLAYERS: I’m sure this is a clichéd way to begin, but why vampires? What is it that appeals to you about that particular genre?
LJANE SMITH: First of all, you have to realize that I’m dealing with a young adult marketplace—that’s what YA stands for, young adult—and that therefore I have some limits imposed by our culture on what I can and can’t say when writing for 12 to16-year-olds. Twelve and up is what we label young adults in the business, but the truth is that I get just as much e-mail from adults as from teenagers, and a lot of e-mail from the ten to twelve-year-old set, as well. Getting an e-mail from a ten-year-old: that’s something to stop you cold in your tracks and make sure you really are writing the very best role models that you can for young people. It is for me, anyway.
But to get back to YAs—my stories are romances, set against an “urban fantasy” background. In a romance for teens, I don’t feel comfortable going any farther physically than kissing and caressing body parts that you can actually name in these books: hair, face, neck, shoulders. hands. Nothing else. I was a special ed schoolteacher for three years before devoting myself to writing full time and I have all the old schoolmarm values locked inside me, if you’ll believe that.
So how do you write, deep, thoughtful romance that symbolizes the full union of body and soul between two healthy young Romeo-and-Juliets? I found that you do it in the heart. With vampires, first there is the unparalleled physical pleasure of sharing blood—which sounds utterly gross when I write it. Ick! How do I ever get people to buy these things? Well, along with sharing blood the vampire and donor share their minds. Every teenager wants to be fully loved, fully understood, fully forgiven. By sharing minds, you can do that: each character can be completely spiritually fulfilled by immersing themselves in the other.
There’s also the universally understood metaphor—the—er, penetrative aspect of vampirism, alluded to by Terry Pratchett. It has a grip on teenage minds at the moment, and it’s a decent metaphor for sex, without being sex.
As for the glamour of the vampire, well I feel that in a way, all those damned schoolmarm values about sex being naughty are crazy and so are Americans. If sex were treated as the natural function that it is, nobody would use it to sell soap and soda crackers. No one would think about it at all in the sort of compulsive way we all do. They would do what comes naturally and probably use less soap and eat more fattening things than crackers. But for teenagers especially—doomed to think about something they’re not supposed to do—the vampire mystique is perfectly understandable.
The other, short explanation is that I saw Frank Langella play Dracula sometime as a kid, and I saw Laurence Olivier play Richard III (at school, as part of a class of Shakespeare we seniors had lobbied for and got). I try to make all my vampires as gorgeous and sexy as Langella was, and as evilly seductive as Olivier reading the opening speech in Richard III. If—and it’s a big if—I can get something even close to that, I promise that every young girl will melt and not mind if the hero or anti-hero is only interested in her neck.
Part 2 is coming soon.
March 19, 2009
DARK SHADOWS RISING?
Dark Shadows – the classic ‘60s horror soap opera in development to become a Johnny Depp starring vehicle – is very much in the news today. Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood Daily reports that the film, which would see Depp as vampire Barnabas Collins, could be pushed back from its fall start. The reason has to do with director Tim Burton, whose take on Alice in Wonderland is requiring more time than expected. A source from Depp’s camp tells Finke, “It is our intention to still start the movie in the fall. We’re trying to work it out. And Tim Burton is Johnny’s first and only choice to direct.”
Meanwhile MTV.com is running a story about the film, with Sam Sarkar, from Depp’s Infinitum-Nihil production company, emphasizing that Depp is committed to the film. Of the project itself, he added, “All I can say is that one is very active. The studio will be making some announcements regarding it pretty soon. Very soon, probably.”
One of the challenges, according to Sarkar, is coming up with a story from the wealth of material that the show’s 1,225 episodes covered. “It was a soap opera, it was a daily show,” he explained. “That’s something people forget. It’s one thing to adapt a weekly television series into a movie, it’s another thing to take a soap opera that’s been serialized daily and try to boil it down to two hours. I [do] think it will be very true to the spirit of Dark Shadows. I think there’s going to be an authenticity to it.”
The assumption is that the film will chronicle the tale of Barnabas Collins, who, in 1796, is chained in a coffin by his father, who can’t bear the thought of staking his son, but then is inadvertently freed in modern day Collinwood, Maine. Previous actors to play the role were Jonathan Frid (the daytime series as well as the feature film House of Dark Shadows), Ben Cross (the 1991 primetime version) and Alec Newman (the 2004 WB pilot that did not go to series).
March 09, 2009
KRISTEN STEWART HOPES TO DO FOUR "TWILIGHT" FILMS
Despite the fact that Summit Entertainment has only gone so far as to announce adaptations of Stephenie Meyer's New Moon and Eclipse, actress Kristen Stewart tells WENN that she is hopeful that they will also end up filming the fourth book in the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn.
"We all really hope there is going to be a number four," she says. "I'm pretty confident that the fans that aren't going to, all of a sudden, lose interest. The only case a fourth one wouldn't be made is if all of a sudden people stopped caring, and I really don't think that's going to happen."
