Vampire Paradise

BEING HUMAN: LENORA CRICHLOW (ANNIE)

On Being Human (debuting July 25th on BBC America), Lenora Crichlow plays insecure ghost Annie, who meets George (a werewolf) and Mitchell (a vampire) when they move into the apartment she shared with her fiance -- which she subsequently died in. When she first read the scripts, Lenora was intrigued by the idea behind it. "It was pitched to me by my agent as a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire sharing a house, and I thought, 'That's a bit out there.'

   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."

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."

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON TRAILER

FROM BLOODSUCKER TO LIFE SAVER: ALEX O'LOUGHLIN'S "THREE RIVERS"

Admittedly Alex O'Loughlin is playing a surgeon in Three Rivers and not a vampire, but since he was a member of the undead last season on the sorely-missed Moonlight, it seems appropriate that we preview his new series, coming this fall to CBS.

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.

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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.

TWILIGHT "PEEK"

It's probably old news at this point, but popsugar.com uploaded a video to youtube that features a number of photos from the shooting of New Moon, including a "sequence" in which Robert Pattinson removes his shirt.

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."

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. 

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."

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.

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).

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."

"TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON" TRAILER - FAN-MADE

THE FATE OF "DARK SHADOWS" CHARACTERS

Back in 1971 following the end of the original Dark Shadows' original run, head writer Sam Hall wrote an article for TV Guide in which he detailed the unseen fate of the show's characters. In this video, actor Roger Davis (who played Jeff Clark, among other characters on the show) narrates, offering the character details provided by Hall.

JOHNNY DEPP - DARK SHADOWS TRAILER (FAN-MADE)

KRISTEN STEWART ON "TWILIGHT"

Speaking to Australia's The Courier Mail, Kristen Stewart detailed her decision to join Twilight as Bella: "The script was forced on me — it was in a stack of studio movies of 'Smart options for Kristen.' When I read the synopsis, I thought, 'This is crap. You're going to present a completely ideological idea of love to 11-year-olds and that's so not right. You're setting them up for total disappointment.' I'm not OK with the idea of ideological men where they're perfect and you're not, but that's not what we have here. Our character is so tortured and not OK. So that changed that. And reading the book and spending time with Rob...H's a good actor and has a really insane work ethic. He is really sensitive. He's perfect; he's my perfect Edward." 

   As to rumors that she had left her boyfriend for Rob, she denied them, adding, "But [Rob and I] went through a lot together. It is crazy to go through something that heavy in real life. At the end of it, you are inevitably going to have something. I know a version of him better than anybody else in the world, because I did this movie with him."

CATHERINE HARDWICKE FIRED FROM "NEW MOON"

In a classic case of Hollywood appreciation, Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke has been informed that her "services will no longer be needed" on the sequel to the newly-minted hit (New Moon). Pretty astounding considering that the first film was produced for a paltry (by today's standards) $37 million and has already grossed $160 million at the domestic box office. So what better way to say "thank you" than to say goodbye?
   According to Nikki Finke (who broke the story), "Summit Entertainment Co-Chairman/CEO Rob Friedman just phoned me to say, 'Catherine and Summit have agreed to part ways on the sequel because our visions are different.'"
   For the complete story, click HERE.

COUNT ELVIS?

In a recent profile of actor Frank Langella (who's currently playing Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon), his portrayal of Count Dracula was brought up. We quote: "His film breakthrough was in 1970's Diary of a Mad Housewife, and he won his first Tony for Edward Albee's Seascape in 1975. He later starred in Dracula on Broadway, giving the vampire count a sexual possessiveness that made the 1979 movie a hit. It's a role he still hears about from fans. 'It was like being Elvis Presley for two years. It was like being a rock star,' he says."