True Blood

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We caught a glimpse of clips for upcoming episodes at today's Comic-Con panel and we can tell you this: We finally get to see Michelle Forbes' character (Maryanne) revealing her true self, which is the horned maenad creature that attacked Sookie (Anna Paquin) a few eps back, and, we must say, Michelle looks killer in the get-up! She is stirring up even more trouble than before and it goes way beyond just getting people high, horny and black-eyed at her parties.

We also got our first good look at Evan Rachel Wood's vampire queen in a trailer-ending scene where she is feasting on someone and comes up for air with a face full of blood to say, "Wanna join me?" I can safely say that everyone in the audience did want to join her. She looks simply delicious as the queen.

And, the battle between the Fellowship of the Sun goody two-shoes and the vampires turns into a "national vampire disaster." But, it looks like Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) might be having second thoughts about where his loyalties lie. (Finally!)

As if that weren't enough to excite fans, show creator Alan Ball had this special announcement?

Comic-Con 2009 Franchise Brick

True Blood: The Drink: They teased us before about it, but this time it's for real: a True Blood drink will be on the market on Sept. 10. Alan joked that it's a mix of a cabernet wine with blood, "vodka, Vicodin, Viagra and ecstasy" and that's it's "completely illegal." Imagine that? Kidding aside, he said it's "a very tasty blood orange soda" that has "all natural ingredients." And, it's bottled in the same bottle you see on the show. How cool is that? Oh, and you can pre-order it at www.hbo.com.

The Love Triangle: Will the love triangle between Bill (Stephen Moyer), Sookie, and Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) get played out on screen as it does in the books? "Yes," said Alan. And, that is all he said on the topic. Stephen, though, said, "I'm not sure that Bill is just going to roll over and let it happen. I think he's going to fight his hardest and maybe not be quite as polite as he has been." When asked why Eric is so smitten with Sookie, Alexander joked, "Just look at her. I'm sorry, Stephen." An audience member then asked Alan if that was blond hair we saw on the person in bed with Sookie in the new clips and Alan said, "I have no idea what you're talking about." We'll soon see?

Lafayette's Hustle: "I think Lafayette's hustle is supreme and he's figured out that it's not going to work for him to get him out of the situation," said Nelsan Ellis. "So now I think he's rethinking his hustle and maybe he's going to stop doing it." When the crowd gave a collective sigh of disapproval, Nelsan, added, "But, we'll see."

Sam Merlotte & Daphne: "He gets a little bit lucky with Daphne," said Sam Trammell, who blushed at the roar of applause from the audience for him, "but Sam's a real magnet for abuse this year in a lot of ways. I'm just trying to survive this year. But Sam's journey in this year, and hopefully years to come, is really sort of sparked by Daphne and what she teaches him and whether he grows from that or regrets it, we 'l have to see."

Fang-tastic!: "The hard ones stay in very well but the rubber ones tend to fly out of your mouth if you talk too quickly," says Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica) of the fake fangs the actors have to wear, "which very hard and embarrassing when you're trying to be cool and immortal." Added Stephen, "For the first season, I had two tiny little indents because they are really sharp." "Yes, they are," Anna replied coyly to the audience's delight. "I make no comment," joked Stephen as the couple shared a romantic glance at each other. Love was in the air.

Sookie & Bill Baby?: When asked if we'd be seeing a half-vampire/half human baby anytime soon, the audience booed loudly to the Twilight reference, and then Alan asked, "What?" When it was explained to him, he came back with a definitive, "Oh, no. In our show, our vampires are either full-out vampires or they're not vampires."

New Books!: Charlaine Harris, the writer of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, tells the crowd that she just signed a contract for three more books, which will take us through 2014. The next book is out May 2010.

Grand Master

Pretend

Posted
Posted
The HBO True Blood Panel had the loudest crowd I’ve been a part of this weekend so far. Today they had a few interesting announcements amongst the bits from today’s session.

On the panel were Anna Paquin (Sookie Stackhouse. It’s Anna’s birthday today.), Stephen Moyer (Bill Compton), Rutina Wesley (Tara Thornton), Alan Ball (Executive producer), Michelle Forbes (Maryann Forrester), Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette Reynolds), Charlaine Harris (Author of source books: The Southern Vampire Mysteries ), Sam Trammell (Sam Merlotte), Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica Hamby) and Alexander Skarsgard (Eric Northman).

The biggest and first item out of the panel was what Alan Ball announced to us, all while holding up a bottle of True Blood. Yep, the drink is a reality now. It’s blood orange soda with all natural products. The label is an exact replica of the product in the show.

Then we were treated to a trailer from the last 1/2 of season 2.

After the trailer, here’s some of what was touched on in the panel:

Rutina Wesley on Tara: Tara is more mellow this season. Though fans liked Tara’s fiery mood, this is the side of Tara that needed to be seen.

Michelle Forbes keeps getting ass kicking roles because sci-fi makes it more possible to cast those roles.

Nelsan Ellis is very popular. He said that Lafayette may stop doing his hustle.

Charlaine was rather shy about some of the scenes in the show after watching the screener that HBO sent her.

Sam gets a little lucky with Daphne and he’s a real magnet for abuse this year.

True Blood at Comic-Con 2009

Deborah Ann Woll is very nervous and is now picturing all of us in our underwear… eesh. Brave girl.

Why is Eric so drawn to Sookie? Eric has been around a long time and he’s over humanity and Sookie is just something different about her. It’s that mystery about her that he can’t put his finger on.

Eric wants to explore the possibilities.

We then went straight to questions quickly

Charlaine just signed a contract for 3 more novels on the Sookie Stackhouse novels, taking her writing though 2014. She said the show doesn’t really affect her writing. She can keep them separate.

Eric seems more sensitive this year, in season 2. They said you can’t play the same emotional note for 2 years and that change is necessary.

Though it’s not been officially announced yet, Alan Ball is excited about season 3, We’ll be seeing werewolves for the first time. They’ll be delving into Russell Edgington and the Mississippi vampires. And Ball said we won’t be seeing Elvis. Even if Elvis helps out Sookie in the books, it would basically be an impersonation and that takes away from the quality of the show.

In the preview, a panel attendee noticed someone behind Sookie in a quick scene that was personal in nature and it was asked if that was Eric? Ball said I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Anna Paquin at Comic-Con True Blood panel

Anna likes that Sookie speaks her mind… no matter what she’s in the middle of.

How much of a handful will Jessica be for Bill. Deborah Ann Woll said as much as they let me.

Lafayyete is scared of Eric, while Eric has plans for Lafayette in the future.

On their fangs: They said the older hard fangs stay in where they’re supposed to while the newer rubber ones fly out if you talk too fast. The rubber ones were made because the hard ones were fairly hard and sharp. Paquin coyly chimed in with a smirk saying, “Yes… they are.”

Ball said that there should be evolution and change in the characters in time but it will be a natural evolution of characters.

Charlaine Harris - author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels

Charlaine Harris was asked what her inspiration was. She said the tabloids, but in all honesty she doesn’t trust the word inspiration. Writing is work and you wouldn’t want to be around her when she’s trying to make words or ideas come to her. She says when you’re under contract, you have deadlines and inpsiration doesn’t seem to work well with deadlines.

Instead, Charlaine just turns on her word program and asks herself, “Who’s coming to Sookies house today?”

Ball said this show has been the most fun he’s ever had in a job.

The difference between V and real blood is that V is older blood. Direct from the source is a much better experience.

True Blood San Diego Comic-Con: Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin

Now the question remains, if Eric does snag Sookie away, what will Bill do about it? Stephen said he might just take more drastic measures if that were the case.

That’s all I have for everyone from the True Blood panel. It was fun, loud and a lot of people waited a long time in line to see this panel. Skarsgard was quite the popular personality here today and they had a few exclusive bits of info to let us know about.

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