Not only was True Blood Sunday’s number 1 cable program with a 2.6 adults 18-49 rating, matching last week’s performance, but today at the HBO Television Critics Association event, the network Head, Michael Lombardo said that:
“for the time being, the series is firing on all cylinders and there is no reason to end it in the immediate future. The show’s obviously doing well … As long as it continues to be performing with the consumer, and more importantly exciting the storytellers, I think we’re there.”
We’re not surprised that True Blood is not ending any time soon just because Alan Ball is leaving as showrunner. Mark Hudis is very capable and many of the cast have expressed how Alan now has a very experienced team who are able to make it run smoothly so there doesn’t seem to be any reason for the show to end too soon.
However, even so, most HBO shows have a tendency to end after just six seasons — look at both “The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City.” The only show that has run longer than this in recent memory is “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and this really just happens based on what Larry David wants to do.
We do know for sure that “True Blood” has already been renewed for a sixth season, and it continues to be the most-watched show on the network when it comes to viewers within the 18-49 demographic. Let’s hope this trend continues for our favorite show!
John Swetnam the writer of Stephen Moyer’s new film, Evidence, currently in post-production, was interviewed recently and below is an excerpt from that interview that pertains to Evidence and working with Stephen Moyer.
Stephen Moyer on the set of Evidence
John Swetnam
John Swetnam lived all over the world before he ended up in Orange County where he graduated with an MFA in screenwriting from Chapman University. Soon after, he moved to Hollywood and spent years honing his craft before his first break would come in the form of “Evidence”.
Can you tell us a little bit about your upcoming film Evidence (directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi) which, according to IMDb, is in post production? Were you on set during filming, and if so what was it like?
Evidence was the first script I sold which was recently completed. We’re hoping to be in theaters early 2013. It was the greatest learning experience of my life and a ride that I will never forget. I got to work with some amazing producers, actors, and one of the coolest directors on the planet. I was always welcomed on set and will never forget that first day watching Stephen Moyer acting in one of my terribly written scenes. It gave me chills. Still does when I think about it. I’m actually in the movie as well. I wanted to play a cop, but they thought I would be much more believable as a convict :)
I can’t tell you how excited I am about it. I can’t wait for everyone to see it. And I really can’t wait for the premiere and the after-party where I will inevitably drink too much, hit on some married actress, and make a fool of myself. God, I love this town!
A couple of weeks ago there was a Twitter sighting of Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer who were shopping at Lush. According to Movie Entertainment the couple bought Silky Underwear Dusting Powder. I must have missed that during my last visit in the overwhelmingly smelling shop in my hometown. Apparently Movie Entertainment followed them into the bedroom because they know exactly what Bill and Sookie did with the sexy jasmine fragrance dusting powder.
Thanks to Bills_Progeny for the pic
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As all True Blood fans know, each episode is always titled after a song chosen by it’s music supervisor Gary Calamar in consultation with the writers. We enjoy trying to guess which song it will be when the title for each episode is revealed during the filming of each season.
For episode 8, Somebody That I Used To Know”, Shadaliza was very sure that it would the song by Gotye. She was so sure, in fact, that she put it in print prior to the episode airing. I told her that although that could be it, I knew that Gary Calamar wouldn’t pick such a popular tune for True Blood. And, in our music speculation post on The Vault for this episode, we posted the Goyte song, but we also posted the one that was used by Elliott Smith, thanks for our friend from our affiliated site Skarsgårdnews.com.
However now, Shadaliza is somewhat vindicated because we learn below that the version she chose, was the original song that was intended for the episode. Read about it below:
So, we agree that the latest episode’s title — “Somebody That I Used To Know” — led fans to expect that the song of the same name, by breakout artist Gotye, would be used over the end credits. That song, which sounds more like Peter Gabriel’s ’80s material than anything in the pop music today, topped the U.S. singles charts earlier this year, has been covered on American Idol and The Voice, and was used on an episode of Glee. It turns out that sometimes a song can get too big for its own good.
True Blood Music Supervisor Gary Calamar told CBS Local, “Actually, when Mark Hudis first wrote the episode, he had the Gotye song in mind. At that point the song was new and just starting to become popular. By the time we got to post production on the episode the song was hugely huge. I think it’s great, but once a song has been featured on Glee it’s no longer right for True Blood end credits.” Luckily, there was an easy “plan B”: “I knew this great song by Elliott Smith with the same title. We gave it a try and it worked beautifully.” The late singer/songwriter Elliott Smith released the song on his 2000 album, Figure 8.
Here’s the chosen song by Elliott Smith:
A more familiar artist whose music was used on this week’s episode was blues legend Howlin’ Wolf. For a steamy scene that featured (female) fan favorite Alcide (Joe Manganiello) shirtless and “getting it on” with fellow werewolf Rikki (Kelly Overton), Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightnin’” played in the background. Right after the scene, “Alcide” began trending on Twitter (it was a good week, social media-wise, for the show: “Hoyt” and “Godric,” also characters on the show, were trending during and after the episode as well).
Calamar tells CBS Local, “We tried a few things over the love scene, but when we cut in Howlin Wolf’s blues classic ‘Smokestack Lightning’ we all knew this was the one to capture the wild sexuality of Alcide and Rikki.” True Blood has previously used covers of Wolf’s “Howlin’ For My Baby” and “Evil” on the show. “Smokestack Lightnin’” is one of his most well known songs, and has been covered by The Yardbirds, The Animals and The Grateful Dead, among others.
One last video interview with Stephen Moyer at Comic Con is yet to be posted, and here it is.
We see Stephen outside the Warner Brothers booth in the Exhibition hall, presumably while at the autograph signing when he chats with Kim Alexander on Comic Con Radio SiriusXM.
It’s really touching to hear him speak about Bill’s relationship with Jessica and how he feels about Deborah Ann Woll.
He also talks about what we now know about how Bill will be questioning his humanity this season.
source: YouTube.com
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