Alan Ball: True Blood Could Run as Long as the Books
By latbfan on Jun 14 2010 | 5 Comments »
Alan Ball at the Season 3 Premiere
After last night’s fangtastic Season 3 premiere, a lot of fan(g)s are hoping the series will be immortal. Unfortunately, unlike vampires, HBO’s series are not know for their longevity, but Alan Ball thinks True Blood has the potential to break the HBO’s record: “I think ‘True Blood’ could run longer than ‘Six Feet Under’ because of the supernatural element. There’s just so many areas to create stories that we didn’t have on ‘Six Feet Under’. Literally by the fourth season we started to hit the wall. It was like what about –oh no we did that in season two. But because of the supernatural element in ‘True Blood’ I feel like it could continue much longer.”
Since each season of ‘True Blood’ has been based on one of Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels, according to Ball there is another decade’s worth of source material: ”I know Charlaine just published her tenth book, and she has plans for at least three more. I think it could run as long as [the books] run.”
Ball pragmatically noted that the show might run out of gas before the books end, though HBO will surely want to keep it going as long as it remains popular.”It will be the same thing as ‘Six Feet Under’. Once it feels like it’s the right time to end the show then we’ll end it. Or I don’t know. This one’s much more successful for HBO than ‘Six Feet Under’ was. So maybe they’ll say, ‘Oh no. We’ll just get somebody else to run it.’”
Of course, there’s another key factor: the cast. Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer and the rest of the gang from Bon Temps may not be willing to stay with the show indefinitely. Most television dramas sign actors to initial five year contracts then renegotiate if the show lasts longer.
AB rules!
Alan please don’t get tired of us! i hope that you will always want to do this show.
Seriously? While I love TB, I can’t imagine SM, AP, AS, and the other great actors still doing their respective parts in 10 years. SM will be 50, AP will be 37, etc. It gets a big difficult to pull off “forever young” after a time. Now what would really be great … if AB could do 24 epiosdes a year encompassing two books in those episodes. I could see that being doable.
I mean, really. The vampires will be, pardon me, a bit long in the tooth to play immortals. Any show with immortal, non-aging characters has an early expiration date. I’d rather they go out on top than whimper off in the cold night.
I agreee with all, Please alan keep the great and I hope everyone you is the show will still with it. Because everyone is doing a wonderful job!!!