True Blood News at The Nest

Joe Manganiello

Good news for Joe Manganiello fans, as he has been upgraded to regular for Season 4. Joe, as most of you know, plays the werewolf Alcide Herveaux, who is helping Sookie Stackhouse to find missing Bill  in Season 3 of True Blood. He was originally supposed to appear only in a handful of episodes, but looks like he impressed the show’s producers and was embraced by True Blood fans, leading to his promotion to regular for next season.

Source

This just in and HOT off the press: HBO has just announced that they will be renewing our favorite show, True Blood. For those of you who were holding your breath, you may breathe now.

LOS ANGELES, June 21, 2010 – HBO has renewed the hit show TRUE BLOOD for a 12-episode fourth season, it was announced today by Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming.  Created by Alan Ball, the series will begin production of new episodes early next year in Los Angeles, with debut set for summer 2011.

“The new season of TRUE BLOOD is off to a terrific start, as enthusiasm for this unique show continues to build among both subscribers and critics,” noted Lombardo.  “We’re looking forward to more chills from Alan Ball and his gifted team next year.”

“I am beyond thrilled to be able to continue working with this amazing cast and crew,” says Ball.  “This is the most fun I have ever had.”

Alan Ball did a charming interview with Abbie Bernstein @  Buzzy Multimedia which was published today. There’s a lot of stuff in here that we have already heard, and some things that I don’t think we have. There are spoilers in here for those not finished with Season 1 or Season 2, so beware those of you that are behind.  Of special interest, we find out that HBO has renewed True Blood for a fourth season (!), which should bring a smile to all you “Dead to the World” fans out there (and to all True Blood fans for that matter). See highlights below:

The cable network is so pleased with Ball and company that, Ball relates, “I just closed a deal to show-run True Blood for two more seasons, so I would assume that [the series is at minimum] going through Season Four.”

As True Blood continues, Ball says, “I think we’re always going to use the books as sort of a foundation, but I just don’t see how, as time goes on, you can’t diverge from them a little bit more each season. I don’t know, though. We’re starting to work on Season Three and we actually are really, really sticking to the books, at the beginning at least.”

Anything Ball can tell us about where Season Three is going? “Season Three is a big Eric [the vampire played by Alexander Skarsgard] season and Season Four is really big for Eric’s character, according to the books.”

Also, Alan remarks on the difference between the sex/violence shown in True Blood than what was originally written in the Sookie Stackhouse books:

True Blood the series has startled some of Harris’ fans by being more overtly sexual and violent than the books are. Even in the relatively tender romance between Paquin’s Sookie and Moyer’s vampire Bill Compton, Ball says, “Certainly, the first time that they get together, we made it pretty bloody.” The episodes are indeed harder-edged than Harris’ prose, Ball adds. “It’s a little more violent. The books are violent, but I think it’s one thing to hear about it and another to see it.” So far, he adds, HBO has not objected to what has been depicted on the show. “I have never had a situation where they’ve said, ‘You can’t show that.’ Obviously, there’s a lot of sex in this show, but it’s never going to be pornographic. I’ve never had a situation where [the network has complained]. But I’m sure if I did something graphically pornographic, they would say, ‘Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?’”

Read the entire interview at the source