Last night the Paley Center hosted a panel entitled “Inside the Writers Room: True Blood”, and representing the HBO series were creator/executive producer Alan Ball along with writer’s assistant Elisabeth Finch, script coordinator Kate Barnow, co-executive producer Brian Buckner, co-executive producer Nancy Oliver, supervising producer Alexander Woo, and producer Raelle Tucker. Read on for a few choice tidbits of what was said and some hints of what fans can expect during Season 3.
The panel was moderated by Entertainment Weekly Senior Writer Alynda Wheat, and True Blood‘s official Twitter page provided regular updates on the event. Here are the highlights:
Raelle Tucker (106, 112, 203, 207) on the red carpet says Jessica might be one of her fave characters to write for.
Alexander Woo: “the scenes in the FOS church where there’s fighting between vampires and humans were among our favorites to shoot.”
Alan Ball “the characters are all my babies and I love writing for all of them. Especially Jason”
Alan Ball re: Ryan Kwanten, “I will admit to oftentimes saying, ‘Can we just get his shirt off?'”
These writers are thrilled to be on pay cable, “There’s almost nothing we can’t do. We can do a story about priapism.” Thanks @HBO!
Alan Ball: “I’m not a big fan of ‘stunt-casting,’ it takes us out of the story and becomes about something else.” Sorry, Snoop Dogg!
Another gem from Raelle Tucker: “I am a dirty little slut for Lafayette even if I’m not his type.” Aren’t we all!?
Are you ready for this?? Alan Ball: “Alexander Skarsgard appears without most of his clothes in the very first episode of S3.”
Where Bill has gone all gets answered in ep1 of S3. And we will see Evan Rachel Wood again (the fans are shouting that she was miscast!). [Ed. note: Alan points to himself and says “Sorry! I cast her! Point it all towards me!” The fans reassure him that they’ll still watch the show.]
Alan Ball: “There are a big boatload of new characters in S3. Even the Newlins may appear again.”
Alan re: Sookie, “There will be more conjecture about what she is and she will be more driven to discover what she is.”
What is the THEME for S3? Alan Ball says…. IDENTITY. Who am I? What am I?
Alan: “Bill will not be marginalized. Bill and Sookie will have troubles. But, Bill and Sookie have a connection that will not die.”
There will be more PAM and more NAN FLANAGAN in S3. Put that in your vault.
Godric’s death scene: partly green screen, partly live, and was done in only TWO takes because the sun was coming up!
And we will be seeing more Godric in flashbacks during S3. Confirmed.
In addition, Paley Center provided a few tweets of its own (along with the above image):
is maryann really dead? alan ball says yes!!! woo hoo
alan ball feels a responsibility to be true to the spirit of the books but if they were exact there would b no surprises.
thats it fans! True Blood season 3 premieres June 2010
It’s going to be looooooong wait until next June, but something tells us the payoff will be more than worth it.
For an even more detailed, minute-by-minute account of the evening, visit The Futon Critic.
