As stated in previous entries Vampires are the new black. With Twilight and True Blood being such big hits every company out there is trying to get their hands on vampire related projects. Perhaps the most interesting part of the trend for me is that very few people are producing big origional vampire stories, almost all are being based on book series.
Naturally when you make a movie or a tv show based on a book series you automatically have an fan base guaranteed to watch your show. I have talked earlier about the "Anita Blake" series being produced on IFC, I have also learned that the rites to the popular young adult series "House of Night" have been purchased as well; but neither of them are in production just yet.
The newest vampire series is "The Vampire Diaries" being produced by The CW and scheduled to be shown this fall. It is based on a relatively popular series by LJ Smith. When I was younger I was quite a fan of LJ Smith (Specifically the Nightworld and Forbidden Game series) but even at the tender age of 13 I could never could get into Vampire Diaries because I thought they were utter crap.
I know that The Vampire Diaries has an actual fan base, but recently found my old copy of the book and found that it was almost unreadable. I'm being honest here when I say that Twilight and even it's Heroine Bella Swan are both far more likable then what is presented to us in The Vampire Diaries. The TV writers are going to have to change a lot in order for this series to be remotely likable.
The series centers around a giant Mary Sue by the name of Elena. She is the hottest and most popular girl in her high school, she essentially runs the place and has scored of willing minions. She returns home from a summer in Paris and decides to dump her current boyfriend when she sees a super hot guy who just started going to her high school. And OMG the super hot guy turns out to be a vampire, who was in love with a girl who looked just like her many many years ago. And OMG the super hot vampire has a super hot brother who has a grudge against his brother but also desperately wants Mary Sue ... I mean Elena.
Oh did I mention that Elena's best friend and lackey is decedent of Druids and is psychic? Also the boyfriend Elena dumped the minute she saw Mr Sexy fangs has no problems with being dumped, still worships the ground she walks on, and is totally ok in helping her with her plans to seduce Stefan.
I'm not saying the show can't work, because with some rewriting it totally can. If they modernize it a bit (the book came out in 1991 and the fashion descriptions are hilarious), make the characters a bit more likable, and take out some of the more over the top elements it could be good. If they make it a series about a pretty girl who is in a love triangle with vampire brothers it could work out nicely.
Here is the official clips for "The Vampire Diaries"
Already it looks like they are changing a few things. In the book Stefan lived during the Italian Renaissance, but in the trailer he talks about returning home. Elena seems to be less of an annoyingly perfect southern bell, she has no accent and has been changed from blond to brunette. Based on what Elena was writing in her diary I'm bettering the series will focus more on how Elena is dealing with the death of her parents, which is somehow overlooked a bit in the book. Hopefully the series will also get to the dangerous elements faster then the book which spends roughly the first quarter on explaining how Elena is determined to have Stefan.
It looks like it could be a fun series if they do it right, but I'll reserve my judgment till I actually see the first episode.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment