Agent Joshua Bilmes and Variety are reporting that HBO has picked up the vampire series True Blood, which is based on Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series of “Southern Vampire” novels. They expect to move the series into production this Autumn. Alan Ball will be the executive producer and showrunner; he wrote and directed the pilot, and has already written several more episodes.
“True Blood proves that Alan continues as a master of his craft,” said HBO entertainment president Carolyn Strauss. Ball started working on the series in late 2005 when he signed a two-year contract with HBO.
The series is set in small-town Louisiana, where vampires co-exist with humans by drinking a Japanese-manufactured synthetic blood. The show contains a dose of humor alongside the horror. “Charlaine has created such a rich environment that’s very funny and at the same time very scary,” Ball told Daily Variety after first selling the project in 2005. “I bought the book on impulse, and I just couldn’t put it down.”
IMDB.com already has a cast list posted on this page.
Ball previously executive produced (and also wrote, directed, and appeared in) HBO’s Six Feet Under; his full filmography is available on this page. Charlaine Harris’s web site is www.charlaineharris.com. Bilmes, of JABberwocky Literary Agency, is her literary agent.
This article updates this story we published in February.