WHO: Nina Dobrev, Paul Wesley, Katerina Graham, and exec producers Kevin Williamson, Julie Plec, and Bob Levy. MIA: Ian Somerhalder
PREMISE: It’s Supernatural meets Twilight meets Dawson’s Creek. Was totally prepared for this thing to suck. Much to my surprise, it didn’t!
9:18 am/PST: When will the vampire fad go away? “Hopefully not before Sept. 10,” cracks exec producer Julie Plec, referring to the show’s premiere date.
9:23 am: I’m still not clear on why Ian Somerhalder isn’t here.
9:24 am: Kevin Williamson insists Diaries is “not just a high school show. It’s a small town show. Once you get past the vampire premise, we get to telling the story about this town.”
9:25 am: All three actors on the panel claim to have read the books on which the show is based. I believe maybe one of them.
9:26 am: Paul Wesley (Diaries‘ answer to Robert Pattinson) went out of his way not to watch Twilight. “If there are similarities to Robert’s character in Twilight, so be it,” he says.
9:30 am: Williamson initially feared that Diaries would be perceived as a Twilight/True Blood rip-off. “The pilot is tough because there are a lot of similarities to Twilight,” he concedes. “There was no way around it. But we’re switching things around as we get [deeper] into it. We’re not a movie with a beginning, middle and end. We’re a TV series that evolves.”
9:34 am: Even though his character is 150 years old, he’s not some “perv,” Wesley maintains. Glad we cleared that up!
9:35 am: Williamson confirms that he’s writing Scream 4. But with Courteney Cox tied up with ABC’s Cougar Town, “I bought myself a season [to finish it].”
9:36 am: An avid Twitterer, Williamson says he remains puzzled by the 140-character phenom. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be twittering,” he shrugs. “I get links to weird stuff. I’m sort of exploring [the whole thing].”
9:37 am: Somerhalder is “in every single episode,” Williamson says. “He’s the devil. He just comes to town and makes everyone’s life hell.” Still not clear on why he’s not here.
9:41 am: The entire panel is engaged in a “private” conversation about their recent encounter with True Blood hottie Alex Skarsgard. Specifically, why does he have a Southern accent if he’s Swedish? (I was wondering the same thing when I met him at Comic-Con!) Recalls Plec: “I asked him, ‘Are you Southern?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I’m from Mississippi.’” Mystery solved!
9:46 am: Williamson reveals that a new series regular will soon be joining the cast. “He comes to town with a secret agenda,” he teases.
9:47 am: The panel ends. I’m still not clear on why Ian Somerhalder wasn’t there.
Why is Elena being played by a brunette? In the book shes golden blonde with bright blue eyes…
Actually, since the books are about 18-20 years old, Twilight is a ripoff of Vampire Diaries. I’m severely disgruntled that they are drastically changing the plot of the books for the tv show. At least True Blood is incorporating the books AND it’s own twist.
*laughs* Alex is GREAT! Studying for his Straw Dogs role I see!
OMG, they are remaking Straw Dogs? The original was PAINFUL to watch, slow and a total snoozefest, even though I adore Dustin Hoffman.
Well Vampire Diaries couldn’t be a Twilight rip off since it was written WAY before Twilight. I read it when I was a kid and enjoyed it. I am excited about the show.I am glad to hear they will be sticking close to the books.
Could it be that Ian wasn’t there because he’s in Hawaii filming LOST?
A girl can hope right?!?!
I’m thinking the same thing. He is in Hawaii. YEAH…
*fingers crossed* Please be in Hawaii filiming a LOST episode. Or episodes!
Sounds like Alexander is going a little method for his Straw Dogs role!
Maybe Ian was shooting some scenes early so that he can get to Hawaii for LOST? Just a thought. As for why Alex sounds like a Southerner, he’s shooting Straw Dogs in Mississippi and his character’s FROM Mississippi. He’s practicing the accent that’s all.
As for VD, I’m excited for this show. I haven’t read the books, but I love all things vampire. Plus Ian’s pretty. It’ll be nice to get my vamp fix once True Blood is done!
The pilot was awesome. So it at comic-con and I can’t wait for it.
I wish Kevin Williamson and Paul Wesley would say that if TVD is similar to Twilight, it’s because TVD came out 20 years ago and Stephanie Meyer OBVIOUSLY read them. I cringe when I think that people will think these wonderful books were written to ride on Twilight’s coattails.
I’d have preferred a Forbidden Games series, but I guess shadow men aren’t the hot property that vampires are right now.
I agree… I’ve read a number of articles on TVD, and a few have mentioned the similarity to Twilight. But not a single article has pointed out that TVD actually predates Twilight by nearly two decades.
That being said, even TVD was not the first “vampire tormented by his nature” story… but it’s the first one I remember reading when I was younger.
Personally, I’d have loved to see a series based on Dark Visions instead. I think there’s more “wiggle room” in the idea of an institute for psychic teenagers.
I also agree with “What happened to blonde Elena?” I think that would have helped set the series apart from Twilight a little more as well, since Bella is also a brunette.
LOVE YOUR HINTS!!
Ian is probably shooting Lost in Hawaii!!
Brooke is sooo right – it should have been the Forbidden Games!
The timing is completely off for this series. Way overloaded with vampires – the town’s background story is not compelling enough to combat both the Twilight fever and True Blood’s quality and originality. Plus, got no faith in the CW at all.
I like Ian S. on LOST but playing an irresistible badass vampire is SO not his territory. I cringe every time I read about this show – it’s going to ruin the books. I mean, good luck and all, but… not holding my breath.
*facepalm* Alexander was in character voice for Straw Dogs. The man is dedicated, he wants it to be authentic so he is going to work on it every time he opens his mouth. ……. Oh To have a conversation with him and his southern accent… *sigh*
IA with the comments. TVD came out way before Twilight. Anyway, I wish they would have given details if the character of Meredith being on the show.
I love how everyone agrees that TVD was ripped off! *raises hand* I want Alex to do duel shows. Bring him on as Alaric! Oh wait *cries* No Meredith, no Alaric.
I love Twilight and True Blood and I am hoping this show is good. I agree with Liz in that the timing is off. If people don’t know they are going to assume this is a rip off and I don’t have faith in CW either to make this good.
In order for them to make this a good show, they need to have other supernatural elements like True Blood does, I really hope they add shapeshifters and witches and werewolves and things like that. Otherwise it will be very boring to watch a 22 episode season with Ian Somderhalder being the bad guy every single episode. It’s like Lex Luther on Smallville during its early years was behind EVERY SINGLE bad thing happening in town. I think Ian was shooting Lost otherwise hes a jerk.
As a big fan of L.J. Smith who has NOT read or seen Twilight I am sorry to hear that Stephanie Meyer might have been a little too familiar with TVD. I thought they sounded similar when I first heard about Twilight, but that was one phenomena I didn’t personally jump on. As for which series should have been made into a TV show, I agree that vampires have been done to death right now (pun intended)and they should have made The Secret Circle trilogy into a series. I think it would have translated very well into a CW show. On second thought, I almost always loathe the result when they turn a good book or series into a tv show or movie, and I’m awfully fond of The Secret Circle books. Maybe they made the right decision after all . .
Totally agree!!! Secret Circle series from LJ is just incredible. If they wanted to do something similar, but also different and carve out their own nitch, they could have gone that way. Granted Charmed came before, but that series was good in a hokey, campy way. For me there was no real drama because you KNEW everything was going to work out. The only times the series actually surprised me was when they killed Pru and Andy off.
Secret Circle was an awesome series, and for a time when witchcraft wasn’t that popular, it was ballsy. Bring back that series!