Why True Blood Kicks Twilight's Ass + Acting With Wolves
Hilarious article on "True Blood" vs "Twilight". The original source has pictures.
Why True Blood Kicks Twilight's Ass
The ultimate vampire showdown is hardly even a fair fight. Sookie vs. Bella! Bill and Eric vs. Frik n' Frak!
June 4, 2010
by Matt Fowler
With True Blood's Season 3 and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse both headed our way this month we here at IGN felt the need to set the record straight once and for all: TRUE BLOOD KICKS TWILGHT'S ASS!
It's true. True Blood wins. Easily. On almost every single conceivable level. It's hardly even a fair fight. It's like watching a bed-ridden asthmatic try to knock down a sequoia. By huffing and puffing. True Blood is a salaciously sinister and fiendishly fun series featuring insane characters filled with life and color. Twilight is a sniffly-nosed, dew-covered mope-fest filled with silence and shame. Yes, because of the "vampire factor", these two creative products share fans as there will always be fans of vampires no matter what movie they're in or what show they're on. Like everything else that exists in pop-culture there are apologists. But Twilight is listless and dreary. And it's not that we don't fully appreciate the forests and gravel roads of the Pacific Northwest as a backdrop, but Twilight wallows too much in the picturesque serenity of its locale and loses all sense of danger. It never effectively conveys the "horror" that lies behind the small town facade. It essentially targets eight year-olds (under the guise of a teen romance) by effectively de-evolving the entire genre.
Knives out! We know Twilight fans will take major umbrage with this feature but we also know they'll probably have to look up what the word "umbrage" means so we'll try to stay a couple steps ahead of them. True Blood has its fair share of detractors, sure; mostly because of its ham-fisted tonality, bawdy content and subtext about tolerance and equality (hey, some people object to those things!). And while it has a very respectable rabid fan base based of the Charlane Harris novels and the HBO series, its fandom is nowhere near the insane levels of worldwide obsession that accompany the Twilight series. And while we surely respect everyone's opinion regarding things that they watch or read that make their miserable lives on this planet a smidge more tolerable, we ask that you respect our opinion as we point out all the reasons why True Blood had chunks of Twilight in its stool!
Vlad The Impaler
Vampires have always been the sexiest mythological creatures (sorry Flesh-Shredding Dryads!) so it makes sense that people might want to see these guys actually have sex with people. Who wants to sit around for two hours and watch people yearn? Who really wants to explore the depths of an ultimately unfulfilling relationship? Yes, there is merit to tackling the themes of lovelorn longing, but we'd rather leave that topic to more adept authors than Stephenie Meyer. In True Blood, everyone has sex! They bone 24/7! And they don't try to hide the fact that the thing that initially draws each of them to one another is raw sexual attraction. Sure, they grow to know each other later and, hell, they might even learn to tolerate each other's contrived southern eccentricities, but first things first! Sex. And lot's of it. Hell, Sookie and Bill spent almost an entire episode under the sheets. I think she had to get up at some point to go get some Gatorade or a turkey sandwich or something, but for the most part it was just them screwing in a Dallas Hotel room.
Bella and Edward spend all their free time exchanging meaningless niceties under porcelain pretences. Sulky stares and sullen smirks. And of course Bella's dad is cool with her dating a vampire! He knows that dude is never going to even touch her boob! It's pretty much just like letting her date a gay guy. Actually, no. It's safer. See, dads don't care about their little girls running around with monsters if that monster is an ineffectual, uncharismatic neutered lump. Yes, Edward and Bella do wind up having sex eventually. After they get married. And just once. Enough to get her pregnant. We all know Twilight is an anorexically-veiled "abstinence until marriage/sex only for babies" parable, but does it also have to be so boring?
In True Blood, vampires represent sex. And rightfully so. Sex with vamps is established as being exponentially better and their blood can be used as supernatural Viagra. The ritual draining of a sex partner's blood (not for killing) is depicted as an erotic act that heightens pleasure for both parties.
So then…point for True Blood. An erotic, insatiable sweltering point.
A Grave New World
In Twilight, its business as usual for vamps. Hiding out. Wracked by shame and guilt. Some like to wreak havoc and spill the blood of the innocent. Some like to soak up self-pity like a sponge and drink deer protein shakes. They're in hiding, and the unfortunate victims of the bad vampires usually get written off by the police as being mauled by some sort of wild animal. The underworld vampire hierarchy decrees that vampires must remain hidden. And sparkly. Booooring.
True Blood's world is vibrant and fresh. Vampires live among humans. They've come "out of the coffin." They have jobs. They have magazines. Talk shows. Bars. Townships. But it's still a fairly new scenario so there still are rampant prejudices on both sides of the vampire/human relations. Whereas Twilight is an allegory for not giving in to your "dirty, filthy urges," True Blood tackles racism, segregation, religion and a flurry of other socially relevant topics that helps the series stand out as a true game-changer in the vampire genre.
The vampires on True Blood have Kings and Queens, Sheriffs and Magistrates and a whole infrastructure of nefarious law and order. And since vampires are now blending into society one of the most fascinating elements of the show is watching how the two justice systems collide! Plus, in a straight world vs. world battle, the world that has vamps, werewolves and shifters, pagan demons, witches, fairies and other assorted boogey-creatures wins by a supernatural landslide.
Morally relevant subtext prevails! Point for True Blood.
ReVamp/Remodel
The vampires of Twilight sparkle and shimmer in the sun, turning them into beautiful pieces of unthreatening art. Yes, this is something that's easy to take a pot-shot at and it's been sort of the "go-to" fanboy tirade circling the Twi-series for the past few years. But despite the fact that this element of the Meyer stories has been mocked ad nauseam, it never ceases to be utterly ridiculous and facepalm-worthy. Never. Twilight fans, your argument has never been more invalid.
If you insist on NOT exploding in the sun then you have to go to school, mister!
True Blood vampires are able to make progressive leaps and bounds genre-wise while still adhering to the basic established vampire rules concerning sunlight. And they're horny. And complex. And feral. And peaceful. And able to think like creatures of the modern-era. Let's compare the two scenes - the meet/cute scenes - in both Twilight and True Blood; when Edward sees Bella for the first time and when Bill sees Sookie for the first time. When Edward sees Bella, his eyes awkwardly widen, his nostrils flair and he gets an uncontrollable vamp-boner (see: Edward smelling her "specialness") and has to excuse himself from science class like a dandy who just pooped his panatloons. When Bill sees Sookie, there's a sultry sexual brooding that happens, letting us know that Bill wants to "f the s" out of Sookie and he's not ashamed to show it in his eyes.
It's eventually explained in the books True Blood is based on (and will be covered in Season 3 of the series) why vampires go "ga-ga" for Sookie, but they never explain why Bella is conveniently Edward's "plain Jane" heroine. She just is. It's just more of that "you special just by being introspective and boring" crap that fuels Twilight's bonfire.
Vampires are vampires are vampires. Point for True Blood.
Werewolf? There Wolf!
First off, we're not ones to assume, or demand, that fans of the Twilight movies or the True Blood TV show have or should read the books that they're based on. But for all you Twilight fans who think that Jacob and his pack of mystical dogs are werewolves? Shame on y'all! They're a clan shapeshifters that take the form of wolves. Hence the reason they can turn into wolves without the icky, painful "growing hair and breaking bones" parts. They're basically like True Blood's Sam Merlotte, except they can only turn into one thing. Like that one Wonder Twin who could only turn into a bucket of water.
So then…why the title New Moon? That's rotten and misleading, no? That fully suggests real werewolves. Season 3 of True Blood, just like book 3 of the Harris series, contains real freakin' werewolves who will really freakin' rip your face off! But don't tell that to this ingenious Twilight fan who wrote a letter to the Latino Review (thinking she was writing to Universal) about how Twilight invented werewolves and that not only did their movie, The Wolfman, totally bite the concept from New Moon but then shamefully turned the werewolf into a grotesque beast.
"This movie was a complete waste and I feel that it offends ALL Twilight Fans around the world, that including myself. For one, it was a COMPLETE remaking of the Wolf Pack from The Twilight Saga: New Moon. It gives the werewolves a bad name and makes them look like some deformed mutation of a rabid dog. I actually started to like werewolves after seeing Jacob Black and all his awesomeness on the big screen at the movies. That was until I saw your crappy remake of what you call to be a "were wolf". I don't see how you live with yourself for making it the way you did. If I made this movie, I would be ashamed to even admit that I owned it. How can a werewolf be killed with a silver bullet*? Better yet, have you saw the transformation of the man that is "supposed" to be the wolf? He sits in some chair and his entire body turns in to some mutated freak. If you would watch the transformation of Jacob Black, (Taylor Lautner) he doesn't come close to looking as fake, cheap and or mutated as the wolf man. You tell me, who looks to be the better werewolf. Your stupid Wolf Movie didn't even make the top Movie for the charts; Valentines Day WITH TAYLOR Lautner! Get that this is MY oppinion and I felt I wanted to express it because I saw that your email was on your site. I wanted to let you know this is what i thought of the wolf man that sucks.
FREAKIN LAUTNER DID!
TEAM JACOB- cuz hes a REAL WEREWOLVE!"
We heart you, Kayla.
So good. So good. Fifty points for True Blood.
The Devil's Concubines
Sookie is a beautiful strong-willed, impulsive telepath whose parents were killed when she was young. Bella is a dour, dreary blank-slate who can't get over the fact that her life is fine and dandy. Bella is rescued from her more-than-adequate existence after randomly finding the one boy in the world who she drives into an inexplicable sexual frenzy and is willing to pledge himself to her eternally.
Sookie's life becomes a swirling torrent of chaos and adventure after she starts shacking up with Gentleman Bill and draws the ire of a local serial killer who likes to brutally dispatch 'fang-bangers."
The biggest difference between Bella and Sookie (other than the fact that Bella is so dull that she makes the viewer themselves question whether or not they have mono) is that Bella wants to become a vampire and Sookie wants nothing to do with it. As tumultuous as Sookie's existence has been and always will be, she loves who she is and wants to grow old and experience life like a normal girl. Bella wants desperately to abandon her perfectly acceptable life of being "run of the mill" and extend her languid existence until the end of time and space.
Plus, Sookie's got an Oscar.
Plus plus…Sookie shows her t**s and Bella looks like the kid from Frailty.
Does a thousand points for True Blood seem fair?
Fango and Cash
Comparing Edward and Jacob to Bill and Eric is kind of like comparing an ice sculpture of a malnourished swan and a broken piece of treated back porch flooring to ferocious hell-demons with flaming d***s.
Oh, and Jacob totally looks like a llama.
Really, that's all there is to say on the matter.
Infinity points for True Blood.
Source
And another article on using real wolves for "True Blood", as opposed to computer graphics with "Twilight".
JUNE 4, 2010
Acting With Wolves: Meaty Roles That Require a Gentle Touch
Werewolf Craze Puts Shadow and His Pack in the Spotlight; 'It Felt So Primal'
By AMY CHOZICK
LOS ANGELES-Producers on the HBO vampire series "True Blood" were in a race to finish several scenes last month. But their deadline wasn't about budgets or air dates. They needed to wrap the episodes before the wolves shed their winter coats.
"We had to work on their timeline," says executive producer Gregg Fienberg. A lighter summer coat would make the 120-pound gray wolves, cast in werewolf roles, look smaller and less menacing. "We can't suddenly have wolves that look different."
Big film productions like Twilight and Wolfman can afford to create giant, computer-generated werewolves. But television series on a budget have to rely on the real thing. WSJ's Amy Chozick reports on the care and feeding of Hollywood's wolf packs.
Television producers are used to working with high-maintenance stars. But the popularity of the vampire genre, which all of a sudden has embraced werewolves, has some productions learning to deal with wolf actors. Big-budget movies can afford to craft expensive computer-generated werewolves, but TV, with its smaller budgets, must often rely on the real thing.
Every few seconds of screen time for the growling giant werewolves in the coming movie "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" took a team of as many as six visual-effects experts up to six weeks to create. The cost of live wolves varies, but they typically rent for under $500 a day, plus the cost of trainers. Since the animals prefer to travel in packs, six or seven additional wolves may accompany a wolf actor, but producers don't have to pay for the rest of the entourage.
"Deadwood," a Western series on HBO, used live wolves. Animal Planet recently aired "Living with the Wolfman," a reality series about an English couple that lives with a pack of wolves.
Thunder, a golden timber wolf with deep amber eyes, landed a role as a werewolf on the third season of "True Blood," along with seven other wolves. HBO's series, which returns June 13, follows vampires, werewolves and humans who coexist in the fictional town of Bon Temps, La.
Not everyone is joining the pack. The CW network's "Vampire Diaries" so far isn't springing for wolves, and it even stopped using a live crow last year because it was too much hassle, according to a network spokeswoman.
Wolves, even if raised in captivity, pose a special challenge, because they look like their cuddly canine cousins. Actors must be warned repeatedly not to pet the animals, and have to sit through frequent safety seminars. Perfume and cologne disturb the wolves and are forbidden on the set. Food must be cleared from the immediate premises as per rules provided by the American Humane Association's Film & TV Unit.
Before he was cast as werewolf Alcide Herveaux on "True Blood," actor Joe Manganiello had little experience working with live animals-just a couple of scenes with a penguin on a CBS pilot. A live wolf required some adjustments. On a recent break on a set in West Hollywood, the actor had to rush through a crowd of extras and off the sound stage after crew members spotted him eating turkey. "All I heard was 'Are you out of your mind? The wolves are coming,"' he recalls.
Skittish by nature, wolves must arrive on the set a day or two before a shoot and have private time to sniff around and get comfortable. There are air-conditioned trailers, with separate compartments for each wolf, where they rest between scenes.
Each wolf eats three to four pounds of raw meat and high-protein food daily and needs frequent breaks. "They're worse than children," says director Michael Lehmann.
Wolves can be trained to stand on a mark or jump on cue for a treat of red meat. But unlike dogs, their faces don't exude much expression, directors say. Some scenes require a "hybrid" body double. These mixed-breed dogs are three-quarters wolf and have a more agreeable demeanor. Rugby, a 100-pound perky hybrid, had his cream-colored coat dyed brown so he could stand in for chocolate-colored wolf Shadow for a scene in which a person jumps in front of a bullet to save a werewolf.
Ever since Lon Chaney Jr. prowled the countryside in 1941's "The Wolf Man," Hollywood has returned to werewolves, depicting them in myriad ways. Makeup designer Rick Baker says he was instructed to create a "four-legged hound from hell" for the 1981 movie "An American Werewolf in London," for which he won an Academy Award. In this year's "The Wolfman," Benicio Del Toro walked upright and flashed inch-and-a-half long canines.
"In our world, werewolves are shifters who turn into wolves. They don't turn into giant wolves the size of minivans. They don't turn into human-looking wolves," says "True Blood" creator Alan Ball.
Live wolves can help bring out actors' animal side. Brit Morgan, who plays sultry werewolf Debbie Pelt on "True Blood," shot a scene in which she kicked open a door as two hybrid wolves jumped on either side of her. One got excited and snapped at her hand. The director yelled "cut" and she says she heard someone say, "Um, you almost became lunch."
Trainers work with stunt wolves for the HBO series 'True Blood.' Wolves can be trained to stand on a mark or jump on cue for a treat of red meat.
But the scene is one of her best yet, she says. "It felt so primal and the energy was so strong." (A wolf has an estimated biting capacity of 1,500 pounds per square inch, compared with about 750 pounds for a German shepherd, according to the International Wolf Center.)
If a scene requires a wolf to stand still for a long period of time, Steve Martin, owner of Steve Martin's Working Wildlife, which provides the wolves, may recommend Thunder, typically his steadiest wolf. Frankie is a happy, outgoing wolf whose head bobs up and down when he tries to stand still. Cody gets nervous with indoor objects overhead, so he's better for outdoor scenes. Shadow is fast and can do scenes that require a werewolf to run through the woods.
Animal actors, like the human variety, experience career highs and lows. A wolf could land several roles and then face a dry spell, says Mr. Martin. And species-wise, he is keeping his options open. Also in his stable are trained reindeer, a bear named Brett, porcupines and an elephant (upon request). "Right now it's wolves," he says. "Next year it could be cheetahs."
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