Alan Ball
Below is a portion of an article with Alan Ball where he talks about True Blood and the differences of working in film vs. TV. He also comments about those that aren’t happy that he hasn’t completely followed the Sookie Stackhouse books for True Blood. He says, ’I don’t really pay too much attention to it,” and goes on to say, “If we did that first of all there would be no surprises and second of all poor Anna Pacquin would work five days a week, 12 hours a day.”
Alan has worked in both television and film, and he says the small screen is able to tackle more sophisticated story lines.
“Partially it’s because the economic models are different and partially it’s because you have hours and hours to tell a story where as in a movie you just have two hours and you have to simplify everything down to its pure essentials.
“I also feel that in America, at least, movies are all targeted at 15-year-olds and there’s nothing wrong with that, they’re the ones that are buying tickets, but as an adult I feel that TV is a much more welcoming place for complicated, adult writing.”
And Ball believes the move to more complicated, adult issues on television isn’t just limited to the US.
He says he’s recently discovered the Australian ABC series Rake, starring Richard Roxburgh, and has become a big fan.
“I love it,” he says.
“It’s so complicated and messed up and the character is such a screw-up that I get excited every time it’s on and I look forward to watching the episodes.”
While his gauge for all his television shows is whether he would like it, he says there’s no way of knowing if it will be a hit.
“I have tried in the past to work out some kind of formula and it just doesn’t exist,” he says.
“I’ve done plenty of things that I thought would work like gangbusters and they didn’t and I had no idea that True Blood would become the phenomenon that it has become.”
ALthough True Blood is based on Harris’ novels, some of the storylines and characters do deviate from the books.
This has raised the ire of some die-hard fans of the novels but Ball says he’s creating a film version of the books which has different requirements.
“There are some people who feel like we’re not true enough to the books but I don’t really pay too much attention to it,” he says.
“Ultimately I just work with the writers on the show and we just try to do what we think is the best film version of her books.”
Besides he says, the novels are all from the point of view of Sookie Stackhouse which would mean lead actress Anna Pacquin would be working around the clock.
“If we did that first of all there would be no surprises and second of all poor Anna Pacquin would work five days a week, 12 hours a day,” he says.
read the rest of this article by going to: nz.news.yahoo.com
