are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling...

[V]

Are "Vampires" the "Next Big Thing"?

That is, the Next Big Cultural Thing for the next year to perhaps two or three years.

When X-Men 1 came out there was a big comic-book superhero craze. This really hit rock bottom with (ugh) Spiderman 3, but was rejuvenated by Iron Man and The Dark Knight, etc.

Or in the early 2000's, there was this great big shock at the NEWness of Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series. LOTR has already finished, and Harry Potter while still a successful franchise now doesn't quite catch the "it's on the front page of every magazine" and the FAST pace of HP film #2 coming out in 2002, then book #5 coming out in 2003, then film #4 coming out in 2004. HP is still doing well but its what "catches the public attention"

and before that, I would say "Heroes" captured public attention pretty much on TV, inspiring a lot of knockoffs. And before Heroes, was Lost, and the Lost-clones.

The pre-teen fangirl-legion aimed "Twilight" DOMINATED Comic-Con this year, and now we hear that Harry Potter 6 has been pushed back to next summer, so the "Twilight" film pushed up its release date 3 weeks to now come out the weekend HP 6 *would* have come out, Thanksgiving weekend. So for this christmas season, going into fall/winter, the big movie experience will be the vampire-themed Twilight.Meanwhile, "Tru Blood" is premiering on HBO, starring Anna Paquin (like Twilight it is also adapted from a long and successful book series). "True Blood" isn't just about vampires though there's all sorts of supernatural creatures it just starts with vampires (check out this fake documentary video)

Granted, not as much exposure on HBO, but then again being on HBO assures that it will be of "arthouse" quality, and non of that pandering-for-ratings-by-dropping-the-running-storylines
-to-tell-a-season-of-standalone-episodes like in Battlestar Galactica season 3 (ugh)

So, are "Vampire movies and TV series" the "Next Big Thing"?

Are you a fan of either of these series? If not, do you think they hold promise?

And ***this a sign, that if these succeed, we will soon see a whole new wave of vampire-themed cinema and TV series?

Is there perhaps some other Vampire-story that you think deserves a new TV series/movie?

 

[Jen]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

If vampires are the next "big thing", they should have kept Moonlight on the air. That show was actually good.

 

[Lindley]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

Is there perhaps some other Vampire-story that you think deserves a new TV series/movie?

Well, there's *always* Faith, The Vampire Slayer. Not that I think it'll ever happen.

 

[Trent Roman]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

I don't think a film and a TV show (which I'd not even heard about before now) establishes any kind of trend. A few years back, we had Buffy and Angel on TV, and that didn't spawn any broader vampire craze, despite a few sad imitator series. As for promise, I commented on 'Twilight' in another thread, suffice to say it was shallow and disappointing, and I expect the film to likewise be vapid. No idea what the show will be like; the fact that it's on HBO, and can theoretically produce a more 'adult' take on the supernatural, is intriguing, but at the same time being on a speciality channel can reduce it's penetration. For every Sopranos to come out of cable TV, there are several Carnivales that never catch on with the general public.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Jen]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

Is there perhaps some other Vampire-story that you think deserves a new TV series/movie?

Well, there's *always* Faith, The Vampire Slayer. Not that I think it'll ever happen.

Maybe after Fox cancels Doll House (I think that's what the new Wheadon/Dushku venture is called) they'll go with a Faith series.

That would really be kick-ass.

 

[Aragorn]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

To stop a comet from colliding with the planet and killing all of mankind, humanity called on the vampires from Gotham City to save them.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

Is there perhaps some other Vampire-story that you think deserves a new TV series/movie?

Well, there's *always* Faith, The Vampire Slayer. Not that I think it'll ever happen.

Of they could do a Buffy and/or Angle movie/miniseries.

 

[Broccoli]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

No. Something with Vampires always seems to be going on. Some are more successful than others, but I doubt it'll be the "new big thing."

And I wouldn't say the "superhero craze" hit rock bottom with Spidey 3. Granted, Spidey 3 wasn't that great, but for something to hit rock bottom, it would have to progressively be reaching that point. With superhero films like Batman Begins, and Superman Returns that came before it, I wouldn't consider the genre declining at that time. Plus, Spidey 3 made a shitload of money. Granted, money does not equal a good movie, but a movie in a genre that hit rock bottom shouldn't make a dime (re: Batman & Robin). Also, the studio still has enough faith in the franchise to go ahead with another sequel. I doubt a rock bottom film will call for that.

 

[Messianni]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

So far as Twilight is concerned, I have no interest whatsoever. The fangirl following especially turns me off from the entire thing. During the recent midnight release of Breaking Dawn, the fourth (last?) installment in the series, a local Borders was jampacked with loud gothy teens. The fact that I was purchasing something not Twilight related got me odd looks and culminated with someone asking me why I wasn't buying it in a very rude manner. I lit them on fire.

I am, however, looking forward to True Blood. Not only is it on HBO, thus ensuring some modicum of quality, but the creator is Alan Ball. One of his previous shows is also one of my favorites, Six Feet Under, a show with a dark theme that still managed to have both engaging drama and wonderfully dark humor. Sounds like he's perfect for it.

 

[Broccoli]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

So far as Twilight is concerned, I have no interest whatsoever. The fangirl following especially turns me off from the entire thing. During the recent midnight release of Breaking Dawn, the fourth (last?) installment in the series, a local Borders was jampacked with loud gothy teens. The fact that I was purchasing something not Twilight related got me odd looks and culminated with someone asking me why I wasn't buying it in a very rude manner. I lit them on fire.

Well, in fairness, if you were at a Borders at midnight when they were having a release party for a book and you are there to not by said book, you would get some odd looks (It'd be like going to Borders when during their Harry Potter 7 midnight release and buying a Trek novel).

But yeah, I never heard of Twilight either before the last few weeks and I still don't know what its about (other than vampires which I just learned thanks to this thread).

 

[Messianni]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

So far as Twilight is concerned, I have no interest whatsoever. The fangirl following especially turns me off from the entire thing. During the recent midnight release of Breaking Dawn, the fourth (last?) installment in the series, a local Borders was jampacked with loud gothy teens. The fact that I was purchasing something not Twilight related got me odd looks and culminated with someone asking me why I wasn't buying it in a very rude manner. I lit them on fire.

Well, in fairness, if you were at a Borders at midnight when they were having a release party for a book and you are there to not by said book, you would get some odd looks (It'd be like going to Borders when during their Harry Potter 7 midnight release and buying a Trek novel).

Funny you should say that, because I actually did. I was there with my girlfriend and some others during the midnight release. Another extremely large crowd, so much so it was hard to walk through the building. The attitude of the crowd, though, was so much more fun and upbeat. Twilight is basically a series of harlequinn novels with a vampire theme. Romance wish-fulfillment. Chick falls in love with a vampire, who is perfect in every way and vows to protect her. Oh, and a werewolf wants her too. Fighting ensues.

 

[V]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

Because I for one, literally more than I could care for a human baby, want to see a live-action "Hellsing" TV series based on the manga/anime/OVA series (though I'd call it just "Alucard", Hellsing is kind of a generic name)

who's bloody with me?!

Hellsing: "throwing-knife-wielding vampire-hunting priest vs Alucard: the King of Vampires" played out on epic scale

for those of you who don't know, a brief synopsis of the plot of "Hellsing":

Vampires, Ghouls, and Demons are real. The paramilitary "Hellsing Organization" is a top secret organization of the British government that helps track down and destroy these monsters. Their greatest agent is Alucard, who is actually himself a vampire. However, "this isn't Buffy": Alucard is arguably the strongest vampire who ever lived, and (after being defeated 100 years ago) he's been cursed to serve the Hellsing Organization; however, he's not "good" and not trying to get redemption or anything, he just does it because he's forced. Still....Alucard gleefully slaughters other modern-day vampires for Hellsing.

The idea is that by the present day, most Vampires have been "watered down" after many "Generations" of vampires turning humans into new vampires. Alucard, however, is one of the *original*Vampires from hundreds of years ago. Modern-day, watered-down Vampires are basically just "punks with guns that hide behind human weapons", morons like from the Buffy series that are just stronger and faster versions of humans. The *Original* Vampires, however, are a lot more like super-powerful demons with immense command of dark magic; they're a lot more like Bram Stoker-style classical vampires; demonically powerful and refined.

So Alucard, basically a Bram Stoker-style Vampire who remembers the "good old days" when Vampires had class and refinement, runs around slaughtering the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" moron modern-day vampires because he feels they aren't "worthy" of the dignity of being Immortals. Though there aren't really many of these powerful original Vampires left (it's down to just Alucard and a few others)

Alucard's "master" is Integra Hellsing, leader of the Hellsing Organization (it's an inherited position she got from her father). The plot of the tv series begins when a small rural British village is overrun by a Vampire: one of the rules of the Hellsing-verse is that only "the pure" i.e. virgins turn into Vampires when a Vampire bites them; non-virgins that get bit turn into mindless "Ghouls"; they are slaves to the will of the vampire that created them and basically just zombies, though they can use guns. A normal British police SWAT special forces team is sent in to the village, but they too are wiped out and then turned into Ghouls, except for one survivor, Seras. After the SWAT team fails, Alucard is called in by Hellsing to exterminate the Ghouls and the Vampire that created them.

Seras gets mortally wounded in the crossfire, and in an odd moment of pity, Alucard asks the dying Seras if she'd like to live: she will die from her injuries as a human, but if she lets him bite her, she'll become an immortal Vampire and live. She accepts his offer, becomes a Vampire, and joins the Hellsing Organization.
Episode 1 - "This is where you're supposed to close your eyes"
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

The thing is..."The Hellsing Organization" is a secret branch of the British government but also directly answerable to the Crown and the Church of England, and thus they're Protestants...the formal name of the Hellsing Organization is actually "The Royal Order of Protestant Knights". The Catholic Church, meanwhile, has their *own* vampire-hunting organization. They can't stand each other: the difference is that Hellsing is willing to recruit vampires to use to hunt other vampires, which the Vatican's vampire-hunting organization thinks is disgusting and they just kill vampires on site. The two groups hate each other and beyond some barely honored treaties, the irony is they hate *each other* more than they do the vampires and usually end up killing each other. Just as Alucard is Hellsing's trump card and ultimate weapon against the Undead, the Vatican's vampire-hunting group's trump-card is Father Alexander Anderson, a warrior-priest who's been upgraded with nanobots so he can regenerate body damage, just like vampires (though Alucard thinks this makes him neither man nor monster, but just an abomination). The thing is, Anderson's a pretty nice guy, runs an orphanage, etc. but he zealously slaughters even human agents of Hellsing he comes across as they're just "filthy heretics" to him and he's kind of nutty; he's armed with "baptized throwing bayonets" which can actually hurt Vampires.

Next time, on "Hellsing": they...are...the Valentine Brothers!

The overarcing plot of Hellsing is that why only virgins ("the pure") *someone* has been using a mix of genetic engineering and implanted microchips to create "artificial vampires" (granting vampire-status to non-virgins, thus "cheating") aka "insta-vampires". So they've got to figure out who's doing this; whoever it is wants to wipe out Hellsing, which includes mounting an attack on Hellsing HQ led by a pair of insta-vampires, the Valentine Bros., in which:

Jan Valentine brings Death-By-Konami-Code! and

Luke Valentine utterly pwns some Hellsing commandos, on his way to a head-to-head duel with Alucard....because there's always *someone* trying to be Number One, Luke wants to take down Alucard (its the classic Young Lion vs the Old Lion)

So its "smartly-dressed Vampires with high-powered weapons fighting other smartly-dressed vampires with high-powered weapons"

Most of the series if following Seras' entry in the world of being a vampire; i.e. she is disgusted with the concept of drinking blood (even donor-blood from hospitals) but she *needs* blood to survive and will get weak without it. So she's this sweet innocent person draw into the incredibly dark world of Hellsing and she's struggling to adjust: she's Hellsing's Living Dead Girl

and of course, Alucard and Anderson get a rematch, with Ghouls and Hellsing commandos caught in the crossfire in a brutal subway battle (see why Psalm 2:10 has replaced Ezekiel 25:17 in my lexicon)

oh, I guess you really want to know who's behind the insta-vampires' creation?

really?

hold on...

hold on...

EVIL. VAMPIRE. NAZIS. (Not EVIL ALIEN NAZIS, EVIL *VAMPIRE* NAZIS)

They're the "Millennium" organization: the Last Battalion. The idea is that the Nazi Third Reich was supposed to be "The Milliennium Empire", an empire to last a thousand years. The Nazis were conducting medical research on vampires and monsters and how to create their own, so when the war started going bad they sent the research project overseas to hide in south america, a holdout "last battalion" of 1,000 elite Nazi troops and scientists who over the decades have perfected the science of creating vampires and super-powered monsters. And now they're back.

They're Evil Vampire Nazis, they've got a command-blimp, and their first open move is to hijack a British aircraft carrier in the name of the Nazi empire....sending in their agent, a twisted female Nazi vampire codenamed "Rip Van Winkle" (aka Rip the Huntress; notice how she paints the new "flag" on the ship), to lead the assault.Oh, and Rip sings while she works....

all of this of course is a direct challenge to make Alucard come out and attack them on the aircraft carrier. So Rip camps out on the flight deck (with a drug-store umbrella to shield her from the sun, she is a vampire after all) and waits for Alucard to arrive. And the Huntress waits...


But Alucard takes it all in stride; after all, he's been around for a long-long year, and he's a man of wealth and taste!

 

[Michael Chris]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

Tru Calling is about vampires? Hmmmm, I might have watched...

 

[Nedersong]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

No, Tru Calling is not about Vampires. She is a girl who can see an entire day in the future and must use it to save a person's life. She works in the morgue and the corpses she touches triggers her experiences of the future.

 

[Kemaiku]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

I don't know about 2008, but 2009 sees the release of the prequel to Underworld that shows the beginning of the entire legacy and will determine if there's going to be a 4th to finish the series.

And the release of "Castlevania: The Movie" which is based on the longest running Vampire based game series there is. And the biggest budget Dracula based movie for a few years now, well he's in it lol.

Theres a slew of Buffy related material coming out this Winter but thats still closer to 2009.

If the Harry Potter movies work a few into the background as they were alluded to in the books, then the earliest opportunity is still '09.

Nope, definitely next year.

Don't forget they canceled Moonlight and Blood Ties isn't doing so well. I love Vampire related stuff, but not everyone does, it rarely breaks into mainstream appeal.

 

[Australis]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

^ I'd say the poster got confused between Tru Calling and True Blood.

As for vampires, meh. I'm over them.

 

[Kemaiku]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

^Yeah I think someone else mentioned his error further up the page.

I'm always up for something new, but so few shows and films do that well with the genre, cheap or camp or otherwise bloody awful (Bloodrayne).

I'd settle for a new Carmilla film, as long as it stuck mostly to the novel and just fleshed out the story. That BBC Dracula was terrible, tried to rewrite the whole damn thing 'til there wasn't much point.

Really wish they'd let Moonlight keep going, I was starting to like that one.

 

[Greg Cox]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

Vampires are always with us. Just look at the paperback racks. Vampire romance novels and chick lit (sometimes known as "bite lit") are one of the hottest categories in publishing. And it seems like there's always at least one or two vampire tv shows on the air. Besides "Moonlight," we also just had "Blood Ties" on Lifetime.

I'm more impressed that we seem to have a mini-werewolf boom in the works. Besides "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans," we also have the upcoming remake of "The Wolf Man" plus some upcoming film about Mexican werewolves south of the border.

 

[Kemaiku]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

And Kelley Armstrong's novel series, which is the Werewolf equivalent of the Vampire series, and getting some decent reviews too.

 

[ancient]

Re: are Vampires the "Next Big Thing" for '08? Twilight, Tru Calling.

The pre-teen fangirl-legion aimed "Twilight" DOMINATED Comic-Con this year, and now we hear that Harry Potter 6 has been pushed back to next summer, so the "Twilight" film pushed up its release date 3 weeks to now come out the weekend HP 6 *would* have come out, Thanksgiving weekend. So for this christmas season, going into fall/winter, the big movie experience will be the vampire-themed Twilight.

I predict that this movie will flop big time. The Twilight series, from what I hear, is one of the worst book series ever concieved. It starts out with a girl who does nothing but whine, everyone automatically loves her despite this, and she has some ill defined "specialness" which makes her super seductive to Vampires.

Or something. Frankly, none of the descriptions I hear make sense. Essentially, she loves this total dick of a vampire, and clings to him throughout the series even though he never actually does anything nice to her. Pay attention girls, this is what a relationship should be!

Anyway, I hear the fanbase went into a tizzy because in later books she gets married to him, then...ugh...gets pregnant with a vampire baby that starts eating her from the womb...so the hubby bites her to make her a vampire so she'll live. Or die but still be undead or whatnot. It's much worse than I can describe, but really the whole series takes a sharp turn into crazyland.