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TV: “True Blood” Loses Head Writer, Alan Ball Stepping Down…

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Alan Ball is stepping down as the head writer of “True Blood”.

I’m not entirely sure how much this will impact the upcoming 5th Season of HBO’s flagship sex and vampires odyssey. I do know that the show resumed production in November, so I have to assume that the majority of the upcoming season is pretty much mapped out. The show’s luxurious (around 14 days per episode) production schedule would allow for around 7 or so segments to be in the can. So it’s safe to say that the remaining 5 are outlined at the very least and the majority of them are scripted.

Not much reason has been given for Ball’s departure from the position (he will remain on the show in some capacity, I’m guessing as a producer) except for “exhaustion”. While that’s often PR code-speak for too much hard partying – but I don’t really think that’s the case here. Perhaps Ball is literally exhausted by pushing the show to ridiculous extremes? I don’t imagine he envisioned it being as patently ridiculous as it’s become when he was first getting it off the ground in 2007-2008.

Per Forbes, “Sookie and her pals from HBO’s True Blood are losing their creator. Alan Ball, I have confirmed, will step down from being headwriter of the show about sexy vampires mixing it up in New Orleans. Explanations include exhaustion, and maybe that the show seemed like it had tired blood last season. Ball will still be with the show, I’m told, but a new regime will guide the fates of the characters into their new season. This could also very well be a money issue, as series tend to get more and more expensive as they drag on.

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‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ Adds “Chucky” Actor Teo Briones and More to Lead Cast

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Chucky Actor Teo Briones
Pictured: Teo Briones in "Chucky" Season Two

The Final Destination franchise is returning to life with Final Destination: Bloodlines. With filming now underway, THR reports that three actors have joined the lead cast, including “Chucky” actor Teo Briones.

Brec Bassinger (“Stargirl”) and Kaitlyn Santa Juana (The Friendship Game) join Teo Briones, who played Junior Wheeler in season two of “Chucky,” as the leads in the sixth installment of the horror franchise.

Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein (Freaks) are directing the fresh installment that also includes Richard Harmon (“The 100”, Grave Encounters 2), Anna Lore, Owen Patrick Joyner, Max Lloyd-Jones (The Book Of Boba Fett), Rya Kihlstedt (Obi Wan Kenobi), and Tinpo Lee (The Manor) among the cast.

Production is now underway in Vancouver.

What can we expect from the upcoming Final Destination 6? Speaking with Collider, franchise creator Jeffrey Reddick offered up an intriguing (and mysterious) tease last year.

“This film dives into the film in such a unique way that it attacks it from a different angle so you don’t feel like, ‘Oh, there’s an amazing setup and then there’s gonna be one wrinkle that can potentially save you all that you have to kind of make a moral choice about or do to solve it.’ There’s an expansion of the universe that – I’m being so careful,” Reddick teased.

Reddick continued, “It kind of unearths a whole deep layer to the story that kind of, yes, makes it really, really interesting.”

Final Destination: Bloodlines is written by Lori Evans Taylor (“Wicked Wicked Games”) and Guy Busick (Scream), with Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) producing.

Producers on the new movie for New Line Cinema also include Dianne McGunigle (Cop Car) as well as Final Destination producers Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor.

This will be the sixth installment in the hit franchise, and the first in over ten years. Each film centers on “Death” hunting down young friends who survive a mass casualty event.

The latest entry is expected in 2025, coinciding with the original film’s 25th anniversary.

 

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