It must be reassuring for the producers of AMC’s The Walking Dead to see a headline about showrunner drama on a major cable series and realize that for once it’s not about their show.

But this is the case for True Blood, the popular HBO gothic soap about sexy vampires and their sexy adventures with sexy humans and other supernatural creatures. As you’ll call, show creator and executive producer Alan Ball stepped down at the end of last year, replaced by Mark Hudis. Well, The Hollywood Reporter tells us today that Hudis is stepping away from True Blood before his first season as showrunner, the series’ sixth, has even aired.

“Mark Hudis has stepped down as showrunner of True Blood to focus on development under his overall deal with the network.” said an HBO spokesperson. Hudis will continue under his two-year development deal he signed with HBO last spring.

Brian Buckner, a writer/producer who’s been with True Blood since season one, will take over for Hudis.

So why is Hudis gone? No one – with surprise sarcasm – is talking. Perhaps he couldn’t cope with the horrible mess Ball left behind in the season five finale, and I don’t just mean the massacre at vampire HQ.

True Blood season six debuts on HBO this summer.

Source: Blastr

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After a great turn as Huntress on the CW’s Arrow, Deadline is reporting Jessica de Gouw has been cast as Mina Murray in NBC and Sky Living‘s ten episode mini-series, Dracula. The titular vampire is being played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, star of HBO’s The Tudors, which is convenient since the series is being billed as “Dangerous Liaisons meets The Tudors.”

Here’s how Deadline summarizes the show,

It centers on Dracula, who arrives in London posing as American entrepreneur Allen Grayson, who maintains that he wants to bring modern science to Victorian society. In reality, he hopes to wreak revenge on the people who ruined his life centuries earlier, but he falls hopelessly in love with a woman who seems to be a reincarnation of his dead wife.

That “woman who seems to be a reincarnation of his dead wife,” is Mina Murray, de Gouw’s character. She’s described as “a striking medical student who is engaged to Jonathan Harker but upon meeting Grayson both are instantly mesmerized by the other’s uncanny resemblance to someone from their past.” Yup, sounds like Dracula to me, I look forward to many scenes of Dracula and Mina staring at one another, transfixed. I do like the tweaks they’ve made, though, like Dracula posing as proponent of modern science and Mina being a medical student.

This doesn’t sound half bad to me, what do you think? I do wonder if this will interfere with de Gouw appearing on Arrow again. Hopefully not, she’s one of the better parts of that show.

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Alicia Silverstone and director Amy Heckerling are back together again in the vampire comedy called Vamps. The rest of the cast is full of famous faces like Kristen Ritter, Dan Stevens, Wallace Shawn, Richard Lewis, Sigourney Weaver, Justin Kirk, and Malcolm McDowell. What worries me is that the movie is only getting a very limited theater release, which means that the powers that be don’t have a lot of confidence in the movie’s ability to draw crowds and make money.Then again putting faith in the ability of Hollywood executives to determine the quality of a movie and promote it isn’t an intelligent bet.

The Vamps movie Synopsis:

Goody (Alicia Silverstone) and Stacy (Krysten Ritter) are addicted to the night life, clubbing, hooking up and always looking for the next thrill, all the while keeping a big a secret-they happen to be modern-day vampires. But even with lifetimes of dating experience behind them, the duo realizes they still have a lot to learn about love when Stacy unexpectedly falls for the son of a vampire hunter, and Goody runs into the man of her dreams from decades earlier.

With their destinies at stake, the girls are faced with a difficult choice; give up their eternal youth for a chance at love, or continue to live their uncomplicated fabulously single lives forever.

I get a real 90′s vibe from this movie trailer and although I’d probably watch it on cable on a Sunday afternoon, I doubt that I’d go see this in the theater unless it’s date night and she’s choosing the movie. Check out the trailer below and let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Via: /Film

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To be honest, I’m surprised to learn that Guillermo del Toro wrote a book. And, actually, that he wrote three! His trilogy, The Strain, has been something he’s been trying to take to the television for the past few years.  The drama series found its home with FX and the showrunner/executive producer is Carlton Cuse of LOST renown.  The studio ordered a pilot for the series, which will be directed and written by del Toro himself with some writing assistance from his co-writer, Chuck Hogan.

Del Toro, on why they chose to have their show aired on FX:

FX made the most sense, based on the level of commitment, passion and understanding of the concept of the book. They got behind the idea of making this a close-ended series; we wanted to follow the books closely and so it couldn’t be open-ended, but rather three to five seasons max.

It seems like the plan is still in place to have about three seasons for this series, and del Toro has said that he will “direct as many episodes as [he] can through the life of the series”.  They’re starting on the screenplay at the end of 2012 and will aim to shoot their pilot in September of 2013 – well after the promotional work for del Toro’s Pacific Rim comes to a close.

The Strain is a vampire bioterror thriller series.  That in itself already sounds better than Twilight.  ’Nuff said.

Official book description:

High-concept thriller with a supernatural edge from world-famous director, whose films include Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy. A plane lands at JFK and mysteriously ‘goes dark’, stopping in the middle of the runway for no apparent reason, all lights off, all doors sealed. The pilots cannot be raised. When the hatch above the wing finally clicks open, it soon becomes clear that everyone on board is dead — although there is no sign of any trauma or struggle. Ephraim Goodweather and his team from the Center for Disease Control must work quickly to establish the cause of this strange occurrence before panic spreads. The first thing they discover is that four of the victims are actually still alive. But that’s the only good news. And when all two hundred corpses disappear from various morgues around the city on the same night, things very rapidly get worse. Soon Eph and a small band of helpers will find themselves battling to protect not only their own loved ones, but the whole city, against an ancient threat to humanity.

That actually sounds really cool.  I’m definitely looking forward to seeing this on the small screen.

Source: Deadline

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As it is with many other genres, horror action comedy films have great potential.  I personally loved Shaun of the Dead.  But others, like Fido weren’t quite as awesome.  I’ve no predictions as to where The Revenant stands on the leaderboard, but we’ll find out soon enough!  It hits theaters this weekend, on August 24.  And then the truth comes out along with all those guts and shit.

I would suppose one can’t go wrong with vampire superhero hitmen, but who knows? I used to think that nobody could screw up vampires and… well. Yeah.

Check out the red-band trailer and see what you think. Will you go out and watch this over the weekend? Or at all? Let us know!

Hit the jump for the synopsis.

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Every day the internet produces an astounding amount of goodies and gems. Most hilarious, some amusing, but all worth at least a few seconds of your time. We here at Nerd Bastards try to bring you the best bits of news and nerdery the webz has to offer, with a bit of snark thrown in. But sometimes not everything makes the cut. Monday through Friday we’ll be bringing you our inbox leftovers, our forgotten bookmarks, the nerdy bits that simply slipped through the cracks. You can submit items to Nerdy Bits by emailing us at nerdybits@nerdbastards.com.

Above: Wampa’s are hot right now, but none so hot as Ani-Mia’s. She’s teased is with her sexy Wampa cosplay before, but now she’s released an entire photo shoot, courtesy of Lars Peterson, Head to Fashionably Geek for more!

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Reading some of the reviews of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, you get the sneaking suspicion that a lot of my fellow critics believed they were walking into some camp ground of historical meta-fiction where the 16^th President of the United States would dispatch bloodsuckers with some Schwarzeneggerian one-liners. But that’s not the case, and this is where being of the nerdy persuasion has advantages over other critics.

I’m only about 100 pages into Seth Grahame-Smith’s original novel and can say easily that there isn’t an ounce of camp between the pages. It’s no sketch either, as it’s also been compared to a Saturday Night Live skit. The book is a surprisingly thoughtful, well-researched alterna-biography of Lincoln. As if there really was a vampire named Henry carrying around “Honest” Abe’s secret diaries all this time and showed them to Grahame-Smith.

As for the movie, it carries none of the book’s subtlety, but being from the director of Wanted, Timur Bekmambetov, I didn’t expect there to be much. Although clearly more horror flavoured than recent vampire films like Twilight or Priest, the potential for straight-up horror is replaced with absurdest, nearly over the top action sequences complete with CG blood spurts. I think we wanted something closer to Bram Stoker’s Dracula rather than something that feels cut from the cloth of Van Helsing.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

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The semi-historical vampire action movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter opens this weekend. The reviews are coming in, and boy are they mixed. What’s interesting though is that these critics below are praising the filmmakers for their dedication to historical accuracy, and Lincoln portrayer Benjamin Walker is also receiving praise for his performance.

Below are some initial thoughts on the movie. Interestingly there’s none from major critics like Hitfix, Rolling Stone, EW, et al, but chances are we’ll hear from them before Friday.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is a strange film, but then it was always going to be. It diverges wildly from the book and mostly for the better, adding more humour and some sense of its own ridiculousness, while also delivering some top notch action scenes. But the story is half formed and the final battle unsatisfying, while the use of the character of Lincoln never really feels essential. And you’d be well advised to catch it in 2D, if you can.2.5/5

Source: Clickonline.com

There are a lot of amusing nods to historical events and characters that anyone with a high school diploma will find entertaining. But it’s the overall feel of the film that I loved most. Beside’s Walkers spot on Abe, it’s a very dark and violent film. Initially I was sure the studio would want to sell as many tickets as possible to a film that had vampire in the title and slap a PG-13 rating on it. However, Fox, trusting a successful R-rated director in Timur, held nothing back and the film is better for it. It’s incredibly violent and features vampires in the correct and demonic light with which they should be seen. It’s not overly campy but it’s just enough to smirk at and you’ll find yourself saying “Really?” only a few times. The action is far too much fun and grabs you from the first axe swing till the last twirl. Abe’s axe is the new bending bullet.3.5/5

Source: Hey U Guys

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter’s heart may be in the right place — and any film that makes people interested in reading up on the real Lincoln must be commended — but overall the film is, ironically, bloodless, chugging along from Great Lincoln Historical Moment to carefully choreographed action set-piece without ever generating much energy or enthusiasm.5.5/10

Source: IGN Movies

How about you Bastards? You looking forward to checking out AL:VH on Friday?

Source: Comic Book Movie

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There were two new clips for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter that hit television screens over the weekend. You can check out both in the video below. There’s only a couple of weeks until the movie hits the big screen and this NerdBastard just picked up a used copy of the book to read. The plan is to get that read before seeing the movie.

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov, the June 22 release stars Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jimmi Simpson, Robin McLeavy, Alan Tudyk and Rufus Sewell.

The driving force in the movie is President Lincoln’s mother being killed by a supernatural creature, which fuels his passion to crush vampires and their slave-owning helpers.

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Two new featurettes for Tim Burton’s upcoming comedy/horror film Dark Shadows, starring Johnny Depp, have been clawing their way across the interwebs. Each solicit two different concepts: the weird, melodramatic, family soap opera, and the vampire horror. Neither of which sell me on the film. For me, it’s just more drivel from the Burton/Depp outfit.

Perhaps this films odd-ball charm does something for you. If quirky fish-out-of water stories, pasty-ass white people (I never thought anyone could be this white) and a grown up Chloe Moretz, excites you, then go – enjoy these featurettes.

Here’s a long winded synopsis:

In the year 1752, Joshua and Naomi Collins, with young son Barnabas, set sail from Liverpool, England to start a new life in America. But even an ocean was not enough to escape the mysterious curse that has plagued their family. Two decades pass and Barnabas (Johnny Depp) has the world at his feet–or at least the town of Collinsport, Maine. The master of Collinwood Manor, Barnabas is rich, powerful and an inveterate playboy…until he makes the grave mistake of breaking the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). A witch, in every sense of the word, Angelique dooms him to a fate worse than death: turning him into a vampire, and then burying him alive. Two centuries later, Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges into the very changed world of 1972. He returns to Collinwood Manor to find that his once-grand estate has fallen into ruin. The dysfunctional remnants of the Collins family have fared little better, each harboring their own dark secrets. Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) has called upon live-in psychiatrist, Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter), to help with her family troubles. Also residing in the manor is Elizabeth’s ne’er-do-well brother, Roger Collins, (Jonny Lee Miller); her rebellious teenage daughter CarolynStoddard (Chloe Moretz); and Roger’s precocious 10-year-old son, David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). The mystery extends beyond the family, to caretaker Willie Loomis, played by Jackie Earle Haley, and David’s new nanny, Victoria Winters, played by Bella Heathcote.

Dark Shadows is set to hit theaters May 11th.

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