So this is a touchy subject with me and has been for some time. I like vampires. I like paranormal and supernatural. I always have. So I get a little annoyed when I watch the runaway vampire blitz on the road to crashing and burning because hollywood does, what it always does when some hot new trend emerges. It infiltrates the market with crappy immitations, trying to leverage the success of someone else's work and people get so sick and tired of crappy movies and tv shows trying to be good the trend burns out or worse is labled a fad.
Case and Point. CW has secured the rights and is working to produce a pilot for the Vampire Diaries. The article references that the original books were written in 1993 way before the Stephanie Meyer phenomenon. That's right. I read them in 93 when I was 13! I loved them then. The brilliant Alloy Entertainment who brought us Gossip Girl and Privileged (two shows which the world could live without) is backing this as well. What I think is so funny is that by simply acknowledgeing that the books came out in 93 they are admitting that someone else thought vampires were cool, but networks weren't interested in taking a risk and passed. Now, after the twilight books exploded, after Alan Ball directed an amazing first season of True Blood (based on Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series) the CW thinks it is being innovative by jumpping on the bandwagon?
My guess, this pilot won't even make it to the lineup. Regardless, i'd like to see urban fantasy survive the definite backlash that will follow the crappy hollywood imitations.
Speaking of folks jumping on the money train, did you know that after the success of Stephanie Meyer's books the whole Vampire Diaries sereis was reprinted with flashy new covers. I recently reread one and guess what? Not nearly as good as some of the other YA stuff being written today. The quality and diversity has gotten much better.
