The Vampire Diaries, a break-out hit last season for The CW, returns for its second season on Thursday, September 9th, at 8 PM. We have pics from the premiere!

"The Return" - Nina Dobrev as Elena, Paul Wesley as Stefan in THE VAMPIRE DIARIES on The CW. Photo: Annette Brown/The CW

“The Return” - Nina Dobrev as Katherine, Paul Wesley as Stefan in THE VAMPIRE DIARIES on The CW. Photo: Annette Brown/The CW

“The Return” Pictured: Ian Somerhalder as Damon, Paul Wesley as Stefan Photo Credit: Annette Brown / The CW

“The Return” - Michael Trevino as Tyler in THE VAMPIRE DIARIES on The CW. Photo: Bob Mahoney/The CW

“The Return” - Michael Trevino as Tyler in THE VAMPIRE DIARIES on The CW. Photo: Bob Mahoney/The CW

• On Wednesday, my fellow Palantir-peer Tim O’Leary told you that Buffy alum Amber Benson was questioning the originality of the new SyFy comedy Human Relations, and was wondering if she was going to have to call Dark Willow on them. Syfy has broken their silence, and said “Poppycock!” Not literally, but they may as well have said it.

• Yesterday, Beauty and the Beast 3D disappeared from the release schedule at Disney. At the same time, Pixar saw Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt. 2 releasing on November 16, 2012, with Monsters, Inc. 2, and promptly moved Monsters, Inc. 2 to November 2.

• Alan Ball confirmed he’s planning to bring witches into the mix on True Blood in season four, right in line with the books. Since that also coincided with Hurricane Katrina in the books, I’m not sure how he’s going to resolve it, but I do remember it means Sookie gets a cat.

• Pacey from Dawson’s Creek is probably going to guest star on Vampire Diaries for his old boss Kevin Williamson. No idea what character he’ll play, but I’m hoping he’s just a supernatural version of Pacey, because Pacey was already otherworldly.

• This is somewhat random, but a family was packing up their home in preparation for eviction, and found ten comics in the basement. One was an Action Comics #1, and that basically paid off their mortgage since it’s worth at least $1 million dollars. Why do I only find dead mice in my basement?

• I made our vampire-hating editor Brent cry when I told him that NBC bought a script for Zombies vs. Vampires, which is described as a “procedural buddy cop show.” Zombies in this reality are normal and part of society, just medicated. And the cop’s partner is a secret vampire. McG is going to produce it. Can we drive a stake through this craze yet?

• It turns out that men cry a lot at genre movies. Topping the list of movies that make men cry is Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Bridge to Terabithia also made the top twenty, but the one that truly puzzles me is The Night Before Christmas (Tom & Jerry). Is that a typo?
  

• As long as we’re talking about things that Tom & Jerry have played, here’s an interview with Paul W.S. Anderson, who wrote the Three Musketeers 3D that’s underway. Probably not going to see that, just stay home and watch reruns of Tom & Jerry’s version on Cartoon Network.

• Twilight has invaded Riverdale in the new Archie comic, and MTV has a preview of the first eleven pages of the special edition spoof. Just at a glance, I had a hard time telling if it was spoofing Twilight or Vampire Diaries.

• The producer of Watchmen has licensed the rights to Mage: The Hero Discovered. I’m not sure if it’s a superhero thing or a magic thing – I just can’t get past the fact that he carries a “magic baseball bat.” If A.Rod had that, it wouldn’t have taken him so long to get to 600 homeruns.

• The list of guest stars for the 22^nd season of The Simpsons is endless, but the most notable is using Daniel Radcliffe to voice a Twilight spoof in “Treehouse of Horror XXI.” When franchises collide!

• Here are some blurry photos of the mechanics that make The Forbidden Journey ride at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter work. At least it looks like sturdy metal.

• The Guardian is a respected newspaper, so I was amused they created a list showing Ten of the Best Dragons in Literature. But it’s still respectable because they called it “literature” – see how that works? Which one is your favorite?

• Here’s a fairly detailed character description for Jerrik Dace, the elite veteran featured in the upcoming “Golems of Amgarrak DLC” for Dragon Age: Origins. He’s royalty – dwarven royalty.

• And apropos of nothing, here’s the trailer for Venture Bros. 4.5. There are people with magic in it, right? Oh, who cares – Venture Bros. is just awesome!

Surprising absolutely no one, The CW has confirmed to the Chicago Tribune that it has renewed Supernatural for a sixth season — something that has been hinted at all year long. Better still, creator Eric Kripke will remain at the helm.

“We’re climaxing that story this season,” executive producer Sera Gamble said of the current “apocalypse” storyline. “We’ve been working on the Season 6 storyline for quite some time, and we’re very excited about it. We have lots of ideas, and are grateful for the chance to keep the show going.”

Kripke had previously spoken about his “five-year plan” for the show and hinted that he would not continue after that — although his comments about ending the series had become far more ambiguous in the last year.

The CW has also announced that it is renewing The Vampire Diaries for a second season, which is also no surprise, since the show has been a solid hit for the network.

Surprising absolutely no one, The CW has ordered a full-season pick-up for their teen vampire drama The Vampire Diaries. The show had the network’s most successful series premiere ever (with 4.9 million viewers), and it has proved to be a solid performer ever since, averaging 3.9 million viewers.

“When you have a love story that’s this powerful, and then you throw this genre element into it, with the great guy across the room who’s moody and brooding and sexy and dangerous, and also happens to be a vampire, then you end up with stories you can tell for days!” Diaries co-creator Julie Plec tells TheTorchOnline.com.

Regarding upcoming storylines, which are taken from a series of books on which the TV show is based, Plec says, “I like to say that if you look at the gross content of the books, we’re following it incredibly closely. But if you look at the timeline, it’s varying quite a bit. We’re telling some of the stories a lot faster, some of them a lot slower. But the core relationships are very specific, and very much what we’re playing with. We’ve got about five books that we’re hopefully turning into many, many seasons. The lead character in the books is actually dead by book three, she’s a ghost. It might take us a bit longer to do that!”

Meanwhile, Shrek the Musical, the Broadway musical adaptation of the hit film, announced that it will close on January 3rd. The musical has been troubled ever since its opening on December 14, 2008. The show, which cost an eyebrow-raising $24 million to mount, saw mixed reviews (see our review) and spotty ticket sales. It’s since grossed $37.7 million.

The show was the first production of Dreamworks Theatricals, a division of the movie studio, and has been the subject of much speculation over the course of its run, with many wondering if Dreamworks was keeping a money-losing production going in order to avoid the embarrassment of a flop.

Back again for another highly opinionated — some might even say downright cranky — look at the week in fantasy. You’ve been warned!

LET THE VAMPIRE BACKLASH BEGIN!

No, seriously. Let it begin. Because if it doesn’t start soon, I’m going to kill myself.

Unfortunately, the evidence so far suggests that it’s not coming any time soon.

Earlier in the week, I touched upon how discouraging it is to see a show like The Vampire Diaries get massive ratings (setting a record on the network), while Supernatural, which followed it, lost most of that lead-in.

If you’re following my articles, you know I don’t think that Diaries is a terrible show — it’s pretty good for what it is.

But it’s basically a soap opera with vampires. It just doesn’t hold a candle to Supernatural it terms of quality or complexity (IMHO).

And yet audiences — or hoards of teenage girls, at last — seem to want nothing but more vampires.

A reader tells me (and Publishers Weekly confirms) that angels may be the next vampire-like craze, at least in publishing. But trust me, there are a zillion more vampire projects coming too.

It’s hard to tell Hollywood not to follow the vampire herd given the insane, phenomenal successes of, in quick succession, Twilight, True Blood, and now The Vampire Diaries.

But I still say it’s like the housing market. When vampire “securities” fall, they’re going to fall hard, and a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money.

Or so I keep saying! Maybe if I say it often enough, it’ll finally come true.

USE THE FORCE, OBI-BAMA!

So you gotta love the picture, above, of Obama with a light saber, taken during the announcement for Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympic games. (Hat tip, /film.com)

MORE ON OLIVIA DUNHAM’S CONVENIENTLY TIMED AMNESIA

So in my review of last night’s season premiere of Fringe, I mentioned in passing something that bugged me: the fact that Olivia Dunham, having returned from the “alternate dimension” of last season’s finale, is back in the “real” world … but she doesn’t remember what happened there, or what “really important” thing she has do to prevent some big catastrophe.

I’ve long had a low tolerance for “amnesia” storylines, mostly because they seem like a writers’ cheat — a way to reset a plot without having to use any actual thought or creativity — but I guess every show needs to be allowed one case of amnesia.

But when I was writing that review, it occurred to me that Fringe already has the biggest “amnesia cheat” in the history of television in the character of Walter Bishop.

Walter was involved in, apparently, every science project ever conceived … until he went insane 17 years ago and has to be institutionalized. Now, whenever the plot calls for it, he “remembers” a key pierce of information from his previous research — often in the final act, so the other characters can then “solve” the mystery of the episode.

Sure, whatever. This isn’t the first show to use nonsensical “science-babble” to set up a plot, or as a sort of deus-ex-machina to resolve that plot. But now for Fringe to do the exact same thing they did with Walter with Olivia?

The more I think about this, the more annoyed I become.

THE TINDER BOX TAKES ON THE IDIOT BOX

What can we look forward to on television this week, fantasy-wise?

Clive Barker’s Book of Blood, a miniseries based on some of Barker’s short stories, turns up on SyFy this Sunday (9 PM/8 C). It’ll be out on DVD the following week.

Trailer for Clive Barker’s Book of Blood

In other TV news, Heroes is back with its two-hour season premiere on Monday (NBC, 8 PM/ 7 C); Eastwick, a remake of The Witches of Eastwick, debuts on Wednesday (ABC, 10 PM/9 C); and Smallville is back for its ninth season on Friday (The CW, 8 PM/7 C).

I’ll have my review of the premiere of Flash Forward (ABC, Thursday, 8 PM/7C) up early next week, but nutshell? It’s a good show.

THE TINDER BOX AT THE BOX OFFICE

Two fantasy-esque movies open this weekend in theaters: Jennifer’s Body, a movie about a girl possessed by a demon that’s being panned, and the animated flick Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, an adaptation of a children’s book that is getting raves.

Just as with Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries, I have this sinking feeling that one is going to be a big hit and the other not-so-much. But again, I suspect the one that’s going to be a hit (*cough* Megan Fox *cough*) won’t be the one that deserves to be.

Well, this week’s flame has sputtered out, but join me again next week when I promise I won’t be nearly so cranky.

Oh, who am I kidding?!

Four Torches (Out of Five)

A teenage girl falls in love with a vampire. Hmmm, where have I heard this story before?

Okay, okay, way too much has already been written about how The Vampire Diaries only exists because of the insane popularity of the Twilight books and movie — despite the fact that the new CW series, debuting this Thursday at 8 PM, is based on a series of books that pre-dated by the Twilight ones by more than a decade.

Here’s the set-up: four months after her parents were killed in a car accident, 17 year-old Elena is barely keeping it together in the small Virginia town of Mystic Falls. Then a mysterious new student comes to town, Stefan, and even distraught Elena can’t help but be drawn to him. Alas, Stefan has three big flaws: (1) he’s a vampire (albeit a “good” one), (2) he’s in love with Elena because of her resemblance to his true love, who died ages ago, and (3) his brother, with whom he has an ancient feud, is a “bad” vampire, and he’s suddenly shown up to do everything he can to get between Stefan and Elena.

The Vampire Diaries is created by Kevin Williamson, the influential screenwriter of the Scream movies and the creator of Dawson’s Creek, along with his long-time collaborator, Julie Plec.

It shows. The pace is fast, the angst is thick, and the dialogue is snappy (and, thankfully, much more realistic than the ridiculous Dawson’s Creek).

Meanwhile, the cast is pretty, if a little vapid (although Ian Somerhalder is quite effective in the scene-chewing role of the “evil” vampire brother).

But let’s get something very clear: despite the fact that the CW is pairing this show with Supernatural on Thursday nights, The Vampire Diaries is simply not in the same league as that show, either in terms of Supernatural’s gritty realism or its transcendent themes.

Then again, The Vampire Diaries isn’t trying to be. Even the show’s creators admitted in my recent interview with them: it’s simply a serialized teen soap opera set in a supernatural world.

And for what it’s worth, in that respect, it’s much better than Gossip Girl (although the fangs are arguably much sharper there!).

Anyway, keep in mind that this is what my four-torch review is based on: The Vampire Diaries is simply a teen soap opera riding the current very popular vampire wave.

Given that’s what it set out to be, it pretty much succeeds.

Looking to buy The Vampire Diaries books (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing them through this link.

Let’s face it: with Twilight’s teen angst and fresh-faced actors, it was only a matter of time until a Twilight-like TV series ended up on the CW — home of Gossip Girl and Smallville.

This Thursday, that show, The Vampire Diaries, finally debuts.

At the same time, the CW could have done a whole lot worse in who created the show than Kevin Williamson, the screenwriter behind the Scream movies — projects that completely redefined the horror genre simply by including characters who had seen all the horror movies, and knew all the cliches.

A few years after Scream, Williamson struck gold again, creating Dawson’s Creek, a TV show with more hyper-aware, hyper-literate teens.

In short, Williamson was pretty much the perfect person to bring The Vampire Diaries to life.

Kevin’s co-creator on The Vampire Diaries is Julie Plec, who he first met on the set of Scream and who has since worked with him on many projects, including the Scream sequels and Dawson’s Creek.

“I was [director] Wes [Craven's] assistant on Scream,” Plec says. “It was [Kevin's] first movie that ever got made. My first movie. I was 22, just out of college. We were two kids in a candy store, up in Santa Rosa, California, on location, making a movie.”

Recently, I got a chance to sit down with both of them and talk about The Vampire Diaries — how they almost didn’t make it because of the success of Twilight, how the show is, and isn’t, different from that project, and how vampire stories are really all about sex.

TheTorchOnline: Just how sick are you of the comparisons to Twilight?

Kevin Williamson: We’re not sick really, but we don’t know what to say. We can give you the studio answer, which is that they’re based on these books that were released in 1992 or whatever.

Julie Plec: The comparisons are difficult only in that you never want anyone accusing you of ripping something off. But because we have the source material that pre-dates Twilight so significantly, we feel confident that the story we’re telling is our own. But there is going to be a lot of that.

TheTorchOnline: How did the project come about?

Kevin Williamson: In the beginning when I read it, I didn’t want to be involved with it, because I felt like it was sort of a Twilight rip-off, no matter what came first. The premise was the same: girl falls in love with a vampire. But Julie kept saying, “Keep reading, keep reading!”

And then you realize that this is [much more] a story about a small town, about the underbelly of a small town, and what lurks under the surface.

TheTorchOnline: In the beginning, were you told, “Give us a project about vampires,” and then you searched for something that spoke to you?

Julie Plec: We were talking to [executives at the CW] about vampires and how much we love them, and one of us said, “We’d love to do a vampire show, but nobody’s going to do another vampire story.”

Kevin Williamson: And we don’t want to be the one that comes after.

Julie Plec: And they said, “Actually, we have a property that we’ve been dying to do. We absolutely want to do a vampire show, and we’d love for you to look at it, so we did.”

TheTorchOnline: It does seem like the perfect CW show, that if it didn’t exist, it should exist.

Kevin Williamson: That’s what we all thought.

Julie Plec: That’s why when people say, “Are you treading ground that is too familiar?” we say, “Specifically, on our network, it’s the perfect amalgamation of what they’ve been doing, that takes all the genres they’ve been dabbling in and combines them into one show.”

Kevin Williamson: It’s also different from the Buffy and Smallville and Supernatural model in that they’re sort of monster-of-the-week shows, and we’re not that. This is actually closer to Gossip Girl than that. In the sense that it’s a serialized ensemble teen soap with a supernatural element. It’s more about characters and romance.

TheTorchOnline: What do you think accounts for the ongoing fascination with these vampire stories?

Julie Plec: Bandwagon! [laughs]

For me, in a weird way, it’s less about vampires than it is about love. And when you’re telling a love story, the great love stories of all time are always about people who are attracted who are polar opposites. It’s about, “Who is that person who caught my eye across the room, and what is it about that person, why do they seem so different and why do I find myself so drawn to them? What is it about them that fills me up from the inside?”

When you have a love story that’s this powerful, and then you throw this genre element into it, with the great guy across the room who’s moody and brooding and sexy and dangerous, and also happens to be a vampire, then you end up with stories you can tell for days!

Kevin Williamson: I also think sexuality has something to do with it. We’re living in an age where Twilight is being read by thirteen year-old girls. There’s a sophistication to readers today. Subconsciously, they’re reading about sex, but they don’t know it. They’re reading about sex and sexuality, their awakening, and it’s all through the guise of this very safe vampire who goes and bites your neck and does nothing else. It’s a very safe form of releasing sexual tension.

There are those who say that you go to a horror movie so you can be scared and release all your hormones, so you don’t go out in the world and do “it.”

TheTorchOnline: You look at Buffy and Anne Rice, and it seems like a big part of most of these vampire projects is that they take on big moral issues. Is that something you plan to do with this show?

Kevin Williamson: We do deal with morality in the sense of right and wrong and control and betrayal and trust and friendship — all the great themes of coming of age will be told, but with life-and-death stakes.

Julie Plec: You look at Twilight, for example, and they notoriously are an abstinence metaphor, which is a really beautiful and ironic idea when you consider that vampires throughout literature have been a sexualized object.

Kevin Williamson: The seducers.

Julie Plec: We’re not saying we’re going down the abstinence road.

Kevin Williamson: At all!

Julie Plec: But it’s more about the idea of self-control, and finding your inner core, the morality that exists in you: “I have a choice here, I can take this very dark road and be a predator and I can be evil. Or I can fight those darker instincts, and choose to live my life on a clearer, stronger path.”

Kevin Williamson: Which is not his natural instinct. His natural instinct is to kill, and he’s fighting that every day. For the love of a woman!

TheTorchOnline: How closely are you following the books?

Julie Plec: I like to say that if you look at the gross content of the books, we’re following it incredibly closely. But if you look at the timeline, it’s varying quite a bit. We’re telling some of the stories a lot faster, some of them a lot slower. But the core relationships are very specific, and very much what we’re playing with.

We’ve got about five books that we’re hopefully turning into many, many seasons. The lead character in the books is actually dead by book three, she’s a ghost. It might take us a bit longer to do that!

There is a core fan-base for the books. And they’re mad that the lead character is not blond. So when you start there, there’s not a lot you can do.

TheTorchOnline: In Scream, the characters have all seen all the horror movies. In The Vampire Diaries, do the characters live in a world that’s familiar with fictional vampires? Are they aware of Twilight?

Kevin Williamson: A little bit. Look, this isn’t going to be Scream dialogue, or Dawson’s Creek heightened psychobabble. It’s going to be its own show. It’s based on a book, and we’re going to stay true to that book and those characters.

But yes, the characters live in the real world. They go to the movies, they turn on the TV at night. We actually wrote the scene yesterday when one of the characters finds out [the show's star] Ian Somerhalder is a vampire, her first question is, “Why don’t you sparkle [like in the Twilight books]?”

Julie Plec: And Ian says, “Because I live in the real world where vampires and sunlight don’t mix!”

Looking to buy The Vampire Diaries books (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing them through this link.