The Vault – TrueBlood-Online.com

One of True Blood’s premiere Directors, Michael Lehmann is to direct a new pilot , “Betas” for Amazon. The show is to be about Silicon Valley and  “four computer geeks and their quest for nerd fame”.  In addition to directing many of True Blood’s episodes, Michael Lehmann’s best known work is as the director of Heathers, but he also directed 40 Days and 40 Nights, The Truth About Cats And Dogs, and a whole bunch of episodes of American Horror Story, Dexter, Californication, and Big Love and more.

With the recent move to online TV shows like Netflix’s hit, House of Cards, it looks like the internet is going to be giving competition to the networks.

This is the 8th comedy pilot that Amazon has green-lit so far, following Alpha House, Browsers, Dark Minions, Onion News Empire, Supanatural, Those Who Can’t, and, of course, the Zombieland series that was just announced earlier this week.

Read more at: techcrunch.com

The Vault wishes Michael Lehmann, Director a Happy Birthday – March 30!

New campaign, directed by one of True Blood’s directors, Michael Lehmann, tells business marketers, ‘never second-guess a decision.’ 

Mad Men style TV campaign from “Turn” highlights evolution of advertising. A commercial broadcast in the US during the season finale of Mad Men, aimed to illustrate how much advertising has changed since the era the the show was set in.  The adversiting campaign brings to life how rapidly advertising is changing

Click on the image below to watch the commercial presented during Mad Men.

The advert from cloud marketing platform Turn, and created by gyro, was titled ‘The Moment of Decision’ which was directed by True Blood’s Michael Lehmann is set in a 1960′s Madison Avenue agency.  The spot was created to act as a graphic illustration of multi-platform advertising.

Steffan Postaer, gyro San Francisco executive creative director, said: “There is a burning cigarette in this commercial, a couple makes love, a weapon is fired, none of those things happen in commercials, but they happen in this one. It’s a game changer.”

source: prweb.com
source: thedrum.co.uk

Michael Lehmann, one of True Blood’s best directors has been signed to film the pilot for a new MTV show.  MTV wanted to get a director who would best recreate that 1980′s tone, and since one of Michael’s best known films is the 1988 dark comedy, “Heathers” who else could possibly be chosen to direct the pilot. We interviewed Michael in 2010 and you can read that interview and learn more about him here.

Written by Garcia, who adapted his book, Finishing School For Boys centers on Cassie French, a 22-year-old overachiever who gets her dream job as a lawyer for a Hollywood studio but can’t find a guy ready for a real, mature relationship. After the latest disappointment, she locks a guy up in her basement in order to train him to become the perfect gentleman. Lehmann joins another feature director who helmed an MTV pilot, Doug Liman, director/executive producer of I Just Want My Pants Back, whose freshman season airs tonight at 11 PM. Finishing School For Boys is executive produced by Garcia and Ritter, star of ABC’s midseason comedy series Don’t Trust The B—- In Apartment 23, which premieres next Wednesday. Lehmann has focused on episodic directing for the past few years, directing multiple episodes of HBO’s True Blood and Bored To Death and Showtime’s Dexter and Nurse Jackie.

Congratulations Michael!

source: deadline.com

The Vault wishes Michael Lehmann, (True Blood Director) a Happy Birthday – March 30!

Since Halloween is approaching, we thought it would be fun to think about some horror films, but for the Vault, there has to be a True Blood connection. Ahh, we found one. In the video below True Blood’s director, Michael Lehmann reviews director Roman Polanski’s film “Repulsion”. Michael tells us that it is one of Polanski’s best, and a brilliant study of a young French girl’s descent into madness. It is Catherine Deneuve’s most iconic performance, with one of the greatest closing shots ever.

He tells us that the film is weirdly engaging and disturbing and an arty film that is quite a feast.  And, yes, Michael we did here you mention how beautiful Catnerine Deneuve is! Thanks for the review.

source: frequency.com

The Vault wishes Michael Lehmann, True Blood Director, a Happy Birthday – March 30!

Michael Lehmann, one of True Blood’s premiere directors will be at the screening of one of his films, “Heathers” at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, CA on Friday night, August 27.

Michael Lehmann directed Heathers in 1988 and it was written by Daniel Waters, who will also attend the screening. The film became a cult classic, with high rentals and sales business. In 2006, it was ranked #5 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of the “50 Best High School Movies” and in 2008, it was ranked #412 on Empire’s list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time. Heathers brought director Michael Lehmann and producer Denise Di Novi the 1990 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Daniel Waters also gained recognition for his screenplay, which won a 1990 Edgar Award.

Synopsis: HEATHERS, 1988, tells the story of shy Veronica (Winona Ryder) who aspires to become a member of the most popular clique in school, but instead joins forces with a quirky rebel (Christian Slater) who gleefully plots to kill off the cool kids and make it look like suicide. Director Michael Lehmann perfectly delivers a razor-sharp tone and screenwriter Daniel Waters jams the piece with quotable (and often hilariously profane) dialogue.

There will be a discussion following the film with director Michael Lehmann and screenwriter Daniel Waters.

To Buy Tickets click here.

The event will be held:
Friday · 7:30pm – 10:00pm
Location Aero Theatre
1328 Montana Ave at 14th St
Santa Monica, CA

source: Facebook.com

Michael Lehmann with Stephen Moyer while filming

The more I learn about the making of True Blood, I realize how much talent and skill is involved in the creation of each episode. I am more and more astonished that not only does this show have a superb ensemble of actors, writers, set decorators, music supervisors, etc., but it also has brilliant technical people who help to make each and every episode memorable.

Overseeing the production of each episode is a director and on True Blood, there are four primary directors, Scott Winant, Daniel Minehan, John Dahl, and Michael Lehmann. There are also several guest directors and even Alan Ball directs from time to time on the show.

While they all have their strengths and provide excellent direction, Michael Lehmann has stood out for me as one that seems to hit the mark each time. He has directed two episodes in season one and at least three episodes each subsequent season and from my perspective, as viewer and fan, he seems to have successfully directed some interesting, if not more technically difficult, episodes. Among those he’s done that seem to be more of a challenge, in my opinion, are:

• Season 1, Episode 8, Fourth Man In The Fire, that included the famous graveyard sex scene.
• Season 2, Episode 6, Hard Hearted Hannah that included the flashback scenes of Bill and Lorena from the 1920′s and also, although more subtle in nature,
• Season 2, Episode 4, Shake and Fingerpop, which was recently chosen by HBO to be included in the package sent in for Emmy consideration.

Last month, Michael was kind enough to grant an interview to The Vault where he shared with me information about his career, his vision as a director, and how much he enjoys the work he is doing on True Blood as one of its directors.

But before we head to the Q&A interview, here’s a bit about Michael’s background:

Michael Lehmann, is a well known Hollywood director currently active primarily in television. Recently, he has not only been directing episodes of HBO’s “True Blood,” but also other HBO shows like “Big Love” and “Bored to Death” and also Showtime’s “Californication.” While he may be focusing on television right now, he has also directed several well known films such as “Heathers,” “Airheads,” “The Truth About Cats and Dogs,” and “Because I Said So,” just to name a few.

Here’s the trailer for Heathers

Michael began his career in 1980 working in his home town of San Francisco with Francis Ford Coppola for his company American Zeotrope. Working for Coppola gave Michael the opportunity to experience film making at an early age without a formal film degree. Although he did eventually get his master’s degree in film, it wasn’t until later in his career that he obtained his Master’s Degree at the University of Southern California (USC). Michael explained: “My original intention had been to go to film school because that is what people did and what I thought one had to do.” So, he applied to USC and UCLA and had plans to go to those schools but then he got the job working for Coppola and decided it was better to stay there than to go back to school. He says, “I had already finished my undergraduate work, which wasn’t in film, and after a few years with Francis, I went back to school”. It’s a long story, but basically USC had lost my application, but later they found the application and sent me a letter saying do you want to go to this school and I said, yes. I had worked on about four feature films, but hadn’t been making my own so I went back to school and got into the graduate program at USC, spent a couple years and that’s what really provided the ground work for me becoming a director.”

Interestingly enough, Michael explained to me that he came from a fairly artistic household although his father was a Freudian psychoanalyst, German born and a wonderful person. His mother is an artist, a photographer and a writer and she lives in San Francisco. His sister is a novelist who writes young women’s fiction.

Read the Q&A with Michael, after the cut, where he talks about the filming of True Blood, his favorite scenes, the most difficult scenes, and what it’s like to collaborate and work on such a great show.

Read the rest of this entry »

The truebies are thrilled with the recent Golden Globes nominations for their favorite show. We are all keeping our fingers crossed for the big event on January 17. The True Blood  cast is equally thrilled with the nomination for True Blood for Best Television Series – Drama. Earlier we reported that Anna Paquin is very flattered with her two nominations for True Blood and The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler. She was still in bed when she heard the news. And so was the rest of the cast who were so kind to give The Vault a first reaction to the Golden Globes nomination.

Kristin Bauer (Pam) says: “I was in bed, I had hit snooze already once when my phone rang. I laid there listening to my manager leave a cheerful message asking me to call him. About four minutes later it rang again, this time it was my agent announcing True Blood’s Golden Globe nomination! I got up and called them back! I am very happy about it of course, so nice to be part of this in any way!”

Tara Buck (Ginger): “The cast and crew of True Blood have my deepest artistic respect and I am thrilled they are being acknowledged with the nomination. The Golden Globe is the coolest! Personally I am beyond proud to be a very small part of the show and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with this freakishly talented group. I have a great manager who keeps me in the loop. I got a very sweet email last night with all the nominations attached. My fingers are crossed too!”

Jim Parrack (Hoyt Fortenberry) also didn’t stay up to watch the nominations live. “I was in my bed and I woke up and a girl I went to high school with had sent me a text this morning that said, “Congratulations on True Blood getting nominated for Best Drama and for Anna getting nominated for Best Actress!!” And I thought, “Wow!! is it already that time of year again!?!” And then I counted my blessings to be on this show and work with these people at this caliber. Those thougths were immediately followed by, “I wonder if Ciera [Jim's lovely wife] and I will go this year?”

Michael McMillian (Rev. Steve Newlin) says: “Pretty cool news! My sister woke me up early this morning with a call from back home in Kansas City. I didn’t even know they were announcing the nominations today. I’m really happy that Season 2 is getting recognized and am proud to be a part of the True Blood universe. I’m also very proud of Anna Paquin for both her nominations. She cannot be stopped!”

Michael Lehmann, director of 5 True Blood episodes received an email alert: “I get email updates from Variety, which I rarely look at but haven’t bothered to turn off– that’s where I saw that the nominations were announced, and it led me to an article with a full list. I normally pay no attention to awards and am usually the last to know, but this year I found out pretty quickly.”
“I was very happy for everyone on the show and, of course, particularly for Alan Ball and Anna”, Michael continues. “I only wish more cast members had been nominated, as they are all more than deserving. I think the quality of acting on the show is so good across the board that it’s difficult for people to pick a standout– which may affect the nominations.”

Michael has worked on wonderful shows like Big Love and Californication, but it seems that he has a special place in his heart for True Blood: “Other actors and shows I’ve worked with got nominations, too, but luckily there is very little overlap, so I can root for True Blood without any reservations or conflicts. I really hope we win this year, as the second season was extraordinarily good, and everyone worked so hard to get it right.”

I think it is funny to see how the fans are more excited about award nominations than the cast and crew. Michael Lehmann has an explanation for that: “We tend not to get too excited about nominations… the whole competition thing is pretty strange; generally speaking, most of the people who do this stuff think of it as creative work and not as a competition with ‘winners’ and ‘losers.’

Of course, mostly we just don’t ever want to be thought of as losers. :)”

If the season 3 schedule falls into place as planned, Michael Lehmann will be directing 3 episodes again this season.

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