by Michael Sonders, Guest Contributor
Posted: August 1, 2007

Producer Joel Silver previewed “Moonlight” –premiering September 28 on CBS—in introducing the Comic-Con audience in San Diego to Mick St. John, a cool, confident, and smart-alecky vampire detective. Silver was joined at the panelist table by series star Alex O’Loughlin, and by co-stars Sophia Myles, Jason Dohring, Shannyn Sossamon, and Brian White.

A teaser trailer kicked off the session with an interview of the Mick St. John character. The interview revealed some of the rules governing the vampires of “Moonlight’s” world. Wooden stakes cannot kill “Moonlight’s” vampires, but beheading or fire can. Vampires cannot fly, but have a high vertical leap, can “move real fast,” and have super-human abilities like enhanced strength, hearing, and smell. Notably, sunlight makes these vampires uncomfortable, but it does not kill them.

The audience endorsed the trailer with cheers and applause.

As for Mick St. John, he was turned into a vampire by his wife on their wedding night, 58 years before the setting of the show. He and his wife have had a “falling out” since then. St. John sleeps in a freezer and gets his blood from a dealer. “Most vampires don’t have boundaries with humans,” but he lives by a code of “don’t hunt women, children, or innocents.” Much as a vampire friend of Joss Whedon’s did, he uses his powers to “help others” and has the ability (and desire) to love.

Comparisons to previous television vampire heroes were addressed right away. The first topic in the question-and-answer session addressed similarities of “Moonlight” to “Forever Knight.” In response, Silver said, “It’s a very different route. The character of Mick is a very different character.” He continued, “Joss [Whedon] does more conventional vampire fare. In this world, there are no demons.”

O’Laughlin, also contrasting “Moonlight” against “Buffy” and “Angel,” said, “It only deals with vampires in 2007, who walk among us.” The show is “based on realism, not otherworldly creatures.”

Continuing his endorsement of the show, O’Laughlin described it as “well-balanced” with “romance” and “action.” He finished with, “The whole show is full of heart.”

The front seats of the room were dominated by female fans of Jason Dohring, and they squealed, cheered, and laughed at his appearance on stage and during his introduction to his character. He was the youngest cast member present, but portrays a powerful and evil vampire hundreds of years old. When an audience member asked Silver what inspired him to cast Dohring, Silver said, “I love Logan [Dohring's character from ‘Veronica Mars'] and wanted to keep Logan in my life.”

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Q : Are you shooting in LA?
Sophia Myles : “Yes, in LA at Warner Brother’s Studios. Also, we are shooting in various locations all around LA. ”

Q : Are you commuting back and forth from London?
Sophia Myles : “No, I just flew in as we started a week ago and I haven’t had a trip home yet. Judging by the way the schedule works here not sure when that is going to happen. You can’t really go to London for a weekend trip, it’s just too far.”

Q : How is it different shooting American television versus British television?
Sophia Myles : “It’s a lot of work. It’s more than just a job. It’s like a lifestyle. In the working week we shoot five days a week and you’re literally working with no time for anything other than the series. But that’s great because I’d rather be busy then home twiddling my thumbs.”

Q : Mick seems to be sort of a guardian figure for your character, Beth?
Sophia Myles : “You see in the first episode that Beth is an Internet news reporter and goes to a horrific crime scene and does a live feed to a Internet site called Buzzwire News. She meets Mick at a crime scene and she thinks she knows him, but doesn’t know from where. She feels there is some sort of connection between the two of them. They do have a history that will be revealed to the audience, but my character won’t be let in on the connection right away. It makes for an interesting story and potentially a great love story.”

Q : Is there a chance you will be back on “Doctor Who”?
Sophia Myles : “I don’t know, I’m totally up for that, but I want an action doll first! I’m deeply offended they never made a doll (lots of laughter). Seriously though, I’d love to if they asked me, but in a way it was such a fabulous episode that to push it might be a bit greedy.”

Q : Will Beth be reporting on all the crime scenes Mick is working?
Sophia Myles : ” Yes, Mick is a private investigator and they meet on a crime scene. She sees something in him so I think that’s the kind of vibe we’re after. There will be kind of a Mulder and Scully type of working partnership.”

Q : Talk about the love triangle with Mick, Beth and Coraline?
Sophia Myles : “Coraline is part of Mick’s history and turned Mick into a vampire back in the war. She’s incredibly beautiful, played by Shannyn Sossamon, very seductive and she reappears throughout and she was kind of involved in my abduction when I was younger.”

Q : How is the overall tone of the show?
Sophia Myles : “It’s going to be very scary in parts, but there’s a real lightness to it, quite a lot of irony. It’s funny and adult.”

Q : Any chance that Beth will become a vampire?
Sophia Myles : “ I’m absolutely positive that might happen. I don’t know, but I’m sure at some point it might happen. ”

Q : Are you following the “traditional” vampire rules?
Sophia Myles : “No, our rules are slightly different and we are sort of bending the vampire rules. Garlic doesn’t affect them. They can go out in the sun.”

Q : Are the viewers going to want Beth and Mick to be together?
Sophia Myles : “Yes, but they are not going to be boyfriend and girlfriend straight away. I think you are going to want to watch them fall in love with each other. It’s going to get messy and really complicated because he’s not going to age and she is.”

Interviews with Brian White and Jason Dohring after the jump.

Q : Does your character know that Mick is a vampire?
Brian J. White : “I do not. I don’t know anything at the onset other than that Beth and I have had an ongoing working relationship. Mick’s a private eye and I’ve seen him around but I have no idea he’s a vampire and it will be interesting to see where they take my character and how closely they bring Beth and I together.”

Q : Will your character be keeping an eye on Mick because of your relationship with Beth?
Brian J. White : ” Yes. Mick knows everything and everyone else around him is playing catch up. Mick and Beth are introduced in the first episode and I slowly become aware of their connection. It will be interesting to see how much Mick lets me in on him being a vampire because I am in law enforcement and we do cross paths a lot. Plus there are some considerations like making sure I don’t get in too much trouble around him because he is very protective of Beth. It will be interesting to see how that triangle works out.”

Q : How does the cast fit the show?
Brian J. White : “It’s incredibly well written and effortlessly funny. The casting is spot on. Alex’s natural demeanor is very charismatic and he has that whole Australian thing. He’s a tough guy without trying to be tough. Strong silent type, but has the witty banter. In Sophia they have cast an award caliber film actress for the TV medium so everything is small and right in the pocket and I think everyone will immediately connect with Sophia and Alex and their story. Shannon is the beautiful bad girl, the femme fatale. Jason is such a strong actor and so funny and he is just wicked as Mick’s best friend. We have a nice cast mesh and everyone is able to feed off each other and nothing feels forced. It’s really like a film.”

Q : Talk about the casting changes?
Brian J. White : “It’s the right way to make TV. A lot of times you do a pilot and you know if the concept is working and you also know if the people aren’t working. They knew right away they had a star in Alex and just rebuilt around him. The table read was strong. There were laughs, there were tears, there was real emotion and real relationships.”

Q : Do you get to use your gun?
Brian J. White : “Not yet.”

Q : How dark does the show get?
Brian J. White : “It gets pretty dark and very intelligently dark.”

Q : If Mick is the “good guy” does that make Josef the “bad guy”?
Brian J. White : “Yes, Josef is a very bad guy. Our protagonist is Mick and we are definitely putting vampires and vampire mythology in a positive light showing there are two sides to every culture, even vampires.”

Q : So you are playing a bad guy?
Jason Dohring : “Yeah, what a surprise ( laughing). I’m a 400 year old vampire who is a hedge fund trader who keeps concubines. It’s so cool when you think about it because he has been a part of history for 400 years. He hung out with Mozart and knows where ancient art pieces are buried. People can’t create history or re-write history because he was basically there and he can say no ‘that’s not how this happened.’ His history is a great place for the story lines to go.”

Q : Are there going to be flashbacks?
Jason Dohring : ” I’m sure we will be doing a lot of flashing back . It will be a good way to expose their age. It’s such a great tool and wealth of story potential.”

Q : Is Josef living the vampire dream or is there an element of a conscience?
Jason Dohring : ” No my guy is not that element. Mick is that because he won’t actually feed on lives and people. Mick did in the past, but has developed a conscience since then. Josef is constantly trying to bring Mick back into the vampire fold.”

Q : What are the “Veronica Mars” fans going to like about your character?
Jason Dohring : “He’s similar to Logan. He has billions versus millions. He’s very intelligent. I think what is different is this is an adult show. I’m the youngest of our cast, but the oldest vampire on the show so there is this element of command with my character. Logan had very similar qualities. ”

Q : Talk about the casting changes?
Jason Dohring : “Yeah, we went to bat for these actors. They fought for us. Very similar to “Veronica Mars. I had never been cast in a show prior to “Veronica” and it was so cool to be cast and feel like the show was behind you. Makes you feel very thankful.”

Q : Would you do a “Veronica” movie if Rob Thomas called?
Jason Dohring : “YES!!!!!”

David Greenwalt, executive producer of CBS’ upcoming series Moonlight, told reporters that at first even he thought the premise of a vampire private detective sounded similar to his earlier series Angel, but that, in fact, the two shows are very different animals.

“My agent said in May, ‘You’ve got to read this Moonlight. It’s fantastic,’” Greenwalt said in a news conference at the Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 18. “And I read a couple of pages, and discovered it was a vampire detective, and I said, ‘Not only am I not going to read this, I’m going to sue them. This is my show.’ But he kept talking to me, and eventually I did read it, and I did fall in love with it.”

Alex O’Loughlin stars in Moonlight as Mick St. John, a 90-year-old vampire who was turned by his wife (Shannyn Sossamon) on their wedding night. Greenwalt said that the series will establish its own rules, which vary from previous vampire mythology. For instance, a vampire cannot be killed by a wooden stake or hurt by holy water, but can die by fire or beheading. Mick sleeps in a freezer instead of a coffin, but he does drink blood and avoid sunlight.

According to Greenwalt, the biggest change is the modern tone and setting of the show. “It’s a vampire [in] 2007,” he said. “It’s a new ball game. You know, it’s certainly a genre show, but … there are no other demons. There’s no other monsters. You know, it’s not that supernatural of a world. It’s a sleek, modern world, Los Angeles. And literally, the vampire makeup is different, the mythology is different, and it’s a world where they really live among us. And there’s not that many of them. And the show has all my favorite things. It’s got that deep heart and big love, and [it's] funny, which I am attracted to.”

Another big difference is the influence of producer Joel Silver (The Matrix), who has been very involved in guiding the development of the show from the original presentation submitted to the network.

“We didn’t have Joel Silver making sure that everything was done excellently and right [with Angel],” Greenwalt said. “And, you know, the other shows I did went into the past, and you’d find yourself in time immemorial and [dealing with] ancient curses and things. And there was a good deal of brooding. And this is more an ironic take on what it means to be immortal. … It’s sort of hinted that the only thing worse than being mortal might be to be immortal, particularly if an immortal loved a mortal. The whole look and feel of the show is different. There is a really neat, wry voice-over from Mick St. John, played wonderfully by Alex.” Moonlight will debut on Sept. 28 and will air Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. —Cindy White

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Alex O’Loughlin, who stars in CBS’ vampire-detective series Moonlight, told SCI FI Wire that he’s a fan of the work of author Anne Rice and that he kept her books and characters in mind while filming the pilot.”Anne Rice is probably the biggest influence, vampirically, to me,” O’Loughlin said in an interview at the Television Critics Association press tour last week. “I mean, the character of Lestat is such a terrific and cool character, and there’s definitely elements of Lestat in Mick St. John, which you’ll see when you see the show. He’s very cheeky. And I think one of the similarities between Mick St. John and the character of Lestat is the comprehension of irony. Both of these characters really understand irony, and not everybody does.”

In Moonlight, O’Loughlin plays Mick St. John, a 90-year-old vampire who works as a private investigator in Los Angeles. As in many of Rice’s stories, the show is filled with romantic complications for the main character, who finds himself caught between two women in particular—his vampiric ex-wife (Shannyn Sossamon) and a human woman he first meets as a young girl (Sophia Myles).

“He has a relationship with Coraline, which is the character played by Shannyn Sossamon,” O’Loughlin explained. “They were married, these two, and she is a vampire. She’s the vampire that made Mick into a vampire, gave him this curse that he now carries with him. And it’s not something he wanted, and it’s not something he knew was coming. And she’s the bane of his existence. The ex-wife from hell. But you know what? He still loves her. And there’s this little girl that he saves who grows into a beautiful woman. And he’s not sure how he feels about [her] as well, Sophia Myles’ character. And so there’s a lot of confusion and heartache and love and loneliness in this man’s life right now, when we meet him.”

One way the show will differ from Rice’s books is the lightness of the tone. In the initial episodes, at least.

“We’re staying away from that emotional darkness of Mick’s in the immediate shows,” O’Loughlin said. “Like, we’re not just going straight into, ‘Oh, my God, I want to kill myself.’ However, that is a reality for this character, especially now that he’s approaching the 100-year mark. It’s true that vampires at the 100-year mark tend to move into a depression. It’s one of many mid-life depressions. It’s all relative, right? You’ve got to learn to deal.” Moonlight premieres on Sept. 28 and will air Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. —Cindy White

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Vampire drama is quirky, puts new spin on bloodsucking lifestyle in L.A.MARK WASHBURN
CBS
LOS ANGELES –

Stylishly dark but cleverly bright is the combination CBS is aiming for in its out-there vampire drama “Moonlight,” already casting a faint shadow of quirkiness on the fall schedule.Hollywood has been churning out vampire tales since the days of silent movies with occasional breakthrough results. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was TV’s last hit fangfest with Sarah Michelle Gellar swatting the beasties with devilish poise.

“Moonlight,” airing Fridays at 9 p.m. after “Ghost Whisperer,” centers on private eye Mick St. John, who entered the ranks of the undead when he unknowingly married a vampire.

On their wedding night, she amped up the traditional ritual with some unconventional dental work she’d been saving for the occasion. She meant well, figuring they’d stay forever young together.

But as a rule — just ask anybody — men don’t like it when they’re anticipating romantic rigors, then get unexpectedly transformed into daylight-dwelling crypt creatures for all eternity. And so it was with St. John, bitten in the 1950s, never to age beyond 30.

Having been a blood brother for decades, he has worked out the kinks of the lifestyle.

Vampire shows require full disclosure of whatever mythology is controlling the characters so the audience can see the hazards coming. In “Moonlight,” St. John obeys these boundaries:

• Crosses, silver bullets or wooden stakes are not fatal. Having one’s head torn off does the trick, as does getting set on fire.

• He can go out into the daylight, but the more he’s exposed the more rotten he feels.

• Jolts of adrenaline tend to make him go animal, complete with glowworm eyes. He can’t transform into a bat.

• He must live in Los Angeles, because it is, like, you know, the coolest center of the universe and there just aren’t enough TV shows set there.

He’s basically a nice guy, so he gets a pal at the local blood bank to score him some plasma now and then so he doesn’t have to go biting strangers on the streets, which is awkward, even in L.A.

St. John is played by Alex O’Loughlin, an Australian actor known to U.S. audiences only for a single appearance in “The Shield.”

Executive producer David Greenwalt, who worked on “Buffy” and created “Angel,” says in “Moonlight” vampires are rare in society and self-policing when one gets out of line. And sexy. And fashionable. And smart.

“This is sleek, 2007 L.A., where really your lawyer is a vampire,” Greenwalt told critics gathered for network fall previews.

In the case of detective St. John, that would be handy. After that rocky start, the marriage didn’t work out. And it’s been one blood-sucking divorce ever since.

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