Bite Bits: Kyle Schmid, VampChix, Faust and Fowley.

I interrupt the general vampire themed posts of this blog, to bring you a little acting review.... Well technically, the post is still "on point" as the actor in question has played a vampire before as well.

I'm speaking of Kyle Schmid, who played the vampire Henry Fitzroy in the tv show Blood Ties and who can now be seen in the new Canadian indie film GravyTrain. (Review on the new film GravyTrain in which Kyle Schmid co-stars with April Mullen and Tim Doiron redirects > Here!)

**Warning - This post may contain spoilers**

Kyle Schmid as Lance Dancaster in GravyTrain

Ok, so I know I can't do a review of GravyTrain, without giving mention to one of the actors there in, Kyle Schmid.

After all "some" (if not all) reading this review, may count themselves to be among his fans, who, though they (unfortunately) may have to wait a bit yet to see the film, are eagerly awaiting it, and are nonetheless, probably looking forward to hearing about his performance therein.
 
Well, I shan't give too much away regarding the plot a/o his role therein, but I must say, that the character of Lance Dancaster (as compared to the other characters of which we have seen Kyle play thus far) was yet another interesting departure for Mr. Schmid. And as we fans know, each of those other characters, in turn having been equally different from the other. 

Kyle embodied the character of the geeky Lance to a "baby blue turtle neck" T, injecting his performance with the personality, humour and mannerism of a sometimes bumbling, not-quite-adept, pencil pushing desk cop dork, who continuously, albeit vainly, tries to compete with Chuck GravyTrain's more cool, #1 cop persona.   


A friend, with whom I went to see the GravyTrain flick, and who by the way is not a fan of Kyle's (in the sense of, she has not seen much of his work and only knows about him because of yours truly... thus her opinion is an "unbiased" one), she told me, totally unsolicited mind you, that, and I quote:

"I think Kyle is a good actor and has the potential to do great things. This role was very different (from playing a vampire) but it's nice to see that he doesn't take himself too seriously and can take on the role of a goofy, funny character. I've seen him in *3 different movies and he portrays someone different in all of them. I'd like to see him in a comedy again."

*The "3 different movies" of which she is referring are: Zerophilia and The Blood Ties series and now GravyTrain.

Kyle Schmid continues to "become" or "inhabit" his roles on such a chameleon level that it's wonderful to watch. It is, to quote author Gabrielle Faust in a recent interview: "as if he has been that person in real life".

But to use a quote from Lance himself as he spoke to his "potato tooth-picked people" (as pictured above): "Don't believe what you hear I tell ya..."  But rather go catch GravyTrain if/when it pulls into a cinema station near you and see for yourself.

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And speaking of  author Gabrielle Faust and "recent interview". Be sure to have a read of said interview which Gabrielle did recently with Raelynn Coombs of the Memphis Vampire Examiner, see Here!

There in Faust talks about Kyle (yes Faust is also a fan), her life and work including her acclaimed post apocalyptic vampire series Eternal Vigilance (which by the way, there is a petition to: Help Make Eternal Vigilance into a movie!)

For those who haven't you should consider giving the Eternal Vigilance series a read. 

It's been continuously getting great reviews & the legendary Kim Fowley (record producer & former manager of The Runaways) recently compared Ms. Faust's writing to Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling. See the Dangerous Minds interview Here (at bite bit 14:17)!

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And speaking of vamp chicks like Ms. Faust.  One of my favourite blogs which I follow, VampChix has a new blog banner for those wishing to add to your blog or site to "show everyone you love vampires". You can find the banner Here!

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Bite Bits: Gabrielle Faust, Tanya Huff, Anne Rice & ... Kyle Schmid?

Gabrielle Faust (who can also be found on Twitter by the same name, re: Gabrielle Faust ), author of the Eternal Vigilance book series, is in the process of adapting a script, with acclaimed indie director Anthony Brownrigg, for the first novel in EV series. And a petition has been started to collect signatures to "show...enthusiasm for this creative project and prove to possible movie studio executives that there is a demand for this film to be made". Here is a link to the petition: Help Make Eternal Vigilance into a movie! 

The goal is to collect 500,000 siggy's by the end of 2010. And I for one, am in hope that they will be able to achieve this goal (hence why I've decided to dedicate a blog post about it).

As an avid, die hard vampire fan(g) girl, I would be lying (to myself and you) if I said that I didn't want to see more vamp fare out there.

I most certainly would. 

But that doesn't mean that just for the sake of making vampire film (or Tv series), it should be: come what may, or anything goes, be it good or bad!

Not at all!

But when something merits being explored, when it has the "chops" (pardon the pun), to potentially become something great (or even greater than it is), then one can only hope it be given the chance to do so.

I mean, when you think of it, there have been some (books-to-film) which have been given the chance to become more than what they are, but have left some of us, (of the more logic mind in my opinion), thinking; "Really? ... but it wasn't all that good!" ( insert obvious Twilight reference here)...

And just in case there is wonder as to what makes me qualified to critique what merits a good or bad piece of literature or film - well I cut my teeth on Dracula and Anne Rice novels at the early age of 12 and 13. Not to mention, at an even earlier age (6? 7?) on some classic films of varying genres, from Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles to silent films, musicals and foreign language...

But I digress!

Faust's EV series continuously garners positive critical appeal, some of which can be read here: http://www.gabriellefaust.com/about-the-book 

So it's with a love for things that go "bite in the night" that I'm hoping and supporting that this book-to-film, gets to see the light of ... a studio set!

And yes, Gabrielle just happens to be a "HUGE" fan of actor Kyle Schmid (the embodiment of vampire Henry Fitzroy from tv's Blood Ties)... But that's beside the point!

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And speaking of Blood Ties, Tanya Huff, author of the Blood Books, on which Blood Ties is/was based, and from where we got our beloved vampire Henry Fitzroy (as played by Kyle Schmid ) is now on Twitter! Re: http://twitter.com/TanyaHuff 

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And speaking of authors, the (former?) vampire queen B herself, Mrs. Anne Rice, has, for want of a better term, "taken notice" of actor Kyle Schmid (it all comes back to him in this blogpost doesn't it? LoL!).

Albeit it was mainly to comment on the visually aesthetic appeal of the young actor - as fans posted photos in response to her (Rice's) FaceBook post that day regarding, one Matt Bomer of the tv show White Collar . 

Rice (referring to Bomer) said (and I quote): "I just love Matt Bomer. It's so difficult to determine what makes beauty; poise, voice, demeanor, all this is part of the mystery along with killer blue eyes and gorgeous dark hair, and gorgeous facial bone structure."

To which a fan of hers (and Kyle's I presume) replied: "Hi Anne, that description of Mr. Bomer (re: beauty; poise, voice, demeanor, ... killer blue eyes and gorgeous dark hair, and gorgeous facial bone structure) is also closely reminiscent of another actor (albeit younger than the aforementioned). This is actor Kyle Schmid!"

The pic posted by said fan must have caught the authors eye, for she then took the time to comment on it. You can see her comment here on her FaceBook page!

So who knows, reliable sources tell me (i.e. someone who had emailed her and received a response) that although she had "never heard of Blood Ties", she will "check it out when she can."

So in this world of "never knows", we may just yet hear her comment on more than his "aesthetic appeal", but his damn fine acting chops as well! ;o)

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And as I'm on the Kyle Schmid trend in this post, I might as well go full circle and add a fan made youtube video here, wherein, Kyle as his character vampire Henry Fitzroy, stars.


This vid (in my opinion) brings to mind a line of dialogue from the Blood Ties epi 5:55, where Henry says to Vicki: "I don't need to make a sexual advance... I am ONE!"

Well, you be the judge!