ONLINE INTERVIEW – AOL – Mark Frankel Fansite

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AOLiveMC7: Welcome to AOLive Mr. Mark Frankel, Mr. John Leekly and Mr. P.K.Simonds!

Question: How big did you think Kindred would be when it started?

JLeekley: When we began Kindred, we knew, because it was a world, it would take a while for the audience to embrace to the show. Every week, the number of viewers increased. We have more than 6 million TV sets weekly.

Question: If Kindred gets renewed, do you foresee greater continuity from one script to the next?

JLeekley: Yes, very much. It took a while for us to find the show, but I believe that after the episode of Romeo and Juliet, I believe we found the right tonality. PK wrote on his own, the last episode, called cabin in the woods. That was a really great story.

Question: Who is/was that Groth character? What did he do to make himself an outcast? That was never brought out in the show.

PKSimonds: He was a member of the Nosferatu clan, a rival of Daedalus, who had to be overthrown to protect the Masquerade. To be more specific, Goth held the position of Primogen before Daedalus. He performed ancient blood rites to gain power, but those rites were too dangerous, and put the Kindred at risk of exposure to the humans. Especially in this modern age of advanced forensics and far-reaching media.

Question: What do you want to do with the show next season?

JLeekley: I talk about this episode called “Skull” at our Kindred web sight, under the section called the creator. WWW.KindredEMary.Com

PKSimonds: Actually, that’s WWW.KINDREDEMB.COM.

JLeekley: In “Skull”, all of the characters including Julian are exposed to a skull that has been found in Ethiopia, found by a biologist to be a missing link between man and apes. But the skull turns out to be the missing link between man and kindred, the first Nosferatu. Along with the other characters, Julian is nearly driven mad, because he reverts to the far more savaged apes. He wakes up in the morning with Kateland, and blood on his pillow, fearing he will harm her. Thus begins the second season, he goes back to Lilly.

JLeekley: Unfortunately, the new the boss of the Primogen, Brujah. The second season begins with a umber of conflicts. Kateland is also aware of the existence vampires, but still doesn’t know Julian is one of them.

PKSimonds: In short, we want to dig deeper into the past and the dark nature of the Kindred.

Question: I play the RPG that the show is based on. Did you research the game for the characters?

JLeekley: The book that the game is based on, which is called “Vampire of the Masquerade,” written by Mark Rein-Hagen, was used as the source for the show. For the Klan and the Masqurade. But the visual style of the show, and the world of the Kindred was completely different from the book. The style of the book was punk Gothic, while the world of the Kindred, very sophisticated and elegant, and was inspired by the Godfather film.

Jleekley: The Godfather film presents a subculture of the Mafia, as a world apart from ours, existing along ours, but separate, complete unto itself. The Kindred world is more passionate than ours, more loyal, more erotic, more savage. A world we want to be in.

MFrankel: All together a lot more fun!

Question: Why does the cop get to know about the Kindred, but not Caitlin?

PKSimonds: Frank learns about the Kindred through his relationship with one of them. He has long been close to their world thanks to his partnership with Sonny. Caitlin will begin to suspect more and more that something supernatural exists, but she’s blinded by her reporter’s trust only in what she can see and understand. Her love affair with Julian opens her to a whole new world, erotic, mystical, powerful. And tragically, the more she is able to believe, the closer she comes to the day when she must either die for her knowledge or be embraced.

MFrankel: The reason why Caitlin is being exposed to the world of the Kindred by a relationship to Julian, but not knowing of their existence, is because Julian must protect the secret, because he is Prince of the city. He does this in a number of ways – one by finally erasing her memory of the one time she discovers their existence.

Question: Where can we write to support the series?

PKSimonds: Write to Fox TV at 10201 W. Pico Blvd., LA, CA 90035.

Question: Mark, why did you choose to do this show?

MFrankel: When I read the pilot for the Kindred, I was immediately drawn into a world that was more exciting than ours. It fascinated me, and I felt like I was being sucked into a vortex the more I read. Julian is also one of the most complex and exciting characters I have ever played. This is was something that I was compelled to be involved in.

Question: Mark, what other projects are you working on?

MFrankel: I have just finished a movie called ROSEANNE’S GRAVE with Jean Reno and Mercedes Reul – shot in Italy. I play an Italian lawyer. It will be released in America around Christmas – possible January. It’s a satirical black romantic comedy.

Comment: I like the show and it keeps moving along.

PKSimonds: Thanks.

JLeekley: Thanks

Question: The big question – Will Kindred be renewed for the coming season? Some of us have already written to FOX tv advocating this very thing!

JLeekley: We don’t know if it will be renewed on the fall schedule, or as a mid-season replacement. We need all the help we can get from our fellow Kindred.

Question: You probably get asked this a lot, but what’s your take on the aspect of the vampire phenom? It’s not what we’re traditionally used to.

JLeekley: The Victorian Gothic Mythology of Vampires, has been tired and worn out, it is starting to lose it’s power; vampires have become camp. The Vampire mythology in Kindred has been changed from that of Bram Stoker. In our show we say that Stoker was hired by the Kindred, to make up all that stuff about garlic to ward off vampires, sleeping in dirt, funny vampires from Transylvania.

JLeekley: This classic ruse is a part of what we call the Masquerade. It has kept mankind looking for the signs, when in fact the Kindred could be sitting on the park bench next to us. Joseph Campbell taught that that myth is the collective dream of mankind. When the myth loses it’s power to evoke us to make us dream, then it’s of no use. Mark and PK, I and the other writers have made the show, have attempted to reinvigorate the mythology, and put the myths, and put them in an urban American setting.

JLeekley: The original myth of vampires revolves around what we as humans fear in ourselves, we fear the release of the id set free. Our darkest impulses have always been repressed. So we have created the creatures of the night. We the writers have told stories about them. If our characters are story provoked, then the myth has power.

PKSimonds: Of course, if you believe any of this, you have to wonder about John Leekley himself. Blood on his teeth?

AOLiveMC7: Thanks everyone for coming in to AOLive tonight! We are completely out of time!

JLeekley: Thank you.

AOLiveMC7: Gentlemen, you were excellent guests, and the audience was terrific! Ladies and Gentlemen, it been a real pleasure! Goodnight!