For far longer than I’ve been a wine drinker, I’ve been a fan of supernatural fiction, both in the written word and on the screen. Recently, I heard of a possible upcoming television series that will combine my fondness for wine and the supernatural.
According to www.deadline.com:
“NBC has added supernatural soap Vines to its roster of drama projects in development for next season, with The Ring director Hideo Nakata possibly executive producing and possibly direct. The project, from writer Mark Kruger (The 4400) and film producers Michael Aguilar (The Departed) and Taka Ichise (The Ring and The Grudge movies), was originally developed as a feature, which serves as inspiration for the potential series. It centers on a troubled family desperate for a fresh start that takes over a Napa Valley winery whose ancient vines possess dangerous mystical powers. UMS is producing with Aguilar’s Dos Tontos banner and Ichise’s OZLA Pictures; Aguilar, Kruger and Ichise executive producing the project. Nakata directed the original Japanese movies Ring and Ring 2 as well as the Hollywood sequel The Ring Two and another Japanese movie that got a Hollywood remake, Dark Water. Kruger is with WME and Madhouse.”
Sounds kind of interesting to me, although I don’t know how many “ancient vines” are in Napa. Maybe they should have set it in Amador around those old zinfandel vines, although I expect Napa would have more appeal to those who aren’t sticklers about the definition of “ancient”.
Given the credentials of those involved, I would think this might be something worthwhile to watch.
The comments on this website were pretty interesting. There seemed to be a lot of pros and cons to the description of the show. Several of the comments referred to The Vineart War books by Laura Anne Gilman, an author with whom I am not familiar, but the premise sounded interesting enough, per Publishers Weekly: “…a unique, pleasingly consistent magic system based on the production and consumption of wine…” Sounds good to me!
If anyone has heard anything about the show Vines, the works of Laura Anne Gilman, or any other fiction relating to wine [supernatural or otherwise], I’d love to hear about it.
Michael Perlis provides outsourced controller services to businesses that do not need a full-time controller. He balances this with his interest in wine: reading and writing about it and, of course, drinking it. He is still trying to figure out how to combine these two pursuits. Feel free to contact him about either at mcpfinancial@aol.com or michaelthezinfan@aol.com.
I've only read the first book of the Vineart War series; it was pretty good! She really gets into the mechanics and politics of winemaking as well as doing all the usual epic fantasy sorts of things. Worth a try.
I have to admit that when I saw news of the show Vines the first thing I thought of was Vineart Wars, which I love.
They'll have to work to get anywhere near the characterization and world-building Gilman achieves, but I hope they do. I hope it's not another show that relies on special effects to carry the day.
With the caveat that she's one of my closest friends, I nonetheless very very very strongly recommend the Vineart War series. It's one of the most fascinating exercises in world-building I've seen in ages and they're damn fine books to boot…….
Thanks for all of your comments. I definitely need to check into the Vineart books. I'm especially gratified to hear from Keith, as I am a big fan of Star Trek, Supernatural and, of course, Buffy. [Do you remember Shadow Valley Vineyards?]
Michael