C&P directly from greensilver's post on the subject:
David Greenwalt (aka the Angel guy) was brought in to overhaul the series and act as showrunner; he did a rewrite, and essentially got rid of every principal actor not named Alex O'Loughlin. (To be fair, this shake-up was in the works before he was brought in; he didn't initiate the process of wide-scale recasting, he just oversaw it.) The female lead, Beth, was recast; Shannon Lucio out, Sophia Myles in. Mick's sire/ex-girlfriend, Coraline, was recast; Amber Valletta out, Shannyn Sossamon in. The vampire sidekick, Josef, was recast and rewritten; Rade Serbedzija out, Jason Dohring in. The pilot itself was rewritten (in places; some elements remain untouched).
After a brief stay on the job, Greenwalt fled, citing the ever-popular "personal reasons." Chip Johannessen, whose previous work includes Dark Angel and Millenium, was brought in as the new showrunner. It's unclear how much additional retooling Johannessen did after taking over from Greenwalt, but he has a writing credit on the pilot episode, for what it's worth.
So what aired yesterday is a pilot that is, quite likely, a no-man's-land between the original concept and Greenwalt's retooled concept, and it doesn't necessarily tell us a lot about what the show from here on out might be like. Principal filming began weeks before Greenwalt's departure, so I think it's safe to assume that a lot, if not all, of the pilot is his retooled version. What Johannessen brings to the table will likely be more apparent in the second or third episode.
I'm almost tempted to give it one more episode to see if maybe the mess that was the pilot improves...
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-09-30 06:19 am (UTC)David Greenwalt (aka the Angel guy) was brought in to overhaul the series and act as showrunner; he did a rewrite, and essentially got rid of every principal actor not named Alex O'Loughlin. (To be fair, this shake-up was in the works before he was brought in; he didn't initiate the process of wide-scale recasting, he just oversaw it.) The female lead, Beth, was recast; Shannon Lucio out, Sophia Myles in. Mick's sire/ex-girlfriend, Coraline, was recast; Amber Valletta out, Shannyn Sossamon in. The vampire sidekick, Josef, was recast and rewritten; Rade Serbedzija out, Jason Dohring in. The pilot itself was rewritten (in places; some elements remain untouched).
After a brief stay on the job, Greenwalt fled, citing the ever-popular "personal reasons." Chip Johannessen, whose previous work includes Dark Angel and Millenium, was brought in as the new showrunner. It's unclear how much additional retooling Johannessen did after taking over from Greenwalt, but he has a writing credit on the pilot episode, for what it's worth.
So what aired yesterday is a pilot that is, quite likely, a no-man's-land between the original concept and Greenwalt's retooled concept, and it doesn't necessarily tell us a lot about what the show from here on out might be like. Principal filming began weeks before Greenwalt's departure, so I think it's safe to assume that a lot, if not all, of the pilot is his retooled version. What Johannessen brings to the table will likely be more apparent in the second or third episode.
I'm almost tempted to give it one more episode to see if maybe the mess that was the pilot improves...