True Blood Star Sticks To The South

Which is scarier-- a Southern hick trying to run you out of town, or a Southern vampire who wants to bite the neck of all your women? Alexander Skarsgard is getting a chance to try both. The True Blood star has signed on to Rod Lurie's remake of Straw Dogs, transplanting the original 1971 story to the South, where a screenwriter (James Marsden) is threatened by belligerent locals when he moves there.

THR describes Skarsgard's character Charlie as the "grizzled, athletic type," which sounds pretty perfect for the ringleader of a band of thugs. As CB's resident Southern Defender, I'm nervous about the portrayal of the South as a place unfriendly to intellectuals, or anyone as beautiful as James Marsden. And as someone largely immune to the vampire craze, I have no idea what Skarsgard will add to the film. I'll leave that for you guys to sort out.