From KCRW in Santa Monica, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to the treatment, which you can also hear at KCRW.com.

There's probably no writer-director more adept at looking at the repression within American families, even ad hoc American families, than Alan Ball, whom, of course, we know from six feet under and his Oscar winning screenplay for American Beauty.

He has two new projects that also touch on that, too.

His new film, Towelhead, his debut as writer-director and his new HBO series, True Blood.

First of all, Alan, thanks so much for coming back.

Thanks so much for having me.

True Blood and Towelhead both come from books.

And I wonder, this seems like the beginning of a new period for you,

turning to these literary adaptations.

Yeah, you know, it just sort of worked out that way.

I actually had written an original screenplay that I was ready to go out on the market with. It's a screwball comedy set in the 30s. I was talking my agent about which producers we were going to give it to. This was after six feet underended. And then he called me and he said, I just read a manuscript for this novel that is going to be published. I think you should read it.

And he sent me the manuscript to towelhead. And I fell in love with it. And I just sort of put the other

one aside and said, I'd love to option this and I'd love to try to make a movie out of this.

And then True Blood came from a series of books by Charlene Harris, the first in the series

of which I had bought on Impulse while I was killing time before a dentist appointment.

And literally, I was walking up and down the aisles of Barnes & Noble, and I saw this little book called Dead Until Dark, and the tagline was, maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea.

And, yeah, I thought it was funny, and I bought it, and I started reading it, and I really just got lost in the world and enjoyed it and had so much fun.

And when I finished it, I noticed there were other books in the series and I started consuming

them like popcorn.

And somewhere around the fourth book, I thought this would be a terrific TV show.

It's funny you say screwball comedy because one of the things in true blood and maybe to a lesser

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