Twilight and True Blood Vamps Battle at Comic-Con

Twilight and True Blood Vamps Battle at Comic-Con




Are Twilight's vampires hotter than True Blood's? If the scream-o-meter Friday evening was any indication, Comic-Con's Twi-hard contingent was still in full force, even if The Twilight Saga had no official presence at the convention for the first time in three years.

Hall H patrons got their vampire fix at Sony's panel for Priest, the fantasy-action adaptation that stars Paul Bettany as a vampire-slaying holy man. Joining Bettany on stage before a packed house were two men better known for their other bloodsucker projects: Twilight's Cam Gigandet and True Blood's Stephen Moyer.

The double dose of hot male vamps had wannabe fangbangers shrieking, but which guy got the loudest catcalls?

That's right—Twilight's bad boy, Gigandet.

Of course, the Bill Compton faithful were busy lining up on the other side of the Convention Center for HBO's True Blood panel, where Moyer later joined his costars (including Sam Trammell, Nelsan Ellis, Joe Mangianello and fiancée Anna Paquin).

Before heading to his Blood duties, Moyer explained what differentiated True Blood from Priest, in which he plays Bettany's "shorter, better looking" human scientist brother. "I can see a lot of similarities: [Priest's vampires are] bred for destruction. What was interesting from my point of view was not playing the vampire, but seeing [director Scott Stewart's] vision because the vampires aren't there."

Gigandet also battles CG vampires in Priest as a young sheriff who enlists Bettany's help in rescuing his girlfriend. Having played the villainous James in the first Twilight film, Gigandet admitted that those sparkly vamps are a far cry from, well, any kind of traditionally scary bloodsuckers.

"There really aren't many similarities at all," he declared with a grin. "These vampires in Priest are an entirely different species—feral beasts built for killing, hunting and eating. And obviously in Twilight, that's not how it was."

Still, we'll take our sexy vampires, thankyouverymuch.

Also in town making various panel appearances throughout the week: Twilight Saga stars Anna Kendrick (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and Michael Sheen (Tron: Legacy), both of whom will go back to work later this year when Breaking Dawn begins filming.

Billy Burke couldn't make it for the Drive Angry 3-D panel as planned, but yes, dear Twi-hards, we did catch a glimpse of him during Friday's Drive footage screening. And we can report back with glee that the erstwhile Charlie Swan is deliciously devilish as the film's big baddie, tormenting Nicolas Cage with a swagger so evil we'd swear he was part bad vampire.