HBO Greenlights Alan Ball's True Blood and David Milch's John From Cincinnati

Presiding over a packed house Wednesday, the third day of the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour in Pasadena, Albrecht told reporters that HBO will "definitely do" a new series from Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball called True Blood, the vampire drama he has been developing for the past year, says Variety.

Albrecht also gave a virtual greenlight to David Milch's John From Cincinnati, a Hawaiian surf-set one-hour that HBO began developing several months ago. Albrecht explained that his enthusiasm for the new project was the primary reason for the truncated ending to Deadwood.

"David has a finite amount of time," Albrecht said. HBO's showrunners "are so involved with what they do (that) we practically have to pry the shows out of their hands to get them on the air," he added, noting that he suggested ending "Deadwood" with six episodes in order to get an early start on "John."