Well…Stefan and Damon have a Daddy now!  James Remar (the dad on Siega’s Dexter) has been cast as Guiseppe Salvatore!  William Keck of TV Guide Magazine sits down with the actor to discuss his role.

Stefan and Damon are about to get a father on The CW’s The Vampire Diaries… and he looks an awful lot like Dexter‘s Harry Morgan. Actor James Remar, 55, who first stared playing Dexter’s dad in 2006, will be flying to Atlanta on Dec. 2 to begin his role as Guiseppe Salvatore, papa to bloodsucking sons Stefan (Paul Wesley) and Damon (Ian Somerhalder). The busy actor also plays a big role in Dexter‘s bloody Dec. 13 season finale, and that same night, plays a father mourning a child in Lifetime’s original holiday tearjerker, The Christmas Hope.

Keck: You seem like a great choice to play Papa Salvatore. How did you get the role?
Remar: I was brought in by Marcos Siega, who has directed several episodes of Dexter and Vampire Diaries. He’s now the show runner on Vampire Diaries and thought I’d be right for this role.

Keck: What have they told you about this guy, Giuseppe?
Remar: He’s an aristocrat in the 1860′s of Italian decent. It’s the Civil War Era and it’s about how he relates to his boys.

Keck: Is he a vampire himself?
Remar: Not at the outset, no. But one of his boys has been bitten by the girl he loves.

Keck: Is it just the one episode?
Remar: I think it’s going to be more than one.

Keck: Are you a vampire fan yourself?
Remar: Sure. I really think Gary Oldman knocked it out of the park as Count Dracula (in 1992′s Dracula).

Read the rest of the interview.

We got a few treats from Marcos Siega in the wee hours of the night!  He tweeted 3 Twitpics of he and some of the cast who were working late last night.  I won’t post the pics here (per his request), but here are the tweets!

1st Tweet

Me and Nina shooting right now. Missing the premiere! http://twitpic.com/h99j3

2nd Tweet

The team. Working all night. http://twitpic.com/h9khv

3rd Tweet

For all our fans. Nina hand made the sign! http://twitpic.com/ha78u

Of course my favorite is of the sign that Nina made!  Aren’t they the greatest??!!

The Vampire Diaries director @msiega just posted to @kevwilliamson (who’s been busy ritin’) from his Twitter account that The Vampire Diaries will begin shooting in Georgia in 4 weeks!

@kevwilliamson you need to get some rest! I can’t believe we are four weeks away from shooting episode 1 of Vampire Diaries.

Also, @julieplec just recently posted on her Twitter that she is busy in the Atlanta area scouting locations for Elena’s house.

Headed to Atlanta to find Elena’s house.

So things are going to get moving soon and hopefully we will have lots of spoilers, pics and news to report to you in the coming weeks!

OK so it appears that Vampire Diaries has officially been picked up! Thanks to the glorious tool known as Twitter we now have confirmation from the major players in creating this series and bringing it to the screen.

Marcos Siega: It’s official! Vampire Diaries is picked up!

Kevin Williamson: Just got a really nice phone call from Dawn Ostroff!!!! and later… Huge congrats to a spectacular cast and crew. FYI: Dawn Ostroff is President of Entertainment of The CW Network.

And Katerina Graham, who will be playing Bonne posted this on her Twitter: I just found out I got the official word Vampire Diaries got picked up!!! I’m gonna be on the CW AHHHHHH!!!!!!

So to all the cast and crew of the Vampire Diaries TV series, CONGRATS!!!

Both the Vampire Diaries director (Marcos Siega) and writer/exec producer (Kevin Williamson) tweeted today that there is still no official word about the series being picked up by the CW Network for their Fall 2009 lineup. All articles you read on this subject are still just speculation. Once we get the official word it will be posted here immediately. So, we will just have to be patient until Thursday when the announcement comes in.

Marcos Siega is at it again, teasing us by posting some pics on his Twitpic account. This time it’s cast members Paul Wesley (Stefan), Nina Dobrev (Elena), Katerina Graham (Bonnie), and the director himself in the middle.  You can see the pic by clicking here.

Thank you again, Mr. Siega, for sharing your personal pics!  It’s really fun watching it all come together from your perspective.   Now, where’s Ian?

Did you know that the director of The Vampire Diaries pilot, Marcos Siega, is on Twitter? I didn’t either until the other day when I was going through my followers list and saw that he was following us! Today he posted a pic of Nina Dobrev on set as Elena along with other little tidbits and pics which you can see on his Twitpic account. Thanks for sharing the goods, Marcos!

She’s so cute!