Vampire Diaries Scoop From Comic-Con!

Kevin Williamson, writer and executive producer of The Vampire Diaries was on hand at Comic-Con over the weekend to talk about the new CW series and explain how he got involved with the project, why he initially turned it down and what changed his mind to get him to hop on board.

Initially, Williamson had reservations about jumping into the project and actually turned it down several times before finally agreeing to helm the series.

At Saturday's panel in San Diego, Williamson said he initially received a copy of The Vampire Diaries book 1 1/2 or 2 years ago when Twilight was being made as a feature film. At the time, he said that Vampire Diaries felt like a theatrical feature and didn't want to compete with the Twilight franchise because he thought it would suffer by comparison.

"There is just no way I'm going to step on Twilight or even get close to that because that's such a phenomenon, you don't want to be like the 'rip-off project' that comes after 'the' project, but then I read the book...and then sure enough, beyond the girl falling in love with a vampire, suddenly it all changed and the whole backstory, the mythology, everything about this story is completely, 100% different and I kind of got into it."

He credits his love of Twilight and especially HBO's True Blood, a show he "lives for" as the inspiration behind his decision to work on The Vampire Diaries. "Honestly...those are the reasons I'm here and want to be a part of it, because I wanted to do vampires as a result of those other vampire shows," said Williamson.

Of course, Williamson is no stranger to the horror/thriller genre having written and produced each of the four movies in the Scream franchise, as well as hits I Know What You Did Last Summer and Teaching Mrs. Tingle. Williamson is also no stranger to TV. He was the creator, writer and executive producer of The WB's hit Dawson's Creek.

For more insight on the new series, as well as a sneak peek, check out the videos below: