Long before there was ‘Twilight’, there was Anne Rice’s ‘Vampire Chronicles’. ‘Interview With A Vampire’, published in 1976 kicked off a series of 11 novels, with a 12th on the way, and introduced the literary world to Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis de Pointe du Lac.
Of course, even though the novels have sold over 80 million copies, the most high profile exposure to this world was the 1994 ‘Interview With A Vampire’ movie starring Tom Cruise, which helped launch the careers of Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst. Though the movie was a hit plans to follow it up with adaptations of Rice’s subsequent novels stalled until 2002, when Warner Brothers released an adaptation of ‘Queen of the Damned’ in which Stuart Townsend replaced Cruise as Lestat with R&B singer Aaliyah as the titular vampire queen Akasha. Unfortunately, this movie was poorly received and flopped, staking the heart of any hopes of seeing the rest of Rice’s vision adapted on the big screen at that time.
But now, Rice is planning to bring her vampires to the small screen. Via her Facebook page, Rice announced that she had reacquired the rights to the ‘Vampire Chronicles’ with hopes of bringing her rich mythology to television.
According to her statement, Rice will be collaborating with her son Christopher, himself a successful novelist, on the pilot script and a detailed outline and both will serve as executive producers.
As recently as April, there had been discussions with Imagine Entertainment bringing ‘Interview With A Vampire’ back to theaters with a script by Josh Boone and buzz that Jared Leto was being eyed to play Lestat.
With so much material to draw from, TV could certainly be a good fit… provided the public hasn’t wearied on the subject of vampires. Rice referenced HBO’s hit ‘Game of Thrones’ as an inspiration, but keep in mind, before ‘GoT’, HBO had another smash hit known for its graphic sex and violence… ‘True Blood’ which was, of course about vampires (and other supernatural creatures). And that’s just one property. On The CW, ‘The Vampire Diaries’ is wrapping up its final season. And though ‘Twilight’ was a huge phenomenon, since the release of the last movie, it has essentially vanished from the public eye.
And those are the successes. There have been numerous vampire-themed movies and TV shows that have not been hits.
Will the general public eye Rice’s ‘Vampire Chronicles’ as a knock off of these more high-profile properties? Or will this be seen as another “remake” which folks keep saying they’re tired of?
What do you think? Are you excited about the idea of Anne Rice’s creations on the small screen?
Source: Facebook
