Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles

Anne Rice’s long-in-development ‘Vampire Chronicles’ TV series has found a home– Hulu.  Rice and her son Christopher first began developing this program, based on her fourteen-and-counting novel series, two years ago, in association with ‘American Gods” Bryan Fuller, who departed the project in May.  His replacement has not yet been found, but now that Hulu has put ‘Vampire Chronicles’ into development, expect that to change soon.  Rice actually fielded offers from various outlets but ultimately selected Hulu.

Anne and Christopher Rice penned the script for the pilot, while Fuller stepped away because he didn’t want to tinker too much with what they had crafted.  Anonymous Content’s David Kanter and Steve Golin will executive produce with Anne and Christopher.  ‘Vampire Chronicles’ comes via Anonymous Content and Paramount Television.

Over 100 million copies of Rice’s ‘Vampire Chronicles’ books have sold since 1976’s ‘Interview with the Vampire’.  In 1994, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas starred in Warner Brothers’ film adaptation of ‘Interview with the Vampire’ helmed by Louis Jordan, which was at the time eyed as the start of a franchise.  Unfortunately, an immediate followup failed to materialize.  In 2002, Warner Brothers tried to continue the series with ‘Queen of the Damned’ directed by Michael Rymer.  Unlike ‘Interview with the Vampire’, which starred Cruise and stars on the rise like Pitt, Dunst and Banderas, ‘Queen of the Damned’ starred Stuart Townsend, a “next big thing” that ultimately wasn’t, and R&B singer Aaliyah, who’d never starred in a movie.  The film combined elements of the ‘Queen of the Damned’ novel with ‘The Vampire Lestat’.  But this low budget attempt failed at the box office and received negative reviews.  Also working against it, Aaliyah died in a plane crash before finalizing work on the film.  In 2014, Universal and Legendary attempted to revisit the brand on the big screen, but ultimately these plans never came to fruition.

At this time, Hulu has not announced when fans can expect to see ‘Vampire Chronicles’, but logistically speaking 2019 would be the absolute earliest it could turn up and even that is a stretch.  But check back for any news as it surfaces.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter