Anne Rice Dishes on The Vampire Chronicles TV Show; Talks Possible Casting Choices
We were pretty excited by the news a few days ago that Anne Rice and her son, Christopher, are now in full control of The Vampire Chronicles with a TV series on the way; and today we learned a few more details courtesy of EW.
As for where they are in the process, Rice says, “We’re in the planning stage right now. Emails are flying back and forth with all our different ideas about how we want to do it. Nothing is firm yet, except that we do want to start with the second book in the series, The Vampire Lestat. We want to start with him and his birth as a vampire and go on from there. And at this point, tentatively, I see two seasons, maybe, to do the entire book.”
But don’t think for a second that they’ll stop there. The author explains, “…we want to do an open-ended series that can just take it all the way. And you know, there are something like 14 books now, and ideally, we would love to bring [the series] up to the present time, to Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis or whatever book is next after that.”
And how closely do they plan on following the text? “I want to do it faithfully…” Rice says, which is sure to be music to the ears of her millions of fans following the debacle known as Queen of the Damned. “I want to take that approach all the way, and if I make innovations and changes, which inevitably I will, I want them to be completely in tune with the vision and the ambience of The Vampire Chronicles. I want to give them the situations they expect to see and the characters that they expect to see. Again, I think TV is the ideal place for that.”
Is she hoping for a Netflix-type scenario, where the whole season might be released at once? Rice enthuses, “I would love that. I think that is one of the greatest innovations we’ve seen in the last few years: The idea of putting out an entire season at once. Most of us were already marathoning everything, so to have it upfront is incredible.”
With regard to casting – something the series has definitely had a mixed history with (I’m looking at you, Antonio Banderas), Rice reassures us, “We hope to be involved at every stage! I want to launch this in a way that my son, Christopher, is the executive producer at the helm of it and I’m sort of assisting him. He’s got the youth and the stamina and the vigor to actually take the leading role in this. At my age, I would rather assist him than be totally in charge, but yes, I think we would have a great deal to do with casting. We do not really want to let this out of our hands until we find the people that are most sympathetic to our vision for it.”
Will we see “name” actors or mostly unknowns? Probably a bit of both, according to Rice: “This is an age in which fantasy film and fantasy TV have done so well… there are all kinds of actors – in Australia, in England, and in America, and coming from other countries as well – that can play these kinds of characters and can do period very, very effectively. And they can do the kind of diction that you need when you’re dealing with 18th century characters. I don’t think there will be any trouble finding an actor, at this point. Maybe it will be an unknown, maybe it will be somebody that’s already working and I just haven’t seen him yet. I honestly don’t know. Again, I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. [But] you have to have someone who can pull off playing an immortal. If he’s supposed to be 200 years old or 1,000 years old, there has to be a subtle authenticity to that idea.”
Rice then proceeds to lay out a few of her choices. Regarding Lestat, while she does feel that “Tom Cruise did a wonderful job,” she adds, “I think with this character it’s very important that the actor look like the character. Because this character’s looks are so much a part of who he is: He’s six feet tall, he has blonde hair and blue eyes, and he’s known for those particular traits. So it would be very nice to have an actor that truly does fit that profile. And after that, I think it’s a matter of a character with a wild sense of humor, maybe an impish quality to him, and then athletic grace and strength.”
For Louis, whoever fills Brad Pitt’s shoes needs to have: “Beauty. Great beauty. It’s Louis’ beauty that attracted Lestat to him, and I would hope it would be a beautiful actor like Matt Bomer. Somebody with that incredible beauty. Brad Pitt did a beautiful job in the original film, and he set the bar very high when it comes to physical beauty.”
Next she touches on Marius, someone given short shrift in Queen of the Damned as portrayed by Vincent Perez. Her pick is someone the People of the Page, as her Facebook fans are called, are well aware of as one of her faves: “I would absolutely love it if Matthew Macfadyen (pictured below), the British actor, ever wanted to be part of this and wanted to play Marius. Marius is one of the pillars of the Chronicles – 2,000 years old – and I am an absolute, stoned fan of Matthew Macfadyen in ‘Ripper Street’ and every other show that he’s ever done. Talk about quality TV…”
We’ll be attending Rice’s signing for her new book, Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (review), in San Diego next month and hope to have a chance to chat with both her and Christopher to learn more so stay tuned! You can also chime in on the newly launched official The Vampire Chronicles Facebook page devoted to conversations about the forthcoming series.
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