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‘Interview With The Vampire’ Back From The Dead With A New Novel And TV Series

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 02:36 PST, Feb 17, 2017

Interview with the Vampire is one of the most prominent and well-known movies in the gothic horror genre, and is believed to be the precursor of many of today’s films that are based on vampires. While the story of Dracula is considered as one of the most famous characters from the world of gothic fiction that invoked fear in relation to vampires, Interview with the Vampire not only pulls the audience into the world of gothic horror but also exposes them to the mysterious lives of the vampire.

The movie was based on the first in the series of novels written by Anne Rice. Titled as The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice’s books featured Lestat de Lioncourt, an 18th-century nobleman-vampire, as the protagonist. Interview with the Vampire is a story that specifically focuses on a vampire named Louis de Pointe du Lac, a victim of Lestat, who is narrating his story by way of a verbal interview with a reporter. The movie of the same name featured Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, two of the most famous Hollywood male superstars at the height of their careers, who played the roles of Lestat and Louis respectively.

Hollywood has always been fascinated by the topic of vampirism, and a number of movies have been produced based on the fictional creatures who manage to survive by drinking blood from other living creatures. Vampires were first introduced in European folklore and became an integral part of gothic literature when Bram Stoker’s Dracula was published in 1897. Anne Rice, the author of The Vampire Chronicles, brought the vampires from European folklore into the 18th century and the modern world.

Interview with the Vampire was a box-office hit, even though it was considered unusual for the audiences to see two popular romantic heroes playing the role of bloodsucking vampires. Later, Queen of the Damned, the third novel in Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles series was adapted into a movie, yet Warner Bros. and other production companies have attempted to adapt the other books from the series into standalone films, but have been unsuccessful in doing so.

Even though Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment hold the rights to produce movies based on the book series, the filmmakers have failed to bring the entire series to the big screen.

More recently, Anne Rice acquired the theatrical rights to her novel series and announced her plans to produce a television program based on her series. According to Entertainment Weekly, Rice announced through a Facebook post that she intends to bring her iconic characters to life in a new television series.

“A television series of the highest quality is now my dream for Lestat, Louis, Armand, Marius, and the entire tribe. In this the new Golden Age of television, such a series is the way to let the entire story of the vampires unfold.”

Den of Geek reported that Christopher Rice, the novelist’s son, will be the executive producer of the new series, and the mother-son duo will conceptualize the entire television project together before a pilot episode is filmed and telecast.

According to Uproxx, Anne Rice has revealed that the new television series will be faithfully based on her novels.

“Over the years you all have told me how much you want to see a Game of Thrones style faithful rendering of this material, and how much you want for the series to remain in my control. Well, I have heard you.”

Gizmodo reports that the conceptualized television will begin with The Vampire Lestat, the second novel in the series, and not with Interview with the Vampire.

Anne Rice’s Facebook announcement coincides with the release of Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, the 14th book in The Vampire Chronicles. Gizmodo further reported that Rice is very much attached to the character Lestat, and she longs to allow her fans to see the world from his point of view.

In addition, Nerdist reported that the newly released Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis traces the history of vampires back and further than ever before, linking the lineage to the lost Kingdom of Atlantis.

Prince Lestat, the 13th novel in The Vampire Chronicles, was released in 2014, marking 11 years since the release of the 12th novel. While some people were skeptical about Anne Rice’s intentions in returning to the world of Interview with the Vampire after more than a decade away, the novelist claims that she felt the need to return to her beloved characters simply because she missed them.

“I felt the need, after a long hiatus, to return to Lestat. I missed him. He came alive for me again. He began to speak again. I had left him during a period of grief and sadness in 2002-3, but years had passed, and I was intrigued and excited about how my vampires might be fairing in the modern world.”

[Featured Image by Chris Pizzello/AP Images]

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