Interview With the Vampire author Anne Rice introduced an entire generation of readers to the concept of sexy vampires decades before Twilight was a twinkle in Stephenie Meyers’s eye. The simmering homoeroticism of antebellum Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in the movie adaptation? [Chef’s kiss.] While television and film has spent the last decade or so mining the sexy-vampire genre for every gem it contains, the Vampire Chronicles author revealed this weekend that she only just recently reacquired the rights to her work and has big TV plans for it.“The theatrical rights to the Vampire Chronicles are once again in my hands, free and clear! I could not be more excited about this!†Rice posted on Facebook. “My son Christopher Rice and I will be developing a pilot script and a detailed outline for an open ended series, faithfully presenting Lestat’s story as it is told in the books, complete with the many situations that readers expect to see. We will likely begin with ‘The Vampire Lestat’ and move on from there.â€
Rice indicates that previous plans to use her novels as the basis for more films never came to fruition. “As many of you know, Universal Studios and Imagine Entertainment had optioned the series to develop motion pictures from it, and though we had the pleasure of working with many fine people in connection with this plan, it did not work out,†she explains. The only question left is: Who is our television Tom Cruise, and how quickly can he be attached? Mads Mikkelsen, and immediately?