Studio:
Warner Brothers.
Production Company:
Unknown.
Project Phase: Development Hell.
Who's In It:
Unknown.
Who's Making It:
Based on the novel by Anne Rice.
Premise: Displeased with the way the Louis told the story of things in Interview With the Vampire, Lestat, now a rock star in the 1980's, gives his side of it all, including the history of his kind.
Release Date: Unknown.
Comments: When you talk about Hollywood and behind the scenes, "The Vampire Chronicles" is probably one of the most interesting sagas we've seen in a long time about novels and how they're made into films. And only the first movie has been made. And the rest might never see the light of day. No pun intended. See Feedback below for details on the fun.
Rumors: Unknown.
Scoop Feedback:
[Page draft submitted by 'Widgett', who seems to like the shade for some odd reason...]
October 31, 1997... Although Warner Brothers appeared to be positioning Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles as an ongoing franchise of movies, it appears that it may be years before we see this film entering active development. Anne Rice, on her official home page, gave some information as to what was happening and why no one's heard a peep out of this. Apparently, David Geffen was the impetus behind Interview reaching cinematic reality. When Geffen left Warner Brothers and all the properties he had there to join DreamWorks, the Rice properties were left high and dry. Rice stated that in the first part of this year she had paid a visit to WB and talked to the president of the company, Billy Gerber, and the result: "...I would say there is no plan to make Lestat." According to her, no one is even affiliated with the project at this time.
However, it still has a bit of life--um, undeath--in it. Rice reports that the rights to this book and the other vampire books will revert to her within three years if WB does not put them in motion. What's interesting is that she says she could remake the Interview movie at that time if she wanted to. She does express her wish that WB would make the Lestat film, but she just does not see it happening in the time they have remaining. She also mentions in one of her phone messages that she leaves for fans that if she had her way, Leonardo DiCaprio would play Lestat and Mel Gibson would direct.
Now, these were news blurbs Rice had posted to her website earlier this year, in addition to updates given on her fan hotline. The latest issue of DarkEcho online newsletter had a small new item in it informing us that four of Rice vampire projects were in active development. Whether something has changed in the last four months or so remains to be seen. [Scoop mailed in along with a bouquet of black roses by 'Widgett'.]
August 7, 1998... After an eternity of languishing without an update, this page gets word that the project...may never get out of its coffin. Anne Rice herself states that the prospect of the film morphing into a bat and flying to a cineplex near you grows dimmer by each chime of the clock in the town square. She has offered to write the screenplay for The Vampire Lestat film for scale. However, she says of the powers that be at Warner Brothers: "They have not been receptive to me or to my ideas at all." Instead, WB appears to be going forward with The Queen of the Damned, the third novel in the Vampire Chronicles series of books. At this point, one of two things will happen: Number one, Warner Brothers will somehow keep the film rights to the books, and thus make this particular adaptation as dead as my respect for whoever decided there should be a novelization of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Number two, Anne Rice gets the rights reverted back to her and goes forward with the projects on her own. Now we shall let time decide which (if either) project makes it to the greenlighted stage... [Scoop provided by 'Widgett Van Helsing'.]