A movie reboot of The Vampire Chronicles very nearly happened, but the studio never fully committed to the project. “Universal and Imagine had the Vampire Chronicles in development for 18 months. But this did not work out, and Universal did not renew the option,” admitted Rice. “When the rights reverted to me, I realized, more than ever, that television was where the series belonged.
…“Times have certainly changed since Warner Brothers made a movie version of Queen of the Damned in 2002, one that bore little resemblance to the novel. [Anne says:] “Hollywood in the last ten years has come to recognize the importance of the fans; it has come to see we are living in the age of the nerd, the geek, the fanboy or fangirl,the avid devoted reader.Hollywood has stopped dismissing and condescending to this audience and has started to respect it, only perhaps because Hollywood has no real choice.The immense success of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Game of Thrones has made it clear: fidelity to the books is where success lies.”
She continued, “This is a wonderful time to be making a TV series of The Vampire Chronicles. I get brilliant suggestions and ideas every day from the readers who post on our Vampire Chronicles series page. They have introduced me to musical composers, actors and actresses I hadn’t seen before, and they have generously talked about the situations and scenes they value in my books and want to see on the screen. I love all this. I don’t want to let them down. I won’t let them down.”
^Clearly AR wants to be faithful to her fans and the books in the new adaptation(s) 😀 (Hopefully that includes not retro-fitting the later books backwards into canon)
painting of St. Sebastian by Guido Reni used for the cover of Violin.* And I know not every dude-w/-his-hands-tied-above-his-head counts as a St. Sebastian reference but still, it’s interesting to consider whether it might be.
“St Sebastian (feast day January 20th)has become something of a gay icon, as saints go. Partly, perhaps, because it’s an opportunity to depict a curly-haired semi-nude youth in light bondage. It has to be said this isn’t how Sebastian died, or how he was originally depicted. Sebastian miraculously survived being shot with arrows and was healed by Irene of Rome. He continued to denounce the emperor Diocletian, who had him clubbed to death in the year 288.
The tendency to depict Sebastian as a handsome youth pierced with arrows began in the 14th Century when Europe was being ravaged by the plague of the Black Death.
See how the two ‘Sebastians’ in the modern version above look entirely unperturbed by the arrows protruding from their torsos?There is a long tradition of Sebastian looking unaffected by his plight: corruption fails to touch him and that made him proof against plague. Sebastian occupied an important place in medieval religion as a protector against plague. He was seen as a saint whose prayers would work.”[X]
*The lighting on the cover may be distorting the colors and contrast of the original painting, and I’m not even sure that’s the original painting, got that from here [X]… but these changes seem obvious:
changed the trees in the BG,
blended the nips in a little more by changing their color,
rounded his face somewhat (tho, that O could be just making it look rounder)
moved the armpit arrow,
added a tummy arrow,
changed the angle of Left Ribcage Arrow a little bit,
lengthened his hair a little,
reduced the shadows in the Adonis muscle area, too sexy?
I’m not sure if this is as debatable of a topic as she claims it is, but I thought this was interesting for those who have read, or are reading, Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis. @i-want-my-iwtv
I don’t really need to cut this or do a spoiler alert, since AR is now telling us this isn’t the definitive answer for what Memnoch is, but I’ll do a cut just in case.
From PLROA, Lestat’s POV:
^I didn’t know this was even a debate, but Magnus says this pretty definitively, he even claims to have escaped Memnoch’s realm. So… should be interesting to see what AR does with Memnoch. I almost feel like she’s hanging onto him to spite everyone who gave Memnoch the Devil bad reviews way back when, but for whatever reason, I think she may be setting him up as a major player in the next book: (Is this Kapetria narrating? I think so…)
I feel this video was more successful than the companion video, 40 Years of Women’s Goth Style. This one felt less costume-y, and more authentic.
Also, I predictably covet the shirt, coat, and cape from the 90s vampire look. My cliches, I embrace them.
I was hesitant, but yeah, this felt so much more natural than the women’s one did; save for the cyber punk and some of the make up on the death rock one, this is more of what I’ve actually witnessed (….though I’ve only been in the sub-culture a decade, and only aware of it for a little more than that)
Nope! Not that I’ve been made aware of. AR didn’t give us a reason why Universal was no longer involved. She just announced to us 11/26/16 that she had the rights back [X] and was developing a VC TV series. So I would assume that Universal rights expired, and they didn’t choose to renew. AR might have raised the renewal cost, too.
I hope we do get the backstory on that someday, but my guess is we never will. Probably the same kind of development hell that happened w/ movie!IWTV from ‘94, the rights were jostled around for almost 20 yrs bc, from what I understand:
the material was/is very difficult to adapt with all the problematic and taboo stuff in it.*
the filmmakers wanted to please the VC fans, but they also wanted to make something that people who had not read the books would want to go see! That’s probably one of the reasons for Banderas!Armand, btw. I’m sure the filmmakers had to choose between satisfying the VC fans and reducing the taboo stuff enough to make it more palatable for non-VC fans (Louis, an adult vampire, being seduced by a teenage-looking vampire, might have been too much to ask for in 1994 it might still be too taboo now).
casting was tough,several first choice actors declined.
*@moral-cipher and I were talking about this, and the way ppl criticize canon, and that’s fine, I encourage it! But it is a very problematic series and just about every character is dysfunctional, every character has suffered or has caused suffering in others. The new motto for VC fandom might as well be:
~VC: If you’re looking for a perfect cinnamon roll, you’ve come to the wrong fandom.~
I don’t think AR has said anything about casting Claudia specifically.* It’s another tough role to cast age-wise, bc she’s supposed to be just barely 5 years old, and 5 year olds definitely age.
^X@claudia-lilvampire found this pic of Christopher Mason and his daughter Basie (she looks closer to 4 here?), very Lestat and Claudia ❤
Casting Claudia will probably not be an issue if they start with TVL, bc Claudia’s only in IWTV, and just mentioned in later books. But… let’s cast an actress as Lestat’s little sister for TVL, the 8th de Lioncourt child, and then have her play Claudia, too! The resemblance would be so heartbreaking! ;A; Mireille de Lioncourt, so named by@viaticumforthemarquise.
For funsies tho, I must inform you… awhile back, @hyperbeeb suggested Mia Talerico [X], who just turned 9 on 9/17/16, and I have to agree!
Mia’s had a long career already (IMDB says she was eleven months old when she started filming Good Luck Charlie, so that’s 7 yrs of acting, being directed, being comfortable in front of the cameras, etc.). I did a whole post about her here. She’s pretty much my headcanon when I write Claudia.
Anne said age wouldn’t be as much as an issue for Claudia since they won’t be spending as much time with her as they are with Armand. She basically said any talented little girl will do.
But I want Miaaaaa.… *w*
Thanks @firelight-fading, I don’t follow AR’s FB or the OVCFB religously enough to have answered as definitively as you did, I’m glad that she is still planning on telling that story, as well.
Is this a screencap from Mad Men? Stan is so dapper (but also he has a touch of like, Macauley Culkin from Richie Rich, no?), Anne is like a gotdamn illustration LOOK AT THOSE CHEEKBONES DAMN.
#the parents#anne rice#stan rice#i’m constantly shocked how much chris looks like stan#it’s adorable#good news cause he was a handsome dude#I JUST FEEL LIKE WHEN I LOOK AT THIS PICTURE#IT MAKES ME LAUGH#cause they look relatively normal#AND YOU WOULD HAVE NO IDEA#kinkiest freaks#adorable
The author reinforce this by adding that, when they adopted Claudia, Louis took the maternal role. What do you think? ( Pt 2/2 )
It’s not a groundbreaking concept, we often talk of mommy!Louis in fandom. If there were a “mom” in that relationship, Louis would be more of that than Lestat was! ❤
#don’t you love the way Claudia snuggles in there #tucks herself in #like she’s actually Louis’ doll? #she is 80% made of that dress and those curls #how he places that little kiss on top of her head right before he shuts the lid #Right before theyll be in total darkness #just to reassure her #He is such a good mom
^my tags on that gif, bc I do love mommy!Louis ❤
(Lestat was actually Claudia’s biological maker, it’s his blood that turns her; she is technically Lestat’s fledgling, which actually makes Louis her “brother”!)
Louis was based on Anne Rice herself; Lestat was based on her husband, Stan; and Claudia on her own daughter, Michele, so you could say Louis was the “mom” bc of who he was based on. IWTV was partly about AR investigating the tragic loss of her own daughter through these characters. Louis’ separation from Claudia was not his choice; neither was AR’s from her own daughter ;A;
When you’re a Ricean vampire, gender doesn’t really matter, it definitely doesn’t matter physically in making new vampires, which is how they procreate. Post-IWTV!Lestat is much more into fashion, jewelry, and other typically “feminine-specific” stuff/activities that Louis has little or no tolerance for. Lestat is also one of the most prolific makers we know of in the series. The act of making fledglings could be compared to pregnancy, and he loves doing it, so that could make him more “feminine” than Louis, who has only made two fledglings (but both were made under duress, not 100% his choice).
Lestat and Louis both parented her in their own ways. Lestat took Claudia out and taught her to hunt, and all this other stuff he shared with her that Louis couldn’t. Hunting can be considered more “masculine.” You could label more domestic things like literature “feminine,” I guess, and that’s what Louis offered her. IWTV!Lestat was just more interested in action and less interested in introspection. Your author says that one of Louis’ feminine traits is “speaking about his feelings,” Lestat does TONS of that in later books. So if you only read IWTV, you miss out on that.
The other thing is that IWTV is Louis’ account, so yes, it paints Lestat a certain way, when Lestat was frustrated that he couldn’t reveal so many secrets that it drove a wedge between them. I feel like most of Lestat’s “masculine” behavior is just about that frustration, at having to keep his history a secret because of Marius’s threats.
As Lestat puts it in TVL, Louis’ account is somewhat accurate:
“…which for all its contradictions and terrible
misunderstandings manages to capture the atmosphere in which Claudia and Louis and I came together and stayed together for sixty-five
years…
But he adds this about Louis as a narrator:
“[Louis’] blindness to
the motives or the suffering of others was as much a part of his charm
as his soft unkempt black hair or the eternally troubled expression in
his green eyes.
So I wouldn’t say you can totally define Lestat and Louis’ gender roles in their relationship based solely on reading IWTV. But many of us, myself included, enjoy daydreaming about mommy!Louis ❤
LOLWHUT?! was my reaction and here’s the vid, since you made me watch it:
[X] Look, I get what she was going for, she tried to be silly! Maybe she’s seen Zach Galifianakis’ Between Two Ferns and wanted to get in on that action.
I think it’s supposed to be cringey and some ppl love that kind of comedy. I like some of his eps, others are too cringey for me.
I’m glad that she’s willing to look silly! There was a long time where she had almost no sense of humor, I mean, “I am cooperating in every way that I possibly can!” she really is!
Re: “Lestat transcends gender,” comment, idk, she probably doesn’t know the right language to use, but I think she means that gender is not a limitation for him re: pursuit of love, that he’s not restricted by his own gender (but I think he does identify as cis male). @queenofthesavagegarden is a different gendered version of that character.
this picture of anne rice at a book signing in the 90s feels reeeeally important
OKAY EXCUSE ME GUYS, ANNE RICE RIGHT NOW ON HER LIVESTREAM WAS TALKING ABOUT HOW SHE REGRETTED KILLING ARMAND AND SHE WAS AT A MEMNOCH SIGNING AND THE FANS HAD “ARMAND LIVES” SHIRTS AND MADE HER REALIZE SHE MADE A TERRIBLE MISTAKE.
I MEAN. IS THAT WHAT THIS PICTURE IS. I THINK IT IS.
HAHAHAHA i love this fucking fandom oh my God. I WISH I could have been there for that
I-want-my-IWTV 