In honor of @monstersinthecosmos‘s VC Inktober and per @bloodyvampchrons’s request: 13. Your fav with their fav celebrity!
I present: That one time Santino, former coven master of Rome and leader of the Children of Darkness, met Marilyn Monroe and nearly fainted.
inktober day 2 (one day late oops) – louis in a cozy fall sweater!
(pls excuse the everything, i haven’t inked with anything but ballpoint before lmao)
The Television Show
Production
- As many know now, they will be working with Paramount Television and Anonymous Content
- They want to stay fully engaged with fans in the production process
- No set broadcaster, all options open (Netflix, Hulu, etc.) (Chris joked about it being on Facebook)
- Next announcement will be when that network is decided
- No timeline for production. They have no idea how long it will take. Script-writing is next. Chris is the one who will be script-writing, Anne will review
- Chris: “She finished writing season 1 when she wrote the books!”
- Pilot is done. Next are more episodes. They are starting the process and having several meetings with Paramount and Anonymous Content
- Anne SWEARS the series will be 100% loyal to the books. (They named GoT as an example of doing this though soooooo)
- Anne said compromises are inevitable but artistic control comes from good will
and respect; you make it work by picking people you admire and trust. They worked with Paramount and Anonymous Content since they all agreed on a common vision and the end result of the series- No idea about locations of sets and whatnot
- Don’t know if they will keep with the 80’s period of the books, however Anne wants to do Lestat’s pre-vampire period period-accurate
Neil Jordan may end up helping out on the projectCasting
- Still taking suggestions from fans and looking fancasts up on imdb
- Anne: “Lestat is always shaking his fists to those who would break him down…Scrappish impish…lovable hero”
Chris: “–and he’s hot!! 😀 He’s gonna be hot. #LestatIsHot”- Chris and Anne might want to cameo in the series (joked about making a game out of it)
- Some characters may change where “ethnicity is flexible”
- Anne and Chris agree that POC being casted are important and will be
considered in casting. The Millennial vamps (older gang) will most likely
be largely POC.- Anne says she has taken notice of black fans showing
their admiration of Aaliyah playing Akasha.
- Anne gave a story about
meeting an Akasha cosplayer who mentioned that she and her friends feel
left out of high fantasy for being black and how Anne was moved by this.- Anne: “Akasha isn’t written as black or a person of color…she’s middle eastern”
Me: ??? (Those aren’t…mutually exclusive???)
Anne: “–but she could be a person of color.”- Marius was played by a black man in the musical and Anne thought he
did a great job. Marius can be any ethnicity so long as he’s half Roman. She’d prefer to have Marius as blue eyes and blonde haired like Lestat but it’s “not imperative for him”.- Anne: “Louis at least has to be beautiful”
- Armand has to look as described as well.
- Anne wanted Cher to play Gabrielle.
- Anne and Chris to be inclusive, but will always focus more on how fine the actor is. Talent is needed to get the role, not just looks.
- Armand will be casted as someone who looks 17, but will be technically older. Not sure about age for
Lestat and Louis (Anne is thinking early 30s)- Physical and emotional aging will
be put into consideration (she gave Marius as an example as him looking like he’s in his 40s but being mentally older)Plot and Episodes
- They will tell the story chronologically in Lestat’s eyes so wolves-paris-so on. Basically, how knowledge unfolds for Lestat is how it will unfold for audience
THIS MAY CHANGE depending on when they talk to producers, however this is not
what they want in terms of how the events should happen.- Don’t want to cheat on Lestat’s life and skip out any details of it (go figure)
- Stay faithful to the books and to Lestat’s story
- Chris warns for us to be mindful of news that doesn’t come from official page
- Lestat and Gabbi’s journey to be expanded
- Origin stories of Marius and other older vampires will be shown and expanded on (done through the flashback stories Marius gives)
- Blood and Gold will be involved but they won’t DO the story (so using that material for possible spin offs)
- A lot about the Talamasca and especially David. Jesse too, but mostly David
- (Anne: He’s close friends with Lestat in TOTBT
Me: Is that what you call it? lmao)- TVL could be 2-3 seasons. IWTV may be one. Depends
- Anne and Chris want to know what goes wrong in the translation from book to media in other series so they can avoid it
- They’re keeping eroticism the same as in the books.
- Lestat turning Gabrielle will be a big scene, as they feel this is when the series starts to truly bring the
vampire world into view and Lestat really starts becoming a vampire. This scene is significant in
asking the audience what they would do in that instance. Lestat turning will also be significant.Characters and Character Relations
- SOMEONE FUCKING MENTIONED LOUSTAT AS THE LOUIS / LESTAT SHIP NAME AND THEY BOTH LOST IT (which one of you was it? Hm?)
- There will be a lot about Louis and Lestat’s relationship in the series (and Lestat and Nicki)
- Anne says she understands how important queer relationships are and how they have driven the series
- *On expanding on other characters*
Chris: …human characters like Jesse or Daniel Mollo-
Anne: OR LESTAT WHEN HE’S HUMAN
Me:
- Anne doesn’t feel a need to make new characters.
- More info on
Théâtre des Vampiresand the characters in that part will expanded as well
- Chris and Anne openly acknowledge Lestat as bisexual and this will be depicted clearly within the show
- On the topic of Armand, what that character means to Anne will shine, so he will gain a more
sympathetic role outside of just the IWTV perspective. Both his dark side and his more childish, light-side will be shown- Jim Morrison of The Doors was Anne’s inspiration for Lestat’s singing voice and for the band (I forget but I think this was the song Anne named as being a good example. Though, I’m partial to their sexy song “5 to 1″). She describes Lestat’s voice as somewhere between a “barratone and tenor…Melodic”. (Something about Jon Bon Jovi also a little bit)
Mayfair Witches
- Rights of Mayfair Witches not available to them (?) and thus, the crossover books are not a part of the VC TV series and, thus no show for them right now
- Maybe Mayfair TV series in future. Anne doesn’t want them to play second fiddle to the vampires
Anne and Chris
- They talked about the recent April Fool’s Joke. Anne apologized to Justin Beiber?? Why?? I don’t know (they weren’t behind the joke article)
- Chris likes Riverdale (ew)
- Chris worked with Anne on Ramses the Damned.
- Someone in the VC Discord Server brought up the question of if Chris could/would carry out the VC books after Anne. Based off this interview, I think it’s very likely depending on how well the VC TV series goes. He seemed a little apprehensive about it, but he’s worked with his mother on writing and is familiar enough with her characters to care about them. I think it’s possible
- Chris went to the VC balls in New Orleans as a kid
- Chris’ A Density of Souls may get a chance to be a film. Chris is in discussion with someone about it (?? that’s what I got from the interview anyways)
- *After Anne leaves to get Chris a Coke*
Chris *to the camera*: She won’t let me out of the house. She won’t let me leave!!
Me: SameThe Facebook Page and Other Information
- Anne, yet again, made a little speech about how nerds mean a lot to Hollywood nowadays
- “Readers know things about the novels that are valuable”
- They have a record of fan comments that Anne reads every so often
- They mentioned some of the fights going on in the FB thread
- (Chris: There are some people with…strong casting choices.
Anne: I got into fights with people lmao)- Anne prefers if you message her over the page rather than through emails
- They cannot do much about given resumes and asking about jobs related to production. There will be a time for that later
- Anne is in contract for two more VC novels. It sounded like her next novel is also included in the TV series’ contract, but I could have misinterpreted.
- Anne asks about any regrets or things she would change from the books as she goes into the series. More fleshing out but that’s about it
- Disappointing the fans is their biggest concern and worry
“the older gang will most likely be largely poc” that would be awesome tho. like i’m super hesitant to get excited about this thing but this sounds cool
More Vampires of Color yessss! *Grabby hands* if they want to change anything, that’s a good change that I, for one, can get behind.
Welcome to our little corner of tumblrland!
@riccardo-de-romanus is a Riccardo RPer, you might check out their archives or try to get in touch with them for Riccardo action. They use Avan Jogia as a face claim.
Anyone is free to comment/reblog this w/ their thoughts. I reached out to some ppl privately to help me with this bc I was never really all that attached to Riccardo… but yes, I thought Riccardo’s death was believable, and shocking, and heartwrenching! The fact that Armand survived that experience is a testament to his character’s strength, that he could go on after that ;A;
You’re not wrong for wanting to attach to this more or less obscure character; some RPers specifically choose less popular characters as their muse, the road less traveled and all that ;D
Other people with positive thoughts to share w/ you on Riccardo:
As @bloodyvampchrons put it so eloquently: “Riccardo is a cinnamon roll<3″ More from @bloodyvampchrons:
The thing with Riccardo that gets so tragic is that he’s one of the very few characters in TVA who’s genuinely kind and caring and not controlling or abusive in any way, he’s quite innocent, just an ordinary young man.
He welcomes Amadeo immediately and is charged with taking care of him since Riccardo is among the eldest (and Amadeo second eldest I THINK? I’ll have to look up ages). And they just become best friends/brothers and have a lot of NORMAL innocent teenage fun. So it’s like the only bits of that book which are healthy tbh xD
They pair up together for fencing because they’re evenly matched, they go to Bianca’s together and go to taverns and play cards and get drunk illicitly (XD), Riccardo helps teach him Italian and ‘rescues’ him from making a fool of himself at lessons, and they seem kind of inseparable. i think Riccardo is a few years older but I’m not sure how much.
Aaand then of course Anne uses that elaborate setup (Riccardo is really the only one of the boys she takes the time to make a distinct and familiar character) to make it THAT much more awful when he dies.
^I agree with all this. The healthiness of Marius/Amadeo vs. Riccardo/Amadeo (if that was a legit ship) is endlessly debatable.
Hit the jump, cut for length.
Re: your attachment to him, I’m noticing this more now with other obscure characters, too. There seems to be a tendency for fans to attach to characters like Riccardo who aren’t in canon as much as the major ones. I would suggest it’s because we don’t know as much about these characters, less has been written for them, and so they are available for our own projections, to some extent. If we do know their history (like Quinn) but their POV hasn’t been done as much as say, Lestat’s, maybe ppl want to know how they’re handling things that occurred outside whatever their own story was.
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
Following through the comments on my post, there is the idea that “le Russe” is an epithet, that it’s not what Armand goes by, but something Rhoshamandes calls him. It’s only mentioned once in the book, IIRC, by Rhosh. I’d believe that.
^Kitty by @berrym [X]
Anne APPARENTLY made up “le Russe” in PL. Which I had totally forgotten until I was reminded a little while ago. As far as obviously made up surnames go it’s even worse than de Romanus lol. ETA: I need to do a closeread before I speak lol, it sounds like that’s an epithet rather than a name.
SO LIKE I MEAN, the only part (to my recollection? plz correct me???) where it mentions “Armand Le Russe” is in a Rhosh chapter and that guy is such a salty fuckin tool and I got the impression that he was calling Armand that to be petty and sarcastic? Cause then she started listing the vampires at the end of the books and she still just refers to him as “Armand” without a last name.
“Only the clever ones like Gregory Duff Collingsworth and Armand Le Russe–who could thrive right in the midst of mortals–were undisturbed by the shrinking of the planet.”
YEP that’s what @laurasking pointed out to me too. That’s totally plausible. Also since Rhosh’s experience with Armand relates to coven era BS in Paris (idk if I’m even remembering this correctly but isn’t he pissed that allessandra ++ were forced into the covens) it might possibly be a thing left over from that era as well??
laurasking said: Well, Rhoshamandes calls him that, but no one else.
moral-cipher said: Laurasking – ohhh i forgot that. So it’s probably an epithet, possibly left over from the Bad Old Days. That makes a lot more sense. Thanks!
laurasking said: I thought fanon was that he assumed de Romanus.
@i-want-my-iwtv: ^Re: de Romanus, I assumed that was the name Armand used when he was with Marius, but after he was taken by the Children of Darkness, they changed his first name and I would assume he never used “de Romanus” again, either ;A;
Thanks to everyone who had discussion on this!
I-want-my-IWTV 