casting#lee soo hyuk#arjun (via @ i-want-my-iwtv ) I know Nikki was French, and very little of Asia/Russia was interacting with France in the time when Nikki’s family would have been established, so odds of him looking like this are slim to say the least, but look at that face and tell me that wise-sad expression isn’t Nikki.
It is very hard to disagree with such a compelling argument… I’d screentest him! I would bet that many narrow-minded ppl would strenuously object, but I’ve resigned myself to the fact that there is no pleasing EVERYONE. I’d rather have a great actor than someone who just “looked” right, but that’s just my own preference. But then again, there are some actors who are too far from my headcanon for me to be very supportive of them so I’m a little bit of a hypocrite on that, I admit it… I declare: “Don’t be so judgmental/superficial!” 1 second later: *acts judgmental/superficial*
It might be a fun challenge to do a casting w/ all the races changed. I have a #raceswapped tag but it’s pretty barren atm. Anyone is welcome to reblog this and make suggestions, and include pics!
It’s not my fave VC, but not my least fave VC, either. It’s growing on me.
As I answered in a recent Ask re: Merrick, idk, I would always advocate reading the books, as cracky as some of them can be, bc there are always moments that are really great! Single lines worth digging up, some phrasing that hits you #Right in the Feels. Don’t you want to know what happens? You don’t have to agree with it but the ride is always at the very least stimulating… you can always just skim it for plot points if reading it is too much of an investment.
As to whether it’s “just plain awful”? I wouldn’t agree w/ that, bc there are some gems in it that you can’t get anywhere else. At the risk of being redundant, my short answer: I think AR can still capture that old quality we all fell in love with, albeit in slivers. Which is why I can’t disregard any of the books entirely. It’s still hard for me to accept Prince Lestat as canon, I might never, but there are moments and lines of dialogue in it that are SO VERY GOOD. Moments where I’ve had to pause and smile, because it was as if the old Lestat, from IWTV or TVL, actually graced us with his presence, if only for a moment.
… Also I admit I very much dig Lestat’s new accessory ;D
It also has some worthwhile development re: the spirit that basically created vampires in the first place.
who uses Jordan Sörbom as a FC), @antoineandthepiano, and @roselioncourt, all of whom RP new characters from PL (technically Antoine was in IWTV but he has a larger presence in PL so I count him as new) and care way more about them than I am capable of currently.
I didn’t find many of the new characters very engaging, I would bet we’ll get more depth on them in later books, and/or they were created for what I like to call “canon-fodder” so that AR has a bunch of chars to kill in the next book(s), since she can’t kill the core group we all love so much! She tried to kill a few of them and had to bring them back ;]
Spoilers and probably unpopular opinions re: Viktor under the cut. And really I prefer not to make unpopular opinions but sometimes I gotta.
I find Viktor to be a kind of watered-down Twilight knockoff. He seemed to be an answer for all the POTP who had pestered AR for years to give Lestat a biological son… and the romance between him and Rose came off as pretty forced to me, again, a YA couple like in Twilight for fanservice. Not that YA can’t be well done, just that I didn’t really buy AR’s stab at it. Other ppl may have and they are welcome to ship their hearts out!
It could be wrong in EVERY possible way. *hugs* It will definitely be wrong in SOME WAY to SOMEONE bc we all have different headcanons.
BUT, that said, and having cuddled you warmly, it’s just a movie! Your headcanons are yours and you can retreat into fanfic 😉 That’s what I did re: movie!QOTD which I have like 12% care for (and most of that goes to Aaliyah).
Just bc the cover of the script had “Interview with the Vampire” as the title for this project, that doesn’t mean he’s redoing that movie.
It’s possible that Josh Boone & Co. don’t want people to confuse this project with the musical!TVL. And IWTV is the more recognizable title to sell it on. They intend to make a trilogy and spinoff series, and in order to do that, they need to at least include some of the first book.
I think @firelight-fading put it really well in their post here, which I will quote some lines from, (I bolded a few things for emphasis):
I think everyone needs to keep in mind that everyone doesn’t share a collective mind- everyone read these books individually so everyone is going to have a different opinion on how certain plot events happened and how certain characters look. Boone is one of those people and he’s the one in control of how this film will look and develop…
#Your headcanon may vary😉
On that note, just because a new film is coming out doesn’t mean that the values of past productions, like the IWTV movie with Tom Cruise, decrease. You can still enjoy it. You can still view Tom Cruise as the “perfect” Lestat. You can still choose to ignore the new film. What the new film does mean for the fandom is possible growth. Old loves for the books series will be rekindled and people will hopefully return. New fans will emerge who enjoy the film or are curious about the books. Considering Rice has lessened her hold on fanfiction restriction, that means more fanworks will possibly be generated. Lots of good things on the way even if the film is a flop.
So all in all, stay positive, go see the film to support Rice and the series if anything and if you don’t like it then it’s a done deal and you can fall back on other VC-related works. We’ll get through this irregardless.
Ok but lookit how hashtag aesthetic this WIP photo is
This is like the visual representation of an unfinished fanfic. You can see that it’s inspired by the original, which was the original artist’s interpretation of the depicted subject. The original artist made editorial choices in how to represent their subject, and this second artist is interpreting the interpretation with their own editing.
It’s a great way to climb into the mind of the original artist, absorbing some of their ideas, rejecting others, and an exercise in one’s own craft in that process.
“I imagine in this moment Louis thinking “It’s not how I imagined to met my mother in law” xDD “
Some things Lestat learned from Gabrielle were good, tho, like giving really thoughtful gifts at the right time. Actually he gives gifts far more often and extravagantly than she ever could bc he became richer than she had been and also he came to associate materialism w/ ownership and love, and that giving someone things could possibly *~buy their affection~*. 60% of the time, it works all the time 😉
Gabrielle was not the worst parent. She was possibly a very introverted person further pushed into herself bc she was focused on surviving the situation she was put in. Locked in a loveless marriage in a freezing castle in the middle of nowhere. She’d lost 5 of her children, and by the time Lestat came around, I’m not surprised she didn’t give him much affection; she probably couldn’t bring herself to invest in him emotionally when the odds were so high that he would never live to adulthood ;A;
HOWEVER, on the good parenting side:
she defended him against his father and brothers,
she supported him going to school at the nearby monastery to get literate and have a better environment “with people who
believed I could be good if I wanted to be.” ;A;
she gave over her precious family heirlooms to buy him the dogs, mare, and gun that would take his hunting skillz to the next level,
which led to his ultimate triumph over the wolves…
she encouraged him to run away to Paris,
and then stayed with him for a good decade exploring the world, before she finally went off on her own.
Idk if I agree that she treated him SO badly, though she could have shown kid!Lestat a little more affection, he was starved for it. I think she did the best she could given her own personality and their environment.
Was it an accident or kismet that Lestat found Louis randomly in a tavern in a sketchy neighborhood in NOLA?
Lestat went there for normal reasons: hunting evildoers as per usual, but it was NOLA bc he was looking for a fresh start in the New World. And Louis was there for also fairly normal – if not kind of upsetting – reasons, too: looking for someone to put him out of his misery, basically.
I would say it was kismet: Lestat was created for Louis, he was originally intended to serve as Louis’ maker, since we are introduced to him that way in the first book. Even Anne Rice didn’t anticipate that Lestat would essentially take the driver’s seat and create the rest of the series.
But it’s important to remember that, because he wouldn’t exist at all without Louis, in the fictional sense, and I think that’s part of what makes him so loyal to Louis in an ongoing way throughout the series. Louis’ rebelliousness as a fledgling and then the precarious but loving peace they shared for decades sets Lestat up for the pining for him forever after, and it’s only recently in the series that it feels like they are explicitly more in mutual love and awe of eachother than ever before.
If we look at it from Lestat’s perspective, which begins before Louis’ story chronologically, that relationship was a huge turning point for him. He lived out that lifetime that Marius told him to do, and for the most part, it was very good for all of them as long as it lasted. Lestat was the provider again, but this time, it was for a family who actually loved him, who he could love back ❤
^So of course I really love this fanart bc I COMMISSIONED IT, I asked for this composition, w/ Lestat in between Louis and his “dinner.” It’s actually based on an iconic moment in Dirty Dancing but anyway… Lestat had alot to teach Louis, and at least in this moment, he was saying, “I’ll bear the moral burden of killing tonight, it’s more important that you get what you need, so you can take it from me… rather than have /junk food/… but we’re not doing this EVERY night…” Also, he likes it when it’s HIS bodice being ripped open by Louis, for a change of pace!
They’ve also been through alot of canon events, terrible betrayals of eachother, generous forgiveness… so much feels. Which is why I can’t throw out entire books, there’s something worth saving in even the most difficult books to accept.
They say that your relationship with someone is established within the first 5 minutes of being with them, and I think those mutual feelings of friction and awe and attraction between them, added to the decades they shared as murder dads, and the other canon things they’ve survived, it’s all added up to keep them tied together, inexplicably. I think they’ve encouraged each other to be better versions of themselves, for the most part.
Hit the jump for moar thoughts.
In the universe of the books themselves, to elaborate a little: both Louis and Lestat were in a bad place when they found eachother. Lestat had a pretty rough first decade as a vampire, had already made and lost two fledglings. He lost them for different reasons but it still had to hurt. He had successfully gotten kicked out of Marius’ house for his usual bad behavior. Paris was no longer that great of a place for him. He had his blind old dad to deal with.
Louis was almost worse off, a lifetime spent as the man of the house, vigorously trying to kill himself by drinking all night and picking fights w/ whoever would fight him, feeling like a huge failure in the eyes of his family for the death of his younger brother.
So when they met and fell for eachother, it was intense, because they filled a void for eachother. Lestat wanted that companion that he thought Louis could be if he worked the magic on him, and Louis was overwhelmed by the attention of this supernatural creature, not just that he was a vampire (which would have been enough on its own!) but that he was LESTAT, with all that bravado and charm.
Add to that that they were both pretty awful to eachother, too, the friction actually adding to their mutual attraction in a way; Louis felt that vampiring was a great way to damn himself (tho he does admit he appreciated the heightened senses), and Lestat had found someone to question his authority ALL THE DAMN TIME.
It’s a very good ship from all angles, as dysfunctional as they both are.
Y’know, I’ve seen him in the MCU movies and not a lot else, so when I googled him I was pleasantly surprised to find the gifs below.
But before we get to Stan, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so if he works for you, that’s totes fine!
For meeeee, however… I’m not sure about him playing Louis bc my heart is pretty set on someone I would consider more sinewy, like Miles McMillan (BTW he paints, sometimes does amazing self-portraits! Check out @fuckyeahmilesmcmillan, there are nude pics of him there, too *u*), someone w/ a more narrow face shape w/ these defined cheekbones that are almost feminine:
^Lestat forced him to replace his decaying sweater w/ a jacket to go out but couldn’t get him to put on a t-shirt first.
Whoever they cast as Louis should bear some resemblance to whoever they cast as Nicolas, bc they are described as being similar in appearance (and attitude to some extent!), but I would imagine Louis as being slimmer and more delicate-looking, since he was in pretty bad physical shape when Lestat found him, a combination of malnourishment and excessive alcohol and picking fights w/ whoever would fight him ;A;
^Plus, his sass is a more gentlemanly brand, he has a dignified way of shooting Lestat down.
Stan is built more sturdy, his facial structure is a little wider, seems more like Nicolas in my mind. And I think he’s played non-straight characters before so I think he’d be willing to do that here, too ^_______^
Difficulty: I bet he is SO FRICKIN EXPENSIVE NOW like damn! ANYWAY LETS FANTASIZE…
^Late night drinking w/ Lestat in the tavern.
^When his mood has been significantly improved and he’s like, “Let me show you some new fingering I worked out…”
Re: *~Tom Cruise in Rock of Ages = Mortal Brunette Tattooed Lestat AU~* of course I agree w/ u completely. When the trailers came out you could have almost heard the collective squeeing of most of the VC fandom.
His singing was actually quite good, according to IMDB he rehearsed for five hours every day to get his voice ready for his rock performances. IMDB doesn’t say so but I think he actually did get to meet with rock stars and learn from the best re: stage presence. I think he nailed it!
More than just the look, the stage presence, the singing, and the dancing, which is already alot! was the depth that Tom brought to the role. He’s an aging rockstar, but dissatisfied with everything that money can buy. He has all this cheap affection thrown at him and he goes through the motions with his groupies but he lacks any real connections with anyone. He’s only really alive on stage. Somewhat dead inside and he knows it, so he drinks to try to kill those feelings (very Louis-esque).
Jaxx is totally self-aware under the performance, performing all the time. Ppl expect him to be bad, so he acts like it. He’s still there inside the shell, though. It’s all very Lestatuesque and the reason I didn’t add it to my recent VC-Adjacent movie & book rec list is bc I limited myself to non-TC movies as a challenge and he’s gonna have his own list here when I get around to it!
He definitely poledances for Louis like c’mon. #headcanon accepted.
^And he sometimes pretends to be very bad at it at first but he’s actually extraordinary and has his audience drooling whenever he wants!
Tom may be too old to play Lestat again physically but he can still be hired as the Lestatuesque coach, which was sorely needed in movie!QOTD. Could have vastly improved that movie. OR he could play the Marquis de Lioncourt, Lestat’s father!
… or he could do the voice in an animated adaptation you can pry that wish from my cold dead hands.
Merci beaucoup, glad you like this thing! You want more?
You do, I see >:}
I’d agree w/ you about Jack Frost, he’s forced into his immortal status by accident, too, and he’s orphaned and has to figure out what to do w/ himself, too. Jack and Lestat are definitely both
cheeky undead optimists! And yes, OLLA and What We Do in the Shadows are fantastic, that’s for sure! Those movies were very much the VC movie we had been waiting for, with different facets of VC-adjacentness. OLLA more for the aesthetic and WWDITS more for the comedy.
I don’t think that any ONE movie or book (or book series) has all the ingredients that make up that unique VC flavor but there are many that are adjacent. I knew this was going to end up being a masterpost, that’s why it took so long. Also I restrained myself from any Tom Cruise movies. He should have his own masterpost ;D
*cracks knuckles* Okayyy… SO,
VC-Adjacent is more doable than Lestatuesque, bc everyone’s headcanon of Lestat varies and we all know how attached I am to Tom Cruise So I’ll give you one Lestatuesque rec and the rest are VC-Adjacent.
Lestatuesque:
Blade Runner (1982) – this movie is mentioned in canon (QOTD). AR had wanted to cast Rutger Hauer as Lestat. But he was too old when they finally got IWTV into production D: so watch this and see her vision for Lestat.
Over and over [Armand] watched Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, fascinated by Rutger Hauer, the powerfully built actor who, as the leader of the rebel androids, confronts his human maker, kisses him, and then crushes his skull. It would bring a slow and almost impish laugh from Armand, the bones cracking, the look in Hauer’s ice-cold blue eye.
“That’s your friend, Lestat, there,” Armand whispered once to Daniel. “Lestat would have the… how do you say?… guts?… to do that!”
In no particular order*
(and @annabellioncourt helped me out here, so wherever there’s an *, those are her recs that I agreed with)(and there are other movies I love obviously, but I tried to limit this list to VC-Adjacent only; and I couldn’t think of any of my fave books that come close enough to fit in here).
Vampire movies:
*Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) – Well this goes w/o saying, and it also shared movie!IWTV’s Michele Burke as head of the makeup dept ;D
The Lost Boys (1987) – @skeletalroses is kind of my authority on this one, and >>>this movie is cited as a major inspiration for WWDITS.<<<
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)- Including it on here bc of reasons, this is a very classy documentary of several vampires flatting together in New Zealand as a big coven ball approaches.
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) – Including it on here bc of reasons, this is a very classy film of several vampires visiting together in Detroit, Michigan, and Tangiers, Morocco, as the world is slowly taken over by the “zombies” (not actual ones, metaphoric ones). And there are alot of parallels between the married couple and Claudia Ava, who is thirsty all the time and above the law bc of course she is.
Shadow of the Vampire (2000) – It’s a behind-the-scenes fanfic of the filming of the legendary Nosferatu! Mostly horror w/ a dash of comedy. Bonus: Eddie Izzard.
Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) – Yeah I love Leslie Nielsen, fight me. It’s a Dracula parody. This will never not be funny.
Jennifer’s Body (2009) – well she’s not really a vampire but she eats ppl, so close enough. I love the dynamic between Jennifer and her best friend, how you’re not sure whether Jennifer wants to bring her into this, or just terrify her, but there is something kind of Akasha-esque about this creature.
Let the Right One In (2008) – the original is better than the US remake (Let Me In, 2010) but they’re both worth watching. Child vampire! Choosing a new BFF! She has to respect the Being Invited In Rule, tho.
The Little Vampire (2000) – a cuter child vampire, w/o much of the angst of being a child vampire, overall super cute and I had to include this bc of Jack Frost.
Other Horror movies/shows:
*Crimson Peak (2015) –@annabellioncourt says: “would be a fair addition because of the atmosphere of it as well as its campy factor”
The Walking Dead (2010-current) – my new drug, group dynamics, fighting for supremacy, survival, romance, killing!
Sweeney Todd (2007) – It’s pretty goth, it has some comedy, it has murder, it has ppl pining for each other. Also, a musical. My fave is the whole By the Sea song sequence bc Helena is trying so hard!
The Witches of Eastwick (1987) – Jack Nicholson is the devil and wants to make his own harem of 3 powerful witches what could possibly go wrong? There is a hilariously awful scene in a church. Jack approaches Lestatuesque levels of charm as he courts these women, and then there’s supernatural stuff going on.
The Addams Family (1991) – Gomez and Morticia have the kind of ship Lestat would kill for. He would probably dig their aesthetic to some extent, too. Also murderous kids, who are encouraged to be murderous. ONE HAPPY FAMILY.
Black Swan (2010) – something about this, maybe the aesthetic, feels very Theatre Des Vampires.
Beetlejuice (1988) – Alec Baldwin! Looked like this once upon a time! But mostly, ppl dealing with being dead and not having a very helpful ghost w/ the most trying to help them. When it works for him.
Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – campy, musical, murdery, I still don’t really know what it all really means but it’s fun. Dr. F can be compared to Lestat, in that he’s lusty, charming, glamorous, materialistic, bossy as hell, has a real mean streak, tries to make the perfect lover for himself and fails at it over and over… an essay could be written comparing them. @laurasking is my authority on RHPS.
Other movies/shows:
Phenomenon (1996) – Telekinesis and someone dealing w/ acquiring it, and how his community treats him bc of it. THIS IS CUTE so like, yeah, much further away, I almost didn’t include it. Gonna lose my reputation over this rec OH WELL it’s your fault, Anon, bc Jack Frost.
Anime – recc’d by my best friend:
Vampire Princess Miyu – “similar atmosphere"
Witch Hunter Robin – “quite gothic”
Otogizoushi – “very atmospheric"
Annbellioncourt’s Recs bc she is classier than me:
Byzantium (2012) – Neil Jordan’s first vampire movie since IWTV
Wolfman (2010) – “its cheesey, but its atmospheric, spooky, and bloody”
The Hunger (1983) – “is one I always suggest to people wanting more”
The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories – Angela Carter
(Answering as myself, I wouldn’t want to diminish the reality of this in the slightest by responding w/ a fictional character)
What happened in Orlando, the massacre and maiming of innocent people was horrible and tragic. I won’t post a pic of Lestat going “WTF” bc it is too awful for a simple “WTF,” there is no “WTF” statement powerful enough.
This is the program: supporting our LGBT+ community as equals. Anyone who refuses to get with the program is invited to leave the country. Murder is not the answer and it won’t stop the evolution.
[Flag by @fulifuli, plz reblog it from them if u like it!]
I’ve seen a number of great links/posts about this
(though I don’t know about their factual accuracy), here are a few, collecting them here, rather than reblogging each one bc this is still primarily a fandom blog.
“If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the ‘60s, that’s a problem. Peace and love are eternal.” – John Lennon
One of the reasons I try to keep this blog focused on fandom is to provide an escape from reality; one of the ways to cope with tragedy is to visit fiction, and feel recharged enough to come back and face reality freshly. Some people are strong enough to fight that fight without needing a break from it, and I applaud them for that durability.
No matter what you contribute, even if it’s in a small way, sending prayers or kind thoughts, donating blood or money or time, cheering someone up; or on a larger social scale, organizing groups of people to work on gun control legislation and try to make this a safer and more peaceful world to live in, it’s all cumulative and it all matters. I do my little part. I don’t have enough money to give significantly but I reach out when I can. I’m an ordained priest, I would love to exercise that power for the LGBT+ community!
I’m numb from this happening again and again and again, but I think the world is evolving, day by day, and year by year. I’ve witnessed homophobia decrease dramatically in the past 20 years, from the word “gay” being something you could barely whisper about to it being part of a larger community in which huge groups of people have parades! In high school, my friend came out to me first, when we were both 15, it was before school started up again. She said she understood if I didn’t want to be friends with her anymore since it could mean losing all the others, but I didn’t hesitate to tell her I would stay with her. I did lose other friends but they weren’t people I would want in my life anymore, knowing that they were homophobic. And I feel the same way about it today, more than ever.
I-want-my-IWTV 