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Today, Anne Rice had two livestreams on Facebook, the first as a general Q&A and the second specifically related to the Vampire Chronicles television show. Part way through the second livestream, the video glitched and I missed a minute or two, but overall this is what I had.

I’ve divided the information into 3 sections and highlighted the most important or interesting things she mentioned in my opinion):

Anne Herself

• Anne wants to assure fans she is the ONLY one who answers and sees emails sent by fans. She tries hard to view all of them
• She also reassures that shes been trying to read as many comments given on Facebook as possible and to consider them
• In her writing process, she can’t do all-nighters anymore; her books about Christ were the last time she really did this
• She
  loves how people in New Orleans love life and celebrate it. She misses
  New Orleans terribly. She notes, “Lifestyles [down there] are inherited and have a
  beauty”
• She reads more non-fiction than fiction and constantly
  takes notes from them, especially about archeology (which she loves:
  “It’s like eating ice cream for me! I love it so much”)
• She
  says she no longer identifies as a Christian, but still has a love for
  Jesus and what he has done for her, such as helping her solve problems and beyond that
• She has some new announcement coming soon not concerning the vampires
• She feels this is the age of the nerd where
  readers’ opinions are most important. Says she has always taken us the readers seriously and wants us to feel appreciated. She appreciates our
  power and what we have done for the series.

The Books and The Characters

• *spoiler* There is NO certainty Mona and Quinn are dead. This is just what Lestat believes.
• She went through the pronunciations of characters’ names
• Marius is pronounced like Marius in Les Miserables
• Mekare is May-care-ee, but thinks other pronunciations are beautiful too
• (And I think as a fandom we’ve come to agreements on everyone else’s names. She went by the names fast!)
• Anne says she sums up the story of the chronicles as “how badly Lestat wants to be the hero of his own life”
• She appreciates fans pointing out mistakes in her writing since she wants to be as accurate as possible, especially when it comes to history/time periods
• When
  asked about the taste of blood/how it functions, Anne says blood is
  like every kind of drug- it’s sex, alcohol, drugs, everything
• She
  writes a TON of notes since she occasionally forgets when/how certain
  things are mentioned, such as how the Savage Garden was introduced in
  the novel (which she no knows as something that occurred during Our Conversation with Nicolas and Lestat)
• The name “Talamasca” came from a book on old witchcraft she found
• Lestat’s
  name was a “blunder” rather than a “eureka” moment. His name was NOT
  based on her husband Stan intentionally. She was trying to look up old
  french names.
• The transformation process of human to vampire (after getting the Dark Gift) is a little slower than how the IWTV film portrayed, but close in Anne’s mind (she truly appreciated how the film went above to stay close to her own visions and her work)
• During his time with Louis and Claudia, Lestat attempted to give answers
  that would “keep them alive” rather than actual answers, knowing that he
  couldn’t reveal what he knew due to what Marius had told him (essentially, not just answers that he thought would satisfy them but that he thought would carry them on by themselves…which worked in my opinion)
• There were several questions
  about Gabrielle and Becket commented about how Gabrielle is a fan favorite before he introduced the questions:
• Anne says Gabrielle is cold, but admits that she loves Lestat yet at the same time doesn’t need him.
• She does not see Gabrielle as
  autistic (she laughed at this question which really irked me )
• She will not write about a memoir from Gabrielle’s point of view since
  she wants Lestat to stay the focus of “the tribe” and she’s done with
  writing those sort of side books.
• Lestat’s main concern right now is “keeping the tribe together”
• She wants to continue with exploring some of the newer characters, Fareed and Seth were mentioned as a part of this.
• Anne
  has an “ambivalence” towards Louis and she loves him since he
  represents an old part of her, but this is also the same reason she has
  trouble going back and writing for him, because she feels she is now a different person
• She
  appreciates that there is no “real” consensus on what is the best/worst
  of her books amongst the fans (though Memnoch was her first example for
  worse soooo 😏)
• In some ways, how Amel speaks to Lestat is a metaphor for how Lestat speaks to Anne.

The Television Show

(Casting)

• Armand will NOT be played by someone around 14, because of the long filming process and how it will age the actor. She acknowledges fans want someone young for Armand but feels it
  will be too difficult to use (um, hello Anne, CGI??)

• She thinks Cate Blanchett would be a wonderful pick for Gabrielle.
• Says
  the looks are most important for Lestat, Louis just has to be beautiful
  (lol)
• She really cares about the appearances of the cast and their availability to do about 5-6 years of filming

(Chronology and Production)

• She
  thinks she will not go through network tv, so the home to the show would be Amazon,
  Hulu or Netflix.
• She feels the show won’t be as violent as Game of Thrones but wants that
  integrity and style, and that “authenticity” to the books that Game of Thrones has (So for the rating,
  I’m guessing she feels around M?)
• Anne wants to be true to the books and what the fans want to see (in regards to characters and plot points)
• She appreciated
  the commitment of the team for the IWTV film and wants to keep up to that standard. She does not want unreasonable changes and compromises
• Chronologically, she wants to begin with TVL with Lestat as a young man.
• Feels around the 2nd/3rd season is where IWTV would start
• The books are long, so it will not be a one season / one book situation.
• It
  will begin chronologically, so it won’t be Lestat reading IWTV and THEN
  starting with his story as a response, it will start in France as the
  events happen (I was hoping it would be the former…)
  
• No Mayfair witches in the show
• Characters who are introduced later, but existed chronologically earlier like Benedick and Magnus, will be put earlier in
  the show
• The Talamasca will be heavily involved “eventually” in
  the series, possibly earlier on. Related to this, she wants to tell the
  history of her vampires and those entities.
• She
  wants to definitely (so badly) cover the scene where Lestat is being
  turned “stage by stage…” meaning him being in the tower and having
  realizations about his strength after drinking the blood. Also, how he
  turns Gabrielle (possibly wants to have a young actress to play
  Gabrielle and have her human age appear through makeup so the transformation will be more dramatic)
• Louis’ story WILL be told, but the show will be mostly from Lestat’s POV
• Anne hopes the show will go into production before the end of this year. Around 2018
  is when it would come out
• Anne and Chris have had a lot of interested companies already looking into
  developing the project (but she doesn’t want to reveal who is talking to them since it “wouldn’t be fair”)
• She isn’t sure if the show will break the 4th
  wall. She acknowledges that Lestat does it in the books, but she feels
  she would have to stick with it for the entirety of the show and that
  would be difficult (so it sounds like mostly a “no” but she’s considering it)
• Christopher
  and her are currently outlining around 5 seasons (estimated) for the TV
  series. They are also writing drafts for the first 4 episodes

Clarifying a few notes for everyone since they were brought to my attention:

Casting Armand: Anne said she wanted to do this chronologically as the events happened in the books, not as the order the books come in. When we are first introduced to Armand, yes, he is 17, but his story in The Vampire Armand begins when he is 14/15 (when he is kidnapped and before he meets Marius). She mentioned something about the later half of the first season or the second season being dedicated to Marius telling his tale to Lestat and the history of the vampires, so, based off her suggestions, it was implied TVA would also be a part of this (maybe expanding a viewer perspective to outside of what he tells Lestat)…
Or maybe she totally forgot his age, but she said “14” in the stream, so that is what I wrote down.

The lengths of the seasons going along with the books: Anne said it would depend on how many episodes there would be per season. I guess she’s thinking of shorter lengths of episodes and seasons to focus solely on certain plot points? It’s a bit odd. I think one book = one season could definitely be do-able, however…

I think with the production quality she wants in the amount of time she wants it, I think her goals are unrealistic. I have other thoughts about what she said, but I will keep them to myself unless asked. That being said, if anyone has questions or concerns, feel free to send me an ask and let me know

Also adding, from @firelight-fading, just so it’s all on one post:

Here is the Youtube video of the first Q&A

Here is the Youtube video of the second Q&A, specifically related to the television series

If there is anything I missed in my highlights post in regards to these two videos that you would like to bring up / discuss, feel free to mention it in a reblog or in the comments section.

Thanks ~