BRYAN FULLER WILL BE PRODUCING THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES TV SERIES!!!!!!! ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
Christopher posted this on the Facebook page of the Vampire Chronicles:
“Christopher here, with an exciting announcement about our show. Sometime in the 1980’s, a young teenager from Washington State, who dreamed of working in Hollywood one day, decided it was his destiny to write a film adaptation of a novel called INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE. So that teenager did what any resourceful, gifted and determined young person would do in such an instance; he got a copy of the San Francisco phone book and checked to see if the novel’s author had a listed phone number.
It turns out she did. To his astonishment, the author, my mother Anne Rice, answered the phone herself when he called, and when this young man declared his intentions to adapt her book for the big screen, she gave him the number of the producer in Hollywood who owned the rights. Naturally, the producer’s response was something along the lines of, “You’re too young, kid. Go hone your talent. Maybe someday.”
Today I’m thrilled to inform you that the young man of which I speak is Bryan Fuller, who grew up to be one of television’s most innovative creative forces, responsible for such an amazing array of shows as HANNIBAL, DEAD LIKE ME and PUSHING DAISIES. Even better, the opportunity he asked for all those years ago has finally arrived.
It’s our great pleasure to officially announce that Bryan has become a member of the creative family working to bring the story of the vampire Lestat to television. For a year now, my mother and I have had the joy of working with creative partners at Paramount Television and Anonymous Content who share our vision for a prestigious, long-form, high quality and high production value television series focusing on the journey of the immortal Lestat as he travels the lengths of the vampire world detailed in The Vampire Chronicles. Almost instantly after we sold the rights last April, we knew we were working with some of the finest producers television had to offer. And those producers knew that Bryan would be a perfect addition to our creative team.
For months now, we’ve been developing written material that focuses Lestat’s story for television while also delivering on the promises Mom made to her fans last year when she first announced her intentions for the show. We’re confident this material will garner more exciting announcements in the months ahead. But for now, please help us welcome this brilliant and wildly talented force to Team Vampire Chronicles.
If you’d like to hear Bryan tell the story of his fateful, teenage phone call to his favorite author, I’ve included a clip from his interview with The Dinner Party Show in the comments below. Bryan and I will be together tonight, along with our friend and fellow writer, Eric Shaw Quinn, at the Hollywood premiere of THE ALIENIST, another eagerly anticipated adaptation of a popular novel, and a show that we’re sure will demonstrate to all why Paramount and Anonymous are the perfect home for Lestat and all of his fledglings, fellow vampires and rivals.”
Sometime in the 1980’s, a young teenager from Washington State, who dreamed of working in Hollywood one day, decided it was his destiny to write a film adaptation of a novel called INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.
… To his astonishment, the author, my mother Anne Rice, answered the phone herself when he called, and when this young man declared his intentions to adapt her book for the big screen,
she gave him the number of the producer in Hollywood who owned the rights. Naturally, the producer’s response was something along the lines of, “You’re too young, kid. Go hone your talent. Maybe someday.” Today I’m thrilled to inform you that…the opportunity he asked for all those years ago has finally arrived.
SO!!! There was a VCTV livestream today with Anne AND Chris. This is for anyone who wants to watch, study, yell at, whatever! I’M barely 2 minutes in right now. Apparently Chris loves Riverdale sooooooooooo…take that as you will!
Thanks @miralain for dL’ing this! Here’s thelink to their FB posting of the vid,How much is Coke paying them for product placement? Hmmmm. How much does Brooks Bros. pay AR for product placement??? Hmmmmm???
It says they’ve optioned the rights to 11 of them, but, including Pandora, there’s 13 books. So which books are not included?
I think it’s IWTV*, Blackwood Farm, and Blood Canticle, maybe Merrick, bc AR has said her Mayfair/VC hybrid novels “haven’t worn well over time.” She’s even told ppl to ignore them when reading PL and PLROA. I bet she’ll at least touch on IWTV in flashbacks, but we know she loved movie!IWTV, and probably doesn’t want to try to reinvent the wheel on that one.
It could be that she’s not including PL and PLROA for now.
Does anyone have a statement from her re: which books aren’t included?
*Anne Rice previously noted that the series likely will not touch on the events of “Interview with a Vampire,” but will instead pick up with its sequel “The Vampire Lestat.” [X]
Full list:
The Vampire Chronicles Interview with the Vampire (1976) The Vampire Lestat (1985) The Queen of the Damned (1988) The Tale of the Body Thief (1992) Memnoch the Devil (1995) The Vampire Armand (1998) Merrick (2000) – arguably a Hybrid Mayfair/VC since one of the main characters is a Mayfair. Blood and Gold (2001) Blackwood Farm (2002) – Hybrid Mayfair/VC Blood Canticle (2003) – Hybrid Mayfair/VC
Prince Lestat (2014) Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016)
New Tales of the Vampires Pandora (1998) Vittorio the Vampire (1999) – he’s never been included as a VC vampire.
no she said that its going to start with the vampire lestat then move chronologically also that the vampire lestat will most likely be 2 seasons (she said possibly 3) and interview only being one season
(I didn’t watch the stream yet, I gotta do that)
@roselioncourt informed me that someone else owns the rights the the Mayfair books, which probably includes the hybrids.
Oh good, I really would love to see them address IWTV, we need a new Claudia!
… AND the 11 VC are all in the banner on their Official VC FB (OVCFB):
Interview with the Vampire (1976) The Vampire Lestat (1985) The Queen of the Damned (1988) The Tale of the Body Thief (1992) Memnoch the Devil (1995) The Vampire Armand (1998) Merrick (2000) – arguably a Hybrid Mayfair/VC since one of the main characters is a Mayfair. Blood and Gold (2001) Blackwood Farm (2002) – Hybrid Mayfair/VC Blood Canticle (2003) – Hybrid Mayfair/VC Prince Lestat (2014) Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016)
New Tales of the Vampires Pandora (1998) Vittorio the Vampire (1999) – he’s never been included as a VC vampire.
Anon’s right, Nicolas casting topic went out yesterday:
I had answered a Nicolas casting question a year ago and now I felt like doing it fresh, see if my answers change… I looked through some of the suggestions on the OVCFB page but I couldn’t make it through ALL of the comments and I really liked this comment, let’s choose an unknown actor!:
Anyway. Keep in mind beauty is in the eye of the beholder and so I saw quite a wide variety on the OVCFB page due to that. My own opinions reflect my own idea of beauty so yours may vary.
BUT FIRST, a brand-new misspelling of his name by a POTP bc reasons:
Nocholos…… Buenos Nocholos….. *eyeroll*
So in no special order (except I think Ezra Miller is my fave rn)
^Ezra Miller: Looks great in period costume, has perfect hair, has so much sass. I saw him in We Need to Talk About Kevin, I just think he is captivating, and cruel, and humorous, all the ingredients for a Nicolas de Lenfent ❤
^Ben Barnes is not currently my FAVE appearance-wise, I feel like he’s too… soft?…. but his acting boosts him up. He seems to be the front running POTP fave so I am betting AR will follow up with him.
^Benedict Samuel: I’ve only seen him recently in The Walking Dead, and you have to see him in that, bc he’s as sweet and tender and intense and depressive as Nicolas needs to be. Physically, these full lips and dark brooding eyes, the wide smile that’s almost manic and the frown that speaks to a deeper well of misery that no one can hope to touch. Am I praising him too much? PROBABLY BUT I DO WHAT I WANT. [I wax on poetic about him a little more here]
^Reeve Carney seems to be a HUGE POTP favorite. I hate his hair. HATE. THE MIDDLE. PART. AND. SO. FLAT. If they can give him a wig, then we might be in business.
^Alexander Vlahos well bc Versailles. He was mentioned a few times on the OVCFB so we may see some followup with him.
^Louis Garrel has been a Louis RPer’s face claim and he’s a Nicolas face claim currently for @bloodstrung. I see Garrel as more of a Louis, but I’d screentest him as Nicolas.
Hit the jump for more, cut for length.
^Jonas Kesseler is a model so idk if he’s too old now or if he can act, but visually, he is pretty close to my headcanon.
^I used to really love Gaspard Ulliel as Lestat but not so much anymore… also, the POTP have made me consider him for Nicolas and I think it could work! I like that he has the scar, too, and that could be explained in the show in some fun way like it was in Hannibal Rising.
^David Garrett, I feel like he’s too masculine, too mature of feature, but he is amazing on the violin so that could outweigh his physical appearance for me. @darknessmolten used him as a face claim.
^Landon Liboiron was a POTP suggestion, I am kinda digging him for reasons I can’t explain.
^Nicolas RPer @a-misunderstanding-my-love used model Michael Gandolfi, and idk if he still looks like this or if he can act, but I think he has some of the cruelty that you need for a good Nicolas.
Dude, since I don’t count movie!QOTD (yes I was excited about it when it was announced, and when it was filming, but then… not so into it when I saw it), I’ve been waiting since ‘94 for another adaptation, so I’m just sitting here like:
But every time AR posts about it, yeah, I still get at least a little excited bc I am easy to please and it’s difficult to disappoint me. CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC ALWAYS.
As far as I know, yes, the movie was cancelled. But AR has the rights to VC now and is developing just the TV series for now. She and Chris had written the script for a movie, so they still have that if they want to do a TV series leading into a movie. The X-Files was a TV series that had two movies and then went back to being a TV series much later.
[X] Anon, looking at her question, I really don’t think this shows a lack of care for her characters, it shows AR looking for intriguing ways to tell these stories and seeking feedback on her ideas.
Lestat did compare Nicki and Louis, and there are similarities and differences, I think AR was just curious about it as an idea… I’m sure this has been done in live theatre at some point, casting one actor for 2 (or more) roles in a given production. She did say she’d want a talented, versatile actor who could create each role distinctively.
But yeah, I personally would prefer they were separate actors rather than introduce the idea that Louis was merely Nicolas in disguise or something weird like that.*
Hey, at least she’s listening to the fandom! We have to give her credit for that. Not every idea is going to be a great one, and we’re fortunate that even when we shoot her down, she keeps brainstorming, unfazed by the negative reactions she might get *u* I think that shows enormous character on her part, especially considering how she USED to react to negative reactions or even moderately critical reviews of her work.
*
… I would, however, accept a Claudia who was played by the same actress who plays Lestat’s little sister (presumably a sister, the mysterious unnamed 8th de Lioncourt!) bc that could have super adorable and haunting potential!
FOR REAL?? My gut reaction is NO. Also Anne can you please spell it Nicolas w/o the H? Plz? *cries*
^This person makes a good point but… idk, Louis and Nicki are not the same. I feel like it would seem too much like “Louis” is trying to trick Lestat, a weird consideration I’d rather not have introduced.
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
(ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧
Re: the above, it’s a #Long post, so extra huge thanks to @firelight-fading for taking one for the team and not only watching the OVCFB livestream but gathering up all this info into such clean formatting for us! We salute you.
Anne Rice is starting off with a Q&A livestream on her page and then in half an hour (30 minutes) will do one regarding the new Vampire Chronicles tv series on that page.
I will be posting some of the questions and conversations here in a singularly reblogged feed (meaning it will start with one post and I will reblog that post with updates for everyone to see)
)
I-want-my-IWTV 