IKR?! Part of what sets VC above other vampire series for me is that it’s got so much comedy -intentional and unintentional- and so much suffering, too. All mixed in together.
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.
Since the @vcsecretgifts Holiday ‘16 exchange was so fruitful, I thought I’d ask if there was any interest in a Spring ‘17 exchange… you want in?
We would likely have the due date be between late-April to mid-May, and the theme would be Spring or “Maker’s Day” (a sort of vampiry mother/father’s day, hmm?).
Times like these call for more fanworks ❤ I consider it a brief bit of relief for those who go out and fight the good fights, whether that’s in your own lives, or for society as a whole, and everything else!
(*There is only one Holiday ‘16 gift outstanding, substitute gift is in the works… but next time around we will allow more time to make the gifts and we will have substitute gifters lined up earlier, too.)
A little breakdown of this scene, re: why I loved Tom’s Lestat so much in this scene, since we’re talking about it.
^Claudia leads him in, and he’s so trusting. When he sees the boys there, he is not immediately very pleased. He actually looks a little disappointed. The house rule is not to bring victims into the house, and she brought them in, is he going to have to lay down the law again? Bad timing for it, since he’s trying to make peace with her.
She glances up at him to gauge his reaction but looks away before he can meet her gaze. She’s thrilled with what she’s about to do and doesn’t want him derailing her from her mission.
^I use this gif a lot for “such feels,” but there’s really more going on here, and not necessarily happiness. She’s told him that the boys are the gift to him. He starts w/ a facepalm, bc, hey, Lestat would actually rather not kill children.* He tries to go for adult evildoers. It’s clearer in TVL than in movie!IWTV, but he does tell Louis in an earlier scene, “Evildoers are easier, and they taste better.”**
Lestat is also very guarded in his body language here, all closed off w/ his arms across his chest (we don’t usually see him this closed off in the movie). When he shows his face, he’s not smiling at first, bc, this wasn’t really the kind of truce he would have wanted. But then he rallies, shakes his head a little bit, and tries to smile, probably tells himself inwardly, “She did this for me, she has good intentions…”
^”Well, you certainly have… outdone yourself,” he says. He’s struggling to compliment her, that hesitation could have led to a criticism. Trying to convince himself that this is a peace offering and to reign in his usual edgy sense of humor. The main rule in their home was always “Never [kill] in the house” and she wants him to share this kill. In. The. House. A rule she’s broken countless times. He’s still guarded, still has his arms up protectively.
The smile fails as he looks over the boys like he’s looking at something unappetizing at a buffet. For me, that would be the wilted salad area.
^There’s a full second pause as he looks at her bc he’s still struggling to believe it was all this easy. Then he asks: “We forgive each other, then?” This is Lestat without any of his bravado, no games, not asking as her maker, just as someone who loves her and wants her love, too. This is the Lestat who spent most of his childhood unloved or beaten down for trying to find a place where ppl would love him ;A;
^There’s almost a full second pause as she looks at him – bc she doesn’t really forgive him – and then says: “Yes” She’s lying right to his face, so evil! If you cover her mouth, her eyebrows don’t change at all with that smile. But there is still a chance to abandon her plan if she wants to.
^Having secured the peace, putting his trust in her about this gift being OK to consume, he has this little sigh of relief; his usual confidence comes back in, you can see a hint of a smile as he turns away.
(This victim is one of the moments in the film that really pushed the envelope for its time, when Lestat bites into the child. It’s actually a lot less homoerotic/pedophilic than in the book, where he gets his hands wrapped up in the kid’s shirt. Unlike when he bites adults and we see his face, here, we see him from behind. It makes it less sexual, he didn’t choose this victim, it’s seems like it’s more about the consumption.)
^Anyway… he thinks she spiked their blood with absinthe bc he immediately feels drugged/drunk from it.
She tells him it’s laudanum, and he repeats that word, has he heard of it before? Probably not, bc she tells him what it does.
So right up until the moment she explicitly lays it out for him, he still believes they’ve reconciled, and even that she flavored the blood for him as an extra consideration! It’s a very painful betrayal, specifically bc he wanted to believe her SO BADLY that he ignored all the red flags ;A;
You could say he deserved this betrayal, but I think this scene is part of what makes Tom’s Lestat so very good. Even as he’s led into getting his punishment, you still feel sorry for him, it’s hard to hate a monster when he’s being this trusting and gentle and really wanting to well… not be a monster.
I recognize that this is a social media site so you are welcome to reblog and comment and engage on this, but please do so respectfully, and keep in mind that #your headcanon may vary, and we are all entitled to our own interpretations/opinions about canon, and about movie!IWTV.
(Asterisked notes under the cut.)
* It’s implied that Lestat and Claudia finished off whole families together in an earlier scene in the film, including children, but we’ve only seen him kill adults on screen up to this point. In the book, it’s Claudia who insists on killing families (her own, IIRC), and she kills a mother and daughter who worked domestically in the flat for Louis and Lestat. Lestat rarely kills children in the books, typically it’s only in moments of extreme emotional weakness.Tom would have known this, bc he read books 1-4.
**
“Evildoers are easier, and they taste better.” – This is what Lestat tells Louis to try to get him to acclimate to the idea that killing is okay, and in fact, some ppl need to be killed anyway, to protect the general population (like Lestat killing the wolves to save the villagers back in the Auvergne). But in the books it’s implied that innocent blood tastes better, which makes it harder to resist. “…these victims had been taken in the perfect semblance of love. The very blood seemed warmer with their innocence, richer with their goodness.” (TVL)
I might do more of these if you’re interested, but they do take a long time to put together. We’ll see…
(2/2) so cruel because she KNEW being really kind to him for once would make him the most vulnerable so she could kill him. And if that’s not evil I don’t know what is.
It’s one of the best scenes in the movie! And one of the most heartbreaking ;A;
“When Claudia starts her assassination plot by bringing him a human gift, Cruise’s eyes show Lestat’s surprise that someone has finally done something nice for him for the first time in the film…
In that moment, we realize that while Lestat is capable of love, he’s never been loved back.” – Amy Nicholson, Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor
You are preaching to the choir re: Tom’s Lestat 😉 He may not have LOOKED 100% like Lestat but I thought his performance really captured the essence of the character. I think Kirsten took a lot of her acting cues from his Lestat, too. They were so well-matched that it was easy to believe that they were “father” and “daughter”; she seemed like a little girl version of him, inheriting more of his cruelty than his kindness, but definitely taking on both ❤
She really did lead him to believe that they had forgiven each other, and doing that one nice thing for him, to a person as starved for affection as he was… she knew it would kindle his hope for reconciliation, she KNEW that would make him the most vulnerable and YES that is pretty elite evil *cries*
B-but… I mean… Didn’t nicki and Gabrielle love him? At least when they were mortals???
Lestat wanted the kind of love he had gotten from Nicki and Gabrielle, yes! He was starved for affection from those he loved, and I think that led to a lot of the frustration he had in the IWTV-era in the book and the movie.
Amy Nicholson is referring to movie!IWTV only. No one who Lestat loved had really done anything nice for him before that point in the film ;A;
^Even here, you can see that Lestat is really apologetic for taunting Claudia just moments before; he really wants peace in their home, he really wants her love. This is one of the few times in the film we see anyone he loves touch or embrace him.
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.
^Perfect disingenuous apology, very Claudia.
Hit the jump for more thoughts, cut for length.
IIRC, there was alot of difficulty finding a 5 yo talented enough to play Claudia in movie!IWTV. Kirsten Dunst was the first they auditioned of one hundred actresses, varying in amount of experience, from around ages 5-12. The 5 yr olds struggled with the intensity that the part required… so I wouldn’t mind if they aged her up to 10 or 11. If they cast a 5 yo who looks perfect but can’t act like the frustrated adult inside, it won’t really work. Having a slightly older Claudia also makes it more upsetting for her as a character bc she’s so close to getting that older body she so desperately wanted ;A;
If Claudia’s in the new adaptations at all, I think it will be as a ghost (in later books, she sort of haunts the Rue Royale, Louis, and Lestat), which could also be animated and voice acted by an adult.
*tbh I don’t follow AR’s FB or her Official VC FB feed religiously. I wait for ppl to send me specific things. It’s just too much for me to follow her myself.
I-want-my-IWTV 