The Ao3 Tag of the Day is: Yet another trope I will devour no matter what even though I know exactly what is going to happen.
“Now, I’m getting into the coffin, and you will get in on top of me if you know what’s good for you.” – Lestat de Lioncourt, Interview with the Vampire
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
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.
I really really like late 18th century waistcoats. Especially the 1790′s ones with the little lapels and straight waistlines, so here’s a photoset of some of my favourite ones. (And here’s a link to my pinterest board with more of them.)
@wicked-felina and I are trying to include as many canon-compliant details as we can (hello Armand flirting w/ the blender, lol), and I personally have to satisfy my RL best friend who is a coffee aficionado (gotta prove to her that we know wtf we’re writing about, lol)… We’re using most of the ideas we come up with but we do have some spin-off chapters that may come later when the fic is finished.
…Psssst we would also love fanart of any of it, if anyone is so inspired…
I didn’t think a coffee shop AU was possible for VC either, but yes, from all the lovely comments we’ve been getting on it, it is working ^______^
(Loving the angst too. Even in a coffee shop AU, these idiot boys manage to fuck everything up, lmao.)
^This is why it’s working, bc we’re absolutely devoted to keeping them as IC as possible. Some canon-diversion has been necessary, and being AU, it’s naturally got a more comical bent, but yeah… we’re trying to keep them IC ;D
We love this pile of dysfunctional vampires hipsters.
Welcome to our little corner of tumblrand, and mon dieu, a compliment like this is pure gold. PURE GOLD. As is our AU! Pure gold ;D
[X@yallpacino: when you find a really good alternative universe fanfiction]
If you love our Signature Blend,@wicked-felina also has another great VC AU (WIP) you should check out, The Grim Brothers.It’s a “VC take on Red Riding Hood,” as heartfelt and fun as our AU, it was one of the first AUs I really loved ❤
This fandom has some real life in it lately, and I would urge you to use the links provided above, but also check out some of the absolutely amazing meta we have seen from various people here on Tumblr, especially that of vraik and anton-mordrid. Check out the fics, too, and also I would recommend @monstersinthecosmos‘s fantastic fic.
I flit back and forth between this fandom (my first real fandom!) and Breaking Bad but this burst of energy and enthusiasm of late has sucked me right back in, dammit.
I’m thrilled you like the fic. You really don’t know what it means to know that people are enjoying reading it, and that you appreciate it. It makes it worthwhile.
)
I-want-my-IWTV 