No one asked for this (well someone sorta did but they’re on hiatus, sadly), I had made these ‘shops bc RDJ might have played Lestat ages ago (article from 2009, I think), and so I wanted to ‘shop him into place, and this is what happened. The middle one is the cleaned version, the other 2 were WIPs, anyway, HAVE IT. I happened on this file today and felt like someone might appreciate it.
“…Now it looks is though RDJ has his eyes on Twilight moms.
According to Bloody Disgusting, Robert Downey Jr. is almost done closing a deal to take over the highly coveted role of Lestat, the head honcho vampire of a reboot adaptation of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. For those who don’t remember, the role of Lestat has already been played by Stuart Townshend in Queen of the Damned and Tom Cruise in the vastly superior Interview with the Vampire. It’s not yet known how this new series will take place, as there are 10 Anne Rice novels, but if it’s a reboot, it’s safe to assume that they’ll be starting up with the first novel, Interview with the Vampire.
It’s not big news at all that Universal Pictures is deciding to reboot this franchise at this time. Vampires are huge, and a Robert Downey Jr. vampire? Well, that’s just good business. With the right director and a good screenplay (Yo Guillermo, how about you take some time off those lame Hobbit movies and get on this?), this could definitely be something to look forward to, but with a great adaptation of Interview already out there in the world, I hope they let that one go and start with The Vampire Lestat.
“Anne Rice has a much-anticipated Vampire Chronicles TV show in the works at Hulu, and now she’s got a new book in the series starring her most beloved character: Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat. It’s the first Rice novel to include illustrations—and we’ve got an exclusive excerpt and some image reveals to share.”
FYI, the excerpt begins with Chapter 3, introducing 2 new characters. Nothing much spoilery other than that! I like being spoiled but not everyone does, so I thought I’d check that out for you.
No news, but stuff’s still happening, more importantly, Alexander Vlahos is… maybe wants to be involved??! Plz yes! TBH I’d love to see him audition for the VC TV series!
^this thumbs up from Al Bundy is probs closest to my feelings bc (at least out of its original context) it appears to be approval, begrudging approval, maybe a little sarcastic, but you can tell that he IS glad, too, he’s so tired, but always open to the good in the world… he’s waited a long time, he’s acclimated to waiting.*
IDK much about Hulu and the shows/movies they have, just that they’re often sending out free trial offers and like, it reminds me of drug dealers trying to get new ppl hooked in with free samples, which is standard operating procedure but still makes me wary.
I am, as always, and forever shall be, ~#cautiously optimistic~, and I am glad that someone who’s kind of a big deal showed interest enough that it seems like things are in motion again!
*(As a side note: I always loved ‘Married… With Children,’ and I think it was partly bc as bitter and grumpy as Al was, and as mean-spirited as he could behave at times, deep down, you could tell he loved his wife, family, neighbors, and friends, and had made some peace with his life choices. Maybe I was projecting onto him, but anyway, this was a formative character for me.)(Which is my long-winded example of smne who may appear to be just another unlikable/problematic character in a sitcom, but I found smtg good and substantive in him, which will hopefully be the case with the new VC TV series with all the problematic characters/stuff in it).
Additionally,
1) Re: international fans:
2) Also, fanart about it, by Miriam Meza (link below cut):
3) Aaaand as per Hulu as a content creator/provider:
“According to The Hollywood Reporter, which was the first to announce the news, Anne and Christopher will executive produce the Vampire Chronicles series with David Kanter and Steve Golin.
Hulu received a record 27 Primetime Emmy nominations when the Television Academy made the announcement last week. That includes mentions of The Handmaid’s Tale, The Looming Tower, I Love You, America with Sarah Silverman, and March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step.”
– Entertainment Weekly, July 17, 2018 (link below cut). This is heartening info, I’d say 😉, even though I don’t watch those shows or know about Kanter or Golin. Emmy nominations on those shows are hopefully a good sign.
^this thumbs up from Al Bundy is probs closest to my feelings bc (at least out of its original context) it appears to be approval, begrudging approval, maybe a little sarcastic, but you can tell that he IS glad, too, he’s so tired, but always open to the good in the world… he’s waited a long time, he’s acclimated to waiting.*
IDK much about Hulu and the shows/movies they have, just that they’re often sending out free trial offers and like, it reminds me of drug dealers trying to get new ppl hooked in with free samples, which is standard operating procedure but still makes me wary.
I am, as always, and forever shall be, ~#cautiously optimistic~, and I am glad that someone who’s kind of a big deal showed interest enough that it seems like things are in motion again!
*(As a side note: I always loved ‘Married… With Children,’ and I think it was partly bc as bitter and grumpy as Al was, and as mean-spirited as he could behave at times, deep down, you could tell he loved his wife, family, neighbors, and friends, and had made some peace with his life choices. Maybe I was projecting onto him, but anyway, this was a formative character for me.)(Which is my long-winded example of smne who may appear to be just another unlikable/problematic character in a sitcom, but I found smtg good and substantive in him, which will hopefully be the case with the new VC TV series with all the problematic characters/stuff in it).
I came across this recap of Blood Communion from an ARC a reader had allegedly received. Uggggh, guys… do you think this is real? Thoughts?
I’m unlurking for this bc #VC News!
It looks pretty legit to me but omg, you guys… My thoughts under the cut bc the review is spoilery.
TL;DR: It looks like AU fanfic to me, and I’m gonna read it bc hey, I always recommend reading the books for the possibility for silliness and/or good bits mixed in among the weirdness, but if this was truly fanfic on AO3 Idk if I’d be reading it. Maybe! I like weird AU fanfic.
And I would also add, again, that we used to call these later books “The Vampire Crackicles” for a reason, they’re living up to the name, lol!
It doesn’t have to be so deep. For me, if I think of these as fanfic AU, I’m less invested, that works well for me. Your headcanon is yours, despite even what’s in canon!!
Keep in mind also, with my comments below, that I’m not responding to the full review and every point, just those things that jumped out to me, and I don’t mean to trample on anyone’s faves. It’s all just my opinion, not any definitive statement as to what anyone else should think ^_________^
Hit the jump for my comments, cut for length and spoilers!
Arjun (Pandora’s abusive progeny),
I don’t remember Arjun being like this before, was he?
and Baudwin, a bitter fiend who claims to descend from the legendary Gundesanth. (The jury is still out on whether Gundesanth, who appears later and goes by “Santh,” is actually as good as he appears. I kept expecting him to turn on Lestat, and I’m still not convinced by him.)
Stop it with all these new chars gawds. Didn’t we just intro a few legendary vampires with mysterious motivations? *sigh*
I’ve said it before, I do think many of these new chars were brought in as canon fodder to give AR someone to kill that the fans wouldn’t mind her killing as much. We’ll see.
• The book is very talky. I miss Anne’s lush descriptions.
She’s telling, not showing. It’s what made Rose such a cardboard cutout. Too much was just told without the experiental aspect AR used to do so well. So we don’t buy any of it bc it’s just infodumped. At least, that’s how it seemed to me.
I also don’t care about the Replimoids (the creatures from Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis) and I find it incredibly fucked up that they seem content to enslave their own clones.
I agree, I don’t care about them, but also, ugh, Anne’s slave fetish stuff… *sigh* We’ll see what exactly this means, hopefully this was an exaggeration.
• I’m pretty sad that Rhosh and Benedict have already left us. I found them fascinating and I wanted more of their history. Maybe I just have a thing for sweet monks.
I don’t really love them (or have a thing for sweet monks) but at least they had some substance, not another swoony pretty dude musician to add to the bouquet of those, like Antoine, BARF. No offense to ppl who like Antoine, I just feel like he could’ve been more in canon, bringing him back and there was almost no friction? No discussion of how he’d tried to kill Louis and Claudia? The reunion with Lestat? So bittersweet? So much potential drama lost there.
• On the other hand, Benedict’s suicide was so deliciously dark. I’m used to Anne’s vampires committing themselves to the sun or the flames. Offering his blood to the coven, plucking out his eyes, requesting kettledrums and the Dies irae… it was all so ancient and sacrificial. I loved it. I still think Benedict was gone too soon, though.
That could be good, sort of taking the Thorne forking over his eyeballs thing to another level! I like this a lot. More gruesome old school vampire coven stuff.
Sounds like smtg Lestat would find really gross in theory but then end up really enjoying as a physical experience bc he’s really and truly nasty at heart lol. Is that bc he’s a vampire or did being a vampire just magnify what he always was? Both, probably.
and the image of Louis, Gabrielle and Marius with their heads twisted completely around took me by surprise. Anne really lingered over those gory details like she did in the older books.
Twisted completely around WHAT EXCUSE YOU?? Are they dead dead???WTF??
Read the comments, they’re not dead dead, but under what circumstances would their heads be “twisted completely around”?? Okay I’m intrigued. Give me some fighting, some warring. Or nightmares, that’s fine, too. Louis did mention way back in IWTV that vampires get terrible nightmares, worse than when they were mortal.
• Why would Lestat agree to keep mortal victims in his dungeon? Sure, they’re evildoers, they’re treated well, and Lestat isn’t exactly a paragon of morality, but wouldn’t he encourage the hunt? It seems to me that this practice will make the new crop of young vampires lazy.
Slave fetish again. It’s an evildoer situation tho, so, ok? Idk. I kinda like it, we’ll have to see how this is played out. Would it make the new vampires lazy? Maybe, but possibly it’s like having a grocery store, which might better support a huge coven of vampires in a small town better than letting them all hunt the poor little village and surrounding areas. Kind of suspicious that whenever there’s a lot of activity at the old de Lioncourt Manor, way more ppl end up dead!
The book felt slightly unfinished to me, perhaps because I have so many questions, and there are so many characters she hasn’t explored in detail, but I still tore through it. Anne’s writing just compels me. One night I read a hundred pages. I wanted more from this book but I still liked it.
I think she ends books when she feels like she hit enough of her fetishes, lol. She apparently is only planning one more in the pipeline for now. But she’ll stop beating this dead horse when it stops spitting out attention and money. And I’ll keep reading them, however cracky they get!
More than anything, I’m buzzing with anticipation over the upcoming “Vampire Lestat” TV series.
And the TV series again… I’m not holding my breath for that now that Bryan left/was fired, and there’s been very little talk about it in the Rice’s social media. We’ve waited this long, we can keep waiting. It would be nice for it to start airing in Anne’s lifetime, tho.
I-want-my-IWTV 