As many know now, they will be working with Paramount Television and Anonymous Content
They want to stay fully engaged with fans in the production process
No set broadcaster, all options open (Netflix, Hulu, etc.) (Chris joked about it being on Facebook)
Next announcement will be when that network is decided
No timeline for production. They have no idea how long it will take. Script-writing is next. Chris is the one who will be script-writing, Anne will review
Chris: “She finished writing season 1 when she wrote the books!”
Pilot is done. Next are more episodes. They are starting the process and having several meetings with Paramount and Anonymous Content
Anne SWEARS the series will be 100% loyal to the books. (They named GoT as an example of doing this though soooooo)
Anne said compromises are inevitable but artistic control comes from good will
and respect; you make it work by picking people you admire and trust. They worked with Paramount and Anonymous Content since they all agreed on a common vision and the end result of the series
No idea about locations of sets and whatnot
Don’t know if they will keep with the 80’s period of the books, however Anne wants to do Lestat’s pre-vampire period period-accurate
Neil Jordan may end up helping out on the project
Casting
Still taking suggestions from fans and looking fancasts up on imdb
Anne: “Lestat is always shaking his fists to those who would break him down…Scrappish impish…lovable hero”
Chris: “–and he’s hot!! 😀 He’s gonna be hot. #LestatIsHot”
Chris and Anne might want to cameo in the series (joked about making a game out of it)
Some characters may change where “ethnicity is flexible”
Anne and Chris agree that POC being casted are important and will be
considered in casting. The Millennial vamps (older gang) will most likely
be largely POC.
Anne says she has taken notice of black fans showing
their admiration of Aaliyah playing Akasha.
Anne gave a story about
meeting an Akasha cosplayer who mentioned that she and her friends feel
left out of high fantasy for being black and how Anne was moved by this.
Anne: “Akasha isn’t written as black or a person of color…she’s middle eastern” Me: ??? (Those aren’t…mutually exclusive???) Anne: “–but she could be a person of color.”
Marius was played by a black man in the musical and Anne thought he
did a great job. Marius can be any ethnicity so long as he’s half Roman. She’d prefer to have Marius as blue eyes and blonde haired like Lestat but it’s “not imperative for him”.
Anne: “Louis at least has to be beautiful”
Armand has to look as described as well.
Anne wanted Cher to play Gabrielle.
Anne and Chris to be inclusive, but will always focus more on how fine the actor is. Talent is needed to get the role, not just looks.
Armand will be casted as someone who looks 17, but will be technically older. Not sure about age for
Lestat and Louis (Anne is thinking early 30s)
Physical and emotional aging will
be put into consideration (she gave Marius as an example as him looking like he’s in his 40s but being mentally older)
Plot and Episodes
They will tell the story chronologically in Lestat’s eyes so wolves-paris-so on. Basically, how knowledge unfolds for Lestat is how it will unfold for audience
THIS MAY CHANGE depending on when they talk to producers, however this is not
what they want in terms of how the events should happen.
Don’t want to cheat on Lestat’s life and skip out any details of it (go figure)
Stay faithful to the books and to Lestat’s story
Chris warns for us to be mindful of news that doesn’t come from official page
Lestat and Gabbi’s journey to be expanded
Origin stories of Marius and other older vampires will be shown and expanded on (done through the flashback stories Marius gives)
Blood and Gold will be involved but they won’t DO the story (so using that material for possible spin offs)
A lot about the Talamasca and especially David. Jesse too, but mostly David
(Anne: He’s close friends with Lestat in TOTBT Me: Is that what you call it? lmao)
TVL could be 2-3 seasons. IWTV may be one. Depends
Anne and Chris want to know what goes wrong in the translation from book to media in other series so they can avoid it
They’re keeping eroticism the same as in the books.
Lestat turning Gabrielle will be a big scene, as they feel this is when the series starts to truly bring the
vampire world into view and Lestat really starts becoming a vampire. This scene is significant in
asking the audience what they would do in that instance. Lestat turning will also be significant.
Characters and Character Relations
SOMEONE FUCKING MENTIONED LOUSTAT AS THE LOUIS / LESTAT SHIP NAME AND THEY BOTH LOST IT (which one of you was it? Hm?)
There will be a lot about Louis and Lestat’s relationship in the series (and Lestat and Nicki)
Anne says she understands how important queer relationships are and how they have driven the series
*On expanding on other characters* Chris: …human characters like Jesse or Daniel Mollo-
Anne: OR LESTAT WHEN HE’S HUMAN Me:
Anne doesn’t feel a need to make new characters.
More info on
Théâtre des Vampires
and the characters in that part will expanded as well
Chris and Anne openly acknowledge Lestat as bisexual and this will be depicted clearly within the show
On the topic of Armand, what that character means to Anne will shine, so he will gain a more
sympathetic role outside of just the IWTV perspective. Both his dark side and his more childish, light-side will be shown
Jim Morrison of The Doors was Anne’s inspiration for Lestat’s singing voice and for the band (I forget but I think this was the song Anne named as being a good example. Though, I’m partial to their sexy song “5 to 1″). She describes Lestat’s voice as somewhere between a “barratone and tenor…Melodic”. (Something about Jon Bon Jovi also a little bit)
Mayfair Witches
Rights of Mayfair Witches not available to them (?) and thus, the crossover books are not a part of the VC TV series and, thus no show for them right now
Maybe Mayfair TV series in future. Anne doesn’t want them to play second fiddle to the vampires
Anne and Chris
They talked about the recent April Fool’s Joke. Anne apologized to Justin Beiber?? Why?? I don’t know (they weren’t behind the joke article)
Chris likes Riverdale (ew)
Chris worked with Anne on Ramses the Damned.
Someone in the VC Discord Server brought up the question of if Chris could/would carry out the VC books after Anne. Based off this interview, I think it’s very likely depending on how well the VC TV series goes. He seemed a little apprehensive about it, but he’s worked with his mother on writing and is familiar enough with her characters to care about them. I think it’s possible
Chris went to the VC balls in New Orleans as a kid
Chris’ A Density of Souls may get a chance to be a film. Chris is in discussion with someone about it (?? that’s what I got from the interview anyways)
*After Anne leaves to get Chris a Coke* Chris *to the camera*: She won’t let me out of the house. She won’t let me leave!! Me: Same
The Facebook Page and Other Information
Anne, yet again, made a little speech about how nerds mean a lot to Hollywood nowadays
“Readers know things about the novels that are valuable”
They have a record of fan comments that Anne reads every so often
They mentioned some of the fights going on in the FB thread
(Chris: There are some people with…strong casting choices. Anne: I got into fights with people lmao)
Anne prefers if you message her over the page rather than through emails
They cannot do much about given resumes and asking about jobs related to production. There will be a time for that later
Anne is in contract for two more VC novels. It sounded like her next novel is also included in the TV series’ contract, but I could have misinterpreted.
Anne asks about any regrets or things she would change from the books as she goes into the series. More fleshing out but that’s about it
Disappointing the fans is their biggest concern and worry
“the older gang will most likely be largely poc” that would be awesome tho. like i’m super hesitant to get excited about this thing but this sounds cool
More Vampires of Color yessss! *Grabby hands* if they want to change anything, that’s a good change that I, for one, can get behind.
What you’re really asking is “When people of color are turned, does their skin color change?” because not all African-Americans are people of color, and there are many people of color who are not African-Americans.
I have seen other vampires of color (”VoC”) in other media like Blade (1998), Blacula (1972), Vampire in Brooklyn (1995), Vamp (1986), Twilight Saga, True Blood (2008-2010), Vampire Diaries (2009-2010). The vampires I’m familiar with in those examples have retained their skin color.
You would probably get a better answer from @askavampirologist-blog, because I think they have a wider spectrum of vampire media knowledge than I do, since this blog is mostly about Ricean vampires.
For Ricean vampires, they retain their original skin color, and over a very long period of time, their skin does become lighter. You would have to ask AR directly why she wrote her novels this way, I’m not going to guess at her intentions on that.
Here’s a VoC in QOTD:
“Davis was a black Dead guy and one damned good-looking black Dead guy,… His skin had a gold glow to it, the Dead glow which in the case of white Dead guys made them look like they were standing in a fluorescent light all the time.”
^We don’t know how old this vampire is, but it appears that his own skin color acquired a “gold glow” when he was turned.
[^X] Akasha is an Egyptian VoC played in movie!QOTD by Aaliyah. According to Wiki, Aaliyah “was African American, and had Native American (Oneida) heritage from a grandmother.” Even though Aaliyah was not the same ethnicity of the fictional character, I was pleased that the filmmakers chose a person of color to play this vampire of color character. She was one of the best parts of the movie.
Akasha is described in the novels as having porcelain white skin because she is very old, and Ricean vampire physiology involves the lightening of the skin over time. This is a point of contention in the VC fandom, that AR has whitewashed her. I don’t have a stand on this partly because there is a debate as to what color the Ancient Egyptians’ skin really was. I have links to 2 articles about that, and some thoughts on the skin lightening issue, in a post from awhile back [X].
^This was from Vampires Suck (2010), a parody vampire movie, and aesthetically, I didn’t like the way they did the makeup for this vampire of color. He looks like someone assaulted him with baby powder! But that was probably intentional, to make him look unattractive? IDK maybe someone digs this look!
I bet they’d used too much of the budget to re-film her scenes, but really, she was one of the only things they got right (well, maybe not “right” but close enough). I really like that she was a vampire of color who kept her color, despite being described as white (not Caucasian but light-skinned) in canon. I don’t know if ancient Egyptians were in fact light or dark skinned but in a series of alot of white ppl, it was good to see some diversity.
Crew morale was probably very low after she died, they might not have wanted to even try to replace her 😦
Okay, so firstly: I loved Aaliyah as Akasha. Sure, she wasn’t canon!Akasha, but practically none of the characters were themselves in this weird and loose adaptation. I wish she had completed filming fully and would have loved her backstory to be shown.
That said, I really, really want the next adaptation to do Akasha properly. She shouldn’t be black, but she sure as hell shouldn’t be white.
Akasha was from Uruk, which is roughly modern-day Iraq. Just imagine her role going to an Iraqi actress, and the implications of the most powerful vampire, the first vampire, the queen, being from a region whose people are treated like crap to this day and who face terrible persecution.
I imagine her to be like Sophia Jawad; the striking dark eyes Lestat mentions, the prettiness which underplays her regalness, etc. I would love to see Akasha brought to life as the infuriatingly brilliant debater cursed by her prettiness and her short temper.
I-want-my-IWTV 