Anne Rice's THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES...

[emeraldknight47]

Just read that Anne Rice finally got back the film rights to her Vampire Chronicles property and is working with her son on a proposal to bring TVC to television in a format similar to GAME OF THRONES. As a longtime lover of TVC, this makes me very happy because you can get a lot more character development from a TV show than you can from a couple of movies. Hopefully now we'll get to see Louis, and especially Lestat, as they were meant to be. I always had major issues with casting Tom Cruise as Lestat because he's so much NOT Lestat. Fingers crossed for something good....

[Nostalgiabuff]

that is good news. I liked Cruise as Lestat, but I found the first book (Interview) to be extremely boring and the movie was not a whole lot better. the series really took off in book 2, the Vampire Lestat. I wish they had done a better job on the film version of Queen of the Damned because it really could have been epic. instead we got a steaming turd

[MIB41]

Now THAT is fascinating news. I agree wholeheartedly. A series in this fashion could show the original novels as they were fully imagined. NICE!

[Dark Shadow]

Awesome news. These particular novels require and deserve this type of format.

[hedrap]

Her new stuff is....let's call it a "departure"...

[Nostalgiabuff]

I put the most recent two on my Christmas list. are you saying they are not good? I know she had become Born Again Christian after being a lifelong atheist. for a while she was writing books about Jesus or something and had said she would not write about the supernatural anymore. that obviously did not work out for her and she went back to writing about vampires

[hedrap]

No....if I gave you a clue, it would divulge everything.

If anyone wants to know, pm me.

[cjefferys]

I haven't read any of Rice's books in a long time, but I remember liking "The Tale of the Body Thief" the best.

[madmarva]

Hope this happens and hope it's good. My worry is that vampires have become so oversaturated of late with True Blood, Vampire Diaries, The Originals and Twilight that this might not happen. I'd argue that in her prime, Rice was a much writer than Harris or Meyer, but both mined a lot of ground covered in Rice's books for their own purposes. That Eric Norsman character in True Blood was not doubt influenced by Lestat if not almost a complete ripoff.

But, yes, bring it on.

[hedrap]

So, it's out. Anybody finish it yet?

[jacoblb]

I don't think over saturation of vampires will harm anything because it's about good execution and there are varying mythologies regarding vampires now. There are a lot of superheroes flying around on TV and film and viewership will remain strong provided the product is good. People are always wondering if over saturation will kill the superhero box office success. So far it hasn't. I found the Andrew Garfield Spider-man movies to be lacking, I couldn't even finish the DVD I borrowed from his second film, which probably translates into why his films didn't perform as well. Of her novels, I have only read Rice's first 3 Vampire books and saw Interview with a Vampire when it first came out. I always thought Tom Cruise made an unwise choice of not making a follow-up Vampire Lestat film. Instead he made the decision to do Mission Impossible 2, which I think is the worst of the M.I. movie franchise. (I also hold the opinion that John Woo makes terrible American films, I do like his Hong Kong movies just fine. For decades many folks thought I was the crazy one with that opnion, but I think I wound up being right as John Woo eventually feel out of flavor.) Despite Cruise not fitting the likeness of Lestat, I thought his performance was sound and he even won over Rice. That's a sensational feeling to prove folks wrong in the arts.

[MIB41]

I liked Interview the best in Rice's vampire series. It struck me with the most originality in terms of the setup. I think she took the pathos and conflict from the Barnabas character in Dark Shadows and built this secret society around those ideas. She built out some glorious concepts from that basic idea and offered an interesting perspective if one were given the chance to live eternal amongst most everything else that dies. It was a fascinating character study especially between the vampires and their belief structure in terms of who could be accepted into that elite group of the damned. After that though it began to feel like vampire porn.

It's a good question to ask as to how that will play with today's audience after the market has been swamped with lesser efforts in the genre. But hopefully Netflix will give this the same kind of quality treatment they do most projects, so I am at the very least curious. I just don't want a bunch of stud puppies walking around with bling. In my mind, it really needs to explore the psychological effects of living that existence. To me, that gives the treatment an endless array of directions to go and separate itself from the current pack of low grade imitators.

[emeraldknight47]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
While I wouldn't mind seeing TVC on either NETFLIX or HULU, I'd much rather see it picked up by one of the premium channels (HBO, TMC, STARZ, CINEMAX) simply because I think they would be more likely to invest a bit more $$$ into the projects (and odds are, with a great deal of TVC being period pieces, it would cost a few shiny pennies) as well as allowing the writers and directors even more creative and artistic leeway. TVC easily deserves the same massive amount of universe building that something like GAME OF THRONES has enjoyed.

[jacoblb]

Yeah, all the good shows I watch are on the basic or premium channels. My wife wants to watch Emerald City tomorrow and I'm like, "Hon, it's on NBC, don't expect a lot."

Starz is coming along nicely with content. HBO, Netflix, and Showtime have long ago established themselves. AMC, FX...there are plenty of other good places, like the ones types above, but everything else places afterward from the other trendsetters.

[jacoblb]

The Emerald City on NBC is horrible. Worse than anticipated. Unwatchable like Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man 2. I trust in the networks that have a quality legacy just like I pay attention to brands by video game makers, comic book creators, etc.