Anne Rice talks story details, casting wish list for Vampire Chronicles show

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Yesterday, news broke that the rights to The Vampire Chronicles have reverted to its author, Anne Rice, who is in the process of developing a TV series with her son Christopher. Today she spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the progress they're making, giving a few little teases away about the in-development pilot script and plans for a wider series:

We’re in the planning stage right now. Emails are flying back and forth with all our different ideas about how we want to do it. Nothing is firm yet, except that we do want to start with the second book in the series, The Vampire Lestat. We want to start with him and his birth as a vampire, and go on from there. And at this point, tentatively, I see two seasons, maybe, to do the entire book.

She says they're planning an "open-ended series" that may cover the entire length of the 14-book series, which she intends to adapt "faithfully:"

I want to give them the situations they expect to see, and the characters that they expect to see. Again, I think TV is the ideal place for that.

On who she thinks should play Louis:

[He should have] beauty. Great beauty. It’s Louis’ beauty that attracted Lestat to him, and I would hope it would be a beautiful actor like Matt Bomer. Somebody with that incredible beauty. Brad Pitt did a beautiful job in the original film, and he set the bar very high when it comes to physical beauty.

That would actually be an excellent choice, considering that Matt Bomer has already cut his teeth (so to speak) on a vampire role in American Horror Story: Hotel.

On who she thinks should play Marius:

Well there’s one other thing I might throw out there: I would absolutely love it if Matthew MacFadyen, the British actor, ever wanted to be part of this and wanted to play Marius. Marius is one of the pillars of the Chronicles – 2,000 years old – and I am an absolute, stoned fan of Matthew MacFadyen in Ripper Street and every other show that he’s ever done. Talk about quality TV — Ripper Street is just outstanding.

If there's one thing I've gotten from this interview, it's that Rice still seems completely passionate about her rich vampire universe, which is great to have in the producer of any TV show, so I'm excited to see what she and her son can come up with!

Check out the full interview at Entertainment Weekly!