AMC acquires Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Back in December, we shared the news that author Anne Rice was shopping around the adaptation rights to her Vampire Chronicles and Mayfair Witches books as a package deal. Now she has found a home for these projects: AMC Networks.

AMC has closed a deal with Rice that will allow them to develop film and television projects based on the events and characters from 18 of Rice's novels. Rice and her son Christopher will serve as executive producers on all of the shows and films that are made under the deal. Rolin Jones, whose previous television work has included producer credits on Weeds, Friday Night Lights, United States of Tara, Boardwalk Empire, and The Exorcist, among others, is involved with developing Rice projects for TV.

The Vampire Chronicles series began with the publication of Interview with a Vampire in 1976 and follows

vampire Lestat de Lioncourt who serves as hero, antihero, and narrator. 

The Mayfair Witches is about 

a family of witches, and began in 1990 with the novel The Witching Hour. 

Anne Rice had this to say about the deal with AMC: 

It’s always been my dream to see the worlds of my two biggest series united under a single roof so that filmmakers could explore the expansive and interconnected universe of my vampires and witches. That dream is now a reality, and the result is one of the most significant and thrilling deals of my long career."

Sarah Barnett, president of AMC Networks Entertainment Group and AMC Studios, said: 

There is no shortage of content in today’s competitive environment, but proven IP that has captivated millions of fans around the world is something very special and rare, and that is what Anne Rice has created. These remarkable stories and characters are massive in their appeal and we are privileged to take over stewardship of these legendary works and collaborate with a talent like Rolin Jones to find ways for new generations of fans to experience these worlds."

Christopher Rice added: 

AMC Studios is responsible for creating some of the most iconic television series of the modern era and has, at times, single-handedly defined this era we call ‘peak TV.’ All the members of Team Anne, including my long-term producing partner, New York Times Bestselling novelist Eric Shaw Quinn, are both thrilled and comforted to know that some of our most cherished kin, from the vampire Lestat and the witch Rowan Mayfair, to the paranormal investigators at the Order of the Talamasca and the powerful spirit Lasher, are now safely in the hands of these vastly accomplished innovators who possess both global reach and deep reservoirs of experience."

I haven't read any of the Mayfair novels, but I have read several entries in the Vampire Chronicles and would love to see some faithful adaptations of those novels brought to the screen as part of this deal.

Film adaptations of Rice's INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, starring Tom Cruise as Lestat, and QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, with Stuart Townsend as Lestat, were released in 1994 and 2002.