The Vampire Chronicles Reboot

Moonlight — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:14:06 +0000

Rumors are flying that Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles will be getting itself another movie. If you don’t know what the Vampire Chronicles are, well… where the hell have you been for the past 30+ years? (answer: not born) Anne Rice’s vampires only completely switched up how vampires were viewed and portrayed. They went from being feral beasts to being sophisticated gentlemen. Even the famous Bram Stoker’s Dracula was seen as a feral monster. The sexy, dark, brooding vampires of today would most likely not be around if it weren’t for Anne Rice’s novels. Onwards…

Universal Pictures is going to reboot Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, or so we hear and the talk is that Robert Downey Jr. is going to play the vampire Lestat Du Lioncort…. seriously. Personally I think that sounds like a horrible choice for Lestat but who knows, Robert Downey Jr. could be perfect, I’ve been surprised before.

In the previous movie adaptations of Anne Rice’s novels Lestat was played by Tom Cruise and Stuart Townsend. First was Interview With The Vampire, where Tom Cruise shined as Lestat, absolutely capturing the character perfectly. The film also featured stars such as Brad Pitt, Kirstin Dunst and Antonio Banderas which made the movie so much more wonderful. And second was Queen of the Damned, where Stuart Townsend played a horrendously butchered version of Lestat. Hopefully, if the rumors are true and there will be another Anne Rice movie it wont be a repeat of Queen of the Damned. Preferably Anne herself will have a part in the new film’s making like she did in Interview With The Vampire (which made Interview as great as it was). All we can do is hope I suppose.

So far its just a few rumors here and there. There have been Anne Rice film talk for years and years now. So many studios have started and never finished projects. Here’s hoping they do create this new film and we can just wish it doesn’t fail our fan boy/girl standards.

If you have yet to read the Vampire Chronicles you can find out more about them here. Make sure to also check out the New Tales of the Vampires as well which feature life stories of a few vampires from Anne’s vampire world.

- Moonlight

Vampire Films

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:30:36 +0000

There are more than likely thousands of vampire movies out there, but most notably, the movie Blade, about the comic book hero, half vampire, half human, the definitive Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Interview With The Vampire, the debut novel of the Vampire Chronicles authored by Anne Rice made into a film, with it’s sequel, Queen of the Damned. Also as equally definitive as Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is Nosferatu, eine Symphonie Des Grauens, one of the very first vampire films, released in 1922; the unauthorized adaptation of the novel by Bram Stoker.

Vampire films were inspired almost as soon as the ability to actually make, record, and exhibit films had been created; one of the first of many films was titled simply “The Vampire,” in 1913, and followed by “A Fool There Was” in 1915. Both of these silent films were about “vamps” or, femme-fatales; the inspiration for both the films and the terms came from the 1897 poem The Vampire, by Rudyard Kipling. The poem by Rudyard Kipling, was inspired by the famous painting ‘The Vampire’ by Sir Philip Burne-Jones, featuring a female vampire straddling a wounded, or sleeping man. The first really supernatural vampire film to emerge was Nosferatu; it was so closely related to Bram Stoker’s novel, that his widow sued, won, and all copies were destroyed, except for five. It was finally restored in 1994 in Europe.

Bela Lugosi later starred in the 1931 classic Dracula, and then in two more vampire films following that; one of them Abbot And Costello Meet Frankenstein, in 1948 which was the last time he would play Dracula. Then another in which he played a vampire character that was everything Dracula was, except his name; the film was Return of the Vampire. Bela Lugosi was in a number of early horror films throughout the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. In 1957 the movie ‘El Vampiro’ was produced, and was one of the first vampire films in which the fangs of the vampire were actually revealed. In 1958, the renowned Hammer Horror series debuted with the film Dracula, starring Christopher Lee, who acted in five of the following seven sequels. Later, Francis Ford Coppola’s groundbreaking classic ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ emerged in 1992.

However, Dracula was not the only vampire novel to inspire directors and screenwriters. Although more distant from the novel by Bram Stoker, Carmilla, the short story by Sheridan Le Fanu inspired many classic vampires films. Carmilla put the sexual spin of lesbian vampirism on several popular vampire films in the 70’s, such as the Karnstein trilogy from Hammer Studios, as well as Blood and Roses, in 1960, Vampyres, in 1974, and The Vampire Lovers, in 1970, to name a few. The 1948 film with Abbot and Costello transformed many Dracula or vampire theme films into comedies. Sexuality has been drawn into the vampire genre of films from all orientations, and in both male and female roles. There are a few but still a strong flow of vampire films left that stick true to Max Shreck’s first portrayal of the disturbing, and monstrous Count Orlok in Nosferatu.

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The Vampire Chronicles Reboot

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