INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, left to right: Kirsten Dunst, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, 1994 © Warner Bros. / courtesy Everett Collection
AMC television has announced a new adaptation of Anne Rice’s classic vampire novel Interview with the Vampire, which is set to debut on the channel next year.
For the non-fanatic, Interview with the Vampire tells the story of a vampire named Louis. After the death of his brother, he crosses paths with a flaming vampire named Lestat who shares the “black gift”, making him a vampire too. The two become something of a gay couple, traveling the world and even adopting a child vampire named Claudia, and watching society evolve from pre-industrial to modern.
The book, published in 1976, was widely acclaimed and spawned a series of sequels. AMC picked all 18 novels and shared plans to turn the stories into different, overlapping franchises, much like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul producer Mark Johnson will oversee development. Rolin Jones, fresh off the hit of Perry Mason’s reboot of the network, will be featured.
Related: Anne Rice Feels Like She Is Gay
“The challenge of adapting Anne Rice’s groundbreaking and immensely compelling work for television is both intimidating and exhilarating,” Johnson said in a statement. Having already produced films from such singular works, I recognize both the responsibility and the obligation that we owe to the material. I firmly believe that with AMC and Rolin Jones, we are equipped to meet this challenge and to delight and entertain both the loyal fan of Anne Rice and the viewer who has just discovered her work.
In addition to Jones and Johnson, Anne Rice and her son Christopher will also be producing.
Interview with the Vampire came before the cameras in the popular 1994 film, directed by Neil Jordan and starring Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas and Brad Pitt. Despite the film’s success, some vocal fans felt that censorship at the time limited the film’s ability to explore the homoerotic relationship between Louis and Lestat. Fortunately, the standards have since evolved, so we’re hoping for some really cheerful vampires in the new series.
Interview with the Vampire will debut on AMC in 2022.
