Way back in the summer of 2014, Universal Pictures acquired the rights to authorAnne Rice’s entireThe Vampire Chroniclesnovel series, includingInterview With the Vampire,Queen of the DamnedandThe Vampire Lestat. A few weeks later, the studio brought onThe Fault in our StarsfilmmakerJosh Booneto write and direct an adaptation entitledThe Vampire Chronicles, which would be based onQueen of the DamnedandThe Vampire Lestat. It seems the focus of this project has changed a bit, withJosh Boonerecently revealing the title page of his script for a remake ofInterview with the Vampire.
The filmmaker posted this photo of the script title page to hisInstagramaccount last week, which revealed the title is in factInterview With the Vampire, which will be based on the book of the same name, andThe Vampire Lestat. The filmmaker co-wrote the script withJill Killington, who both wrote the script forKatie Holmes' directorial debut,All I Had, which hit theaters last month. The script was dated April 2016, so we’ll have to see how the studio responds to this fresh rewrite.
Interview With the Vampirewas adapted into the hit 1994 movie of the same name, starringTom Cruiseas Lestat de Lioncourt, who turns a downtrodden plantation owner namedLouis de Pointe du Lac(Brad Pitt) into a vampire, after Louis lost his wife. The movie grossed $105.4 million domestically and $223.6 million worldwide, from a $60 million budget. Eight years later,Queen of the Damnedwas adapted to the big screen, starringAaliyahas the title character, Akasha, withStuart Townsendplaying Lestat. The movie fared much worse thanInterview With the Vampire, taking in $30.3 million domestically and $45 million worldwide, from a $35 million budget.
Our report from 2014 revealed thatAlex KurtzmanandRoberto Orciare producing for Universal, alongside Imagine Entertainment’sBrian Grazer. What remains to be seen is if this project will become part of Universal’smonster franchise, whichAlex Kurtzmanis overseeing withChris Morgan. The monster franchise wasn’t even in the works in 2014, it seems impossible to imagineAnne Rice’s characters crossing over with Universal’s classic monsters, especially sinceTom Cruise, who played Lestat in the originalInterview With the Vampire, is starring in theMummyreboot. It’s also worth noting thatRobert Downey Jr.was rumored to take over the Lestat character back in 2009.
It isn’t known ifJosh Booneis still planning to direct this movie, since he is also attached to two other high-profile projects. The filmmaker is attached to both write and directThe Standfor Warner Bros. andThe New Mutantsfor 20th Century Fox, but it isn’t known when filming will begin on either of those projects. We’ll keep you posted as soon as more details forInterview With the Vampiresurface, so stay tuned, but in the mean time, take a look atJosh Boone’s Instagram photo below.
