Lost to time.....part 2
Nov. 19th, 2008 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forgottenbennetAs linked to in two posts below this here are somethings I thought interesting regarding questions that commonly asked in regard to the "Queen of the Damned" movie. Quotes from Jorge Saralegui about the QotD film as posted on the official message board before it got shut down.
Fair warning right now this is less than half of the stuff that was posted there and its still looong.
LEAVING OUT KEY VAMPIRES SUCH AS LOUIS ETC.
(Answering why no Mekare, and no story of the twins) Because she has no dialogue? Sorry, just kidding. The Story of the Twins is a movie in its own right; if we told that story, we wouldn't have room for Lestat's. We felt that focusing the movie on Lestat was the more pragmatic way to go. With less than two hours to work with, this meant no Story of the Twins. We kept Maharet, but only in how she connects to our main story. This is one of those changes that was all but dictated by the constraints of our situation, but that I realize is painful to all lovers of the book. You have our sincere apologies for not being able to give you everything that you wanted.
Answering as best I can, and please note, repeating myself, as some of these questions have been answered elsewhere: Louis is not in the movie, because his role in the novel QUEEN is relatively insignificant, and we could only include so many characters. I'm not sure what you mean by "stand alone." The liberties we took in the making of this film were a combination of necessity - a feature film is only so long - and creative license, which in my opinion is the right of anyone engaged in any creative activity. Lestat looks "gothie" because, as you may recall from the novels, his music was "Goth." I can't imagine how one could compare... let alone duplicate... the mood of a novel with the mood of a movie. The story of the Twins has very little to do with Lestat, who is the protagonist of our movie; the Twins' story is a movie in its own right - and this isn't it. The public was considered unwilling to watch a 12-hour movie, which is what I estimate would be required to do full justice to Anne Rice's novels. As to characters living or dying in a way that varies from the novel, refer to the end of my third sentence.
All of the characters you mentioned (Louis, Daniel, Gabrielle, Mekare, Eric) are not in the story, for the reason that you both mentioned: there isn't enough room for all of the vampires, and their roles seemed less crucial to the telling of our story. If you're seeking a connection to INTERVIEW, then you ought to find it in Lestat.
(Gabrielle) She's a very interesting character, but not essential to the novel, and irrelevant to the parts of the novel that we focused on.
Louis and Daniel aren't in the movie because, as you seemingly realize, they don't have a meaningful role in the story. Armand is in the movie, but only briefly. And I can't talk about Jesse's fate without giving away too much; suffice it to say that, given the nature of our story, our ending makes more sense.
CASTING QUERIES
Why is it okay to cast Aaliyah, despite her not looking at all like the Akasha of the novel, but not okay to let Stuart Townsend keep the hair color that suits him best? Are Claudia Black and Matt Newton, to name two of our vampires, ugly? I think some of your fellow posters would beg to differ. I'm not sure how Anne Rice feels about all of the casting, but I have reason to believe that she was happy in the end with our choice of Lestat. In the end, casting is a matter of taste, and very hard to quantify. We made the best choices that we could, given our circumstances, and are quite happy with the overall results.
Tom Cruise was offered the role of Lestat. He passed due to prior commitments and the understandable impulse of an actor not to repeat himself.
Khayman is my favorite male vampire in the novel QUEEN OF THE DAMNED. Bruce Spence was chosen from our Australian casting list for the part due to his talent and distinctive looks. As I said elsewhere, these standards were applied to all of the Ancients, so that they would be more noticeable. Again, due to our need to focus on Lestat in the story that we are telling, Khayman and most of the Ancients don't get nearly as much screen time as we would have liked. Maybe next time!
(About 'Interview' cast members not reprising their roles) It's not so much about a lower-budget version as it is committing to a series of films, as with HARRY POTTER or LOTR. WB didn't do this because the performance of INTERVIEW proved that there wasn't enough interest to warrant it. We failed to get Tom Cruise to reprise the role; Brad Pitt isn't going to take what would have been a very small part in QUEEN; I could go on, but I hope you get the point as to why the cast of INTERVIEW didn't return.
CHANGE OF APPEARANCE OF CHARACTERS
Characters don't often look as they did in the books because this is a movie that hopes to stand on its own feet as an original creation, based on Anne Rice's amazing work. For example, we thought that Stuart Townsend's darkly sexy persona would translate into a terrific Lestat, and it did. However, Stuart looks better with dark hair than light. Because it's Stuart-as-Lestat, rather than the Lestat-as-on-the-page, he doesn't have blond hair. I know that some Anne Rice fans are already pleased. I hope that all of them will be engaged and stimulated, even when they don't agree with some of our changes.
Having already made Lestat a non-blond and Akasha non-Caucasian, we weren't that concerned about making the more minor characters match their written descriptions. We chose our Ancients with a focus for distinctive features, since they weren't going to be onscreen that much, and we wanted to differentiate them from the newbies. We felt very fortunate to gain Paul McGann's interest in the role of Talbot, and went with a younger approach to the role. I understand why these changes may be tough to accept for fans who have visualized the characters in their own minds for years, and again ask for you to consider our perspective, which is that the movie, while an adaptation, is its own creation, and entitled to many of the same creative liberties that other film adaptations have taken.
I was very surprised that so many people cared about things like a character's hair color, mainly because I never think about these things. My own focus tends to be more internal; I never visualize actors when reading a script, for instance. That said, I immediately understood that these characters are indelibly alive in your minds, and that (surprise) they look to you just like Anne Rice described them. I learned something from it, and will take care to remember it in the future. I've already explained why some of the actors don't resemble the source material (Stuart doesn't look good with blond hair; Aaliyah really wanted the part, had obvious promise, and we were already considering casting the role with an African-American, based on the historical reality). Vincent Perez had a long white wig and we all agreed he looked better with his own hair (short and dark). I would say that this type of case-by-case thing occurred with most of the actors. We never decided to deliberately change things as an artistic choice, or anything of the sort. The exception might be Jesse, whom we felt should be younger than Lestat, to better suit some of the themes that were important to us.
Your question about costumes is a good one. In every case, we started with the novel's description of how a character dressed. Some survived, like Marius; others were altered to look as if they were from their geographical origin, like Khayman; others are dressed according to what our story dictates - Armand rises in Pere Lachaise cemetery, promptly drinks the blood of some Jim Morrison worshippers, and absconds with their duds! (PLEASE NOTE: this last is backstory - we don't see it happen.)
Now why does Claudia look like she's from Nepal or somewhere like that? Honestly? We all thought she was associated with such a locale from the novels. Not that she was born there, but that she spent time there, went to sleep there... I forget precisely what it was. Maybe it was a collective gaffe on all our parts. Does anyone know what aspect of the novel QUEEN OF THE DAMNED would have led us to clothe her as we did?
I doubt that Lestat's blond hair is a basic element that attracted anyone to the story. More likely, it's an image that you have become comfortable with over the years, and are having a hard time shaking for the two hours you may spend in a movie theater. I don't know what you mean when you say that changing Lestat's hair color is a "commercial betrayal rather than an aesthetic one." Just who would we be betraying commercially - ourselves? I'm not following you. Nadya, did Tom Cruise look so "strikingly different from most of our world"? I thought he looked like Tom Cruise in a blond wig. Would a blond wig have made Stuart Townsend strikingly different? What you seem to want is the embodiment of an idealization. Movies may or may not approximate our idealizations, but they will never match them. It exists in only one place: the nexus between Anne Rice's imagination, and yours.
Our Lestat isn't blond because the actor playing him looks better with darker hair. As to who our audience will be: it is our hope that all Anne Rice fans come, and that this number is exceeded by those unfamiliar with her work.
My feeling is that the people who don't like the casting of Aaliyah because she's black have the same motivation as the people who don't like Stuart Townsend not being blond. They want everything just as it was in the novel. I've already explained how I feel about this elsewhere, and obviously I sided with those who prefer the most talented available candidate to someone who looks more like the role was described in the novel. That happened to be Aaliyah. I do think it's important that people remember that while bitching about Stuart not being blond comes off as merely fanatical and redundant, bitching about Akasha not being white could seem racist to some, and thusly offensive. Many people have indeed taken this into account, and gone to some pains to stress that their opinion is not racially motivated. If they say so, then I'm happy to leave it at that.
I agree that the color of these characters' hair is integral to their appearance in the novels. But they are not integral to their personalities. Personality - not hair color - is what a character is all about. So when we made our movie, we tried to remain faithful to the characters' personalities; their looks were secondary. Just as they are in life. To some people. For people who can't see Lestat beyond the color of his hair - meaning every single poster who has questioned his hair color, but not asked about his character - I say, don't be so shallow, or so rigid. Your perceptions may expand a little as a result.
COMMENTS ON STUART TOWNSEND’S PERFORMANCE
Everyone who has seen Stuart Townsend's portrayal of Lestat marvels at his charisma and sexiness. He managed to integrate Lestat's soulfulness, brattiness and bravado into one pretty damn seamless performance.
Stuart has a slight Irish accent, which is what you'll hear in the movie. The only person in our very international cast who noticeably altered their normal way of speaking was Aaliyah, who developed an ancient Egyptian accent for the role of Akasha. Stuart is indeed a good singer, but we didn't learn that until after we chose him for the role... which is well after we had already signed up Jonathan Davis to sing (as well as compose our songs and score).
Stuart's stand-in had become quite a favorite of the crowd at Werribee by the time that Stuart was to first appear on stage. He was nervous about being perceived as a "movie star," nervous about performing a rock song in front of a big audience, and very nervous once he found himself suspended fifty feet above the stage for his entrance. Stuart fortified himself as much as was seemly (ahem!) (ie. had a drink or ten), then met his fears. He was terrific from his first swoop down, the crowd loved him, and he now considers that night the highlight of his acting career.
It was difficult to cast Lestat because we were asking a young actor to carry a movie, not to mention risk looking very silly as a rock star. To make the concert work as well as it does, we needed a psyched-up audience, a band that didn't look put together, and someone to hold the center. That was Stuart. He is terrific as a singer, and even better when all hell breaks loose. I think Stuart is a better Lestat from Lestat's point of view than Tom Cruise would have been. (Remember, Cruise played a radically different character - Lestat from Louis' point of view).
The role of Akasha may have been the most demanding in the film, yet Aaliyah's performance exceeded our expectations. What's more, she did it with a sense of cooperation that all of us should emulate. I've written a lot more about Aaliyah on this site, and you may want to look around to find out more about her performance.
Stuart is a very serious actor, who wouldn't take a role he didn't believe in. Lestat is a terrific character, and Stuart enjoyed enacting many of Lestat's aspects. I don't recall Stuart staying in character after "cut" was called, but he certainly didn't crack jokes, either. Rather, he remained focused. Stuart did a lot of training for the fight scenes - working out with a trainer, movement tutoring, wire work, and action choreography - but he was a natural at it. He made it look effortless.
COMMENTS ON CLAUDIA BLACK’S PERFORMANCE
It was a pleasure to work with Claudia Black, and I wholeheartedly agree that her image should be where it belongs in the site. I will pass along all of your wishes to those whose hands are on the tiller. (fans were urging Jorge to do something about the lack of credits for Claudia Black)
(Claudia Black interview on DVD) Let's say that if we already have an interview with Claudia on tape, then it will definitely be in the DVD. And if we don't, I will look into the feasibility of having one shot and included. (This does not fall into the "promise" category)
Claudia Black was very professional, quite adept at wire work, and helped us to flesh out her role. I am trying to make sure that, once the film opens, we post whatever scenes she and the other Ancients shot that don't make it into the final cut.
Thanks for the links to Claudia Black's Pandora diary. It was very funny, very accurate, and sure brought back memories. Actors really are put through a lot, aren't they?
I'm sorry if I missed answering a question amidst the barrage of enthusiasm for Claudia Black. There will be more images of Claudia as soon as the webmasters can dig them up... which may not be all that fast, given that everything is shutting down for the holidays. I'm not sure what is meant by Claudia Black not being in the credits, but I can assure you that what we call "credits" - that list of people and the roles they played at the end of the movie - will definitely include Claudia, amidst her fellow Ancients.
You should know that I have been blown away by the response for Claudia Black, and that such an outpouring of interest does have an effect (at least on this site). I've just asked for her to be listed as she should be here; I don't know how long it will take, due to the holidays, but it will happen. I should know the premiere's date by February 10. I don't know if Claudia will be there, since she may well be working.
(Answering: In her "QOTD" diary, Claudia writes: "One of the producers comes to me saying there have been some changes to the script. My character now has more lines and a more obvious history with one of the characters, Marius (played by Vincent Perez). He says he saw what I did in the "coming out of the tomb dailies" and liked it so much he has increased the size of the role. [Knock knock, who's there, Claudia Black.]" Mr Saralegui, was it you?) Yes, that was me. Claudia looked like she was licking her lips with delight at what awaited her outside her tomb as she emerged. However, not everything we shot will not be in the film. I hope that what isn't will appear not only in the DVD, but also on this site.
(Replying to: In the QotD novel, the third chapter (about the "Goddess Pandora") describes Pandora going to the Himalayan temple retreat of the vampire Azim from the crowded streets of Old Delhi. So, even though her origins were Greco-Roman, Pandora quite plausibly could be depicted as wearing Eastern attire, based on some of her latest travels). Thanks, Tramonto - I knew we weren't totally whacked in our choice of Pandora's costume when she wakes (as opposed to where she was born).
Okay, let's see. Claudia's name is not on the poster because her representatives didn't negotiate that for her. That said, it is obviously a marketing oversight on our part. There won't be any new photos on the site until at least after the holidays are over and I am back in the office (that's the 3d). And I have seen Claudia's work on FARSCAPE.
Claudia's accent is very... ancient. But please, please remember that you'll hear most of it on the DVD and maybe on this site, not too far down the road.
Michael Rymer suggested she audition for the Pandora role, not me. Claudia would be perfect in any part that doesn't call for blond hair, including bald ones.
ANNE RICE’S INVOLVEMENT
As far as I know, Anne Rice was not "not allowed" on this project.
I expect that we will show Anne Rice the movie in a screening room, on film, as soon as we are done with it.
Anne Rice hasn't seen the film yet, because we are still working on the music. I hope she enjoys it even half as much as we do her novels.
I'm sure Anne Rice will let you know when she sees it. It shouldn't be too long now.
I don't know Anne Rice, so I can't say whether she'd like the changes we made. My guess is that it's unlikely she'll like them all. Some novelists are inspired by what someone does with their creation but most shut off their feelings by saying (correctly) that the mediums are different, and shouldn't be compared. However, I think novelists give up the right to complain about what happens to their work, once they sell it. Criticize, yes.
Fair warning right now this is less than half of the stuff that was posted there and its still looong.
LEAVING OUT KEY VAMPIRES SUCH AS LOUIS ETC.
(Answering why no Mekare, and no story of the twins) Because she has no dialogue? Sorry, just kidding. The Story of the Twins is a movie in its own right; if we told that story, we wouldn't have room for Lestat's. We felt that focusing the movie on Lestat was the more pragmatic way to go. With less than two hours to work with, this meant no Story of the Twins. We kept Maharet, but only in how she connects to our main story. This is one of those changes that was all but dictated by the constraints of our situation, but that I realize is painful to all lovers of the book. You have our sincere apologies for not being able to give you everything that you wanted.
Answering as best I can, and please note, repeating myself, as some of these questions have been answered elsewhere: Louis is not in the movie, because his role in the novel QUEEN is relatively insignificant, and we could only include so many characters. I'm not sure what you mean by "stand alone." The liberties we took in the making of this film were a combination of necessity - a feature film is only so long - and creative license, which in my opinion is the right of anyone engaged in any creative activity. Lestat looks "gothie" because, as you may recall from the novels, his music was "Goth." I can't imagine how one could compare... let alone duplicate... the mood of a novel with the mood of a movie. The story of the Twins has very little to do with Lestat, who is the protagonist of our movie; the Twins' story is a movie in its own right - and this isn't it. The public was considered unwilling to watch a 12-hour movie, which is what I estimate would be required to do full justice to Anne Rice's novels. As to characters living or dying in a way that varies from the novel, refer to the end of my third sentence.
All of the characters you mentioned (Louis, Daniel, Gabrielle, Mekare, Eric) are not in the story, for the reason that you both mentioned: there isn't enough room for all of the vampires, and their roles seemed less crucial to the telling of our story. If you're seeking a connection to INTERVIEW, then you ought to find it in Lestat.
(Gabrielle) She's a very interesting character, but not essential to the novel, and irrelevant to the parts of the novel that we focused on.
Louis and Daniel aren't in the movie because, as you seemingly realize, they don't have a meaningful role in the story. Armand is in the movie, but only briefly. And I can't talk about Jesse's fate without giving away too much; suffice it to say that, given the nature of our story, our ending makes more sense.
CASTING QUERIES
Why is it okay to cast Aaliyah, despite her not looking at all like the Akasha of the novel, but not okay to let Stuart Townsend keep the hair color that suits him best? Are Claudia Black and Matt Newton, to name two of our vampires, ugly? I think some of your fellow posters would beg to differ. I'm not sure how Anne Rice feels about all of the casting, but I have reason to believe that she was happy in the end with our choice of Lestat. In the end, casting is a matter of taste, and very hard to quantify. We made the best choices that we could, given our circumstances, and are quite happy with the overall results.
Tom Cruise was offered the role of Lestat. He passed due to prior commitments and the understandable impulse of an actor not to repeat himself.
Khayman is my favorite male vampire in the novel QUEEN OF THE DAMNED. Bruce Spence was chosen from our Australian casting list for the part due to his talent and distinctive looks. As I said elsewhere, these standards were applied to all of the Ancients, so that they would be more noticeable. Again, due to our need to focus on Lestat in the story that we are telling, Khayman and most of the Ancients don't get nearly as much screen time as we would have liked. Maybe next time!
(About 'Interview' cast members not reprising their roles) It's not so much about a lower-budget version as it is committing to a series of films, as with HARRY POTTER or LOTR. WB didn't do this because the performance of INTERVIEW proved that there wasn't enough interest to warrant it. We failed to get Tom Cruise to reprise the role; Brad Pitt isn't going to take what would have been a very small part in QUEEN; I could go on, but I hope you get the point as to why the cast of INTERVIEW didn't return.
CHANGE OF APPEARANCE OF CHARACTERS
Characters don't often look as they did in the books because this is a movie that hopes to stand on its own feet as an original creation, based on Anne Rice's amazing work. For example, we thought that Stuart Townsend's darkly sexy persona would translate into a terrific Lestat, and it did. However, Stuart looks better with dark hair than light. Because it's Stuart-as-Lestat, rather than the Lestat-as-on-the-page, he doesn't have blond hair. I know that some Anne Rice fans are already pleased. I hope that all of them will be engaged and stimulated, even when they don't agree with some of our changes.
Having already made Lestat a non-blond and Akasha non-Caucasian, we weren't that concerned about making the more minor characters match their written descriptions. We chose our Ancients with a focus for distinctive features, since they weren't going to be onscreen that much, and we wanted to differentiate them from the newbies. We felt very fortunate to gain Paul McGann's interest in the role of Talbot, and went with a younger approach to the role. I understand why these changes may be tough to accept for fans who have visualized the characters in their own minds for years, and again ask for you to consider our perspective, which is that the movie, while an adaptation, is its own creation, and entitled to many of the same creative liberties that other film adaptations have taken.
I was very surprised that so many people cared about things like a character's hair color, mainly because I never think about these things. My own focus tends to be more internal; I never visualize actors when reading a script, for instance. That said, I immediately understood that these characters are indelibly alive in your minds, and that (surprise) they look to you just like Anne Rice described them. I learned something from it, and will take care to remember it in the future. I've already explained why some of the actors don't resemble the source material (Stuart doesn't look good with blond hair; Aaliyah really wanted the part, had obvious promise, and we were already considering casting the role with an African-American, based on the historical reality). Vincent Perez had a long white wig and we all agreed he looked better with his own hair (short and dark). I would say that this type of case-by-case thing occurred with most of the actors. We never decided to deliberately change things as an artistic choice, or anything of the sort. The exception might be Jesse, whom we felt should be younger than Lestat, to better suit some of the themes that were important to us.
Your question about costumes is a good one. In every case, we started with the novel's description of how a character dressed. Some survived, like Marius; others were altered to look as if they were from their geographical origin, like Khayman; others are dressed according to what our story dictates - Armand rises in Pere Lachaise cemetery, promptly drinks the blood of some Jim Morrison worshippers, and absconds with their duds! (PLEASE NOTE: this last is backstory - we don't see it happen.)
Now why does Claudia look like she's from Nepal or somewhere like that? Honestly? We all thought she was associated with such a locale from the novels. Not that she was born there, but that she spent time there, went to sleep there... I forget precisely what it was. Maybe it was a collective gaffe on all our parts. Does anyone know what aspect of the novel QUEEN OF THE DAMNED would have led us to clothe her as we did?
I doubt that Lestat's blond hair is a basic element that attracted anyone to the story. More likely, it's an image that you have become comfortable with over the years, and are having a hard time shaking for the two hours you may spend in a movie theater. I don't know what you mean when you say that changing Lestat's hair color is a "commercial betrayal rather than an aesthetic one." Just who would we be betraying commercially - ourselves? I'm not following you. Nadya, did Tom Cruise look so "strikingly different from most of our world"? I thought he looked like Tom Cruise in a blond wig. Would a blond wig have made Stuart Townsend strikingly different? What you seem to want is the embodiment of an idealization. Movies may or may not approximate our idealizations, but they will never match them. It exists in only one place: the nexus between Anne Rice's imagination, and yours.
Our Lestat isn't blond because the actor playing him looks better with darker hair. As to who our audience will be: it is our hope that all Anne Rice fans come, and that this number is exceeded by those unfamiliar with her work.
My feeling is that the people who don't like the casting of Aaliyah because she's black have the same motivation as the people who don't like Stuart Townsend not being blond. They want everything just as it was in the novel. I've already explained how I feel about this elsewhere, and obviously I sided with those who prefer the most talented available candidate to someone who looks more like the role was described in the novel. That happened to be Aaliyah. I do think it's important that people remember that while bitching about Stuart not being blond comes off as merely fanatical and redundant, bitching about Akasha not being white could seem racist to some, and thusly offensive. Many people have indeed taken this into account, and gone to some pains to stress that their opinion is not racially motivated. If they say so, then I'm happy to leave it at that.
I agree that the color of these characters' hair is integral to their appearance in the novels. But they are not integral to their personalities. Personality - not hair color - is what a character is all about. So when we made our movie, we tried to remain faithful to the characters' personalities; their looks were secondary. Just as they are in life. To some people. For people who can't see Lestat beyond the color of his hair - meaning every single poster who has questioned his hair color, but not asked about his character - I say, don't be so shallow, or so rigid. Your perceptions may expand a little as a result.
COMMENTS ON STUART TOWNSEND’S PERFORMANCE
Everyone who has seen Stuart Townsend's portrayal of Lestat marvels at his charisma and sexiness. He managed to integrate Lestat's soulfulness, brattiness and bravado into one pretty damn seamless performance.
Stuart has a slight Irish accent, which is what you'll hear in the movie. The only person in our very international cast who noticeably altered their normal way of speaking was Aaliyah, who developed an ancient Egyptian accent for the role of Akasha. Stuart is indeed a good singer, but we didn't learn that until after we chose him for the role... which is well after we had already signed up Jonathan Davis to sing (as well as compose our songs and score).
Stuart's stand-in had become quite a favorite of the crowd at Werribee by the time that Stuart was to first appear on stage. He was nervous about being perceived as a "movie star," nervous about performing a rock song in front of a big audience, and very nervous once he found himself suspended fifty feet above the stage for his entrance. Stuart fortified himself as much as was seemly (ahem!) (ie. had a drink or ten), then met his fears. He was terrific from his first swoop down, the crowd loved him, and he now considers that night the highlight of his acting career.
It was difficult to cast Lestat because we were asking a young actor to carry a movie, not to mention risk looking very silly as a rock star. To make the concert work as well as it does, we needed a psyched-up audience, a band that didn't look put together, and someone to hold the center. That was Stuart. He is terrific as a singer, and even better when all hell breaks loose. I think Stuart is a better Lestat from Lestat's point of view than Tom Cruise would have been. (Remember, Cruise played a radically different character - Lestat from Louis' point of view).
The role of Akasha may have been the most demanding in the film, yet Aaliyah's performance exceeded our expectations. What's more, she did it with a sense of cooperation that all of us should emulate. I've written a lot more about Aaliyah on this site, and you may want to look around to find out more about her performance.
Stuart is a very serious actor, who wouldn't take a role he didn't believe in. Lestat is a terrific character, and Stuart enjoyed enacting many of Lestat's aspects. I don't recall Stuart staying in character after "cut" was called, but he certainly didn't crack jokes, either. Rather, he remained focused. Stuart did a lot of training for the fight scenes - working out with a trainer, movement tutoring, wire work, and action choreography - but he was a natural at it. He made it look effortless.
COMMENTS ON CLAUDIA BLACK’S PERFORMANCE
It was a pleasure to work with Claudia Black, and I wholeheartedly agree that her image should be where it belongs in the site. I will pass along all of your wishes to those whose hands are on the tiller. (fans were urging Jorge to do something about the lack of credits for Claudia Black)
(Claudia Black interview on DVD) Let's say that if we already have an interview with Claudia on tape, then it will definitely be in the DVD. And if we don't, I will look into the feasibility of having one shot and included. (This does not fall into the "promise" category)
Claudia Black was very professional, quite adept at wire work, and helped us to flesh out her role. I am trying to make sure that, once the film opens, we post whatever scenes she and the other Ancients shot that don't make it into the final cut.
Thanks for the links to Claudia Black's Pandora diary. It was very funny, very accurate, and sure brought back memories. Actors really are put through a lot, aren't they?
I'm sorry if I missed answering a question amidst the barrage of enthusiasm for Claudia Black. There will be more images of Claudia as soon as the webmasters can dig them up... which may not be all that fast, given that everything is shutting down for the holidays. I'm not sure what is meant by Claudia Black not being in the credits, but I can assure you that what we call "credits" - that list of people and the roles they played at the end of the movie - will definitely include Claudia, amidst her fellow Ancients.
You should know that I have been blown away by the response for Claudia Black, and that such an outpouring of interest does have an effect (at least on this site). I've just asked for her to be listed as she should be here; I don't know how long it will take, due to the holidays, but it will happen. I should know the premiere's date by February 10. I don't know if Claudia will be there, since she may well be working.
(Answering: In her "QOTD" diary, Claudia writes: "One of the producers comes to me saying there have been some changes to the script. My character now has more lines and a more obvious history with one of the characters, Marius (played by Vincent Perez). He says he saw what I did in the "coming out of the tomb dailies" and liked it so much he has increased the size of the role. [Knock knock, who's there, Claudia Black.]" Mr Saralegui, was it you?) Yes, that was me. Claudia looked like she was licking her lips with delight at what awaited her outside her tomb as she emerged. However, not everything we shot will not be in the film. I hope that what isn't will appear not only in the DVD, but also on this site.
(Replying to: In the QotD novel, the third chapter (about the "Goddess Pandora") describes Pandora going to the Himalayan temple retreat of the vampire Azim from the crowded streets of Old Delhi. So, even though her origins were Greco-Roman, Pandora quite plausibly could be depicted as wearing Eastern attire, based on some of her latest travels). Thanks, Tramonto - I knew we weren't totally whacked in our choice of Pandora's costume when she wakes (as opposed to where she was born).
Okay, let's see. Claudia's name is not on the poster because her representatives didn't negotiate that for her. That said, it is obviously a marketing oversight on our part. There won't be any new photos on the site until at least after the holidays are over and I am back in the office (that's the 3d). And I have seen Claudia's work on FARSCAPE.
Claudia's accent is very... ancient. But please, please remember that you'll hear most of it on the DVD and maybe on this site, not too far down the road.
Michael Rymer suggested she audition for the Pandora role, not me. Claudia would be perfect in any part that doesn't call for blond hair, including bald ones.
ANNE RICE’S INVOLVEMENT
As far as I know, Anne Rice was not "not allowed" on this project.
I expect that we will show Anne Rice the movie in a screening room, on film, as soon as we are done with it.
Anne Rice hasn't seen the film yet, because we are still working on the music. I hope she enjoys it even half as much as we do her novels.
I'm sure Anne Rice will let you know when she sees it. It shouldn't be too long now.
I don't know Anne Rice, so I can't say whether she'd like the changes we made. My guess is that it's unlikely she'll like them all. Some novelists are inspired by what someone does with their creation but most shut off their feelings by saying (correctly) that the mediums are different, and shouldn't be compared. However, I think novelists give up the right to complain about what happens to their work, once they sell it. Criticize, yes.
