QotD movie FAQ, part 3
Feb. 4th, 2012 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forgottenbennetIs Queen of the Damned a Sequel to Interview with the Vampire?
QUEEN OF THE DAMNED is the sequel to INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, to the degree that the novel THE VAMPIRE LESTAT was a sequel to INTERVIEW the novel. It's probably more accurate to view them as parts of a series. As you may know, none of the actors featured in INTERVIEW reprise their roles in QUEEN. As for whether Anne Rice promotes the movie in New Orleans... I sure hope so!
I would have loved to produce INTERVIEW. It would have made my decade. Please remember that a producer is not a director, and how a director approaches a movie — never mind a star like Tom Cruise — weighs more in the end. That said, I would have tried to make the ending feel more like a resolution... even if that means "Louis fails to get any answers which make him more comfortable with his vampirism." By the time of the interview, Louis is leading a starkly existential life, and I would rather have had a sharper sense of that with Christian Slater, rather than the "if you can't be serious, be funny" tag with Tom Cruise and the Rolling Stones. Of all the VAMPIRE CHRONICLES, INTERVIEW is by far the easiest to adapt, in my opinion. While it covers an unusually long time span and is told in flashback, its plot follows one character in one plot, from point A to point B. That makes it easy to compress, and easier for the audience to follow. The rest of Anne Rice's novels in the series all have multiple plots... but not necessarily one throughline on which they all hang... and QUEEN in particular has multiple protagonists. This may help to explain, if not the choices we made, then why choices had to be made. Frequently.
On Anne Rice's Involvement with the Project
Anne Rice has now seen the movie. You can hear her comments on her web site phone message, but I can tell you that she was pleased enough to offer the use of her name and possessory credit in our marketing materials.
ON CASTING
--
Early Casting Ideas
Wes Bentley told us that he was exhausted and not up to the challenge of the role at that time. We considered just about every young actor, as you might imagine. Heath Ledger was doing FOUR FEATHERS, and Josh Hartnett couldn't get out of his Miramax options. Hugo Weaving was considered for Marius, but wanted to rest before embarking on back-to-back MATRIXes. Aaliyah was the first person we cast, and no one else was considered for that role. I think it would be unfair to say who we passed on for the role... but it most certainly did NOT include some guy who corresponded with Vampvan, and claimed we met with him in Texas (I think). That was a complete hoax and amused the hell out of me!
The Reprise of the INTERVIEW Cast
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.
QUEEN OF THE DAMNED is the sequel to INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, to the degree that the novel THE VAMPIRE LESTAT was a sequel to INTERVIEW the novel. It's probably more accurate to view them as parts of a series. As you may know, none of the actors featured in INTERVIEW reprise their roles in QUEEN. As for whether Anne Rice promotes the movie in New Orleans... I sure hope so!
I would have loved to produce INTERVIEW. It would have made my decade. Please remember that a producer is not a director, and how a director approaches a movie — never mind a star like Tom Cruise — weighs more in the end. That said, I would have tried to make the ending feel more like a resolution... even if that means "Louis fails to get any answers which make him more comfortable with his vampirism." By the time of the interview, Louis is leading a starkly existential life, and I would rather have had a sharper sense of that with Christian Slater, rather than the "if you can't be serious, be funny" tag with Tom Cruise and the Rolling Stones. Of all the VAMPIRE CHRONICLES, INTERVIEW is by far the easiest to adapt, in my opinion. While it covers an unusually long time span and is told in flashback, its plot follows one character in one plot, from point A to point B. That makes it easy to compress, and easier for the audience to follow. The rest of Anne Rice's novels in the series all have multiple plots... but not necessarily one throughline on which they all hang... and QUEEN in particular has multiple protagonists. This may help to explain, if not the choices we made, then why choices had to be made. Frequently.
On Anne Rice's Involvement with the Project
Anne Rice has now seen the movie. You can hear her comments on her web site phone message, but I can tell you that she was pleased enough to offer the use of her name and possessory credit in our marketing materials.
ON CASTING
--
Early Casting Ideas
Wes Bentley told us that he was exhausted and not up to the challenge of the role at that time. We considered just about every young actor, as you might imagine. Heath Ledger was doing FOUR FEATHERS, and Josh Hartnett couldn't get out of his Miramax options. Hugo Weaving was considered for Marius, but wanted to rest before embarking on back-to-back MATRIXes. Aaliyah was the first person we cast, and no one else was considered for that role. I think it would be unfair to say who we passed on for the role... but it most certainly did NOT include some guy who corresponded with Vampvan, and claimed we met with him in Texas (I think). That was a complete hoax and amused the hell out of me!
The Reprise of the INTERVIEW Cast
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.
