‘Vampire Chronicles’ book series finds a new home…
Variety is reporting that Universal Pictures and producer Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment have secured the movie rights to Anne Rice’s novels in ‘The Vampire Chronicles.’
The deal spans all the novels in the series: ‘Interview with the Vampire,’ ‘The Vampire Lestat,’ ‘The Queen of the Damned,’ ‘The Tale of the Body Thief,’ ‘Memnoch the Devil,’ ‘The Vampire Armand,’ ‘Merrick,’ ‘Blood and Gold,’ ‘Blackwood Farm,’ ‘Blood Canticle’ and upcoming 11th book ‘Prince Lestat,’ due to hit bookshelves in October.
In addition to the rights, the deal also includes the screenplay adaptation of ‘Tale of the Body Thief,’ which was adapted by Rice’s son, Christopher Rice.
Screenwriting/producing duo Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (‘Star Trek,’ ‘Transformers’) are on board to produce, with Bobby Cohen serving as executive producer. Erica Huggins will oversee for Imagine Entertainment.
Rice’s series chronicles the exploits of Lestat de Lioncourt, an 18th century French-aristocrat-turned-bloodsucker.
The first book, 1976’s ‘Interview with the Vampire,’ was previously adapted to the big screen by Neil Jordan in 1994 with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in the leads. The film grossed $220 million globally.
A less successful follow-up, ‘Queen of the Damned’ starring Stuart Townsend and Aaliyah, combined elements from the second and third books in the series. It failed to light up the box office, grossing just $45 million.