Interview with the Vampire

The movie, based upon the first Vampire novel by Anne Rice, was released in the USA on November 15, 1994.

   The novel was written in 1976, after Anne's daughter died of leukaemia. In reaction to this, Anne created her own line-up of vampire creatures. She created Louis de Pointe du Lac, a lost soul who owned a plantation in 18th-century Louisiana. After the death of his family he is tortured with guilt, feeling responsible for the death. Until the charismatic vampire Lestat de Lioncourt finds him, and offers him eternal life.
   But even this cannot relieve Louis' suffering. He hates being a vampire, killing human beings for their blood. So he lives on a diet of rats and chickens, being disgusted by Lestat's killing.
   In reaction to this, Lestat creates a new vampire, the child Claudia, to let Louis stay with him. Claudia appears to be a fierce killer, and becomes Louis' lover. But she has the body of an eternal child, a doll, but her mind is that of a woman. She finds Lestat responsable for this and seeks revenge.

This is the story of the movie, and the novel is ofcourse much the same. But many things have been changed, God knows why, maybe for pacing, or to make the story more clear? To read the original script, click here.

The filming of the movie was a long and complicated one.
   Knopf books decided to publish the novel, which became a huge best-seller, and has 7 sequels today.
The movie rights were optioned for $150,000 even before the book went to press.
   There immediately raised plans for making a movie, but that plan took 18 years to complete. There were problems from the start, especially concerning the casting of Lestat. First cast as Lestat was John Travolta. But because the movie market was full with several other vampire productions, Paramount decided to wait for a sequel. This sequel, The Vampire Lestat, appeared in 1985.
   In TVL Lestat had become a rockstar. Paramount wasn't pleased with this story and the rights to both books passed on to Lorimar, who planned to make a TV mini-series starring Richard Chamberlain. That didn't work out and even a musical by Elton John was considered, starring Sting and Cher (apparantly, the character of Louis was being transformed to a woman). Fortunately, that didn't happen either and the rights went to Warner Bros.
   Producer David Geffen was a big fan of Anne Rice's books and finally he became the latest to try to turn it into a movie.
    Geffen started by letting Anne Rice write the script herself. Anne was thrilled, and had several suggestions for directors, including David Cronenberg, Ridley Scott or Neil Jordan.
   Neil Jordan it became, an Irishman who had already directed the hit The Crying Game and the fairy-like Company of Wolves. His first step was to re-write Rice's version of the script. And with that the fighting began.
   The first fight was over the screenplay. The final credit belongs to Anne Rice, but only because Jordan had used material from Rice's novels for the script.
   Second battle: casting. Jordan insisted on having Brad Pitt as Louis. Rice agreed on this, but then the casting of Lestat began...
   Rice herself suggested Rutger Hauer, a Dutch actor who was now too old to play a 2-year old. Other suggestions were Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Ralph Fiennes, while Jordan wanted Daniel Day-Lewis. When he refused, hell broke loose: Jordan approached Tom Cruise.
   Rice was stunned by the casting of Cruise. She didn't think he could really pull it off. She thought Pitt could be a better Lestat than Cruise. Cruise was convinced he could do it and refused to stop.
   Casting was completed with Kirsten Dunst as the young Claudia, Antonio Banderas as Armand, River Phoenix as Malloy, the Interviewer, and Jordan's regular Stephen Rea was to play Santiago.
   Hell wasn't over yet. October 31 River Phoenix died of a drug overdose outside Johnny Depp's Viper Room. Known for his healthy living, this came as a shock to everyone. And it left the producers with a new problem. They needed a replacement. Rumours circulated, from Leonardo DiCaprio to Stephen Dorff, but it was Christian Slater who got the part. He donated his $250,000 salary to River's most favourite charities.