Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, soon seemed radically different and lost in translation, once again asking why AMC is repeating the series’ past mistakes rather than learning from them.
Anne Rice’s original prequel was The Vampire Lestat, both a prequel and sequel to Interview with the Vampire. Following Lestat’s life as a mortal, his search for his origins and identity as a vampire, as well as his rise to fame as a rockstar, it recontextualized characters and events from the series. The Vampire Lestat was eventually loosely adapted and, in many parts, completely rewritten for the 2002 film Queen of the Damned.
Anne Rice’s son, Christopher Rice, wrote a pilot episode for what would eventually evolve into AMC’s Interview with the Vampire television series. Entitled “Wolf Killer,” the script had the potential to deliver what previous movies failed to, a live-action adaptation that better reflected Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles. However, AMC decided to remake the first novel and movie by reimagining the origins of the protagonist Louis de Pointe du Lac instead, making the same kind of shortsighted creative choices that have hindered the series since 1994.
Although not without their merits, the Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned movies had the challenge of condensing their stories and adapting them for modern audiences. For Interview with the Vampire, Louis and the complex relationship with his religious brother transformed into a single reference to a wife and daughter who ed away, and in Queen of the Damned, a deep exploration of changing times, Lestat’s philosophies, and a journey to discover the origin of vampirism, were completely rewritten to be a simplified vampire story. Additionally, the unique culture and setting of the ‘80s became the grungy early 2000s in Queen of the Damned. AMC’s adaptation has already shown that it’s making similar changes. In the past, creative choices have harmed the adaptations of Rice’s work, not only by diluting the insights that made her a critically acclaimed author but by changing her original intentions.
The original pitch could’ve been a more authentic experience, as evidenced by the love for House of the Dragon prove prequels are becoming popular. Why AMC would rather totally rewrite a series when everything they could ever want from one was on their desks defies explanation, especially considering The Vampire Chronicles’ past struggles.
It’s ironic for a novel that exists to be a more accurate memoir to have its series rewritten. Whether it’s for better or worse remains to be seen as Interview with the Vampire descends upon television. Regardless of the vampire TV show being interpreted one way or another, accurately or with creative differences, there’s no doubt that Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles is a story still worth telling.