Interview with the Vampire for AMC+’s series is one of the most highly anticipated shows of 2022. With their incredible casting choices and iconic storyline from Anne Rice, this new adaptation seems to stay truer to the source material, while creating something all its own.
The recent 2020 AMC+ sizzle reel featured a couple of quick moments of the upcoming series. This sent the interwebs into a tizzy! So, I felt it was time to go over what we know so far…and a few things we didn’t until now!
WHAT IS INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE?
Interview with the Vampire is the first book in the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. The story follows Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat de Lioncourt, two vampires who both love and hate each other. Think of them as a romantically wrought relationship. The worst partner you ever had that you couldn’t leave. During their love/hate (after) life-partnership, Louis turns to a young girl named Claudia as a surrogate child for the pair. Later, she also grows to hate Lestat. Eventually, Louis and Claudia flee to Paris where their (after) lives continue down a dark path.
In the iconic 1994 film, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise portray Louis and Lestat, respectively. Oscar Nominee Kirsten Dunst playing Claudia. And Christian Slater plays Daniel Malloy, the interviewer.
DOES INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE HAVE A RELEASE DATE?
At this moment, AMC+ has not released an official release date. The show is currently in production and filming in New Orleans. According to AMC+ 2022 sizzle real, it seems the series is set for a 2022 debut.
WHO IS WRITING AND DIRECTING THE SERIES?
Interview with the Vampire the series is directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World). Rollins Jones, who has written some of my favorite shows from Weeds to Boardwalk Empire, is writing the scripts. Jones is also serving as showrunner and executive producer. Mark Johnson, the late Anne Rice, and Christopher Rice are also executive producers for the project.
IS THE PLOT OF THE SERIES THE SAME AS THE BOOK OR THE MOVIE?
Yes and No. While the AMC+ series seems to be staying truer to the source material than the film, it is still making the story it’s own. Check out the Official Synopsis of the series.
A reinvention of Anne Rice’s novel of the same name from her collection ‘The Vampire Chronicles’. This gloriously gruesome and sexy gothic horror series centers on vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac’s telling of his 200-year-long life story alongside immortal vampire companion Lestat de Lioncourt to investigative journalist Daniel Molloy whom he met some fifty years previously. Flitting between present-day Brooklyn and New Orleans in the early 1900s with themes of vengeance, greed, opulence, and depravity, this will be an ongoing eight-episode series for AMC.
While the book, minus the actual interview and a couple of snippets, stays in the 19th century, it seems in order to modernize the story we are heading into the 20th.
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE FOR A NEW GENERATION
What we know so far about the AMC+ Interview with the Vampire series it will still follow Louis, Lestat, and Claudia while introducing new characters, and old ones. Like the movie, the series is being filmed in New Orleans. However, the series will flip between present-day Brooklyn and 1900s New Orleans, giving us only 8 hour-long episodes for this first season.
As we know, Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones) is playing Louis, our strikingly handsome, brooding vampire. Sam Reid (The Newsreader) is taking on Lestat, the petulant, overly confident yet charming vampire with an admiration for both sexes. Claudia the young, inquisitive vampire is played by Bailey Bass (Avatar).
Both Louis and Lestat are optioned for multiple seasons. Louise for 2, Lestat for 5 while Claudia doesn’t seem to be. So, I think it’s fair to assume the first season will go through the loss of Claudia. Then, continue onto the other books in The Vampire Chronicles series.
WHAT IT COULD MEAN CASTING LOUIS AS A BLACK MAN
As you can see there are similarities and major differences with these castings against the book and film. Instead of 5 years old, similarly to Dunst, Claudia will be 13. Perhaps the most significant departure from the source material is casting a Black girl as Claudia, as well as a black man as Louis. Found by Louis beside her dead mother, Claudia, in the book, is described as having long golden ringlets and porcelain skin.
Louis de Pointe du Lac was born to a French family that emigrated to Louisiana when he was a very young child having been given a land grant to grow Indigo. He is described as pale, with long dark hair, and green eyes. As we can see in the AMC+ sizzle reel for 2022, our new Louis is the complete opposite.
I’m curious to see if they will use these changes in the storyline of the characters. Will they continue with Louis’s family Indigo plantation, as well as the slave-owning storyline? There have been populations of free people of color in New Orleans during this time, as well as Black slave owners. It could be an interesting angle that we haven’t seen explored. What will it be like to have Lestat and Louis travel together? How will people react when they see Claudia by their side? Will Lestat’s witness overpower Louis’s wealth or will they all be allowed to travel as equals?
OTHER CHARACTERS JOINING THE SERIES
According to Illuminerdi and corroborated by our sources, there seems to be another major change from movie to series. In the Interview with the Vampire film, Louis loses his wife and daughter making him susceptible to Lestat. However, in the series, the story is changed back to the original. We will now meet Louis’ mother Florence, sister Grace, and his overly religious brother Paul. At this moment, the most important character is Paul whose loss of life is what actually crushes Louis in turn making him an easy target for Lestat. According to their personal breakdowns, they are a family who lives in a large mansion, but still no official word of it being an Indigo plantation.
Outside of the family, there are other new characters, however not from the books, that are coming to shake things up. Antoinette Brown, the blues singer who performs at Louis nightclub/bordello. Antoinette is coming to disrupt Louis and Lestat’s relationship with one of their own. But, never fear Louis Jonah Macon is returning home from WWI. Jonah is a handsome Army private, but also a childhood friend of Louis, whom he also had a brief romance with! With him back in town, it seems he and Louis will once again hook up for a tryst. I’m loving how the series seems to be embracing the LGBTQ+ness of the books that the movie only hinted towards.
Another all-new character for the series is Samesh Kulkarn who is Louis’ personal doctor. I’m unsure why he needs a personal doctor. Maybe to help sell the story of his sickness vs being a vampire? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Stay tuned to THS for more Interview with the Vampire news!
