MOVIE NEWS – The series Interview with the Vampire, recently confirmed by AMC and based on the novel by Anne Rice, has already found its Lestat de Lioncourt. The Vampire Lestat will be Sam Reid , a 34-year-old Australian actor known for the 1973 series Prime Suspect or Waiting for the Barbarians or Belle.

Tom Cruise previously played the role in the original film adaptation and Stuart Townsend in Queen of the Damned.

This same character, the main character in Rice’s Vampire Chronicles novels, was played by Tom Cruise in the 1994 film and Stuart Townsend in The Queen of the Damned.

Interview with the Vampire was published in 1976. It was a revolution by leaving behind the clichés of the Dracula myth to show more “human” and vulnerable vampires with complex relationships. It follows the story of the vampire Louis de Pointe du Lac (who in the film was Brad Pitt), recounting how he was turned into a vampire by Lestat.

The 1994 film, which also featured Antonio Banderas, is already a cult film. Still, this new television adaptation aims to start a saga that adapts the rest of Anne Rice‘s Vampire Chronicles. The AMC chain acquired the rights to the 18 books.

It is expected that other series will be made adapting Rice’s work, and in most of them, Lestat appears, so if it goes well, this can be a lasting job for Sam Reid. At the moment, the only series that has the green light is Interview with the Vampire, which is expected to premiere in 2022, with eight chapters.

Rolin Jones, a screenwriter on shows like Friday Night Lights, Weeds, Perry Mason and Boardwalk Empire, will serve as showrunner and screenwriter. Mark Johnson, producer of series such as Breaking Bad, Halt and Catch Fire and Better Call Saul, and winner of an Oscar for Rain Man, will also serve as executive producer of Interview with the Vampire.

Source: Variety