Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Anne Rice’s interview with the vampire.AMC’s recent release Interview with the Vampire brings back the world of the legendary and best-selling horror novel of the same title by the late Anne Rice (originally published in 1976). Those responsible for developing Rice’s novel into a show first emphasized the intent to stay true to the richness of the source material while giving the classic story a modern twist. “In many ways, our show is more faithful to the book than the movie, which is ironic because Anne Rice herself wrote the script for the movie,” the executive producer said. Mark Johnson in his exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Indeed, it is impossible to talk about the new screen adaptation of Rice’s work without recalling Neil Jordanevocative 1994 film of the same title with Tom Cruise, brad pitt, Kirsten Dunstand Antonio Banderas. Although it was widely acclaimed by critics (the film won several BAFTA awards and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Production Design and Best Music), it is often considered an interpretation rather than an adaptation of the novel – Rice had to cram the events of the book into a two-hour movie format. Fortunately, the series’ length allows for delving into the intricacies of Rice’s book universe and exploring the characters’ complex relationships as well as their backstories.
The new reading of the cult vampire novel promises to strike the right balance between reimagining certain aspects of the story and linking it to today’s world, making Interview with the Vampire an exciting watch for hardcore fans of The Vampire Chronicles (a series of 15 novels) and those who are just beginning to discover the Immortal Universe. Given the film’s inaccuracies, there’s a legitimate question of how much AMC Interview with the Vampire is true to the source and what its creators mean after nearly half a century since the book’s release and nearly three decades after the success of the film adaptation.
How is the show different from the book?
In some ways, the show picks up where the film leaves off – featuring the meeting of Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) and Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) in Dubai as a reunion of old acquaintances who have unfinished business to settle. Yet when Louis begins to reminisce about his story, the sense of continuity is broken. Louis in the show is noticeably different not only from the film version but also from its literary prototype – from an 18th-century planter to a brothel owner at the dawn of the 20th century. The chronological shift, as well as different character traits, do not, however, affect the tragic trigger – the suicide of a beloved brother – which plunges Louis into the depths of despair and leads him down the path of darkness. The order of events is slightly different in the book and in the series – in the latter, the meeting between Louis and Lestat (sam reid) precedes the dramatic sequence of events, allowing the characters to develop feelings for each other, while in the book Lestat finds Louis in the aftermath of the tragedy, emotionally devastated and on the verge of ending his life. In the book, Louis’ transformation is a way to end the cycle of pain bestowed on him by his brother’s death; in the series, he clearly sees Lestat’s offer as an opportunity to break free from the shackles of society.
In the AMCs Interview with the Vampire, Louis is played by Jacob Anderson, of Afro-Caribbean and English descent. Contrary to the opinion of those who have only seen the 1994 film adaptation and imagine Louis as a white planter, the cast of the series is actually closer to the book in which the character is described as a Creole (descendant of French or Spanish settlers and African slaves with mixed racial heritage). Also, the color of his skin is woven into the larger historical context of when blackness and homosexuality were equally alienating things – “you could be a lot of things in New Orleans, but a man openly gay black was not one of them,” Louis lamentably remarks in his confession.
In particular, Claudia (Bass Bailey) in the series is also portrayed as a person of color, which further ties her to Louis and separates her from Lestat, bringing an extra layer of meaning to the complex family dynamic. Even though the young vampire hasn’t been properly introduced to the public yet (she only appears briefly at the very end of the third episode), judging by the trailer, Claudia has been turned away from a child. from five years old (in the book) to a teenager on the verge of puberty (in the series). The choice to age the character is rather justifiable, as the original book description would impose strict restrictions on the showrunners and raise moral concerns regarding the portrayal of her complex and one-sided love affair with Louis.
Another character much older than his prototype book is Daniel Molloy. Unlike the young, drug-hungry reporter hungry for a breakthrough in the book, the serial version of the character is a seasoned writer at the end of his career looking for the last chance to snatch the interview of his life. According to the books, Malloy was turned into a vampire by Armand in the third book of The Vampire Chronicles, queen of the damned. However, in the series, the audience still sees Malloy as mortal (albeit with a suspicious bite mark on his neck). It remains unclear how much the character’s storyline has been changed from the events of the novel, and whether audiences will see Malloy’s initiation in later episodes of the series.
Fixed like a memory of the past, Interview with the Vampire – both the original novel and the screen adaptations – make extensive use of the principle of time jumps from past to present and back again. The change in timeline of the series from the book – from the 18th to the early 20th century and from the 1970s to the 2020s – only partially affects the narrative, bringing new context and historical details (for example, the use digital technologies rather than analog). New Orleans remains the central stage on which the drama takes place – in the book, Louis is described as the owner of two indigo plantations on the Mississippi near New Orleans. New in this equation, Dubai with its modernist architecture (in the book, the original interview takes place in San Francisco) as well as the character of Rashid (Assad Zamanlisten)) as Louis’s mysterious companion and assistant.
As far as one can judge by the first episodes of the series, Interview with the Vampire delivered on its promise to honor the original novel while bringing new and exciting drama to bloodthirsty audiences. The series has already been renewed for a second season, with a total of seven episodes each.
Interview with the Vampire features new episodes weekly every Sunday on AMC, with episodes available to stream a week earlier for AMC+ subscribers.
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Differences between book and show – CNET