You may recall the controversy that erupted back in the 90’s when Interview With the Vampire was adapted into a movie and Tom Cruise played Lestat.
Although Anne Rice eventually changed course and endorsed the movie, I’m still disappointed in the adaption, especially considering the book was so good, and it was a huge missed opportunity to make a great, big budget horror film.
To me, it was like how Stephen King felt about Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining, where he felt it was like a great looking car with no engine.
To this day, Anne Rice’s work hasn’t gotten the film adaptation it deserves, and who knows if Transformers screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are the guys to do it with The Tale of the Body Thief.
Yet, they’re going to be producing the adaption for Imagine, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s company.
As you know, Kurtzman and Orci are the screenwriters not just on Transformers, but also the JJ Abrams Star Trek flicks and Fringe. However, at least according to HitFix, the duo won’t be writing the adaptation of the novel this time around, as The Body Thief will be penned by Lee Patterson – a relative newcomer who wrote an un-produced script called Snatched that got him noticed.
As genre fans also know, Howard and Grazer tried to bring The Dark Tower to life to no avail at Universal, but I’m certainly hoping this film will have the right director, script, and actor playing Lestat.
Obviously vampires are still hot with Twilight, and the upcoming big screen versions of Dark Shadows and Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, so I’m certainly hoping at least somebody involved is an Anne Rice fan and respects her work enough to try and bring her wonderful prose to the screen.
