Main article: Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
Before the novel's publication, Anne Rice had sold the film rights to Interview
with the Vampire to Paramount Pictures, who did nothing with the property for
the ten years of their contract. With Paramount's option expired, Rice moved
the film rights to Lorimar Productions, which was taken over by Warner Bros. in
1988. Producer David Geffen purchased the rights for $500,000, and director
Neil Jordan co-wrote the script with Rice, with her receiving the sole credit.
The film was released in 1994 with Tom Cruise as Lestat, a role he received,
much to the original chagrin of Anne Rice, who favoured Julian Sands or Rutger
Hauer. Brad Pitt starred as Louis, and Christian Slater was cast as the
interviewer Molloy after the death of the originally cast River Phoenix.
Antonio Banderas co-starred as Armand, as did a young Kirsten Dunst as the
child vampire Claudia.
The film was a major success, causing a resurgence of interest in the book
series and sent Interview with The Vampire back onto the bestseller lists. Rice
initially voiced her objections to the casting of Tom Cruise as Lestat (her
original choice was Julian Sands). But, after seeing the finished film, she
paid $7,740 for a two-page ad in Daily Variety praising his performance and
apologizing for her previous doubts about him.[2] There have also been several
slight alterations from the book to the film adaption; one, most notably being,
the change from the mortal Louis' despair and grief from his younger brother's
death to (in the film) despair and grief over a deceased wife and stillborn
child. Other changes include Lestat returning from the swamp with a new
accomplice before attacking Louis and Claudia, the deletion of some characters
including Lestat's blind father, Louis's family, and the Freniere family, the
deletion of Louis and Claudia traveling through Eastern Europe, the shortening
of Madeleine's story time, the deletion of Louis entering a church and
attacking a priest, the deleting of the part with Lestat having a hand in the
deaths of Claudia and Madeleine, Louis finding Lestat with a new vampire who
later abandons him as well and the visual portrayal of Armand; in the book,
Armand, though actually nearly 400 years old, is said to appear to be a mere
boy of seventeen with auburn hair and of Eastern European descent; Banderas fit
none of these descriptions, but the events surrounding the character of Armand
stayed very near to those of the book.
