I was shocked that I heard this. I'm looking forward to it, but I must admit I'm at least a little bit scared of them turning out awful. From Bloody Disgusting.com:

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/17096

It seems that Vampire Lestat will be the next film made, which likely means Interview is not being remade and that hopefully Queen of the Damned will be. They may be very tough books to bring to the screen, but I'm sure it can be done and done well.

But......Robert Downey jr. as Lestat? No matter how hard I try, I just can't picture that.

I'm sorry to say RDJ is way too crusty, speaking as an old git myself. Some botox or CGI may be required to smooth out the Clint Eastwood creases, possibly a whole body shave as well. I actually liked Tom Cruise in Interview. just the right amount of selfish manic hedonism. Ahhh, such fun.

-LS

Yeah I just don't see it either. Not only the look, but I don't think that's a role best suited to him. Plus Lestat needs to be able to seduce practically anybody. No way would I let RDJ suck on my neck.

I don't know who this guy really is but I stumbled across his Myspace page a while back and was amazed at how much he looks like Lestat is supposed to look:

http://www.myspace.com/le_brat_prince

He has, at the least, the look that the filmakers should go on for the character. While Cruise did a fantastic job with Lestat, it would be nice to see someone who not only plays him well, but has the look down perfectly. Same with Armand, though I think Banderas played him very well, he looks nothing like a gorgeous femme 17 year old boy. Well, not any that I have seen yet, lol.

I'm sorry, did I fall through a portal last night and have woken up in some bizarro universe where Robert Downey Jr ISN'T completely awesome?

Need I remind those of you saying he's old and crusty that Anne Rice originally wanted Rutger Hauer to play Lestat in Interview With The Vampire, and he was no fresh-faced spring chicken even then. Gods know we've got enough effete prettyboys clogging up the vampire genre at the moment, like Mr Sparklyface in with That Film Which Shall Not Be Named .

I'm not a massive fan of the Vampire Chronicles but I've read a few of them, including The Vampire Lestat. My impression of Lestat was someone with a quasi-rockstar attitude to unlife; enjoy it to the fullest, embrace everything and party hard, and that's all before he became an ACTUAL rockstar. I can't think of anyone better (who isn;t Johnny Depp) to portray that, and they can do wonders with makeup and CGI nowadays to shave some years off so he's not going to resemble Lance Henriksen or anything.



Why not? I'm straight as an arrow and I'd let him.

- trag

Well, if he goes after you then he isn't bothering the others here, which should please all of you.

As Iron Man he could just biff them over the head and no problems squeezing them dry. As a bonus the suit is light proof and seriously immune to wooden stakes. Oh, that would be a movie car crash!

-LS

If I had the necessary photoshop skills I'd make a poster for it.

"The Iron Man Lestat"

- trag

I think that Cruise is exactly what Lestat would've looked and acted like. I can't imagine anyone playing the part of an undead narcissist better than him. Except for that Don Henry guy! I know he's putting everyone on saying that he doesn't need to excercise to maintain a body builder's muscle. It's gotta be an act.

Heh, sparkly vampires....what is the world coming to?

Well everyone was very skeptical about Cruise playing Lestat back when the 'Interview..." film came out, yet most people agree he did great. Maybe RDJ will blow everyone away and I'll be back here eating my words.

I've thought about it some, and I think that RDJ would maybe make a better Marius than Lestat. He has that gentlemanly yet defiant charisma to him that Marius himself is so full of. Me, I just hope somebody gets Armand right his time. I did like Banderas playing him, but god I wish he looked the part.

(Hides before everyone finds out he has a mild crush on novel-Armand.)

Pfft... Vampires that have fangs and sleep in coffins? What's the world coming to.

I like my vampires to be bat-like (or in the case of ol' Nosferatu, rat-like) myself.

Back when the Dracula novel came out, I read that there was a lot of talk that the vampire was sort of symbolic of sexual desire in certain aspects. Dracula could have anyone he wanted, and women found him hard to resist. It's nothing new now though. Plus, one reason vamps kind of lost their touch in that symbolic-of-forbidden-sex department is because these times are much less, um, prudish than the late 1800s were and the vampire as a dangerous sexual metaphor kind of lost it's edge.

Speaking of all that, I noticed that Rice put a heavy amount of homoerotic implications in her books, which again feeds on that metaphor once more. She managed to obviously make her books about more than that, but in these less sexually uptight times, it's nice that the metaphor still has some use to it.

TBH anally raping a 14-year old boy (IIRC, been some years since I read Armand....) goes beyond the land of "implications" and plants a flag squarely in the nameless land that the Pride Parade has fought so long to have recognised as the hate-filled fantasies of the small-minded.

I admit that I haven't read much of the Vampire Chronicles (I just started The Vampire Lestat a few weeks ago and it's turning into a drag like Interview with the Vampire like I predicted), but I can't really invision Robert Downey Jr. as Lestat...

I think I'd rather have Orlando Bloom play Lestat over RDJ...

My sentiments exactly. I had to quit reading that book for that very reason. It's very graphic and it's definitely not just an 'implication' that Marius is an undead pedo. I believe Armand is much younger than 14 the first time that Marius molests him in the book.

Ouch, I haven't read 'Armand' quite yet. Guess I will have to be prepared for that. Wonder what Rices reasoning was for all that?