Anne Rice's 'The Vampire Chronicles' Takes Flight at Universal

Seems like Universal is dead serious about their horror plans: in addition to rebooting ‘The Mummy‘ franchise and their classic famous monsters, Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment, and Brian Grazer have acquired rights to The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice's popular book series chronicling the exploits of an 18th century French-aristocrat-turned-bloodsucker.

They have acquired movie rights to the existing and future novels in the series, which also includes the upcoming novel ‘Prince Lestat,’ to be published in October. Other books in Rice's series, which follows the immortal antihero Lestat de Lioncourt, include "Interview With the Vampire," "The Vampire Lestat," "The Queen of the Damned" and "Blood Canticle". The ‘Chronicles’ include a total of 11 novels, including her forthcoming installment.

Along with the rights to the novels, Universal has also acquired the adapted screenplay for the fourth book in the series, ‘The Tale of the Body Thief,’ written by Anne Rice’s son, Christopher.

Previously, Warner Bros. adapted ‘Interview with the Vampire’ starring Brad Pitt as Louis and Tom Cruise as Lestat in 1994. Lestat is a central figure in the ‘Vampire Chronicles’ stories, and was portrayed by Stuart Townsend in the lesser film adaptation ‘Queen of the Damned,’ which also starred Aaliyah.

Former writing partners Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman will produce the new film adaptations. Kurtzman is also involved in Universal’s plans to revitalize their classic monsters, and is set to direct ‘The Mummy’ reboot.