We have some good news and some bad news when it comes to the upcoming television series adaptation of Anne Rice‘s Vampire Chronicles. Earlier this year, it was announced Bryan Fuller of Hannibal fame would be joining the TV series as a producer, but according to Rice’s comments to Nerdist, he exited the project in February.
No reasons were given, but Fuller has a knack lately for stepping away from shows with his name attached to them (see also: American Gods and Star Trek: Discovery). While this news is a bummer, the show must go on, and the Vampire Chronicles series is still going forward. In fact, Anne Rice’s son, author Christopher Rice, who is also the Vampire Chronicles executive producer, tweeted out this image of the completed pilot script for the series:
— Christopher Rice (@chrisricewriter) May 2, 2018
The title for the first episode, “Wolf Killer,” confirms what fans have known for awhile–the series will start by showing the events which resulted in Lestat’s vampiric beginnings from the second novel in the series, The Vampire Lestat. That story takes place considerably before the events of Interview with the Vampire (which the series would presumably get to in a second or third season).
The Vampire Chronicles television series doesn’t currently have a network or a streaming outlet attached, but an announcement in regards to that is expected soon. The series won’t air until 2019 at the earliest, however, fans of Rice’s legendary vampires won’t have to wait until then for Lestat and his buddies to appear. Anne Rice’s next book in the series, titled Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat, is coming out on October 2.
In addition, fans of the Chronicles will be getting a new companion book this year. Announced at Entertainment Weekly, the book is titled Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery. Compiled and written by Becket, Rice’s longtime assistant, The Alphabettery is described as an annotated cosmology of Anne Rice’s vampiric universe, from A(kasha) to Z(enobia), gathered from all 15 books in the series. Rice wrote the introduction, and artist Mark Edward Geyer created the illustrations for the entries. The Alphabettery will be published by Anchor Books on October 23. Read the official description for the book below:
Exciting news about Becket’s new guide to the Vampire Chronicles: AN ALPHABETTERY. (And the illustrations are exciting too.) Becket completed this monumental project before he left us last year. https://t.co/1daEAWY7SS
— Anne Rice (@AnneRiceAuthor) May 14, 2018
“An Alphabettery of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles gathers together, from all fifteen of the books in the series, the facts, details, story lines, genealogies of her characters, vampiric subjects, geographical influences, and cultural and individual histories, all of which Rice painstakingly researched and invented during her 40-year career–to date–through which she has enchanted and transported us. Here are concise, detailed biographies of every character, no matter how central or minor to the cosmology.  Revealed are the intricacies and interconnectedness of characters and subjects throughout. We see how Akasha (Queen of Egypt and the first vampire) is connected to Mekare (the inheritor of the title of the Queen of the Damned), etc., and how these characters connect back to the darkest rebel outlaw of them all, Lestat de Lioncourt …
And we see, as well, the ways in which Rice’s vampires have evolved from warring civilizations to isolated covens to a unified race of blood drinkers led by their hero-wanderer and sole monarch, Prince Lestat. For devoted and first-time Anne Rice readers alike, An Alphabettery of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles will be the holy grail of lore and revelation for those who have been, and continue to be, mesmerized by the worlds within worlds of these beloved tales of the undead.â€
Are you as excited for all the coming adventures of Lestat in print and televised form as we are? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
Images: Warner Brothers / Alfred A. Knopf
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