It's been a while since we had any updates on AMC's planned Interview With The Vampire adaptation, but some new details have now been shared online, and it sounds like the series is going to take some pretty big liberties with the source material.
According to The Illuminerdi, this take on Anne Rice's beloved novel "will follow Daniel Malloy, an award-winning investigative journalist who takes this second chance to report one of the most significant stories of his career. Daniel travels to the other side of the world to interview the 146-year-old vampire, Louis De Pointe Du Lac."
While this may sound pretty close to what happens in the original story, the character breakdowns suggest that this series will actually take place years after the events of the book.
For one, AMC is said to be searching for a 60-70-year-old man of open ethnicity to play Daniel Malloy (played by Christian Slater in Neil Jordan's 1994 film), who is described as "slight, but with a huge chip on his shoulder. Malloy is a two-time Pulitzer prize winning investigator journalist who works for the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian." This will be Malloy's second opportunity to interview Louis after "his drug use inhibited his professionalism" the first time.
Louis, meanwhile, is described as a former brothel owner looking for the chance to tell his "true tale." He's said to be “Creole, with eyes of brilliant green. His skin is smooth, as if sculpted from Ceylon ebony.” A "33-year-old Black man" is being sought for the role.
Some of these changes may not seem particularly significant on their own, but Interview With The Vampire is just the first book in a sprawling saga, so setting this series years later (essentially making it a retconned sequel) would seem to discount some major events in the lives of these characters.
Interview With The Vampire will reportedly consist of 8 one-hour episodes. Jessica Held and Mark Johnson will produce, with Rolin Jones developing and writing the show. The adaptation is scheduled to begin production in November 2021 in New Orleans, Paris, and Eastern Europe.