AMC has hired veteran television director Alan Taylor to direct their Interview with the Vampire series. Interview with the Vampire was the debut novel for author Anne Rice and was published in 1976. This novel then kickstarted her Vampire Chronicles franchise. The book was adapted into a 1994 film starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst and was a box-office hit grossing $224 million worldwide.
Many attempts have been made to relaunch Rice's Vampire Chronicles franchise, particularly in the wake of the vampire craze of the late 2000s with Twilight and True Blood. Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment tried to adapt the series into a new film franchise in 2014 with Josh Boone (New Mutants) at the helm, but Rice regained the rights. Hulu tried to adapt the books into a television series but in 2019, the rights expired. Most recently, AMC acquired the rights to the Vampire Chronicles and announced that Interview with the Vampire would be adapted into an eight-episode series. Now they have found a director to guide the project.
According to Variety, AMC has hired Alan Taylor to direct the first two episodes of the Interview with the Vampire series. Taylor will also serve as an executive producer on the series alongside Rolin Jones (Perry Mason) who will also serve as the showrunner and writer for the series with a premiere set for sometime in 2022. Taylor had previously directed the pilot for Mad Men at AMC, which is one of the reasons the network wanted Taylor to direct according to Dan McDermott, president of original programming for AMC Networks and AMC Studios. Read what McDermott said about Taylor below:
Alan Taylor is a legendary director and someone we have real history with, going back to the first episode of ‘Mad Men,’ an hour of exquisitely crafted television that propelled our company in a new direction to become a force in original programming.
Taylor has an extensive resume of television projects including Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, and Sex and the City. He has also directed high-profile films like Thor: The Dark World and Terminator: Genisys, yet both were some of the least regarded entries in their respective franchise. His next film will be The Sopranos prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark, which is set to open on October 1, 2021, in theaters and on HBO Max.
Given Taylor's experience on high-profile series and his involvement in launching Mad Men, AMC is hoping to capture similar lightning in a bottle. AMC's adaptation of Interview with the Vampire is the beginning of what could be the next major franchise for the network and one that could serve as a replacement for The Walking Dead, which the network recently paid out $200 million in profits for after a lawsuit from series creator, Frank Darabont. Given the popularity of Rice's original books and the 1994 film, Interview with the Vampire could be the next big television sensation.
Source: Variety