Games of Thrones star Jacob Anderson will play Louis in AMC's series adaptation of Interview with the Vampire. AMC recently acquired the rights to Anne Rice's series of vampire books, commonly called The Vampire Chronicles, as well as her other series of books, The Lives of the Mayfair Witches. Rolin Jones serves as head writer and showrunner of the series, with original author Anne Rice and her son Christopher Rice serving as executive producers and Thor: The Dark World director Alan Taylor helming the first few episodes. The intent is to develop a series for the entire catalog of books, starting with Interview with the Vampire. Australian actor Sam Reid was recently cast as Lestat for the show, a role previously played by Tom Cruise in the 1994 adaptation from director Neil Jordan.
Interview with the Vampire is the first novel in Anne Rice's "The Vampire Chronicles" which follows Louis, a wealthy plantation owner in 1791 New Orleans who is bitten by the vampire Lestat and becomes his companion. Lestat later turns a young girl, Claudia, into a vampire to travel with them. However, as the decades pass and Claudia becomes a woman trapped in a little girl's body, conflict and turmoil erupt, putting the undead vampires at odds with one another. The story is told via an "interview" with Louis as he recounts his tale to a modern-day reporter.
Today, via Deadline, it was announced that Game of Thrones star Jacob Anderson, who portrayed Grey Worm in the show, would play Louis for the new series. Louis was previously played by Brad Pitt in the 1994 adaptation. Anderson is British born and of Afro-Caribbean descent, giving an inspired new look for Louis in this adaptation. The actor was a staple character of Game of Thrones, but this is his biggest role to date as a lead character in a series. Anderson is also a musician, who goes by Raleigh Ritchie and has released two albums thus far under that name.
Anderson will next play the adventurer Vinder in the next season of BBC's Doctor Who before strapping on the fangs for Interview with the Vampire. The AMC series is expected be eight episodes in length and is aiming for a 2022 release. Aside from Anderson and Reid, no other casting announcements have been made, but all eyes will be on the difficult casting of Claudia next, as she is five years old in the book. In the 1994 adaptation Claudia was played by Kirsten Dunst, in her debut role, who was 11 years old for the incarnation as director Neil Jordan didn't think he could find a five-year-old actress with the emotional depth to play the character.
With millions of fans worldwide, Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles are a massively influential IP and adapting the books as a series gives a lot of room to explore their intricate aspects. The 1994 film actually did a tremendous job of capturing the essence of the book, but many sacrifices were made for time and economy. While Pitt, Cruise and Dunst all played their vampire counterparts with care in 1994's Interview with the Vampire, it will be interesting to see how both Anderson and Reid capture the dynamic between Louis and Lestat, which is a complex love affair/rivalry between the two that spans throughout the novels. They certainly have their work cut out for them, but it's inspired casting with a lot of potential to elevate this popular series to new and returning fans.
Source: Deadline