AMC's Interview with the Vampire: I Have a Bad Feeling About This...
I was planning to save my criticism until the TV show adaptation fully releases this fall. But after seeing some of the official images and a short trailer came out: I'm feeling anxious, dread and excitement, all at the same time. I just have a lot feelings that I need to cleanse out of my mind.
Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles book series is my absolute-number one favorite books. (sorry Harry Potter, nothing personal) I read the book back in high school and I immediately fell in love the series. Even as an adult, rereading it, I still love the books. It made me interested in vampires in pop culture and now vampires are my favorite monsters.
In the early stages or before AMC acquired the rights, Anne and her son, Christopher Rice, created a drafted pilot script called "Wolf Killer". It was going to start with The Vampire Lestat (TVL), (2nd book), a prequel to the Interview with the Vampire (IWTV). I thought that’s a great idea! It’s a good starting point for those who are new to the series. In TVL, you get to see his autobiography, his life as a human to becoming a vampire, and the story will eventually leads up to IWTV. We already have two movie adaptations. One, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in the 1994 movie, and the second, Queen of the Damned (2002). TVL never gotten any adaption. So, it would be nice to start somewhere new and different. And, as a TV show series, imagine that.
Unfortunately, that idea got scrapped. Now, AMC has the property and we’re getting their version of IWTV. Which, I don’t understand why we are getting another remake of IWTV when the 1994 movie did a perfectly good job adapting it. It looks like AMC is rewriting it for the “modern audience,” which that worries me a lot. They’ve race-swapped Louis and Claudia. I really hope that there are doing this because they want to create something interesting, not just to get woke points. (Seriously, I’m done with the woke nonsense). I’m all for diversity, as long as it’s organic, the actors are good at their job and it makes sense to the story. I’m more worried about: if they start stripping away the important aspects of story and rewriting the themes of what Rice created, then you are just creating fan fiction.
I really hope that AMC doesn’t fall into the same trap as Amazon Prime’s Rings of Power show. Their PR is a mess! There seems to be a war going on between the mass media and the fans. You can go on YouTube and look at the comment section underneath their trailer, you get the vibe of what the fans are feeling. The Lord of the rings fans are very strong and passionate. This is why you should never underestimate the true fans.
Anyway, the official teaser trailer is out. There’s nothing much to say other than, it looks good… for a book trailer. There’s also official images from the show. It looks like it will be taking place in the 1920’s instead of the 17th century. It’s obvious that they want to avoid the slavery topic and Louis’s family are plantation owners in the book. Apparently, some people are over sensitive about this. All I have to say is, the past is in the past and it's part of the American history. Be grateful of how far humanity has improved and we don’t live in those times anymore. However, I’m fine with Louis’s career change, as long his motivations and personality remains the same. At least, don’t screw that up.
This is why I have so many mixed feeling about these changes. Nobody asks for modern politics (especially if it's one sided) to be added to the show or in any franchise adaptations. All the fans want is a good show and let Anne Rice's vampire world reflect what her books are all about.
Sometimes first impressions can be misleading. I hope I am wrong. I am trying to be open-minded and I will watch the TV show when it releases. It’s the only way I will know whether I will like it or not.
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