"Fifty Shades of Grey" is the latest high-profile book to be adapted into a Hollywood film, giving us a break from some of the supernatural literary fare that has dominated the big screen for the past few years. But fear not. Vampires will once again be flying into theaters in the near future.
Universal acquired the rights to the mother of all modern vampire fiction Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series. The 11 books in the series include "Interview With the Vampire" and "Queen of the Damned," which were turned into films in 1994 and 2002, respectively, and "The Tale of the Body Thief," for which Rice's son Christopher has already penned a screenplay. Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci, who wrote films in the "Transformers" series and recent "Star Trek" reboot, will be at the helm of the "Vampire Chronicles" films.
The Vampire Chronicles follows the adventures of Lestat, an 18th century Frenchman-turned-vampire, and his friends. Rice announced that Blood Canticle, published in 2003, would be the 10th and final book in The Vampire Chronicles series. However, Rice wrote on her official website that she hoped The Vampire Chronicles would live on in film.
"I am very hopeful that high quality films will be made in the future based on the Vampire Chronicles and books about the Mayfair Witches, and my agents are actively working on possible projects," Rice wrote in a post dated July 10, 2009.
However, Rice will indeed awaken The Vampire Chronicles once again in her forthcoming novel Prince Lestat hitting book stores this October.
Universal's acquisition of The Vampire Chronicles is part of the studio's plan to reboot its legendary monster movie genre. The studio found great success with horror films such as "The Phantom of the Opera," "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" in the 1920s and 1930s, and it is hoping to revive the genre starting with "The Mummy" reboot set to open in 2016. There hasn't been any word on who will star in this movie, which will probably be more along the lines of action-adventure than horror, but we can only hope Brendan Fraser makes a cameo. You know you miss him.
With "The Twilight Saga" all dried up in 2012 and "True Blood" being laid to rest at the end of this month, we are definitely in need of some more vampire movies and TV shows to take their place. Or will "The Vampire Chronicles" films come at a time when the domination of the vampire genre in entertainment is completely dead? Well, the thing with vampires is they always seem to rise again.
