Josh Boone In Early Talks To Write And Direct ‘The Vampire Lestat’
Universal only just put more energy into its efforts to adaptAnne Rice’s vampire novels into films, as the studiorenewed the optionon 13 of Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles” books. The studio isn’t wasting any time getting moving on that option, asThe Fault In Our StarsdirectorJosh Booneis now in early talks to write and direct an adaptation ofThe Vampire Lestat, which was the centerpiece of Rice’s original trilogy of vampire novels.
The Vampire Lestatis a story very rooted in the ’80s, and we don’t know if this would be a period piece, or a modernized adaptation. If things come together, Boone would make this film after doingThe Standfor Warner Bros.The Wrapreports that producersBrian Grazer,Alex Kurtzman, andRoberto Orcihave all “signed off on Boone’s hiring,” with final approval yet to come from Universal. That approval however, is reportedly a “mere formality.”
This doesn’t mean that Boone is droppingThe Stand, which he’s been developing at Warner Bros. Indeed, the writer/directorhas scripted his three-hour and reportedly novel-faithful takeon Stephen King’s massive tome. Boone did a page-one rewrite onThe Stand, which had already been the center of development efforts by a few other teams at Warners over the past couple years. Stephen King has blessed Boone’s script; that should be a pretty great personal victory for the director, who is a lifelong King fan.
Boone would also writeThe Vampire Lestat, and his aims are reportedly to stay faithful to the novels. (He’ll draw in elements from bothThe Vampire LestatandQueen of the Damned.) So fans who bristled at the idea of Kurtzman and Orci being part of this process should be more at ease now.
We’d expect Boone to strive maintain the novel’s core characters and themes while updating some of the trappings to reflect the changes that have taken place in pop culture, music, and media since the novel’s 1985 publication.From Amazon:
