Cinema - The Catfights

We all know that the novel is brilliant. So why did it take this long to make it on film? Is it because making movies out of novels weren't done in the 1970s? Untrue since The Godfather was a novel. So, what happened?

When the novel was first published, Paramount Pictures bought the movie rights to it. They were owned by John Travolta. That was 1976. But wait a minute? The movie was released in 1994? Why did it take 18 years to get it on screen? Because no one in Paramount did anything with it. It was too controversal. Think about it...there's a child vampire (pedophile) and a bunch of male vampires living together (gay theme). And to top it off, vampires bit members of their own sex (more gay themes). This was unheard of and risky.

Thus, began the discussion of changes that were tossed around. They thought of changing Claudia's age into a grown woman. They thought of making Louis a woman and casting Angelica Huston in the part (heaven forbid!). They even thought of just making it into a tv movie of the week or a musical (think...Louis and Lestat singing!). But those were all tossed aside and left on the back burner.

After 10 years of nothing productive, the contract to the film rights expired. The contract had a ten year clause to it. And it was sold to Lorimar. After a massive take over from Warner Brothers, Warner then became owner of the film rights. Again it was shelved until David Geffen went looking for it and got the project. And thus, the film was set into production.

Casting began. Various names were brought forth. Doing such a wonderful job of The Addams Family, they thought of Christina Ricci for the part of Claudia. But that was scrapped. Geffen approached Daniel Day-Lewis for the role of Lestat. But he was in the middle of filming In The Name of the Father and when he's filming, he doesn't accept any messages in fear he'll get out of character. River Phoenix was also suggested from Anne Rice but was overruled. Finally, the cast was found...Tom Cruise as Lestat, Brad Pitt as Louis, Antonio Bandaras as Armand, Stephen Rea as Santiago, Kirsten Dunst as Claudia, River Phoenix as Daniel.

You'd think that it would go smoothly after that. But it didn't. He cast Tom Cruise as the attention grabbing Lestat. Fans everywhere were horrified. They demanded that he be removed. They believed he was all wrong...Tom Cruise, who's done such teen sensation films could not be a vampire. That was the opinion. Besides, he's too short, he has brown hair...etc. These cries reached Anne Rice and she also stepped out to voice her disagreement over the casting of Tom Cruise. She suggested Rutger Hauer. But Geffen stuck by Tom and filming continued. Tom was heckled everywhere he went...fans of Anne Rice and Anne herself (he's said that was the most hurtful of all), fans of Tom Cruise who couldn't believe he'd do a "horror film", and the media who joked at Tom biting people's necks.

And before filming even began, River Phoenix died of a drug-induced heart failure outside the Viper Room. Who could be Daniel now? Casting went out again. More names were tossed around. Leonardo DiCaprio was approached but later discarded. Then they found Christian Slater. Because Christian felt saddened that this was the only reason for taking the role of his deceased friend, he donated his entire salary to River's favorite charities. And thus, filming began.

Then the rumors began. Tom wanted complete privacy on the set. He demanded tunnels be built so no one saw the make up and costumes. They said Tom had to wear high heeled shoes because he was shorter than Brad Pitt (and Lestat is supposed to be taller). Tom demanded to change the homosexual themes in the movie. All these he denied later in interviews. And the catfight between Tom and Brad. Tom was jealous of this upcoming star. Tom was jealous of Brad's height, hair, looks. Those were what people heard. Later, in interview, Tom denied such jealousy arose. And Brad said it was only because they were in character...Louis is supposed to view Lestat as a jerk.

From all that, the film was finally made. And film critics everywhere critiqued it. And so did we.

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