Vampire Chronicles

That takes care of the major characters from The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned. If I've forgotten anyone, or you think another actor would be appropriate, let me know.

To view the list, scroll down to Casting Call, and work your way up.

David Talbot

As the elderly, British, homosexual leader of the Talamasca, I would cast elderly, british, homosexual actor Ian McKellen ("X-Men," "The Lord of the Rings").

Pandora

There are several categories for describing female beauty. There's hot, attractive, beautiful, and gorgeous. Then there's Angelina Jolie ("The Bone Collector," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith").

This woman seems created to play a vampire. Flawless and evil-looking, Jolie is perfect as the vampire who stole Marius's heart.

Maharet

Connie Nielson ("The Devil's Advocate," "The Hunted") has the kind of beauty that can be both sensual and motherly (I don't need any Freudian comments from any of you), as seen in "Gladiator." This would make her well suited for the role of Maharet, one of the first vampires.

Mekare is difficult for me to cast. She doesn't speak and doesn't have much of a role. Also, she is Maharet's twin, so the actress would have to either look like or be Connie Nielson, and despite today's technology, the same actor playing two roles in the same scene never looks great.

That said, I think Tori Amos would be interesting as Mekare.

Enkil

As Akasha's husband, Enkil, I would cast Monica Bellucci's husband, Vincent Cassel ("Brotherhood of the Wolf," "Ocean's 12").

Yes, I know "Those Who Must Be Kept" were black in the movies, but Akasha and Enkil are Egyptian, and Egyptians aren't black.

Akasha: Queen of the Damned

Akasha is the mother of all vampires, and as such, she embodies everything that vampires are - mysterious, powerful, sensual, and hypnotically attractive. The actress who plays her must also do this, and no one does so more than Monica Bellucci ("Brotherhood of the Wolf," "The Matrix: Reloaded"). Her vampiric talents are wasted in the horribly misnamed "Bram Stoker's Dracula."

Marius

When Anne Rice first considered the possibilty of her books being made into movies, she envisioned Rutger Hauer ("Blade Runner," "Batman Begins") as Lestat, and Hauer is mentioned as one of Lestat's favorite actors in the series. He's obviously too old now, but he would be great as Lestat's mentor.

Incidentally, Hauer is my ideal choice for Abraham VanHelsing if anyone gets around to making a good Dracula movie.

Magnus

Ever since Christopher Lee ("Dracula (1958)," "The Lord of the Rings") portrayed Dracula as a suave seducer in Hammer's horror films, people have misinterpreted the story as being about sexual repression. As penance, Lee will play Magus as he should have played Dracula, as disgusting, old, and despicable. He did this well in LOTR, so he should be able to carry the brief but memorable role of the vampire who forces himself upon Lestat.

Armand

For the evil and eternally youthful Armand, I would cast Elijah Wood ("The Lord of the Rings," "Sin City"). Armand is a character who was raised a Christian, but made a vampire. He struggles to come to terms with his beliefs and his evil nature. Wood portrays this sort of inner struggle well in "The Fellowship of the Rings."

While I enjoy Antonio Banderas as an actor, he just didn't look the part enough in "Interview."

Gabrielle de Lioncourt

As Lestat's mother and first victim/beneficiary of Lestat's new powers, I would cast Rebecca De Mornay ("The Three Musketeers," "Stephen King's The Shining"). She's strikingly beautiful and is at home in the horror genre.

Louis de Pointe du Lac

I'm not trying to replace Brad Pitt, who gave a wonderful performance as Louis in Interview, but he's done it, so it's time to make room for someone else. My choice is Henry Cavill ("The Count of Monte Cristo"). I've only seen him in "The Count of Monte Cristo," so I can't really comment on his acting, but he looks the part.

I know several people who wanted to see him as Cedric Diggory in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," but since that didn't happen, fans may enjoy seeing him in another fantasy franchise.

Lestat de Lioncourt

My choice for Lestat is Jude Law ("Cold Mountain," "Closer"). As anyone familiar with the books knows, Interview with the Vampire is Louis's story, and Tom Cruise was great as Lestat as Louis sees him. Stuart Townsend did well with what he was given, which wasn't much, but while Townsend is a beautiful man, as is Lestat, he is not a great actor.

Jude Law combines attractiveness, impishness, and talent in a way that could perfectly translate Lestat qua Lestat to the big screen.

Christine doesn't think that Lestat's long hair would work in the film, but I can't imagine him without it.

Casting Call: The Vampire Chronicles

One of Christine's and my favorite games to play is "Casting Call." We choose a book and decide what actors we would cast as the characters.

One of our favorite series is Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. Two movies have been made, and while I enjoy "Interview with the Vampire" and thought Stuart Townsend was an inspired choice for Lestat in "Queen of the Damned," neither truly captures what we love about the series. So we cast our own movie.

The following is my choice, and Christine contests some of them.

I want to see a movie that begins with The Vampire Lestat. Lestat, disappointed with how he has been portrayed in previous films, determines to make his own movie telling his story as he sees it. It would end with the same cliffhanger ending as the book and lead into a good version of Queen of the Damned. These movies would actually be good, so the whole series would be filmed.

I'm still reading

I know it's been a while since I updated this blog, mostly because the literary discussions I tried to generate went nowhere. If you're interested in discussing Harry Potter, here are a couple of good blogs: Uppity Women Unite! and Page 37.

I've recently returned to Stephen King, who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers. I read Cujo and 'Salem's Lot. I really had no interest in either, but I love Stephen King and want to eventually read all of his stuff. I was pleasantly surprised. Salem's Lot is an early King novel, and he does some things in it that he learns to do better later on. It sort of reminded me of The Tommyknockers, which I think is great.

Cujo was the biggest surprise for me. It epitomized everything I love about King's stories. Yes, he creates memorable monsters, but for me the strength of his storytelling is the realistic depictions of good and evil in everyday human life. In Cujo, there is a monster dog terrorizing a small town, but from the beginning, had people treated each other with love, the disaster would have been avoided. Despite King's admission that he was too drugged up to even remember writing Cujo, I highly recommend it.

I've read quite a few graphic novels this summer as well, which leads me to a discussion question that I always find interesting. If you could have any super power, what would it be? Answer first, and then ask yourself why. Is it because you personally would derive a lot of satisfaction out of the power, or because you could do the greatest amount of good with it? Right now I would choose the ability to make people shut up. I admit I would choose it for selfish reasons, but I do believe it would do a great amount of good.