You know what… Maybe remakes are a good thing?
Case in point: AMC’s upcoming television adaptation of Interview With A Vampire, based on the acclaimed novel from gothic horror queen Anne Rice, which looks like it’ll finally give the story’s queer subtext a chance in the sun (er, maybe we’ll think of another metaphor there since vampires can’t survive the daylight).
Rice’s tale of ageless, brooding vampires was famously brought to the big screen in 1994 with the Neil Jordan film of the same name. With Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in the lead roles—both at peak hotness—the story of their “courtship” and undead lives together was responsible for countless sexual awakenings for queers of certain age.
And while we’ll never forget the image of Cruise’s Lestat going to to town on the neck of Pitt’s Louie, the movie stopped just shy of really going there and giving the gays everything they want.
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That’s why the new Interview With A Vampire has us feeling batty: In the first-look trailer that premiered this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con, the series appears to lean into the homoeroticism that’s been part of the story all along. That little neck nibble looks like it’s about to be a full-on gay sex scene. We’re dead—and loving it.
Stepping into the role of Louie is the charming Jacob Anderson, best known as Game Of Thrones‘ Grey Worm (as one commenter pointed out, he went from Unsullied to Undead). And filling in as Lestat is Sam Reid, the kind of dashing, square-jawed antihero it’s hard not to be wooed by—without all of Cruise’s Scientology baggage. Joining them are Bailey Bass as the young vampire Claudia—originally played by Kirsten Dunst in her breakout role—and Succession‘s Eric Bogosian.
During its Comic-Con panel, when asked if the show would embrace the queerness that’s always been simmering under Rice’s words, showrunner Rolin Jones said, “It’s an aggressive, beautiful love story between two people. That is all.” Well, you only have to take a look at the series trailer to see that these two vampires definitely have the hots for each other.
Anne Rice’s Interview With A Vampire premieres October 2 on AMC and its streaming service, AMC+. You can watch its first, full-length trailer below:
LumpyPillows
Didn’t we cancel Anne Rice? I lose track.
DarkZephyr
No. Anne Rice passed away last year. She was always a friend to the LGBT community. ALL of us.
Kangol2
Her son is gay too. Wrong writer, try again!
Ryan99
She went Catholic for a while, but recanted of organized religion. She’s cool, even if she did smooch satan once.
kdhain12
So Louis de Pointe du Lac is black now? Uh, ok.
JPDonahue
That didn’t take long.
bachy
Interesting, I was thinking Lestat looks too pasty-white.
airbrushedbro
What? The protagonist is mixed race, he’s just as much white as he is black.
inbama
I just recently read that “Dracula’s Daughter” with wonderful Gloria Holden (which Rice says inspired her) was actually equating vampirism with “predatory lesbianism” – which for years became a theme in Hollywood movies.
Aren’t we beyond that?