Aussie actor Sam Reid has been tapped to follow in Tom Cruise’s footsteps, playing the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt in AMC‘s series adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire.
Reid’s previous TV roles include the Aussie dramas The Hunting and Lambs of God, plus the ITV detective series Prime Suspect 1973. Our sister site Variety first reported on his Vampire casting.
AMC ordered Rice’s tale to series in June, and is aiming to premiere the eight-episode first season on both its cable network and streaming platform AMC+ in 2022.
The company in fact acquired 18 of Rice’s most iconic works in a major deal last year that included stories from both The Vampire Chronicles and The Lives of the Mayfair Witches series. Interview is the first of many titles the network plans to produce.
As noted above, Interview With the Vampire was previously adapted into a 1994 feature film that was directed by Neil Jordan and starred Cruise, Brad Pitt (as Louis de Pointe du Lac), Kirsten Dunst (as Claudia) and Christian Slater (as Daniel Molloy). It was nominated for two Academy Awards (for Best Art Direction and Best Original Score) and earned Dunst a Golden Globe nod for supporting actress.
A TV universe of The Vampire Chronicles has been in the making for years. Prior to AMC’s big purchase, it was reported that Rice and her son Christopher were teaming up with producer Bryan Fuller (Hannibal), and that Hulu had been eyeing the project. Fuller, however, officially exited in July 2018.
