The Queen Of The Damned

[Dark Prince]

Note: I got this from www.UpcomingMovies.com (http://www.UpcomingMovies.com)

Release Date: Spring, 2002 (moved back a few months from October 5th, 2001)

The Cast: Aaliyah (Queen Akasha), Stuart Townsend (Lestat), Claudia Black (Pandora), Marguerite Moreau (Jessie Reeves), Lena Olin, Vincent Perez (Marius), Renee Quast. None of the cast from the first film (Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas) will be returning for this sequel.

Director: Michael Rymer

Based upon: The novel by Anne Rice, the third in the Vampire Chronicles series. This is the second movie based on the series (skipping The Vampire Lestat) after Interview with the Vampire.

Premise: The Vampire Lestat (Townsend) has become a rock star, and it's that music that awakens the 6,000-year-old Egyptian vampire, Akasha (aka The Queen of the Damned) (Aaliyah). She soon sets out on a plan of revenge against many of the male vampires that followed her, in the hopes of ruling the Earth with Lestat at her side. Meanwhile, there's a young female vampire hunter, Jessie Reeves (Moreau), who begins to fall in love with Lestat... (Olin plays Jessie's "vixen aunt" who tries to stop her from seeing Lestat perform) (Note: As with many film adapations of books, it appears some liberties are being taken.)

Filming: Production started in Melbourne, Australia on October 2nd, 2000.

Since I've heard that Anne Rice has begun making movies again, I've become so excited! Any thoughts or remarks?

[Ender]

Aaliyah? You've got to be kidding! I'm sorry, but shouldn't we get an actual actress to play the title role?

[Dark Prince]

That's what was I thinking too.

Hopefully she'll prove us wrong and actually do a surprisingly good acting performance or the production team will get a new leading lady.

[bmain77]

If you go to www.queenofthedamned.com (http://www.queenofthedamned.com) you can see a picture of her in the Akasha costume. I think she looks pretty good as Akasha, not sure how she'll act though. From what little I've heard they have pretty much changed a lot from the book. But that don't really bother me too much as long as it's a good movie. Usually I try to view the movies versions of books as totally seperate from the novel. I'm just dying for a good serious vampire flick.

[Ender]

And besides, how can they do Queen if they haven't done Lestat yet? How much did they screw with the plot?

[Dark Prince]

Well, this is based on the third novel by Anne Rice, skipping the second "The Vampire Lestat".

[Ender]

Yeah, but the events of Lestat set up Queen, especially the end. A lot of the characters from Queen of the Damned, like Marius and Gabrielle, where introduced in Vampire Lestat, so I'm curious as to how they can just gloss over it and skip to the third edition.

[bmain77]

My understanding is that the movie is actually kind of a mixture of Lestat and Queen of the Damned. It has him becoming the rock star and all and that awakening Akasha. All that happened near the end of The Vampire Lestat. Some of the big changes that I've heard are that they hint at Lestat being give the dark gift by Marius. Thats a huge difference from the novel that'll really have Rice fans screaming. I also have read all over the place that Jessie is a teenage vampire hunter. Which really isn't that far from the truth, but we'll see. Like I said they can butcher the whole book to hell as long as it's a good movie. Damn it I just want another good serious vampire movie like Interview was.

My friend and I were taling about movies being made about the whole Vampire Chronicles and we thought the best way to bring the series to life would be a more adult oriented animated series like the Spawn series that used to run on HBO.

[Ender]

Teenage vampire hunter? Please tell me that's not a direct quote, because if they start pandering to the Buffy crowd I'm going to be sick!
Why in the hell can't they just do a decent adaptation for a change? Make two movies, first Lestat, then Queen, keep the main charcters stories straight (Marius creating Lestat, what the fuck?!), and if the movie's too long, cut out some of the flashbacks. Is that so hard?

[rascle1]

i done some reading about this movie a little bit in the movie theres supposed to be a bunch of flash backs like how lestat came to be the origen of akasha and other stuff like that. i have seen those pictures of the set in front of a vampire of lestat concert it looks pretty nuts. so i have mixed thoughts about this movie sure they should have done Vampire Lestat first but maby they are incorperateing them both.

[Dark Prince]

Appparently, most of the movie will be containing flashbacks.