'The Vampire Chronicles' Gets Staked, No Longer Happening At Hulu

As the vampires of author Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles would probably tell you, life can be damn miserable sometimes, and we're seeing that now with the news that the series adaptation is no longer moving forward...

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...The news comes via Variety that Hulu has dropped Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, a TV show based on her series of novels featuring the vampire Lestat and his melancholic journeys. Paramount Television and Anonymous content had been attached to the project, but apparently, their rights have expired, so now Rice is once again shopping the series, but as part of a larger package this time. 

Says Variety: 

Rice and her team are once again shopping her intellectual property — but this time as a much larger TV package, and as a complete buyout of the TV/film rights.

According to one insider, the new package being shopped includes both 'The Vampire Chronicles' and also Rice’s 'Mayfair Witches,' which is currently set up at Warner Bros. The asking price is said to be around $30 to $40 million, in addition to a $2.5 million buyout of Warner Bros.’ rights. In exchange for the huge upfront fee however, the new owner will hold the rights in perpetuity, and not just as an option.

The new deal includes 'The Mayfair Witches,' about a family of witches, which began in 1990 with the novel 'The Witching Hour.' Paramount was said to be among four or so bidders for the new package."

The Vampire Chronicles has had a problematic history with getting off the ground, and so this is sad news to hear that once again, we'll have to wait a bit longer for the return of Lestat, in a television format that will likely work much better for the blood-thirsty vamp than cramming two novels into one film, as Queen of the Damned did back in 2002. 

Either way, it sounds like Rice is thirsty to get the project off the ground, so it's my guess we'll hear more news soon. 

By Matt Konopka