Brad Pitt's Interview With The Vampire Got A Standalone Sequel Starring A Music Legend

The 1994 Neil Jordan movie "Interview with the Vampire" has long been regarded as one of the greatest vampire movies of all time. Based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Anne Rice, the film followed the story of a mournful vampire telling his tale to a puckish journalist, and it starred some of the biggest names possible. Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas, and Christian Slater made up the main cast, with a then-unknown Kirsten Dunst in the role of the vampire child Claudia. It was a commercial success that did well with critics and audiences alike, though its status as a gothic classic has only grown with time. Then, in 2002, Warner Bros. skipped right over the second book in Rice's series and attempted to adapt "Queen of the Damned," based on the expansive third novel.

While fans were curious to see what director Michael Rymer might do with the material, the result was a pretty serious disappointment. Instead of being the kind of follow-up "Interview" deserved, it was a weirdly cast mess of a movie that nowadays works best as a time capsule of the era, complete with some interesting visuals and a killer soundtrack. Whether fans of Rice's work loved or hated "Queen of the Damned," most were in agreement on one thing: R&B star Aaliyah was absolutely entrancing as the titular queen of the damned herself, Akasha. However, Aaliyah died in a tragic plane crash before the film was released, at the age of 22, so it's strange to watch the movie and wonder what kind of unstoppable superstar she might have become — not just in the music world, but in Hollywood as well.

"Queen of the Damned" follows the vampire Lestat (the woefully miscast Stuart Townsend, who is at least still giving it his campy best) as he tries to wake up the mother of all vampires by becoming a rock star and singing to her. It's a totally absurd premise that works in the book because Rice was, at the time, at the height of her outlandish writing powers, but trying to squish a nearly 500-page novel into a two hour movie is a fool's bargain (even when it's not as wild as 1980s Rice). 

Aaliyah is excellent in "Queen of the Damned" and is equal parts beautiful and ethereally terrifying, because this adaptation keeps the violence from Rice's works intact. These are not your sparkling "Twilight" vampires, but the sort who will rip out throats and drink from beating hearts, and Aaliyah's Akasha is the queen of them all. As we head towards "The Vampire Lestat" (a.k.a. AMC's "Interview with the Vampire" season 3) and eventually, hopefully, the television version of "Queen of the Damned," it will be hard not to think a little about Aaliyah's slightly ridiculous but absolutely perfect turn as our first onscreen Akasha. "The Woman King" star Sheila Atim has some big fangs to fill as the small screen Akasha, and it will be interesting to see how the "Interview with the Vampire" show adapts one of Rice's most important characters.