Anne Rice Shopping Vampire Chronicles Film and TV Rights

Anne Rice is back at it in shopping around the rights for The Vampire Chronicles, and now for a full TV and film package. Variety reports that the rights for the author’s Lestat stories are no longer with Hulu, where a series had been in development. Instead, Rice and her team are shopping the property alongside the Mayfair Witch rights as a complete TV/film rights buyout.

The Vampire Chronicles is the more well-known property of the two thanks to the Interview With a Vampire and Queen of the Damned films, but the Mayfair Witches property is not exactly unpopular either. Set in the same world as Lestat and company — the two have crossed over from time to time — the series consists of three books that started with The Witching Hour and moved on to Lasher and Taltos. The three books were best-sellers in their own right.

Paramount is reportedly among a group of four bidders for the new package, which became available after the deal for the rights expired at Hulu. Rice regained the rights from Universal in 2016 and initially envisioned a television series, which went as far as Bryan Fuller joining as a showrunner in January of 2018. But Fuller’s plate was full and he exited the project, leading to it landing at Hulu where, despite Dee Johnson coming on as showrunner in February of this year, nothing came of it.

The rights package is said to be for $30 to $40 million, a massive number, but would be a complete buyout where the rights would remain in perpetuity instead of existing as a revertable option.