These days, when you think about Interview With the Vampire, AMC’s sizzling series adaptation comes to mind. But while fans wait to see Lestat’s rock-star era in the show’s third season, Neil Jordan‘s 1994 movie version of the Anne Rice tale is marking its 30th anniversary.
In a new interview, the director talked about the kerfluffle caused when Tom Cruise was cast as Lestat, Kirsten Dunst’s otherworldly child-star talents as Claudia, the film’s special effects and then-edgy queer subtext, and more—including a deleted scene that would’ve been an especially juicy showcase for Brad Pitt’s Louis.
Speaking to Variety, Jordan—who said he’s aware Pitt had a rough time making the film, and attributes some of that unhappiness to the fact that his character was stuck in a prolonged state of misery—revealed he’d still love a chance to release his director’s cut.
“We had a version that was longer, where Brad actually goes to confession, and the priest is so horrified by what he’s telling him he retreats towards the altar, and Brad drains his blood underneath this enormous Dali-esque crucifix. I was sad not to see that there,” Jordan said. “There could be a director’s cut of the movie. I would happily do it. But the the problem in turning the novel into a movie was that it was a picaresque narrative—’and then, and then, and then, and then.’ It’s not like this set up tension between characters that’s resolved in the third act.”
He continued. “So when I had cut the movie, I was saying, ‘I really think it’s too long.’ And we showed it to a paid preview audience, and they said, ‘It’s too long.’ So I came back in a week, and now it’s shorter. I don’t know if there are enough fans of the movie to warrant [the release of a longer version], but I would like to do it, if possible.”
Interview With the Vampire season three will take on Rice’s book The Vampire Lestat, and the book was also incorporated into the 2002 film Queen of the Damned, which Jordan was not involved in. He explained to Variety why his time in Rice’s Vampire Chronicles world is contained to just the 1994 film.
“I was asked to write a script of The Vampire Lestat, which I did. And quite simply, Tom didn’t want to reprise the role. It was as simple as that. And it would’ve been quite a different animal. If Mr. Cruise had said he would do it, I’m sure they would’ve done it. But at the time he wasn’t doing sequels.”
Several Mission: Impossible movies later, that’s no longer the case, of course—but maybe it’s for the best that Cruise’s Lestat is a creature of 1994 and no more. Would you be interested in seeing a director’s cut of Jordan’s film? And are you looking forward to season three of the AMC series?
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