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Anne Rice Wants YOUR Help Casting New Lestat!
We learned last year that author Anne Rice had reclaimed the rights to her “Vampire Chronicles” series of novels; subsequently, Paramount Television and Anonymous Content optioned the rights to 11 books from the best-selling series. Yes, Lestat is coming to the small screen… but who will be playing the iconic character?
To date, the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt has appeared on the screen twice, played by Tom Cruise in Interview With the Vampire and Stuart Townsend in Queen of the Damned. Rice is currently looking for an up-and-coming young actor to take over the role for the forthcoming series, and she wants your help narrowing the field.
“Guys, we talk a lot about who can play Lestat. And we all know that if we don’t get that right, nothing else may matter,” Rice wrote over on Facebook this week. “This is one series in which the star plays a super hero role. I am thinking an unknown will come to us for the part. But who are the up and coming young actors you all see and want to suggest? Include pix if you can. And any data. I love reading your responses.”
[Related] 8 Things We Know About “Vampire Chronicles” TV Series
Nearly 500 comments have already been made on the posting, with fans pitching actors such as Jamie Campbell Bower, Reeve Carney, Bill Skarsgard, Evan Peters, Devin Oliver, and Nicholas Hoult. Rice seems to be paying close attention to the comments, so the recommendations are not going unnoticed.
Christopher Rice has been tapped to pen the series and serve as executive producer alongside Anne Rice, and Anonymous Content’s David Kanter and Steve Golin.
Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in 1993’s Jurassic Park, has passed away this week at 78 years old. In a statement shared on Neill’s Instagram page this morning, the actor’s family said that his passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Neill had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2022, but stated the following year that he was in remission. The family notes that he “remained cancer free” at the time of his passing.
The family statement reads, “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In addition to his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in the original Jurassic Park and the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre with memorable roles in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, The Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, and sci-fi horror favorite Event Horizon.
Sam Neill’s vast resume in film and television began in the early 1970s and also includes the films Sleeping Dogs, Enigma, The Good Wife, A Cry in the Dark, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage, The Jungle Book, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, The Horse Whisperer, Bicentennial Man, Daybreakers, Escape Plan, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement to Variety, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him.”
Spielberg adds, “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Sam Neill in ‘Event Horizon’
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