Exaclty thirty years ago, one of the most famous vampire movies of all time would debut in cinemas and change the way we thought of the supernatural creatures forever. Interview With The Vampire featured an all-star cast that included Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible franchise), Brad Pitt (Wolfs), Kirsten Dunst (Civil War) and Christian Slater (Blink Twice) and raked in $223 million at the box office, a pretty hefty number for the 90s. A sequel was practically mandatory — but then it never happened. Why? During an interview with Variety, director Neil Jordan (Marlowe) explained that there was a simple reason for it.

During the interview, Jordan revealed that he did some uncredited work on the original script, which was written by Anne Rice herself — the author of the novel that inspired the movie. Jordan also revealed that he would “happily” do a director’s cut of the movie. The filmmaker went on to reveal point-blank why, despite all the success, the next novel in the series was not adapted into a sequel by Warner Bros.

“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.”

Was Tom Cruise Perfect For the Role of Lestat de Lioncourt?
Image via Warner Bros.

Jordan also revealed that even though Rice wasn’t a fan of Cruise at the time of casting, he could see similarities between the actor’s life and Lestat’s. The director drew a parallel revealing that both Lestat and Cruise “have to avoid publicity, avoid crowds, keep their legend intact, keep a certain unknowability about them.” And, of course, having one of Hollywood’s biggest stars at the time in the cast was a huge help to get the movie off the ground.

The Interview With the Vampire franchise ended up only following up in cinemas almost a decade later, with the low-budget Queen of the Damned getting released to dismal reviews (the movie has a 17% approval rate on Rotten Tomatoes). Luckily for fans, AMC decided to bring the Immortal Universe to life once again, with the Interview With the Vampire series re-telling the story of Lestat (now played by Sam Reid) and expanding the story into two additional series: Mayfair Witches and Talamasca — all of them based on Anne Rice’s novels.

The original 1994 Interview With The Vampire movie recently attracted the attention of a good number of subscribers on Max, and you can stream it now.

A vampire tells his epic life story: love, betrayal, loneliness, and hunger.Release Date November 11, 1994 Runtime 123 Minutes Studio Warner Bros. Pictures Expand

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