Where to watch Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

Trivia & production notes

• The rights to Anne Rice's novel were purchased by Paramount in April 1976, just before the book was published, and then passed through multiple studios over years of development before Warner Bros. finally brought the project to Neil Jordan.
• Neil Jordan agreed to direct only if he could write his own script, which he did but did not receive credit for.
• The film received a $70 million budget, which was unprecedented for a vampire movie at the time.
• Anne Rice initially envisioned Alain Delon for Louis and was later championed to cast Julian Sands as Lestat, but Sands was rejected for not being famous enough.
• Anne Rice strongly opposed Tom Cruise's casting as Lestat, comparing it to casting Edward G. Robinson as Rhett Butler, and suggested Brad Pitt and Cruise swap roles instead.
• Anne Rice rewrote Louis as a female character at one point because she believed Hollywood's homophobia made it the only way to get the film made, with Cher considered for the role.
• River Phoenix was originally cast as Daniel Molloy but died four weeks before filming began, and Christian Slater donated his entire salary to Phoenix's favorite charities when he took over the role.
• Brad Pitt described the production as six months in darkness due to almost-exclusive night shoots filmed mostly in London during winter, which triggered depression, and he even attempted to buy out his contract.
• Makeup artists required actors to hang upside down for 30 minutes so blood would rush to their heads while they stenciled translucent blue veins onto their faces for the vampire appearance.
• Stan Winston designed the vampire makeup effects despite his company's reputation for large-scale animatronics and CGI, which director Neil Jordan was initially hesitant about for a film requiring mostly special makeup work.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Interview with the Vampire (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.