Film
In 1994, Neil Jordan directed a relatively faithful motion picture adaptation of
Interview with the Vampire, from Rice's own screenplay. The movie starred Tom Cruise as Lestat, Brad Pitt as the guilt-ridden Louis and was a breakout role for young Kirsten Dunst as the deceitful child vampire Claudia.
A second film adaptation,
Queen of the Damned, was released in February 2002. Starring Stuart Townsend as the vampire Lestat and singer Aaliyah as Akasha, Queen of the Vampires, the movie combined incidents from the second and third books in the series:
The Vampire Lestat and
The Queen of the Damned. Produced on a budget of $35 million, the film only recouped $30 million at the domestic(US) box office.
A 1994 film titled
Exit to Eden, based loosely on the book Rice published as Anne Rampling, starred Rosie O'Donnell and Dan Aykroyd. The work transformed from a love story into a police comedy, possibly due to the explicit S&M themes of the book. The film was a box office flop.
A film version of
Out of Egypt was planned but later cancelled.
Television
In 1997, she wrote a television pilot entitled
Rag and Bone starring Dean Cain and Robert Patrick, which featured many of the common themes of her work.
The Feast of All Saints was made into a miniseries in 2001 by director Peter Medak.
Plans to adapt Rice's
Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy into a twelve-hour miniseries to be aired on NBC were dropped after a change of studio head and subsequent loss of interest in the project.
Theatre
In 1997, a ballet adaptation of
Interview with the Vampire, premiered in Prague.
On April 25, 2006, the musical
Lestat, based on Rice's Vampire Chronicles books, opened at the Palace Theatre on Broadway after having its world premiere in San Francisco, California in December 2005. With music by Elton John and lyrics by Bernie Taupin, it was the inaugural production of the newly established Warner Brothers Theatre Ventures.
Despite Rice's own overwhelming approval and praise, the show received mostly poor reviews by critics and disappointing attendance.
Lestat closed a month later on May 28, 2006, after just 33 previews and 39 regular performances.
Comics
Anne Rice's books have been adapted over the years into comics.Below is a list of known adaptations and issue runs; along with publisher and year.
- Anne Rice's The Mummy or Ramses the Damned #1-12 by Millennium Comics (1990)
- Anne Rice's Interview with the vampire #1-12 by Innovation Comics (1992)
- Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned #1-11 (#12 was never published) by Innovation Comics (1991)
- Anne Rice's The Tale of the Body Thief #1-4 (#'s 5-12 were never published) by Sicilian Dragon (1999)
- Anne Rice's The Vampire Companion #1-3 by Innovation Comics (1991)
- Anne Rice's The Master of Rampling Gate (one shot) by Innovation Comics (1991)
- Anne Rice's Vampire Lestat #1-14 by Innovation Comics (1990)
- Anne Rice's The Witching Hour #1-5 by Millennium Publishing (1992)
Fan fiction
Rice has an adamant stance against fan fiction based on her work, releasing a statement on April 7, 2000, that prohibited all such efforts. This caused the removal of thousands of "fanfics" from the FanFiction.Net website.
Music
Cradle of Filth briefly includes Lestat in the song "Libertina Grimm" as "Count Lestat", and also in their original album The Principle of Evil Made Flesh in the song Eve the Art of Witchcraft where they mention the Savage Garden.
Guitarist Steve Vai states in liner notes for his album The Elusive Light and Sound volume 1, that his song "Loveblood" was inspired by the film and the fact that he wished he was an actor so he could play the role.
Alternative rock band Concrete Blonde's song "Bloodletting (the Vampire Song)", the title track from the Bloodletting CD, is based on Rice's
The Vampire Lestat.Sting released a song on the album
The Dream of the Blue Turtles entitled "Moon Over Bourbon Street", after reading
Interview with the Vampire.
The Australian pop band Savage Garden found their name in
The Vampire Lestat, in which Lestat describes the world as "the savage garden."
Swedish heavy metal band Tad Morose recorded a song entitled "Servant of the Bones" about the book of the same name on their 2000 album
Undead.
The metalcore band Atreyu declares in the song "The Crimson", "I'm an Anne Rice novel come to life."
Punk/goth band The Damned recorded a song called "The Dog" about the child vampire Claudia from
Interview with the Vampire on their 1982 album
Strawberries.
The Italian band Theatres des Vampires is named after a location featured in several books of The Vampire Chronicles. Their 1999 album is called
The Vampire Chronicles.
Malice Mizer, a Japanese rock band based heavily on French culture, uses the phrase "Drink from me and live forever" in their song "Transylvania." "Drink from me and live forever" is a phrase from the first book Interview With the Vampire.
Mexican band Santa Sabina dedicates a song to Rice's vampire character Louis: "Una canción para Louis."
Psytrance project Talamasca was named after the secret society in both the Vampire chronicles and the Mayfair Witches series. This is a solo project by the French musician Cedric Dassulle, who also calls himself
DJ Lestat.
Japanese visual kei metal band Versailles first album,
Noble, is subtitled "Vampires Chronicle." Furthermore, the sixth song is entitled "After
Cloudia", insinuating a relationship with Claudia from the series. The lead singer, Kamijo has stated he models himself after Rice's character, Lestat de Lioncourt.
Italian gothic rock group Last Minute's first album,
Burning Theater, was conceived as an unofficial soundtrack for
Interview with the Vampire, including the title track and two others, all focusing heavily on the death of Claudia.