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Q: Why hasn't anyone turned Anne Rice's vampire novels into a TV show? They seem well suited to it.

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Author: 
Adam Thomlison / TV Media

Apparently, author Anne Rice herself had the same question, and a few months ago, AMC Networks swept in to provide an answer.

In May, AMC acquired the film and TV rights to not just Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles series but also "The Lives of the Mayfair Witches," the author's other most notable gothic romance book series.

There hasn't been much news since, but that's not surprising. There's a lot of behind-the-scenes work that needs to come between the acquisition of rights and the big, splashy casting announcements that typically generate headlines.

When the AMC deal was announced, Rice noted that the series are interconnected, providing a particularly rich seam for AMC to mine.

"It's always been my dream to see the worlds of my two biggest series united under a single roof so that filmmakers could explore the expansive and interconnected universe of my vampires and witches," Rice told Variety magazine.

Variety reported that this is the result of a long effort by Rice to get a series made. She reportedly bought the screen rights back herself in 2016 and began seeking network partners.

AMC is now very much the network that "The Walking Dead" built, and so Rice's horror-tinged stories are a natural fit. Then-network-president Sarah Barnett also pointed out the business element that Rice's stories have in common with the comic-based "Walking Dead" series: "There is no shortage of content in today's competitive environment, but proven [intellectual property] that has captivated millions of fans around the world is something very special and rare."

 

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