In 1994, filmmaker Neil Jordan (The Crying Game) made dreams come true when he cast Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt opposite one another in his fresh production, Interview with the Vampire. Not only were the actors two of the biggest heartthrobs of the decade (and beyond), but the movie would also see them stealing the hearts of goths everywhere as they played two immortal beings tied together for centuries. Based on the beloved Anne Rice novel of the same name, the movie served as the author’s gateway into cinematic and televised adaptations and would also become one of the foundational building blocks in the career of Academy Award-nominated actress, Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog).

Sitting down with a tape recorder, Christian Slater’s reporter, Daniel Molloy, takes a chance with a bizarre lead that – should his claims be true – says he’s a vampire. The interviewee is Louis de Pointe du Lac (Pitt), who recounts his story from his days walking the earth as a mortal human living in Louisiana in the late 1700s to how he was turned into a vampire by Lestat de Lioncourt (Cruise). He goes on to chronicle the pair’s time together, including tales about other vampires (Antonio Banderas, Stephen Rea), and how they turned a young girl, Claudia (Dunst), into one of their own.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the world went feral with vampire fever following the movie’s arrival. At the global box office, Warner Bros. walked away with more than $223 million, while the movie nabbed two Oscar nods and saw Dunst land a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. At this point, it was clear that the world was ready to sink their teeth into more of Rice’s work, with the off-shoot, Queen of the Damned, to arrive a few years later.

Anne Rice’s Immortal Legacy

Although Rice passed away in 2021, the late author saw plenty of her material make it onto screens around the world. Most recently, AMC has begun to build its own franchise centered around Rice’s stories, aptly dubbed Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe. The network has already found massive success in an episodic telling of Interview with the Vampire, which critics and audiences have praised for sticking more to the writer’s original work. The series was recently greenlit for a third season. Meanwhile, audiences are on the edge of their seats awaiting news of when they can expect to watch the second season of the Alexandra Dadarrio-led Mayfair Witches, while yet another production, The Talamasca , is also in the works.

Right now, Max subscribers can see where Rice’s hold on television and film took its first step as Interview with the Vampire is now streaming.