Queen of the Damned is a 2002 horror film directed by Michael Rymer from a screenplay by Scott Abbott and Michael Petroni, and based on the 1988 novel The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice, the third novel of the book series The Vampire Chronicles, although the film contains many plot elements from the novel's 1985 predecessor, The Vampire Lestat. A stand-alone sequel to Interview with the Vampire , the film stars Stuart Townsend, Aaliyah , Marguerite Moreau, Vincent Pérez, and Lena Olin.
Plot[]
The sound of a hard rock band arouses the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt from a lengthy slumber, and he proceeds to take over as their lead singer. Achieving international success with the ensemble, which he names The Vampire Lestat, and having revealed the existence of vampires, he taunts his own kind during an interview to advertise his first and only live concert. Jesse Reeves, a researcher for the paranormal studies group Talamasca, is intrigued by his lyrics upon hearing one of his songs play on TV and tells the other members her theory that he really is a vampire. Her mentor, David Talbot, explains to her they already know of his identity and donates Lestat's journal that he recovered so that Jesse can read it, but warns her against pursuing Lestat. In the journal, Lestat recalls that in the winter of 1788, he was brought to a Mediterranean island and vampirized by Marius de Romanus, formerly a talented painter, and his violin playing awoke Queen Akasha, the first vampire. Increasingly intrigued, Jesse tracks Lestat down to a London vampire club called The Admiral's Arms, where he saves her from three vampires and confronts her about Marius.
Visiting Lestat in Los Angeles, Marius warns him that the other vampires will not tolerate his flamboyant public profile; he reveals that Lestat's music has awakened Akasha and unsuccessfully implores him to cancel his concert. Meanwhile, Akasha arrives at the coven, looking for Lestat. After the vampires reveal their plan to kill him at his concert, she torches the club and kills all the vampires inside. Arriving in Los Angeles, Jesse gives Lestat his journal back and asks him to show her what being a vampire is like. He scoffs at the idea, but she convinces him to spend time with her. She later enquires if he can convert her, expressing her desire to be with him and know everything he does. He angrily declines, demonstrating how a vampire preys on human blood before asking her if she truly wants to become one.
Lestat is attacked by a group of vampires at his concert in Death Valley, and Marius aids him in defeating most of them until Akasha arrives and promptly carries Lestat with her to her home on an island resort. During their period of sexual intercourse, he becomes spellbound and subservient to her. Jesse awakens in the house where she lived as a child, in awe at the sight of her aunt, Maharet, who later reveals herself as a member of the Ancient Vampires. Fearing Akasha's plans for world domination, the Ancient Vampires decide to destroy her by draining her blood. However, they believe that whoever drinks her last drop will not survive.
Akasha confronts the Ancient Vampires and interrupts their meeting, with Lestat, empowered by her blood, accompanying her. When they refuse to side with her, Akasha commands him to kill Jesse, seeing her both as an enemy due to being Maharet's descendant and as food, with Akasha planning to make an example out of her to dissuade disobedience. He ostensibly obeys, but after drinking Jesse's blood, comes to his senses and is released from Akasha's controlling influence. He demands his "crown", and as Akasha openly offers him her arm to feed on, he then turns on her and, aided by the Ancients, begins to drain her blood, diminishing her power; he goes to Jesse and, cradling her in his arms, donates his blood to her as Maharet, who has effectively killed Akasha by drinking her last drop of blood, turns into a marble statue and "sleeps", becoming the new Queen of the Damned.
Now a vampire, Jesse visits David, accompanied by Lestat, and returns the journal. When David nervously asks her about life in her current status, Jesse offers to vampirize him, but he declines due to his age. Jesse then bids David farewell and goes to embrace him, but he fearfully rejects the embrace; sensing his hesitation, Jesse looks hurt but nods in understanding and leaves with Lestat. Marius then enters David's office, well aware that David has obsessed over him for many years, and politely greets him. Lestat and Jesse walk hand in hand, among mortals, into the night.
Cast[]
- Stuart Townsend as Lestat
- Matthew Lassall as Lestat's Violinist Double
- Aaliyah as Akasha
- Marguerite Moreau as Jesse
- Rachael Tanner as Young Jesse
- Paul McGann as David Talbot
- Lena Olin as Maharet
- Christian Manon as Mael
- Claudia Black as Pandora
- Vincent Perez as Marius
- Bruce Spence as Khayman
- Matthew Newton as Armand
- Pia Miranda as Jesse's Roommate
- Tiriel Mora as Roger
- Jonathan Davis played a Scalper and also provided the uncredited singing voice for Lestat. In addition to Davis, several real-life musicians also appeared in the film including Darren Wilson as Sound Engineer, Rowland S. Howard as Vampire Guitarist, Hugo Race as Vampire Bass, Robin Casinader as Vampire Pianist, and former Jerk member Johnathan Devoy as James. Serena Altschul made a cameo as herself.
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Production[]
Warner Bros. had acquired the film rights to several of author Anne Rice's novels: the first three "Vampire Chronicles" and "The Mayfair Witches" trilogy after a takeover of Lorimar Productions in 1988.
An eventual adaptation of Interview with the Vampire (directed by Neil Jordan and produced by David Geffen) was released in 1994, although not without controversy, particularly over fan reaction to the casting of Tom Cruise in the role of Lestat, an objection that was initially shared by Anne Rice, which she recanted after seeing the completed film.
After the commercial and critical success of "Interview with the Vampire", Neil Jordan began initial development of the novel's sequel, "The Vampire Lestat" which was never made.
As the rights to the novels would revert to Anne Rice at the end of 2000, initial story meetings to adapt one or both of the remaining "Vampire Chronicles" novels began in 1998.
The decision was made early to substantially rewrite the plot and to base most of the movie on the third book: "The Vampire Lestat" was considered too broad and episodic for a two-hour feature film, although the novel's setup of Lestat's awakening and career as a rock star was used.
It was also decided to focus on Lestat as the primary character, and the back story of Akasha and the Story of the Twins were omitted, despite these being virtually central to the plot of the novel.
Displeased with the lack of progress (and more particularly with the studio's lack of consultation with her over the script development) Anne Rice wrote a critical reply to a fan's question about the film in 1998:
"The key factor is that the entire vampire contract terminates in the year 2000. All the properties revert to me at that time, unless production commences—principal photography that is—before then. I don't think it is possible for Warner Bros. to develop anything in that amount of time. They have not been receptive to me or to my ideas at all. Not very long ago, less than a year ago in fact, I begged the executives there to let me write a script for THE VAMPIRE LESTAT for union scale (the Writers Guild won't let you write it for free) and a deferred payment not due until release of the picture. They simply weren't interested. It was very painful for me, as I had been talking to a new director they'd hired and we were both excited about the idea. I felt snubbed and hurt and have not bothered to approach them since. The young director is supposed to be developing THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED which I think is a bad idea, and basically a doomed project. In spite of their showing no interest in me as the screen writer, they have not been able to find one themselves for this bizarre idea of THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED. I'm not too surprised. I think any respectable script writer would be crazy to tackle that novel without having fully developed the background story of Lestat. Anyway, that is where it is."
During 1999, the script for "Queen of the Damned" was developed by TV screenwriter Scott Abbott and Australian writer/director Michael Petroni. Another Australian, Michael Rymer, was confirmed to direct the film. Rymer suggested the film be shot in his home city of Melbourne, which would save considerably on production costs.
The first actor cast in the film was R&B singer Aaliyah (who had made her film and acting debut in "Romeo Must Die") as Akasha, the eponymous Queen of the Damned. She was enthusiastic about taking the role due to her fascination with Egyptian mythology and being a huge fan of vampire horror fiction.
The search for an actor to play Lestat took much longer; the idea of Tom Cruise reprising the role was considered, but dismissed although front runners for the role included Wes Bentley, Josh Hartnett and Heath Ledger.
Irish actor Stuart Townsend assumed the role of Lestat in 2000 after being originally cast in the role of Aragorn in the 2001 film, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", but he was re-cast with actor Viggo Mortensen after four days of shooting because the filmmakers realized that Townsend was too young for the role.
The final cast included Vincent Perez as Marius, Paul McGann as David Talbot, Lena Olin as Maharet and Marguerite Moreau as Jesse Reeves. Australian actors included Claudia Black as Pandora and Matthew Newton as Armand.
Filming[]
Principal photography for "Queen of the Damned" began on October 2, 2000 and ended on February 27, 2001. Filming took place in a former biscuit factory which was converted into a studio in the Melbourne suburb of St. Albans. Location filming took place around the city of Melbourne, although some filming was done in Los Angeles.
For the scenes of Lestat's concert in Death Valley, over 3000 goths were recruited from Melbourne nightclubs and on the Internet, then driven on a fleet of buses to a quarry in Werribee to act as extras in the film.
The singing voice of Lestat was supplied by Jonathan Davis of Korn; however, due to contractual difficulties, he was not allowed to sing on the soundtrack album, but was permitted to play several instruments on it.
Actress Pia Miranda played the part of Jesse's roommate in a short scene although it was deleted during post-production; however, it is included on the DVD and Blu-ray release. Despite this, Miranda's name still appears in the credits.
After principal photography for "Queen of the Damned" was completed, Aaliyah was killed in a plane crash in the Bahamas in August of 2001. Director Michael Rymer called in Aaliyah's brother, Rashad Haughton to help with overdubbing her voice following her death due to their similar voices. Special vocal technology was also used to make Rashad's voice sound more feminine.
Box Office[]
"Queen of the Damned" grossed $14,757,535 on an estimated budget of $35,000,000. Overall, it grossed $4,479,110 worldwide.
Critical Reception[]
On Rotten Tomatoes, "Queen of the Damned" has an approval rating of 17% based on 130 reviews. The site's consensus called it a "muddled and campy MTV-styled vampire movie with lots of eye candy and bad accents."
The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: "At its best, Queen is campy fun like the Vincent Price horror classics of the '60s. At its worst, it implodes in a series of very bad special effects."
Charles Savage of the Miami Herald said: "The original rock songs on the soundtrack, which are supposed to make Lestat bigger than Elvis, are terrible -- a common challenge for movies about fictional musicians."
Writing for the Boston Globe, Jay Carr stated that the film "degenerates into a lot of dull declaiming and attitudinizing, despite a sly tongue-in-cheek quality brought by a preening Stuart Townsend to the Lestat role he inherited from the utterly humorless Tom Cruise."
Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News said: "The main theme is the loneliness of the social outcast. That, plus a soundtrack to wake the undead, and the morbidly entombed presence of Aaliyah, will attract an audience despite the movie's intrinsic cheesiness."
The New York Times called it "a movie that stoops to jokes like calling Lestat's CD "a monster hit"; the movie is just a plain old monster."
Author's reaction[]
By July of 2001, author Anne Rice had mellowed her previous stance on "Queen of the Damned", much as she had with "Interview with the Vampire."
When asked about the film's progress, she answered: "Everything I hear about the movie is good. Warner Bros. is extremely enthusiastic. They are working very hard to make it perfect. I have no real news. Let me repeat what I mentioned in a recent message. I met Stuart Townsend, the young man who is playing Lestat and he was absolutely charming. He had Lestat's excellent speaking voice and his feline grace. I cannot wait to see him in the film."
By late 2001, she had seen the completed film and was sufficiently satisfied to allow her name to be used on promotional material; however, she later became disillusioned about the film and dismissed it in 2003, stating that a television series format would be more suited to the source material. Subsequently, she urged fans on her Facebook page to "simply forget" about the film, which she said "mutilated" her work.