Queen of the Damned
Short description
Queen of the Damned follows Lestat de Lioncourt, a vampire who wakes after decades of sleep and reinvents himself as a rock star, performing for mortal audiences in defiance of vampire custom. His songs reach Akasha, the ancient mother of all vampires, who has lain dormant for centuries and now wakes with ambitions of her own. What begins as a bid for fame draws Lestat into a conflict over power among the undead.
The film is the third feature directed by Michael Rymer, following In Too Deep and Perfume. Stuart Townsend plays Lestat, with Aaliyah as Akasha, Marguerite Moreau as the young English student Jesse Reeves, Vincent Perez as Marius, Paul McGann as David Talbot and Lena Olin as Maharet. Michael Petroni and Scott Abbott wrote the screenplay, and Jorge Saralegui produced. Made for 35 million dollars, it took in about 45 million worldwide.
Audiences have been moderate in their assessment: on IMDb the film holds 5.3 out of 10 from roughly 64,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.1 from over 1,200 votes. A critics' rating of 4.1 out of 10 from 129 reviews places it below the audience scores. The production involved 95 credited cast members and 146 credited crew.
What's left behind the scenes
- Josh Hartnett was also considered for the role of Lestat.
- The film is based on Anne Rice's novel "The Queen of the Damned" (1988), the third book in the "Vampire Chronicles" series.
- Warner Bros. acquired the rights to adapt the first three books from Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles" series for seven years. During this period, the studio created "Interview with the Vampire" (1994), but only one year remained to produce film adaptations of the other two books. The studio then urgently hired screenwriters to combine "The Vampire Lestat" and "The Queen of the Damned" into a single script.
- The role of Lestat was offered to Tom Cruise, but he declined it.
- Singer Aaliyah, who played the lead role in this film, died in a plane crash shortly after filming was completed.
- Wes Bentley, who had already been cast as Lestat, left the project. He was replaced by Irish actor Stuart Townsend.
- Jonathan Davis of the band "Korn" provides the singing voice for Lestat in the film. However, due to contractual obligations, songs performed by Davis could not appear on the film's soundtrack. Ultimately, the five compositions written by Davis and Richard Gibbs were recorded by other singers (Marilyn Manson, Chester Bennington, David Draiman, Wayne Static, and Jay Gordon).
- Cherry juice was used as a substitute for blood in the film.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
