Pajiba

Who can take a Vampire, sprinkle it with dew
Cover it with choc'late and a miracle or two
The Downey Man, oh the Downey Man can
The Downey Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good

There are at least three other verses, but I'll leave those for someone else.

And if we’ve learned one thing here in Pajiba-land, it’s that The Downey makes everything better.

Mmmmm...Downey.

Wait a second...is Robert Downey made out of bacon? They're making our actors out of bacon! Next thing they'll be breeding pigs like cattle for actors. You've gotta tell them. You've gotta tell them!

I dunno, Lestat's always been Peter Murphy to me. Rather than a reboot, "Tale Of The Body Thief" could be an interesting character study, and something actually different from most movies, though I know that book has detractors for some reason. Either way, it doesn't need to be done.

Lick their naughty bits?

Well, he was pretty asexual, from what I remember, and was indeed squeamish and a bit repulsed by the thought when he turned human.

So...don't get your hopes up. Then again, that's just the source material.

Dammit, just give me Iron Man 2, that's all I give a damn about.

I may bring the wrath of pajiba-land down on my head, but such is life. I think this is an absolutely awful casting choice. He's, simply put, too old. His face shows the wear and tear of years of drug abuse, and sun damage, and just getting older. Might as well cast Rutger Hauer or Julian Sands.
He is pretty (ruggedly handsome), but not the right kind of pretty.
He has great energy, but for fucks sake isn't there anyone else out there that could do this?! I know he's a franchise $$ machine, but it doesn't mean it makes sense.
I'm pretty much convinced that hollywood will never, ever get these books right. Ever.

I like Downey. I think he's very enjoyable to look at and I think he's a good actor. That said, I think this is a HORRIBLE casting choice. Not even close to the book's descriptions of Lestat. Oh and also? WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY REMAKING THIS? Really, Hollywood? You can't find a single original story? REALLY?

Lainey: While I also think this is a terrible idea, it is not a remake. They skipped straight from "Interview with a Vampire" to "Queen of the Damned" and left "The Vampire Lestat" alone. Until now. Given the frenzy for vampire stories lately this doesn't surprise me but Downey is an awful casting choice as Lestat.

How about a Sonja Blue movie? Can I be the only one that wants to see an ultra-violent "Sunglasses After Dark"?

Vampire downey jr.? yup my ovaries just exploded

tf breakher- Re: Rutger Hauer. You know the role was written for him, right?

I hope they camp this shit up big time-- Lestat's this ambiguously gay dandy with a martyr complex and more money than he knows what to do with. As far as I remember, The Vampire Lestat is the book where he actually becomes a rock star, just because he fucking can.

Still doesn't mean RDJ's right for the part, but I could see him generally being a campy badass.

Jay, David Talbot is one of my favorite Rice characters. I agree with you and I think we need a movie with him in it.

My friend just made a suggestion of who would make an awesome Lestat...

PAUL BETTANY

Ew, gross. I hated (haaaaaated) Anne Rice's books. I was about 13 when I read them and I thought they were totally dumb and super boring, as I generally find most vampire-related nonsense to be, because vampires are stupid. What the hell are you doing, RDJ? Stop it. STOP IT RIGHT NOW.

RDJ only works as Lestat if it's Lestat in another body. Or, you know, Tale of the Body Thief.

re: Paul Bettany as Lestat--I might have to revisit Anne Rice.

But if they remake this movie and don't recast Tom Cruise won't The Church of Scientology accidentally on purpose delete RDJ or plant something on him so he'll get arrested or make him be found with some underage male hooker or some shit so The Cruise can swoop in and be the conquering understudy?

RDJ is a great actor, probably the best of his generation, but this is not a good casting choice. RDJ is rather short(ish) and dark(ish) and, even though it's been a long time since I read any of the books, he doesn't even begin to approximate the look that Anne Rice described for Lestat.

I think someone like Paul Bettany would be a better choice. He gives off that faintly effete air that Rice described and he's certainly closer to the physical description than RDJ.

Nooooooooo. Nooooooooooooooo. Leave the vampires be. I can't take anymore angsty, sometimes shiny, whiny, "oh, no, Jesus doesn't love me anymore" vampires. I can't, do you hear? I won't! Besides, who wants to see RDJ all "Blaaaaaah, the wolves! Daddy, I wanna be a priest!" then bang a nun?

Uhm...*raises hand*

I wanna see RDJ bang a nun.

You know, if I'm the nun. That is, in a nun costume as I'm not actually Catholic.

Could he maybe be wearing that really awesome amazon.com wolf tee shirt at the time? Because I think that'd be really "in character" and he strikes me as the type to give a shit about that kind of thing. I'd want to help him with his "artistic flow".

Oh. You were being sarcastic. Nevermind. Role playing is bad in the bedroom.

But kinda fun in the kitchen.

Paul Bettany is the way to go for Lestat. Not that I don't love RDJ or anything, but I really see him more as David from the Talamasca. He isn't as old, but being as David was always written as a bit young at heart and open to learning and the world at large - I think it could work. THEN if they want to throw some more cash his way, they could also do the cross over into the Mayfair Witches series...

Oh gohds. Hollywood would BUTCHER the Mayfiar series.
Don't even put that kind of thought out there in the universe...

I think it was all of the exposition, the blah blah blah I'm the devil, do you like my powers? that really got to me. I skimmed through big sections of the book so as not to ram my head into the wall out of frustration. The imagery was nice, and I too liked the religious-ness (religiosity?) of the overall story, just not the execution.

PS - Not that this has to do with anything here, but I just read that Henry Rollins is going to be on season 2 of Sons of Anarchy. I peed myself a little out of excitement.

The Lestat character was written with either Rutger Hauer (wtf?) or Sting (that, I get) in mind to play him. Both are a tad long in the tooth to do so. So is RDJ, for that matter. And yet the thought of RDJ as Lestat makes me feel... squishy. In a good way.

The obvious Lestat (to me), at least physically, is Alexander Skarsgard. But unfortunately, he's already busy playing a different vampire.
Mmmmm..... Eric......

Both Interview and QOTD were marred by bad casting. Most especially, why do they keep insisting on casting itty-bitty, brown eyed, dark haired men for this role? Is there a dearth of blue eyed blond haired TALL men in hollywood?
RDJ is a sexy bitch, but as Lestat? C'mon...he's too old, Lestat was made when he was 21. He would, however, make a perfect Marius.

ah lestat...

downey'd make a great vamp for the ages.... but.. he's no lestat.

cruise sukd. idiocy in casting. hobbit, dull, acceptable cruelty factor... but no panache.

lestat, ideally should be a tall, modern amalgam of sting, robt plant - at their respective 'blond god of rock' peaks.

who would fit that bill...? i have no idea.

jeremy irons, too old. he'd of done it justice.