08/11/1997

"Letter to My Fans"

"Hi, everybody. This is a news report from Anne Rice on August 11, 1997. I want to thank you for all the questions that have been flooding in to the bulletin board. And I want to answer as many as I can.

The new series of small vampire tales is underway. I have completed the first one--it's called PANDORA, and it will be published in the Spring. I really don't know which character is going to speak to me next. I have to sort of wait until the character tells me. It could be a Mayfair character like Julien, it could be Claudia's diary from INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, I don't know...I really don't know.

Now, with regard to THE MUMMY, I know many of you have inquired about THE MUMMY. THE MUMMY, right now, is in pre-production with James Cameron, who is one of the most brilliant directors in Hollywood. I think Jim is working on the script right now. And I really do not want to do a sequel to THE MUMMY. I feel like THE MUMMY will reach another incarnation in Jim's hands, and that my destiny is to go on and write about ancient Egypt, and curses, and mummies, and the things that really intrigue me about Egypt in a newer and different form. That's my plan at the moment. But, you know, we'll see what happens...we'll see what Jim does. It's very possible that you will like the movie Jim does, and Jim will do sequels...I don't know. But, at the moment I have no plans for a sequel to THE MUMMY. I've tried, believe me. I've tried to bridge the time, I've tried to reach back--but Egypt means something darker to me. There are greater mysteries behind the pyramids. There are greater mysteries behind the gods and the goddesses of Egypt, and the strange prayers on the walls of tombs. And my treatment in THE MUMMY did not provide the proper door for me to go down that dark passage. But anyway, James Cameron is actively working on it. I would give it two years. As you know, he's just finished a movie of THE TITANIC. I am breathlessly waiting for it, because James Cameron is one of the few directors who actually changes movie history when he makes something. I don't know how many of you are aware of how he has done that, but he made THE TERMINATOR, and when he did, he virtually made history. He put words into the language, and he put an entire style of film that just didn't exist before, and I greatly admire him. He is a perfectionist and a genius. Okay, that's where THE MUMMY is at right now--THE MUMMY is on vacation in Hollywood, for me. I can't do anymore on it.

Now, our new book, VIOLIN, is coming out October 14th, in New Orleans. We're not going to tour this year, we still don't know how many signings we will have. We will have a few. And, we'll do our best. But, we'll keep you posted on that. I promise to put up more frequent information about the signings. I'm very proud to announce that LEILA JOSEFOWICZ, a great concert violinist--just an absolutely fabulous concert violinist--is going to come down Sunday, November 2nd, the weekend of the Fan Club party, and she is going to play for us the following night. Now, the Fan Club Party is going to be on November 1st, because Halloween is the 31st of October. We have a 900 capacity auditorium for Leila, and we have not quite figured out yet how to get the tickets into the hands of the people who really want to hear her. I mean, this is a magnificent classical violinist. When I heard she wanted to come, I mean, it was like hearing that Beethoven was going to stop by--it was quite incredible! I recommend her CD's, by the way. She has a beautiful recording of Tchaikovsky's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, and also of Sibelius, and then she has another CD in which does a lot of Hungarian rhapsodies, and some Camille Saint-Saens. She is simply marvelous! Leila was the artist I found, among all the artists--when I was writing VIOLIN--who inspired me the most. She had the sound, she really did. And if I were to try to describe her gift, and what differentiates her from others, I would have to say that Leila has the authority and the depth of an older violinist, and the incredible energy and passion of a younger violinist. It's quite miraculous to hear Leila. But anyway, she is going to be here in New Orleans. She can't make the Coven Party itself, because she can't fly in until Sunday, November 2nd, but we are going to fill Jesuit Auditorium with 900 people to hearher. So, if you want to hear her, start letting us know by calling the fan line and leaving a message with your phone number and address. The number is (504) 522- 8634, and we are keeping track of interested people. Someone from my office will call you and verify that you do want the Leila tickets, and they will send them to you. We are going to do our darndest to see that everybody gets a ticket who wants one. You know, we dread under-ticketing and over-ticketing. We don't know how to do it, so give us some help, give us some suggestions. My fan line, by the way, is always there. I get about 20, 30, 40 calls a day. I have an old machine, and I'm trying to get a larger one. I update it every two to three days, I talk about the movies I've seen and so forth. I love getting messages. Keep it up, you know. And it's also there for those of you who don't know anything about computers, who may only hear about this web page, but not really know how to access it yourself.

Now, as you know, we have started THE ANNE RICE COLLECTION, which is a group of merchandise that really is an expression or an enhancement, creatively, of what we do. I mean, it is not something that we have done to try and make millions of dollars. Any writer who is a best-selling author makes her most money by just writing. And I want to make that clear, because America is so flippant about commercialism, while being so commercial. It's so hypocritical about commercialism, while being so blatantly shallow and commercial itself. THE ANNE RICE COLLECTION is a personal collection that is a realization of a dream. I have a wonderful artist, Patricia Hardin, who draws the drawings for the T-shirts for us. She's done drawings of the various houses, she's done a beautiful drawing of Louis, the vampire. We are still working on Lestat. We are still working on Armand. We have a beautiful drawing of Claudia. We will get a catalog together for this merchandise, and we will circulate the catalog. As of now, we don't have it. We have just started with a little shop in The Rink--at 2727 Prytania Street, at Washington Avenue. We are in our infancy--we are just very, very small. But we want to go as big as we can, and we sell lots of other related items--beautiful items, handcrafted items that we think fit the aesthetic of our readers and what they like. I would also like to announce that we got today, from England, the very first of the series of very fine dolls of Lestat that are going to be made for us by Paul Crees and Peter Coe. These are beautiful dolls of Lestat, there will probably be about 15 or 16 of them made. They do cost in the thousands...I mean, these are fine doll makers, and any doll they make is in the thousands...and they are going to be available through Celia Neadel, of Celia and Susan's Dolls and Collectibles in Florida. I believe the number is (954) 458-0661. Celia is going to be the distributor. We just got the first one, and nobody's getting that doll away from me! But, it is a tall, regal doll, and it has a very androgynous look to it. And it also has the distinctive look of the dollmakers, but it is of Lestat. And the clothing is magnificent. I think Peter and Paul, if this works out, will continue to make dolls of the various characters for us. We have to just keep talking. They make every doll by hand, they paint every face by hand. Dolls run a lot, I don't know the actual price. Again, Celia is the person who is distributing them. 2000 UPDATE: Celia is no longer the sole distributor. The dolls are available at doll shops nationwide.

What else can I tell you? I can tell you I miss you. That this time of year, I'm usually on tour, and so I'm usually hugging and kissing a lot of people, and signing a lot of books, and hearing a lot of encouraging words...and I feel kind of lonely in the middle of the night. I love you, and I'm very excited, though, about being able to stay home and just do ARMAND (that's the novel I'm working on now). Having these two months--August and September, and some of October--to just work on ARMAND is absolutely luxurious. I mean, with PANDORA already in production, now ARMAND coming, I'm in ecstasy. I'm going to be doing two books a year from now on. There will be the long one and the short one. Short ones will almost always be characters from the Mayfair and vampire chronicles, the long ones may be very different books. I am very, very intrigued as to what your reaction is going to be to VIOLIN, because I feel VIOLIN is one of the most romantic books I've ever written, and also one of the scariest and most gruesome books I've ever written, and yet it brings me closer to my ideal of poetry than I've been able to come in past books. So, I'm very, very interested.

By the way...let's do some film raving! You know how I feel about film! Film is, to me, the art form that really influences us today. Film is our national art...it's our public art..it is the most powerful public art. Painting, poetry...these things cannot compare any longer to the influence of film. And I just happened to get a hold of a rental tape of Kenneth Branagh's HAMLET, and I was blown off course, like a ship in a white squall, by that Hamlet!! I had already started ARMAND, I had a chapter of ARMAND, and I realized that I had to tear the whole thing up and go back to the beginning. Because when I saw what Kenneth Branagh did with the role of HAMLET, and when I saw what Shakespeare did with the role of HAMLET, I really just thought go back and really go at this. What Shakespeare gives you is courage. He must have been the most reckless writer who ever lived! I mean, the most reckless, illogical, over the top, hysterical writer that ever lived. And Kenneth Branagh does this HAMLET, four hours long, at a hysterical pitch. And so, for the first time in my life, I've seen a HAMLET that really works. See, most people downplay it--they cut the play, they abbreviate it, they try to tone Hamlet way down--and he becomes a nuisance, really. Sort of an idiot. But in this movie, every line is there, and so you know every doubt HAMLET has, and you know every fault HAMLET has, and you know why he can't just up and kill the King because a ghost has told him to. And it's absolutely magnificent! Visually, it's beautiful...beautiful. Everybody in it is superb. It is professionally done like you wouldn't believe. I've been very sad lately to find out from kids calling in on the fan line that it never played their town in the United States. The release of it wasn't wide. And I have a dream, not very well developed, of somehow bringing it back to the United States in the big 70mm form for some kind of a Shakespearian Festival that is only Branagh's films. Kenneth Branagh has also done HENRY V, and he's also done MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, and he is just extraordinary. I mean, that someone like Kenneth Branagh would come along at this time is absolutely remarkable. He is out of the streets of Belfast, where he grew up poor, and I grew up poor in the streets of New Orleans. He grew up Protestant unfortunately...(that's a joke!). I grew up Catholic. You can see in him something that only the culturally deprived can understand, and that is the tremendous fervor and fire that art produces. You know, when you are a poor kid, and you first discover on the radio a symphony, and you first hear that lustrous, gorgeous music, you are just swept off your feet because it's not something available to you everyday like it is to rich kids. And I think that's the way it was for Kenneth Branagh. When he saw I, CLAUDIUS on TV, when he realized he could go into London and see Shakespearian plays and be in them, he had an appreciation that was like somebody coming out of the desert would have for water. He wrote a very good autobiography of himself. It's very sympathetic, it's very compassionate, and he's the only artist right now today whom I identify with. I want to be as good a writer as Kenneth is a director and an actor. I sent him 200 long-stemmed roses in baskets, to his studio in London, and he sent me back the kindest, sweetest note. And I felt for a second I had touched something that I normally couldn't reach. So, it was quite wonderful. I was very grateful for that opportunity, to send those roses.

Another actor I want to recommend to you very much is an actor that you guys have known about for a long time, but whom I've just discovered, and that's Leonardo DiCaprio. I've gone and pulled every movie off the shelf I can find that Leonardo DiCaprio has ever made, and the career of this young man is absolutely amazing. He is a genius, and I just hope that there's time enough and patience enough to reach a point where I can get control of my movies back about the Vampire Lestat, and I can cast Leonardo DiCaprio as Lestat, and that Leonardo DiCaprio will want to do it. Of course, I proposed this idea to the people who own the movies, Warner Bros., and they know that's what I want. But my opinion doesn't count for much in the halls of Warner's. But again, I just greatly admire this actor. This actor has done a very unusual thing. He has been starring in movies since he was quite young, and not only has he maintained a consistency of face and voice, which often actors don't, you know. It's not their fault, they just radically change their appearance. Not only has he done that, he has chosen, almost without question, excellent films. Any film he is in is likely to have great actors, i.e., Robert DeNiro, or Meryl Streep, it's likely to be directed and written by people of extraordinary talent. He is very careful, and so his name has come to mean quality. That's not so for some of the other actors. They just haven't had that kind of opportunity, or patience, or control. You see the name Leonardo DiCaprio, you know the film is going to be a fine film. THE BASKETBALL DIARIES, that's another fine example. I loved his ROMEO & JULIET, with Claire Danes, it was quite the opposite of an English Shakespearian treatment, because you didn't have English actors, you had...oh, I don't know, an international cast, and the language was cut down quite a bit...but the tremendous power of ROMEO & JULIET definitely comes through. And the emotions which Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes bring to those roles are overwhelming. It's also one of the few movies I've ever seen of Shakespeare where I thought the modern setting really worked. You know, most of the time, when they date Shakespeare in a local cafe, I always wonder well why, you know. But, it really works in ROMEO & JULIET, because suddenly all the talk of weapons and killing and poison ties in beautifully with our use of guns, and cocaine, and heroin today. You can really understand. I mean here you have two people who love as adults, they are classified as children, they have access to weapons with which they can kill each other, as Mercutio is accidentally killed, and they have access to drugs with which they can terminate their lives. And it all makes magnificent sense. It's also a feast for the eye. It's by a director...let me see if I can pronounce his name...Luhrmann...and he also did a film out of Australia called STRICTLY BALLROOM. I think you should definitely get this ROMEO and JULIET and pay special attention, as well, to the drag queen who plays Mercutio. It's really wonderful. In fact, that it would come in the same time as HAMLET provides fascinating contrasts. Really, really. But listen, I am going to be coming to you more often on the web site. I'm going to be doing a regular feature called FANATIC ON FILM, in which I talk about the new films that come out on DVD discs and tape. I have to do this, because these films are my life. I write, there is my family, and then I watch films. And I want to share with you these overflowing emotions, because I get too frustrated otherwise. I get too angry at the critics...I get too angry at America for not embracing an actor or an actress as it should. So, let's hope that FANATIC ON FILM will allow me to do some really good work. I mean, it's going to be spontaneous, it will be in the informal essay style always, but I'm going to use James Agee...the great James Agee, and the great Pauline Kael...as my models for really well developed discussions of the film. What I've given you today is just a small bit of what I hope to do regularly on FANATIC ON FILM.

Now, I would like to say one other thing. Listen, the web site is very big. Sometimes you ask us questions, and the answer is actually already on the web site. But I can give you only sympathy in this regard, because I don't know how to boot up the web site at all. It's 100 pages now! But there are many, many answers and if you search around, you'll find many, many things. And things are moving...things are moving along very, very fast for us. Our weekend in New Orleans of October 31st, November 1st, and November 2nd will be very, very exciting. We're not sure how it's all going to fit together, but we know that the Fan Club ball will happen, and we know that Leila's concert will happen. And I'm really looking forward to it, and I'm really looking forward to seeing you, because I MISS YOU, I MISS YOU!!! This is bad, I mean, this is the first year I am deprived. I went to church last nite, an unusual experience, and I got to hug some children, and I thought this is really great, you know. I'm starved for this! And it was quite wonderful. I am very interested in churches, by the way. Churches that are very extreme. So, if any of you know of any churches where people handle serpents, or drink strychnine...if you know churches where they speak in tongues...if you know where they roll on the floor...by all means send us a message on the web site or call the fan line and tell us. We are searching for that, we want to see it. I am not necessarily a believer, as I am sure you know, in any creed. In fact, I have such strong beliefs that I have thought in some ways, of starting my own religion. There is one theologist whom I greatly admire--an Episcopalean named Matthew Fox, who speaks a great deal about the Cosmic Christ, but, in any event, what I am interested in is what God means to people. And when I see them down on the floor, with their arms out and their eyes shut, I care about that and I have a great respect for it. As far as believing that, you know, if Jesus Christ isn't your savior you go to Hell, I don't believe it, because I don't believe Mahatma Ghandi is in Hell. Okay, that's it for now--I LOVE YOU!"

ANNE RICE