#was really afraid for a second there that we were going to get Armand's entire detailed backstory too

[kingdomoftyto]

IwtV movie script '92 early draft, liveblog, part 5

Lestat has just bled out in the parlor.

In the script, Claudia is standing triumphant, having drained some of his blood herself, while Louis crouches uncertainly beside the body. In the final cut of the film, she and Louis are both standing in shock beside a spreading pool of blood, Claudia still holding the knife.

🥺

Film!Claudia tries to crack some jokes but Louis shuts her down with a look. They wonder how to dispose of the body and decide on the swamp.

OH, the voiceovers are referencing the earlier scene when they slept under the church! Lestat said he hated the dirty tomb. And apparently in this version, Louis is ACTIVELY GRIEVING HIM, trying to find someplace to lay him to rest that Lestat would have liked 🥺🥺🥺

🥺😭💀

Holy shit

God, I can't wait for episode 6 of the AMC series lmfao

... Claudia actually starts sobbing in the script, and Louis can't help but go to her. Her face is covered in bloody tears, and she says she only wanted to free the both of them from Lestat's control, that she'd undo it if it would please Louis. He comforts her and agrees to go to Europe to seek others of their kind.

MEANWHILE, the final cut jumps back briefly to the interview with Daniel. "You missed him?" / "He was all I knew." There's then a mention of Claudia researching vampires, because they don't have Lestat's backstory to go off of in this version lmao

... OH, interesting!

So the confrontation with swamp!Lestat goes a little differently between the two. The early draft:

Meanwhile in the final cut, Lestat sits at the piano and plays ominously while giving a whole goddamn villain speech. "Listen, Louis. There's life in these old hands still." He describes living off of reptiles and toads, then addresses Claudia before lunging at her. Not exactly "without reason" as originally intended!!

Their escape plays out essentially the same in both versions.

That's a lot to unpack.

... The script cuts away to Daniel for a sec so Louis can explain the alligators and snakes thing, and that only fire could have stopped Lestat from coming back. He says they had no way of knowing if he was really dead this time.

Ooughf, this shit is gonna hurt so bad in the AMC version

... The script then skips straight ahead to their arrival in Paris (since they didn't have to search everywhere on their own--they had Lestat's stories to start from!). The film on the other hand takes some more bits from the books and sums up their fruitless travels. "I began to believe we were the only ones. There was a strange comfort in that thought."

Both versions go through a montage of them thoroughly enjoying themselves in Paris.

So weird for them to be here already knowing about the Paris coven

The entire rest of this section of the script/movie is just going to be one long string of me going 🥺

can almost hear Lestat's smug disembodied voice crying "I told you so!"

Another night, Claudia walks into their rooms with a new doll that looks just like her. She says the dollmaker, Madeline, made it for her. Before Louis' eyes, she snaps, breaking the doll and throwing it in the fire.

not enough time in the world to unpack all that

Interesting

Pfft. Louis actually gets to fistfight Santiago in the script before Armand interrupts. Good.

Armand's gonna beat the shit out of Lestat when he sees him

...The vampire show at the theater goes similarly in both versions, though the final cut is longer and I think more convincing.

😬Claudia. Girl.

Then, yeah, the performance plays out the same. Even Claudia is put off by the end of it.

Armand surprisingly hospitable in the script. One of the vampires gets too close to Claudia and he telekinetically throws them into a wall.

My god, man. Keep it in your pants!

(That's true of book!Louis' reaction to Armand as well, for the record lmao)

This is so weird

... So they have an entirely different conversation here in the script than they do in the final movie. Hits a lot of the same beats, but it's different since Louis already knows about the Satanist stuff and it's no secret that they both know Lestat.

Very direct and to the point, here.

Get dunked on, philosophy boi

Yeah no kidding

Claudia, btw, is watching this entire conversation, silently

Whoa whoa, would Armand agree with him so easily here? I'm not so sure. Armand is nothing if not a stubborn little bastard, and if I recall correctly he was not super on board with Lestat's hedonism at this point in time. He still wanted to cling to his arbitrary rules and hierarchies to give his life "purpose".

So pretty much the same as the final cut, plus mentions of Lestat.

Cruel bastard >:(

The final cut has a small scene where Santiago tells them that killing another vampire is the greatest crime they can commit. It doesn't appear in the script.

Okay her calling them "bourgeois Parisians" is VERY funny

Louis: "There is no danger."

Louis, two seconds later: "Okay maybe there is some danger, but--"

I'd have to look at it again to be sure, but I think this may be a better buildup to Claudia wanting to leave him than even happened in the book lmao.

The final cut of this scene has a lot more of Claudia insisting Louis and Armand want each other desperately. She claims Armand told her to "Let him go"

... Grghk, post limit reached. Onto the next-!

#Tyto reads IwtV92 #was really afraid for a second there that we were going to get Armand's entire detailed backstory too

[head-hopping]

Just on sheer impulse, Ramona had gone back upstairs to the bathroom, opened the door and flicked the light on. Yup. Everything looked about as it should. Took about ten seconds this time instead of thirty before the light went out, door shut, and she left Lotta’s bedroom for the downstairs living room where the woman in question has been sitting for about three hours now.

Once Lotta heard Ramona’s footsteps hit the kitchen tile, she actually snapped, “Would you stop?”

No, was the silent response as Mona peeked over the island counter at the floor. Satisfied, she returned to the couch but sat on the coffee table, hands pressed between her fidgeting knees. Lips pressed together, Mona studied Lotta’s curled form. Head in her hands, hair hanging wherever it wanted. Her fingers have stopped trembling but the stress hasn’t gotten any better. Not that Mona could blame her.

“Body for a body,” Mona muttered, leaning back a bit. “That’s one of the many mottos that keep the business afloat.”

“Not a man for a dog, Ramona!” Carlotta finally sat up, fire in her red-rimmed eyes. She shoved her hair back into some semblance of a place behind her hair, but it was too unruly to care at the moment. But so was Lotta.

“Armand had it coming.” Mona’s tone darkened. How that bastard had gotten into the apartment…obviously poisoning Enrico along the way to the upstairs bedroom. All without Mona noticing a thing. If she’d been just a few seconds later….

If she’d been a few seconds earlier, Armand might not be lying on the bathroom floor with part of his brains splattered on the wall. But walking in that room to find his hands on Lotta…Ramona had reacted. Simple as that. One shot. And he’s been growing cold up there ever since. Still, Mona had enough jitters to get up and go check, just to make sure. After all, that was the third in command at the company. Lotta’s boss. One of the untouchables. And she shot him without a second thought.

Good riddance, but what was this going to mean for her? For both of them?

“We could just go.” Mona flipped a hand towards the front door, Lotta following the gesture with a flash of apprehension, as if someone already knew Armand was dead. “Go to America. Go anywhere. You’ve wanted out of this game before. Now’s your chance.”

Lotta’s expression lightened a bit, if only to give her a look speaking volumes of stupidity in that suggestion. “This isn’t the way. If I run, I’ll look guilty.”

“You’re not the one who shot him.”

“I’m not feeding you to the wolves either, Mona. I…” Trailing, Lotta’s gaze clouded over, making the hair on the back of Mona’s neck stand on end.

“I know that look. What the hell are you planning? Lotta? L o t t a!”

Icy, distant eyes turned back to Ramona, where they lingered for a moment before smoothing over with resolve. Mona’s stomach churned. “Don’t you dare say—”

“Germany.” Ignoring Mona’s immediate and growled protest, Lotta stood, pushed her hair back again. “Not America. We’re going to Germany.”

“Oh all the stupid. Idiotic. D u m b things we’ve done, Carlotta, that’s got to be the worst! Did you forget what he did to you?! What he’s still doing to you?!” Mona motioned generally at Lotta’s body while she walked away, still ignoring all the sputtering protests. “Those things are still active! I f he can even be trusted about that! There’s too much I don’t know about him to go asking him for help! Lotta! Lotta, I swear to—get back here!”

Growling again, Ramona shot to her feet and trailed after Lotta up the stairs. “I absolutely refuse to condone this.”

“It’s not up to you to condone anything, Ramona.” Lotta shot her a hard look over her shoulder before disappearing into the closet to get dressed. Packed, probably. “Just watch my back.”

“Which is exactly what I’m doing, if you’d let me.” Ramona rubbed her non-aug eye and sighed. Frankly, she never liked being the voice of reason, but Lotta forced her into that position more often than not. The lack of argument, though…nothing added, no trying to talk her into this, no excuses, meant that Lotta was deadly serious about turning to Albrecht Stroman to slip through Alonso’s fingers.

Plodding to lean against the closet doorway, Ramona crossed her arms. “This isn’t even going from pot to fire, this is just from one level of hell into another.” A shirt smacked her in the face.

“Get dressed and get the plane tickets ready. I want to be on the first flight out we can make.” So her nerves didn’t get the chance to catch up with her decision. By the time they were rolling out on the tarmac, it’d be way too late to turn back.

~*~

The flight to Munich wasn’t too terrible, if fighting back reoccurring waves of sickness didn’t count. Lotta couldn’t even drink she felt so nauseous about running to him for help.

Ironic how things tied themselves together in a tangled little knot that screwed up the web of your life.

Germany itself looked about the same as Italy on the surface, but the undercity is typically where the uniqueness expressed itself and ancient stone structures sometimes poked out from under all the collected garbage to create individual dumps where the lowlifes tended to thrive, if thrive is what anyone would call such a state of living. Coming from the upper city, though, Lotta certainly had her bias, but with Ramona around she didn’t feel much of a threat, even in a foreign city unfamiliar to them both.

In a sense, she’d expected someone as…suave as Albrecht Stroman to have achieved upper city level living, but maybe, for the state of his business, staying low made him easy to underestimate, easier to lose. He definitely didn’t make anything easy. Finding him, unfortunately, had been easy, since all she had to do was call him on that little device he’d given her at her own villa. She couldn’t even have the satisfaction of arriving unexpectedly.

The building he’d instructed them to visit looked like the outside of a garbage dump. Ramona wouldn’t let her hand off her gun, not even when the grubby guard at the door gave her guff for it. Stroman must have left specific instruction, though, because after the third refusal, they were let inside anyway. After what this jackass initiated in the last that resulted in Ramona losing her leg…like hell was she going anywhere near him without her weapon. And she wouldn’t be sitting in any chairs, either.

Inside didn’t particularly look or smell any better, and by now both women were certain this wasn’t really his base of operation; not that they expected to be whisked in without being prodded at first. More guards were stationed periodically through the halls, navigating them towards the back of the long building and eventually into a room thankfully cleaned up to at least a tolerable standard, the open glass table and elegant chairs looking severely out of place. Then again, so did he.

Stroman was already seated, a platter and tea set sitting in the middle of the table, steam rising thoughtfully into the dim-ish lighting that apparently couldn’t be entirely fixed. Eight more guards lined the walls in utter silence, though all eyes were fixed on the pair of ladies as they were ushered in and requested to sit. With only one other chair at the table anyway, Ramona didn’t have to stir up a stink to stand behind and to the side of Lotta’s chair. As any good guard dog should, she kept silent, sharp, and seriously pissed to even be standing here. And yet, collected all the same.

Carlotta actually took the seat without losing her nerve, feeling that studying and amused gaze of his sliding all over her, searching for any indication of why she actually decided to come here. Even he was stupid or arrogant enough to assume this a friendly visit or a demand for change of their agreement. No. Something very large brought her here, and Stroman was just curious and confident enough to want to know why.

“Tea?” he asked with a crook of a smirk just barely in the corner of his mouth. The baiting’s already started.

Carlotta forced herself to study him back, look right into those twisted blue eyes. “No.” Implied that she won’t ever touch a drop of anything he’s touched.

“That’s fair enough.” After widening knowingly shortly, the smirk disappeared into an expression more professional. “Let’s not toy around too much. You and I both know that nothing short of death would bring you anywhere near my stomping grounds. So what am I going to have to consider covering for you?”

Lotta’s attempt not to tighten her jaw failed rather miserably, yet she let the second tick by before answering evenly. “A personal issue has turned business in an unfortunate way.” To put it lightly.

Albrecht steepled his fingers, elbows resting on either side of the chair’s armrests, watching her with too much curiosity. “I’m afraid I’ll need more detail than that, otherwise I’ll just send you home with slap on the wrist for wasting my time.”

No doubt the news will be out soon enough. “Armand DiRusso is dead.”

“Really.” Now he looked a little bored.

“Yes. Ramona shot him. He’s probably still lying in my apartment, but he’ll be found soon. That’s a cornerstone of the business gone.”

Now Albrecht frowned, pressing the sides of his first fingers to his lips. “From all I’ve heard you’ve done them a great service. But it won’t be taken that way. So rather than give me what I needed from the DiRussos, you’ve completely shot all my chances to hell. Now, you tell me, why would you think I’d help you after that?”

His anger, though astoundingly calm, still sent a shiver through the room, and Ramona tightened her hold on the butt of her gun.

“In theory?” Lotta’s heart pounded in her ears. Her next words needed to be surgically precise. “You shouldn’t. But you know me well enough by now to know that I wouldn’t be here with nothing more than a scandal, asking for a bandage with the company. You wanted your in with the DiRussos. Now there’s a vacancy.” Lotta crossed her legs, leaning back into a position of comfort, exuding her own confidence while meeting him square in the eye. “So take the opportunity. Whether you wanted to topple the empire, or join it, now’s your chance. What are you going to do about it?”

For the first time, she saw shock flit across his features. A sliver of uncertainty. It was covered quickly, but she saw it. Already he’s taken the bait.

“What do you want on your end of this deal?” he mused, back to searching her face, her body language. Looking for any cracks in her defenses.

“I want the credit for finding you, and protection while the wooing happens. If you’re as good as you say, then there’s a decent possibility that Alonso might consider you as a replacement.” A near wild shot in the dark, that, but Lotta firmly believed that Stroman fit the mold better than Armand of what Alonso wanted in a partner. This, of course, would make her ambitions all the more difficult, but at least she’d be able to breathe again, reconfigure her next steps. And have Stroman close enough to watch as well. With Armand out of the way, that would narrow her field of vision considerably while looking over her shoulder. The rules of the game might change, sure, but she could handle it. She had to.

“So…” Albrecht leaned forward a bit, betraying his interested—or feigning it. “In exchange for my seal of protection from your own company…you want me to send in my resume? Essentially. Take the job. But, you see, this bears the question of what’s to stop you from explaining that I have been the thrust of espionage on the company? While on their grounds, that leaves me in a very vulnerable position. I find myself wondering why I should take such a large step away from my original intentions just because you happened to kill one of the higher-ups.” He spread his hands, shrugged.

Lotta took a subtle deep breath. “Because I believe that the threat you’ve given me before still stands. If I would, I’d pay for it. If I wanted to pay for something that I’ve done, I would have stayed in Vulcan.”

He stared at her, at length. She met his gaze for every second of his scrutiny until he finally smirked again, took a sip from his teacup. “Interesting. Very…interesting. You surprise me, Carlotta. And I very much enjoy surprises. But only if they turn up in my favor.”

“I knew you’d see reason in this.” While she couldn’t exactly return his smile, Lotta knew better than to allow this moment to pass with complete sobriety. So far, Stroman has…been a man of his word. If he offered to give her some protection from Alonso until this whole mess could be straightened out, then he would. At least, until something more advantageous came along. She’ll just have to be that advantage until his attentions swung elsewhere. The man loved power more than anything else. That was usually so easy to play off of when needed.

Still. His smile set her teeth on edge. “On the contrary, Lotta…I see some enjoyment in this, no matter which way it turns.” His gaze flicked up to Ramona, a hint of gleeful teasing in his eyes. “If you’ll allow me, ladies, I have a place in mind better suited to your accommodation needs. Trust me. You’ll enjoy every moment of it.”

#V: Future {Twisted} #Albrecht speaks #dirusso #(( i need a tag for stories now i think lol)) #(( also i apologize to madi again for everything but not sorry ))

[tomcruisefilm]

ON TOM CRUISE: From the moment he appeared Tom was Lestat for me. He has the immense physical and moral presence; he was defiant and yet never without conscience; he was beautiful beyond description yet compelled to do cruel things. The sheer beauty of Tom was dazzling, but the polish of his acting, his flawless plunge into the Lestat persona, his ability to speak rather boldly poetic lines, and speak them with seeming ease and conviction were exhilarating and uplifting. The guy is great. I'm no good at modesty. I like to believe Tom's Lestat will be remembered the way Olivier's Hamlet is remembered. Others may play the role some day but no one will ever forget Tom's version of it. (Let me say here that anyone who thinks I did an "about face" on Tom just doesn't know the facts. My objections to his casting were based on familiarity with his work, which I loved. Many many great actors have been miscast in films and have failed to make it work. I don't have to mention them here. Why hurt anyone by mentioning the disaster of his career? But we've seen big stars stumble over and over when they attempt something beyond their reach. That Tom DID make Lestat work was something I could not see in a crystal ball. It's to his credit that he proved me wrong. But the general objections to the casting? They were made on solid ground. Enough on that subject. Tom is a great actor. Tom wants challenges. Tom has now transcended the label of biggest box office star in the world. He's better.) Favorite moments with Tom: Tom's initial attack on Louis, taking him up into the air, praised by Caryn James so well in the New York Times. Ah! An incredibly daring scene. The finest romantic scene in any film, and here please read the word romance as an old and venerable word for timeless artistic forms of poetry, novels and film. Romance is a divine word which has never really been denigrated by the drugstore novels with the swooning ladies on the cover. Romance will be with us for all time, If you want to know more about Romance, put on a video of THE FISHER KING and listen to Robin Williams describe the deeper meaning of romance to his newfound girlfriend. It's worth it, believe me. Back to Tom: other great moments. Tom's bedside seduction of the dying Louis, in which he offers Louis the Dark Gift. Once again, Tom gave Lestat the virility and the androgyny that made both him and the offer irresistible. He was near blinding. I would have accepted the Dark Gift from him then and there. Only an actor with complete confidence and conviction could have done that scene or any of the others. Tom's angry outburst in the face of Louis' repeated questions. His stride, his voice both loud and soft, his frustration, his obvious discomfort, and inner conflict. Once again, Tom took over the screen, the theatre, the mind of the viewer. Immense power. Tom riding his horse through the slaves' fire, and then turning the horse around so that he could face the suspicious mortals. That was on a par with Errol Flynn and Rudy Valentino. It was on a par with the opera greats who have played Mephistopheles. Only a genuine "star" can make a moment like that, and I'm as confused as to why...just as much as anyone in Hollywood. Let's close this one out with one word: Grand! (No, can't stop talking about it.) If I had to settle for one picture in this film, it would be that shot of Lestat on horseback looking back at the suspicious mortals. That was and is my hero. That was and is my man. Lestat just won't be afraid of anybody. He won't stand for it. He hates what he is as much as Louis, but he cannot do anything but move forward, attempt to make existence worth it, attempt to create. He knows the formula for success, and has no patience with the formula for failure. That's Lestat. Tom's rage and obvious pain in the scene with the bleeding wench and the coffin, one scene from the book which I did not include in my script. it was probably put in by Neil Jordan. If Tom had not given so much depth to this scene, it might have been unwatchable. His desperation, his vulnerability, made it work, and he made himself in it the worthy object of compassion. No small feat! I found the scene, otherwise, to be disgusting. The shot of Tom looking through the green shutters, and the falling rain, knowing that Louis is somewhere out in the night. This was a gorgeous and eloquent shot. Again, it was the actor who gave it the depth in all the subtle ways that only he can do. Tom's making of Claudia, and here I want to praise the entire trio...Tom, Kirsten, Brad... The scene is directed delicately and captures the intimacy, the blasphemy and the undeniable innocence and blundering of the human who has a supernatural gift to give and in his pain and confusion, chooses to give it, come what may. That's a scene for now, for our world of scientific and medical miracles, as much as any scene in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and Tom pulled it off right to the last second. Later, Tom's confusion when after bringing Claudia a doll, he sees Claudia turn on him. About half of what I wrote for this scene in the script, or less, made it into the film, and I liked what I saw very much. I wish they'd gone on with the version of this scene that is in QUEEN OF THE DAMNED (see Jesse's discovery of Claudia's diary, and the entry describing what happened), but alas, what they did was great. Tom's manner and expression on the dangerous night that Claudia comes to him and offers him her "reconciling gift." Close in on those two at the harpsichord. Tom is seated, I believe. Kirsten is behind him and apparently offers him the acceptance he needs so desperately. Scenes like this, with Tom, make this film work. Every humorous scene Tom attempted was a complete success. The rat and the glass, I adored it. The humor added apparently by Neil Jordan -- the poodles, the piano teacher hitting the keyboard, the dressmaker biting the dust...well, I didn't adore all that, but Tom carried it off with true wit and style. And yes, its all right to laugh at those parts. We do every time we go to see the movie. There are many other great Tom Cruise moments throughout the film. Many. But these are the ones I cherish now. The readers calling me desperately want Tom to play THE VAMPIRE LESTAT. I hope he does. I hope I get to write the script for the movie. Tom's power, knowledge, skill, magnetism and artistic integrity are part and parcel of the success of IWTV, and there is no doubt that Tom would bring power and magic to TVL. (Let me digress again. For those of you who haven't read TVL, it is not really a sequel to IWTV. It's a complete full novel on its own, beginning the Vampire Chronicles. IWTV was the truly difficult film to make. TVL will take commitment, money and immense faith as well as talent, but compared to IWTV, it is much, much easier to film. Lestat is the true hero of TVL. He is entirely sympathetic. The trick, I think, will be achieving a texture in that film that includes all of Lestat's adventures...from the snows of the Auvergne, to the boulevards of Paris, through the sands of Egypt, and through the visit to Marius' sanctuary, and on to the twentieth century rock music stage. The tales of Armand and of Marius all also excursions for Lestat essentially. I hope Tom makes the journey.) One point: I am puzzled by what seems to be a discrepancy between the way Tom played Lestat, and the way my hero, Producer David Geffen, and others have described Lestat as a character. Did Tom on his own make this role a little bigger, brighter and more complex than anyone else realized it could be? I don't know. David Geffen called Lestat "nasty" when he was interviewed by Barbara Walters. Nasty? I don't get it. But David Geffen is my hero for getting this film made. No one else could have done it. So why quibble about what David said? There is one problem created by the compelling charm of Tom's performance, obviously. Since he isn't all that nasty, why does Louis hate Lestat? How can he? Well, I'll take that problem any day over a more shallow solution. Tom hits the right note. And Louis was Louis. Nothing could comfort Louis. The film got it.

Anne Rice on Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire

http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~forest/vamipre/morecomments.html

#interview with the vampire #anne rice #tom cruise #tom