Universal acquires Anne Rice’s ‘Vampire Chronicles’ book series

Universal Pictures is sinking its teeth into “The Vampire Chronicles,” Anne Rice’s popular book series chronicling the exploits of an 18th century French-aristocrat-turned-bloodsucker.

The studio has acquired movie rights to the existing and future novels in the series along with Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment; the deal also includes the adapted screenplay for “The Tale of the Body Thief,” written by Rice’s son, Christopher Rice.

Other books in Rice’s series, which follows the immortal antihero Lestat de Lioncourt, include “Interview With the Vampire,” “The Vampire Lestat,” “The Queen of the Damned,” “Blood Canticle” and the upcoming “Prince Lestat,” to be published in October. (“Interview” and “Queen” were previously adapted to the screen by Warner Bros.)

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, whose collaborations include the “Transformers” and “Star Trek” movies, will produce the “Vampire Chronicles” films for Universal.

The studio has been shoring up its supernatural properties of late, and recently enlisted Kurtzman and Chris Morgan to oversee a reboot of its classic monster movie characters such as Dracula, the Mummy, Frankenstein’s monster and the Wolf Man.

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