Interview with the Vampire

Last night I was watching the 1994 movie Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, directed by Neil Jordan and based on the 1976 novel by Anne Rice. The movie opens in modern day San Francisco and involves a vampire (Brad Pitt) telling his story from 1790s Louisiana to the present day, to an interviewer (Christian Slater). The movie also stars Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas and Kirsten Dunst. Famously Anne Rice was very unhappy with the casting of Tom Cruise as her vampire Lestat (who is the lead character of The Vampire Chronicles series). Her choice was Julian Sands, but the studio wanted a bigger star. However when she saw the film she changed her mind and was full of praise for Cruise's performance. River Phoenix was originally cast as the interviewer but died four weeks before shooting began. Christian Slater donated his entire fee for the film to Phoenix's favourite charities. It is a really good movie, and reviewed over at Permanently Weird.

It was a pretty dull day at work today. There was a baguette run this morning. I had a panini with roast beef, brie, jalapeno peppers and English mustard which was really nice.