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Vampires and witches and werewolves…oh my! AMC’s Immortal Universe is expanding once again and this time, it’s Anne Rice‘s answer to the Illuminati getting the spotlight. As if this week’s stunning episode of Interview with the Vampire wasn’t enough to give us life. Or, like, is that…unlife?
Whatever the case, we’re getting even more of the good stuff now that AMC Networks has officially OK’d the long-discussed, in-development series based on the secret society of “psychic detectives,” as Rice once described them, that runs through Rice’s novels. With a working title of Anne Rice’s The Talamasca and slated for a 2025 bow, the action will center on (per the release) “the men and women responsible for tracking and containing the witches, vampires, werewolves and other creatures scattered around the globe.” So like the Fringe Division meets the Winchester brothers, if they had an Egyptian-ish symbol and super-creepy calling cards that warn “We watch. And we are always here.”
Oscar-nominated John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) and Mark Lafferty (Halt and Catch Fire) will serve as writers, co-showrunners and executive producers, with Hancock additionally handling direction.
Last year, we got our first taste of the shadowy and centuries-old Talamasca via Mayfair Witches‘ Ciprien (Tongayi Chrisa), an agent for the group who got involved with reluctant New Orleans enchantress Rowan Mayfair (Alexandra Daddario). Then, this current and incredible season of Vampire (Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, yo!) introduced Justin Kirk (Weeds) as Raglan James, a key player in the novel Tale of the Body Thief and a higher-up who has been covertly feeding journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian) intel on Louis (Jacob Anderson) and Lestat (Sam Reid) throughout the ongoing interview.
“With the second season of Interview with the Vampire currently receiving the best reviews of any show on television and with the production of Mayfair Witches about to wrap in Ireland, promising an even more compelling and unnerving second season, the question is what do we now add to the Immortal Universe of Anne Rice?” posits Mark Johnson, the architect of AMC’s epic undertaking. “The answer is a completely different show from the first two, but a show that nevertheless belongs under the Anne Rice umbrella. The Talamasca marries the procedural spy thriller with the supernatural and expands the thrills and the pleasures of our franchise’s ambitions.”
According to AMC’s announcement, the show has been a long-time coming. “This is a story we’ve been developing and wanting to tell from the earliest moments of this franchise, focused on a fascinating and compelling secret society that has already appeared in both of our existing Anne Rice series, The Talamasca,” offers Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks. For Hancock, it “all started for me with a call from Mark Johnson, who asked if I’d ever heard of The Talamasca. I was intrigued by the idea of an organization that, to me, had more than a passing resemblance to the CIA or MI6, which are necessary but not always necessarily transparent. An organization with its own secrets.”
“When John told me about a clandestine organization in the Immortal Universe with its own hidden agendas, I was immediately hooked. I’ve admired his writing and directing for so long, and to be working with him is a true honor and thrill,” adds Lafferty, who previously worked with Immortal overseer Johnson on Halt. “Many thanks to Dan McDermott and all the incredibly talented people at AMC for their tireless support and talent, and to Mark Johnson…there is no better producer to learn from and work beside than him.”
Fun fact: Rice’s third Vampire Chronicles novel, Queen of the Damned, reveals that the Talamasca was formed by a trio of vampires that included the one who made Marius…who then made Armand (Assad Zaman)! Whether these iconic characters—or Kirk’s Raglan James, for that matter—will turn up on The Talamasca remains a mystery. As does the fate of IWTV, which has yet to be renewed.
Tick, tock, AMC…the Fanpires are some of the loveliest folks out there, but you do not want to tick off a group that’s as rabid as Lestat at Mardi Gras!
More must-reads:
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