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SCMP Reporter

THE author came out with fangs bared - Hollywood hunk Tom Cruise portraying her beloved vampire Lestat in the film version of the first of her best-selling Vampire chronicles, Interview With The Vampire, was ''a tough act to swallow''.

  In fact, for Anne Rice it was a casting decision that was ''unimaginable'', as she has made clear since the deal was signed more than a year ago.

   Backed by an army of loyal readers, she embarked on a one-woman crusade to denounce the selection of Cruise and embarrass Warner Bros, who bank-rolled the film, and David Geffen, the film's producer.

  Rice had favoured Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich or Daniel Day-Lewis for the role of Lestat, but none took it up. Instead the screen version of her book was, she claimed, ''the worst crime in the name of casting since The Bonfire Of The Vanities''.

  It has, however, been pointed out that author, Tom Wolfe, at least had the decency to make only one comment about the film: ''I cashed the cheque''.

  Filming has just ended on the controversial US$50 million movie and the first pictures have been released from the closed set.

   The look, say those involved, is ''exquisite, rich and sensual''. To achieve this cinematic opulence, top film makers shot in Paris, London and New Orleans, including 35 days in a swamp.

  Now, with editing just underway, everyone involved is waiting with baited breath until its November 18 release in the States - it will be released in Hong Kong one month later - to see if Cruise has carried off the role which some predict will mark a career turning point for the leading man.

  For 31-year-old Cruise, it is a watershed role in which he drops the cute smile that earns him US$15 million a picture to play a sallow, blood-sucking mass-murderer who sinks his teeth into every man, woman and child available.

  All the fuss stems from the impact Interview With The Vampire has had in the world of fiction where, after its publication in 1976, it was judged the greatest vampire novel to come along since Bram Stocker's Dracula was published almost 100 years ago.

  One of its central characters is Lestat - tall, blond, European and androdgynous. Rice's vision was suddenly 5 foot 6 inches and as American as apple pie.

  Besides suffering public insults, Cruise is considered to be taking a substantial career risk with this ghoulish part, particularly because for the first time he will play a villain.

   But Cruise took to his new role with gusto, re-reading Rice's vampire chronicles, which had been among his favourite books, and boning up on the decadent lifestyle of the 18th-century French aristocrat, whom Lestat was before his vampire immortality.

  Cruise also spent time in museums in Paris and visited Versailles to get the feel of the period's furniture and fashions. He went on a diet and exercise regimen and dropped more than five kilos to take on Lestat's gaunt physique. His hair was streaked blond and his eyebrows flecked with gold.

  ''I don't know how this movie will turn out,'' he is quoted as saying when filming was underway. ''All I know is as an actor I am having a great time playing this character.''   The filming of the vampire has had a particularly rocky history which goes back 17 years when the first attempts to bring the story to the screen were made. Those 17 years are a legacy of broken deals, bad scripts and bizarre casting problems.

  Some superstitious Hollywood people have even suggested the project may be jinxed, pointing to the sudden death of actor River Phoenix, who was set to play the role of a young reporter in the film.

  That part was taken up by Bradd Pitt, who joined co-stars Stephen Rea, Christian Slater and Antonio Banderas.

  For all Cruise's efforts to play it cool, according to reports there is no doubt Rice's reaction to the project which finally made it off the drawing board created a siege mentality.

  Since filming began last October, the American papers have been filled with unconfirmed stories of tension on the set, beefed-up security, secret tunnels connecting Cruise's dressing room to exterior locations and other extraordinary efforts to protect the star from the press.

  Producer David Geffin has been less than pleased with the pre-release bad publicity which has cloaked his film, especially after having spent several years haggling with Rice over her book, preparing innumerable scripts and searching for a director and star. He commented:   ''Anne is a difficult woman at best, and what her motives are remain somewhat beyond me. But for her to attack this movie for her own self-importance, when she has been paid US$2 million [in rights] is just capricious. It lacks kindness. It lacks discretion, And it lacks professionalism.''   There is perhaps a reason why Rice has taken the filming decisions so personally - Interview was written in a haze of alcohol and depression in 1975 after Rice's daughter died of leukaemia. Much of the story is autobiographical and it includes a five-year-old vampire, Claudia.

  Stuck in the middle of the scrum has been director Neil Jordan, the man who gave cinema-goers The Crying Game. It was he who chose Cruise and also says there was a good reason behind it.

  ''Sometimes when you go the opposite way to what people expect, you get the best results. Every casting choice is a leap, and if it works, it is because the actor makes it fit his own skin.''   He is also candid about the fact that Cruise was selected partly for commercial reasons, saying that ''a very high profile choice'' was needed for a film as costly as this.

  Geffen thinks Rice will end up sorry. After all, he points out, Ian Fleming apologised after complaining that Sean Connery would make a terrible James Bond.

  Rice may also have to get accustomed to seeing Cruise's face as there is the not insignificant matter of sequels.

   Interview With The Vampire is the first of four best-selling books that make up the gory anthology. Geffen, who bought the rights to the complete set, was clearly planning for his future. If Interview is a hit, Rice can look forward to seeing Cruise play Lestat again and again and again.



Cruise gets it in the neck