57
INT. LESTAT'S MANSION - NIGHT (LATER)
The CAMERA TRACKS WITH TWO young GROUPIES as they walk THROUGH the over-scaled
modern palace. Rows of white columns stretch in all directions. There's a living
room area facing out onto a pool and the sparkling lights of Los Angeles.
GROUPIE #2
...I have a cousin who's
boyfriend was doing wiring on his
private recording studio, and he
said that Lestat only ever comes
by at night.
GROUPIE #1
I heard that, too. Like, he gets
clothing stores to open up at
three in the morning.
GROUPIE #2
You know what I heard. I heard
that he keeps all these girls
locked up in his cellar, and it's
really nice, and they give you
food and cable and weed.
GROUPIE #1
Oh, please...
GROUPIE #2
That's what I heard. But you have
to let him suck you on your neck
whenever he wants. Doesn't sound
too bad.
GROUPIE #1
You've done worse.
GROUPIE #2
Damn straight.
58
INT. LESTAT'S MANSION - STAIRS - MEANWHILE
Roger wears an expensive open shirt and blazer, but he still manages to look
seedy as he comes up the stairs and enters through two oversized doors.
CAMERA FOLLOWS as...
32.
59
INT. LESTAT'S MANSION - SUITE - CONTINUOUS ACTION
Roger takes us on a walking tour of the grand bedroom, the grand bathroom/spa...
Lestat's dressing room stretches off into the distance, rows of beautiful suites
made from the finest wools and silks. The gradation of colors is spectacular.
Lestat is reflected in rows of mirrors trying on different jackets.
ROGER
When did you get back?
Lestat ignores
him, stands before an enormous mirror trying on different jackets.
ROGER
The... girls you asked for.
They're already downstairs.
LESTAT
Yes, I can hear.
Lestat moves
off towards the door.
ROGER
Do you want me to take them home
later?
Lestat smiles
at the clumsy attempt to protect the girls.
LESTAT
No, thank you, Roger. I'll make
sure they're taken care of.
Roger nods,
trying to hide his nervousness. Lestat smiles...
60
INT. LESTAT'S MANSION - LIVING ROOM - SOON AFTER
CAMERA MOVES OUT INTO the large empty space of the living-room, TURNING
DOWNWARDS TOWARDS the two girls who are now dreamy, floating with the effect of
the joint they are smoking... BOOM DOWN to reveal Lestat as he approaches the
girls.
GROUPIE #1
Oh my God...
GROUPIE #2
It's really you, isn't it?
(CONTINUED)
33.
60
CONTINUED:
LESTAT
Yes.
GROUPIE #1
Oh my God...
GROUPIE #2
No one's ever gonna believe this.
(offers her joint)
Want some?
Lestat calmly
shakes his head.
GROUPIE #1
Want me?
Circling the
couches.
LESTAT
Eventually.
BROOKE [GROUPIE #2 (?)]
You hungry?
LESTAT
I'm always hungry.
GROUPIE #1
We've got the munchies?
LESTAT
Minch-ies?
GROUPIE #2
(laughing)
You got any food?
LESTAT
Vampires don't eat... food.
They laugh
nervously...
Lestat laughs dangerously...
Pacing across the room, he stands before the girls. He curls his finger around
the first girl's hair.
LESTAT
Your hair is so fine... reminds me
of the time I danced with Marie
Antoinette at the Court of
Versailles.
(CONTINUED)
34.
60
CONTINUED: (2)
GROUPIE #1
Who?
Lestat loses
enthusiasm, walks away and drops himself into a couch.
GROUPIE #1
Is Marie one of your girlfriends?
With a clap of
his hands, the TV SWITCHES ON. He silently watches one of his video clips.
LESTAT
Never mind. She was a spoiled,
dull woman until she lost her
head.
Groupie #2
coquettishly crawls over toward Lestat...
GROUPIE #2
Did someone say 'head'?
She starts
putting her hands all over him, but he recoils at her touch and slides out of
the armchair onto the floor with grace.
LESTAT
Don't do that.
Groupie #2 giggles.
GROUPIE #2
Are you ticklish?
LESTAT
(deadpan)
I'm very ticklish.
Groupie #1
giggles as well and at once they both start after Lestat on all fours to tickle
him.
He smiles and laughs and gets down on...
All fours as well, as he leads them around the room in a childish game as they
try to tickle him, but he stays just a few feet ahead of them the whole time.
The girls giggle and giggle as they persue...
Lestat crawling just ahead of them across the floor and...
Up the wall.
(CONTINUED)
35.
60
CONTINUED: (3)
The teenagers keep giggling as they watch him ascend the wall like a spider, and
then they begin to giggle and half-cry as they can't believe what they're seeing
as...
Lestat reaches the wall's top and now crawls upside-down across the ceiling.
The girls sit open-mouthed with terror as they arch their necks all the way back
to see...
Lestat swoops down from the ceiling onto one of them...
His teeth sink into the first young throat...
The Groupies scream over...
61
HOLLYWOOD SIGN - NIGHT
Below the Hollywood Sign is nestled Lestat's immodest little folly -- a
sprawling mansion of modern white lines.
Lightning strikes. As the THUNDER RUMBLES...
CUT TO
62
CLOSE ON JESSE
She swings open the wrought iron gate and makes her way up the over-grown path
towards the...
63
EXT. NEW ORLEANS HOUSE - DAY (SEVERAL DAYS LATER)
Jesse makes her way up to the front door which has now been sprayed with
graffiti by obsessive fans. "Lestat Rules," "Lestat Livz Hear"
(sic)... etc.
SUPERIMPOSE:
NEW ORLEANS (TWO DAYS LATER)
64
INT. NEW ORLEANS HOUSE - ENTRY HALL
Jesse pushes open the door which is almost ajar. She takes a step forward -- the
papery floorboards nearly give way. We FOLLOW as Jesse MOVES THROUGH the
corridor INTO the...
65
LIVING ROOM
...which has been transformed into a shrine to Lestat.
(CONTINUED)
36.
65
CONTINUED:
Even though it's day outside, the windows are boarded up, allowing only the
thinnest fingers of light to poke through the dusty air. It's still very gloomy.
The only sounds are the DISTANT STREETCARS of St. Charles Ave., and the SLOW
CREAKING of Jesse's steps.
The walls are plastered with posters announcing the concert. In the center of
the room are remnants of a small fire someone built from using old bits of
furniture.
There are strange symbols and bits of writing that suggest rituals -- not
exactly Satanic, but creepy none the less.
Jesse sighs, puts down her satchel -- takes off her coat and gets to work...
DISSOLVE TO:
66
UPSTAIRS CORRIDOR - HOURS LATER
Jesse searching the walls of the upstairs corridor...
DISSOLVE TO:
67
WALK-IN CLOSET - MORE HOURS PASS
Jesse, covered in dust, knocks and feels along the inside of a walk-in closet...
DISSOLVE TO:
69
SHADOWS
deepen as the darkness encroaches...
DISSOLVE TO:
37.
70
LIVING ROOM
Jesse returns to the living room defeated. There must be something... down at
the fire on the floor... back at the surrounding room...
Jesse gets an idea.
JESSE
The fireplace. There must be a
fireplace.
She open her
satchel and empties it on the floor -- a pocket camera, a flashlight.
Jesse taps along the walls.
DISSOLVE TO:
71
JESSE
taps along the other wall... tap, tap, tap, tap... there is a hollow base sound
as she finds the false wall.
SMASH CUT TO:
72
JESSE
Rip! Jesse tears at the layers of posters. She pulls at the crumbling wallpaper
behind. Layers and layers come away to reveal a plaster wall. Bingo. She taps
harder and harder, then takes a good whack and the wall collapses into a cloud
of plaster dust.
She steps back, coughing, trying to get the dust out of her eyes. She grabs her
flashlight and looks in the fireplace. Jesse crouches as low as she can and
looks in -- there's something lodged up there. Carefully, she reaches in and
extracts a very old, very dusty book.
Jesse stares at the book, almost trembling with reverence. It sticks -- but with
great gentleness she slowly pulls open the pages to reveal -- florid handwriting
in thick black ink...
ZOOM IN RAPIDLY ON the first lines which read...
JESSE (O.S.)
(reading)
'Je suis le Vampire Lestat...'
(whispers)
Oh my God...
38.
73
FLASHBACK - EXT. MEDITERRANEAN ISLAND - FULL SHOT
A solitary paradise in a rough, nighttime sea.
LESTAT (V.O.)
It was the winter of 1788 and I
was brought to a Mediterranean
Island by the man who made me...
A lightning
flash illuminates a sprawling 18th Century sea-front villa.
LESTAT (V.O.)
... If a man is what you'd call
him.
74
INT. MARIUS'S VILLA - NIGHT
A great round room encircled with candles, their reflections flickering in the
great glass windows braving back the outside STORM. A Roman-style bed
overflowing with exotic silks and cushions sits in the room's center and on
it...
Lestat De Lioncourt lays feverish and fitful, dressed in a soft linen
nightshirt. His neck wears a swollen bite. Another flash of lightning jolts him
awake.
Lestat sits up as if escaping a nightmare and looks around the strange room to
find himself in a new and perhaps darker dream. His hands feel the inflamed
wound as his eyes mark the candles and...
An indistinct shape of a man dressed in draping red velvet, sitting asleep in a
chair across the room. As easel stands before him, holding an unseen painting.
Lestat rises out of the bed and grabs his clothes from a nearby Louis IV chair.
He makes for a door when...
Lestat stops. He looks back to see the painting that stands on the easel.
It's a portrait of himself in ancient Roman garb, like a Mars god, complete with
his blond hair and fiery blue eyes. Unable to help himself, he approaches the
painting and studies it, completely fascinated by his own image, when...
Suddenly, the sleeping man leaps up, grabs Lestat unmercifully and again plunges
his teeth into the young man's neck. Young Lestat fights as best he can but his
strength is no match as he's slowly drawn down to the floor. Finally...
(CONTINUED)
39.
74
CONTINUED:
The strange man lifts himself up from Lestat's neck to reveal the face of the
vampire MARIUS (whom we remember from Talbot's studies). Wiping his bloodied
mouth on his painter's cloth --
MARIUS
Lestat. That's a handsome name.
Weakened and
helpless, Lestat drags himself back across the floor in terror.
LESTAT
Who are you?
The stranger
just stares.
LESTAT
Do I know you?
MARIUS
I'm unknowable by nature.
Marius
advances again on the young man...
MARIUS
But you may call me Marius.
Lestat is
weakly dragging himself away.
LESTAT
My father is the Marquis
D'Lioncourt. They'll send men, an
army of men to look for me.
MARIUS
I doubt they'll find you, my
impetuous young nobleman. You're
a long way from home.
His strength
leaving him, Lestat slumps flat on the floor.
MARIUS
You're weak... near passing. I
can barely hear your heart beat.
LESTAT
I'll kill you...!
Marius smiles,
nods, impressed.
MARIUS
You really do fear nothing...
(CONTINUED)
40.
74
CONTINUED: (2)
LESTAT
What do you want with me?
MARIUS
I have chosen you to receive a
great Dark Gift. Why you?
Because you are a rebel. The
future hastens -- an age of
revolution beyond my antique
reason. You will help me
understand the new world.
Bending down
he strokes his victim gently with the back of his hand. Lestat flinches.
MARIUS
You've lost a great deal of blood.
LESTAT
(near tears)
I'm dying.
Suddenly
Marius draws an ancient knife from a Roman sheath on his belt. With the last of
his strength, Lestat grabs his attacker's wrist.
MARIUS
Then drink.
Guiding
Lestat's hand with the knife, Marius smiles and cuts his own arm, opening his
veins. Lestat stares in true terror... as Marius lets his blood drip onto
Lestat's lip. Lestat pulls away as the blood slides into his mouth...
MARIUS
Good, is it not?
And indeed...
it does taste good. That's the new terror that's gripping him. He crosses
himself and stares up into Marius's gentle eyes. Marius bends down, cups
Lestat's chin tenderly.
MARIUS
Drink and live. You've been brave
enough for one night.
Marius brings
his open vein to Lestat's lips. Lestat hesitates, but then...
Feeds hungrily as Marius's face fills with the bond. He slowly sinks down to his
knees as Lestat feeds and feeds.
As Lestat drinks, IMAGES flood his mind and ours...
41.
75
CLOSE UP - MARIUS
as a mortal Roman soldier getting drunk in a tavern talking to a...
Celtic man with a painted face.
76
BACK TO LESTAT
who keeps drinking.
77
BACK TO MORTAL MARIUS
in the woods, being hit over the head by the same Celtic man, before he soon
finds himself...
Brought to a huge tree and thrown inside its hollow trunk.
78
LESTAT
keeps drinking and drinking, as...
79
MARIUS
suddenly finds himself facing...
A horribly BURNT MAN, who dwells in the tree and just stares at the dumbfounded
Marius, who hears the ECHOING WORDS...
BURNT MAN
(in a strange tongue; subtitled)
...find out why this calamity has
befallen us...
80
LESTAT
keeps drinking, as we see...
81
CLOSE UP - BURNT MAN
Horrible, portentous.
BURNT MAN
Find those who must be kept...
The Burnt Man
flashes fangs and attacks.
42.
82
VAMPIRE MARIUS
who gasps with the creation of his child.
83
BACK TO LESTAT
whose body grows stronger, his back arching up as he draws the "life"
into him with full force, as... Marius begins to weaken, himself.
MARIUS
There... there ... that will do.
Lestat keeps
feeding.
MARIUS
No... no more. De Lioncourt...
Lestat, no more!
With one great
move Marius pulls Lestat off his arm and tosses him across the floor.
Marius reels back, clamping his open vain with his hand as Lestat curls on the
ground, gasping ecstatically from the rush.
Slowly, Lestat starts to feel something... pain begins travelling through his
body, consuming him until he screams.
Marius crosses to Lestat convulsing on the floor. He kneels and gently wipes his
brow.
Lestat's body thrashes as he grabs his own limbs...
MARIUS
Don't be afraid. It's only your
body that dies...
DISSOLVE TO:
84
MARIUS
wiping Lestat brow as he dies.
DISSOLVE TO:
85
EXT. MARIUS'S VILLA - GARDEN - NIGHT
Below the brightest of summer night skies, Lestat wanders through a grove of
fruit trees. He studies the color of the flowers, the texture of the leaves...
(CONTINUED)
43.
85
CONTINUED:
LESTAT (V.O.)
My senses ran amok, like a new
born child. Night after night, I
marveled at the texture of a
leaf, or the pungent smell of a
flower...
86
LESTAT'S POV (VAMPIRE VISION)
not like night at all really -- everything is very bright and shiny, all the
colours saturated, fluorescent.
87
MACRO SHOTS
Giant flowers... insects crawling along leaves... their FOOTSTEPS THUD... their
ANTENNAE CLICK and WHIR... a spider spinning its web... a bat whooping around.
88 INT. MARIUS'S VILLA - NIGHT
Lestat takes the stance of a gymnast -- he launches upwards... flies up into the
air several feet... he lands laughing.
Marius reclines on a couch, watching his fledgling with amusement.
LESTAT (V.O.)
... and as for my new powers, I
was beside myself with the
pleasure of it all.
Lestat
prepares himself again and this time leaps... but he doesn't know his own powers
and tumbles through the air, collecting a few ancient vases and relics as he
crashes to the ground.
Marius winces then laughs as Lestat emerges from behind the furniture, covered
in bits of pottery, a small cut on his cheekbone.
DISSOLVE TO:
89
LESTAT
stares at himself in a mirror as he watches...
... the cut on his cheekbone vanish...
(CONTINUED)
44.
89
CONTINUED:
LESTAT (V.O.)
I had impressed my maker with my
thirst for things. He set out to
educate me in the unknown. Taught
me all about the world and its
hidden history... and about
myself.
90
EXT. MARIUS'S VILLA - BEACH - NIGHT
An old fisherman cries out as Lestat bites into his throat. Marius watches as
the fisherman's body relaxes. He pulls Lestat away.
MARIUS
That's enough, Lestat... When you
feed, you must hold back from the
moment of death, or it will draw
you in.
CUT TO:
91
SAME - SOON AFTER
The moon reflects on the beautiful island alcove. Lestat floats along above the
sand, while Marius walks like a mortal.
MARIUS
We become stronger with age but no
necessarily wiser. We are doomed
to be who we always were... only
more so.
LESTAT
How old are you, Marius?
MARIUS
Older than Jesus Christ. But
there are Ancient Ones, much older
than me.
LESTAT
Who are 'those that must be kept'?
Marius pauses, considering.
MARIUS
All in good time, Lestat.
Before Lestat
can protest, Marius moves to an outcrop of rock to hide. He gestures for Lestat
to join him.
(CONTINUED)
45.
91
CONTINUED:
Down on the beach some young villagers have built a bonfire. Two young couples
-- it's not that different from a teenage beach party -- the girls dance while
one of the boys plays balalaika, while the other claps time with his hands.
LESTAT
But why do we hide? We're so much
more than they are! We're living
gods...
Marius pulls
Lestat down out of sight.
MARIUS
We must sleep during the day, when
we are vulnerable. Mortals must
never know about us. It is
forbidden, for the sake of all our
kind.
LESTAT
(incredulous)
You fear them?
MARIUS
No, Lestat, I love them. I love
their ideas, their stories, their
art...
92
THEIR POV - SENSUAL DANCE
as the girls gyrate their hips and sway sensuously. One of the young men joins
them, flagon in hand, his bare torso shining in the firelight.
MARIUS
... I love their passions... I
love the way they move. As long
as I've lived, human destiny is
the greatest mystery. I have
never been able to see what was
coming around the corner. That is
what keeps me going -- I want to
see what happens next. If they
discovered the truth about us...
it would ruin everything.
Lestat
watches, as the sad realization begins to sink in...
LESTAT (V.O.)
How I longed to join them -- not
to watch and admire from the
shadows, but to be an actor on the
stage of the great human drama.