Anne Rice famously disliked fanfiction. In the early 2000s, the iconic author posted a message on her website banning all fanfic, writing, “I do not allow fanfiction. the characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fanfiction with my characters.” There were even claims around that time that legal counsel for Rice reached out to websites and writers of fanfic with cease-and-desist notices and even fanfiction.net, at one point, removed the entire category for fiction based on Rice’s books from their site upon the author’s request, much to the dismay of fans who enjoyed both reading and writing reimaginings of her stories and characters. Now, on October 2nd, AMC will debut a new television series based on Rice’s Interview With the Vampire and, while it may seem a little strange to talk about Rice’s decades-long disdain for fanfiction and an officially sanctioned adaptation of her work at the same time, the reality is this: AMC’s Interview With the Vampire is itself an extremely queer live-action fanfic, but one with great promise that honors the themes of the original work.
