For years, fans of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles have hoped for an extended cut of Interview with the Vampire. The shooting script became widely circulated for years, so fans knew of several scenes left out of the final film, as often happens. But sadly, despite director Neil Jordan’s hope to release a director’s cut for the upcoming 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, he confirmed to Nerdist that such a release is, sadly, highly unlikely. And it’s simply because Jordan never found the longer cut screened for test audiences back in 1994 in the Warner Bros. vaults. Here’s what he told us:
I tried to track down my original cut of the movie. And I was going to deliver what they would call a director’s cut, but I could not find it in the vaults of Warner Bros. And I hadn’t kept a version of it myself. I don’t know why. But what we did turn up was these deleted scenes. So I just thought I should include them, really. You know, they’re the best of the deleted scenes. I mean, a lot of what was gone was not even worth looking at. But what is included is the stuff that kind of is of the most interest, let’s put it that way.
The deleted scenes offer the only glimpse into a potential longer cut of Interview with the Vampire. And these scenes are not in particularly great shape. Most are alternate versions of existing scenes, but two stand out for fans of the book. One is a brief conversation between Louis (Brad Pitt) and Claudia (Kirsten Dunst). In this scene, she asks her vampiric father why he never lets her see him kill. The other is a scene from the book, where a distraught Louis goes to Catholic confession. A scene which ends with Louis killing the priest.
Nerdist’s Take: We Believe a Longer Cut of IWTV Is a Ship That Has Sailed
Stranger things have happened of course, and maybe this longer preview cut turns up in some bizarre location. Some films remained lost far longer than thirty years, only turning up after everyone stopped searching for them. But we wouldn’t hold our breath for that happening here. Fans will have to be content with the theatrical cut of Interview with the Vampire as it exists today. And the current 4K HD disc is the best the film has ever looked on home video in any format, so really, it’s not such a bad thing in the end.
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles arrives on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 22.