Ten years after 2002's abysmal Queen of the Damned, tales from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles may be returning to the big screen.  THR reports that Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment have optioned the fourth book in the saga of the vampire Lestat, The Tale of the Body ThiefStar Trek screenwriter Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are co-producing and screenwriter Lee Patterson is currently at work on the script.

Hit the jump for more details on the project.

Here's the brief synopsis of The Tale of the Body Thief per THR:

"Lestat, depressed and lonely after centuries as a vampire, decides to transfer souls for a day with a psychic, who after the transfer reveals that he has no intention of switching back. Lestat, now in a human body and with the help of some friends, must track the man down and get his body back."

Err….well…it sounds better than Twilight (then again, so do most root canals).

Lestat was most famously played by Tom Cruise in Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire, which co-starred Brad Pitt, Christian Slater, and Kirsten DunstInterview is the first book in the Vampire Chronicles and Queen of the Damned is the third.  There are ten books in the series.  Honestly, I'm surprised they haven't been rushed back on to the big screen following the success of Twilight.

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