Hulu has given the boot to a TV adaptation of author Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles this week after spending over a year in the streamer's possession. Rice is a household name thanks to works including Interview with the Vampire, which is part of the Vampire Chronicles saga and was adapted into a successful movie in 1994 starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, and Antonio Banderas.

According to Variety, a page-to-TV screen series adaptation of Rice's The Vampire Chronicles has been dumped by Hulu. The series is not apparently being shopped around elsewhere by Rice, who has been leading her creative team in developing the Vampire Chronicles series, and company. Variety also reports Rice and her team have now included the Vampire Chronicles TV series adaptation in part of the now-larger package being shopped, with the additional project being (ostensibly) an adaptation of Rice's novel Mayfair Witches as well as a complete buyout of the film and TV rights to all of her novels. The package is reportedly quoted at $30-40 million with an additional $2.5 million tacked on because Warner Bros. currently holds the rights to Mayfair Witches and a buyout would be necessary. The silver lining here is the buyer would hold the rights to Rice's works in perpetuity in exchange for the steep price tag. It's a big get for any prospective buyer, especially considering the franchise potential with Rice's work at the center but that Warner Bros. buyout could prove slightly prohibitive.

Rice regained the rights back to Interview with the Vampire in 2016 and subsequently announced her intentions to develop a project based on the book on Facebook. Rice stated plans to adapt the vampire series for TV rather than film and she would write the pilot and outline the series with her son, Christopher Rice. In 2017, the project was optioned by Paramount TV and Anonymous Content and in 2018, Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) joined as showrunner. Fuller didn't stay on for long, exiting by summer 2018 which is around the time Hulu picked up the project. Despite plans for the show to begin production this past fall, news on the Vampire Chronicles series remained quiet and it seemed like production had once again fallen into development hell before stalling out. Now, this Vampire Chronicles adaptation remains in production limbo and it's unclear if any serious buyers will bite.