(Continued)
46.

A SOLO VIOLIN begins to play.

CUT TO:

93       INT. MARIUS'S VILLA - NIGHT

BOOM DOWN to reveal Lestat, standing before a full-length mirror, playing the violin with great skill and passion.

LESTAT (V.O.)
With my new powers, I was quickly
able to master any instrument I
chose. But who could I play for?
How could I share these wonders,
if I must hide in the darkness?

His playing picks up speed as he works himself into a Paganini furor -- bow bending across strings with a maestro's speed and precision. Finally, his anger takes over and he hacks at the poor instrument in a wild fury. A low RUMBLE and the SCRAPE of STONE causes him to stop.

He peers over into the corner behind him. Crosses, and listening, carefully, rolls back the great Persian carpet to reveal...

An Egyptian eye carved into the stone.

... slowly the stone block rises and falls aside to reveal a staircase that goes deep into the rock of the island.

LESTAT
Marius!

No answer. Lestat looks around wondering what to do. Taking a candelabra off the table, he ventures down the stairs, peering down into the darkness.

94 INT. MARIUS'S VILLA - SECRET STAIRCASE - NIGHT

Lestat negotiates a circling flight of stone steps, winding its way into the lowest bowels of the villa, still carrying his violin.

47.

95       INT. MARIUS'S VILLA - UNDERGROUND PASSAGEWAY

Lestat finds himself facing a steeply descending passageway that stretches into darkness. He tests the stones ahead of him with caution...

Suddenly, the sconces along the passageway come to life... in quick succession, they flare up and burn with an unnatural intensity.

Lestat, struck with curiosity and wonder, puts down his candelabra and ventures forth.

We FOLLOW Lestat as he rounds the corner and stops.

There is an open foyer area leading to two great wooden doors, held firm by a tree-sized carved wooden bolt that bars the doors shut from the outside. Suddenly, the BOLT flies up and SPLINTERS with a SHRIEKING CRACK. The doors fly open revealing a bright light from within...

Lestat looks a little more apprehensive than usual, but continues towards the open doorway.

96       INT. MARIUS'S VILLA - UNDERGROUND SANCTUARY - CONTINUOUS ACTION

Lestat enters, squinting through the bright light from scores of burning sconces.

At the far end of the sanctuary, Lestat makes out the shape of two statues, an Egyptian man and an Egyptian woman sitting stone still, seemingly staring straight at him. ENKIL and his queen, AKASHA...

Stepping closer, they appear not to be statues at all but rather alabaster humans with the palest skin imaginable.

He approaches the two beings...

His eyes widen at the sight of their clothes -- the most valuable Egyptian finery; bracelets of gold, headdresses of incredible gems, clothes of silk.

Staring up into their faces, Lestat is struck with the realization...

LESTAT
... this cannot be... they're...
alive...

Lestat is drawn to the woman -- her form and beauty is exquisite even in its absolute stillness. As if this strange statue had just asked him to play, Lestat holds out his violin.

(CONTINUED)

48.

96       CONTINUED:

LESTAT
Would you like me to play for you?

Her eyes still bore into him...

Lestat smiles.

LESTAT
At last a captive audience...

He raises his violin and begins to play.

The song of the VIOLIN ECHOES around the walls...

Lestat plays, with increasing abandon...

Akasha and Enkil sit frozen...

Lestat plays and plays, lost in the music. He throws a glance up at the throne and stops...

Akasha is moving...

Slowly, her eyelids pull back to reveal pale green eyes.

Lestat stares in amazement...

Her arm rises up, her wrist extended outward towards Lestat. The PULSE of a HEARTBEAT begins...

Lestat moves towards her as if beckoned.

A green vein appears beneath the marble surface of her skin. The vein pulses as the blood courses around. The HEARTBEAT POUNDS LOUDER, deeper.

The sound fills Lestat's head as he is drawn closer to Akasha's wrist. Lowering himself, as if genuflecting, Lestat bends closer to the vein which looks like the very font of life to him.

97       EXT. MARIUS'S VILLA - ROOF - NIGHT

Marius sits under the stars painting, when his hand begins to tremble...

Suddenly he drops his brush, startled by an unexpected feeling that passes through him.

He stands bolt upright as a frightening gust of wind sweeps across him.

49.

98       BACK TO SCENE

Lestat sinks his teeth into the vein, drawing in the unimaginable font.

A burst of image and color floods into him, as...

99       SERIES OF IMAGES

flows through his mind.

Lestat grabs the wrist and hungrily drinks...

The two statues now alive, as vampires in Ancient Egypt...

The passage of time and years flowing into years brings...

Two Ancient Egyptian vampires' eyes up from the orgy of flesh they feast on and stare at a...

Sphinx in the distance -- its pristine stone face weathers and decays before us...

The two rise and sit back on the thrones behind them...

Their eyes on the sky that moves over...

The Sphinx's face crumbling and cracking as...

The two Ancient's faces turn white as chalk and harden as...

100       BACK TO SCENE - MARIUS

approaches looking around the sanctuary with trepidation. Lestat lays on the stone floor, catatonic.


101       INT. MARIUS'S VILLA - NIGHT

Lestat lays in bed, feverish, his skin paler than ever. At the foot of the bed, stands Marius.

MARIUS
(quietly)
Lestat?

The young vampire's eyes bulge open. Marius is sitting beside him. Lestat realizes that he is shackled to the bed with manacles and chains.

(CONTINUED)

50.

101       CONTINUED:

LESTAT
What are you doing...?

MARIUS
Be still. These are for your
protection.

Lestat squirms as he feels his own body.

LESTAT
...I can feel her inside me...

Lestat is in a swoon, and not one that is entirely unpleasant. Marius watches, distressed.

MARIUS
How did this happen?

LESTAT
She wanted me, she called me to
her. Oh God, her blood is like
liquid fire.
(squirms)
Who are they?

MARIUS
They are the reason you are what
you are. The original reason. He
is Enkil. And she... she is your
mother, my mother... Akasha, the
queen of all who are damned.

LESTAT
But how?

MARIUS
They ruled over Egypt before the
Sphinx, before the great Pyramids.
No one knows how they were
created.

LESTAT
(horrified)
How long have they been sitting
there like that? Is that what
will happen to us?

MARIUS
Their previous keeper went mad
with such questions, dragged them
out into the open sky. When the
sun rose, immortals across Europe
were destroyed in flames.
(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

51.

101       CONTINUED: (2)

Only the oldest ones were left alive.
Even then, Akasha and Enkil did not
move to save themselves. Who knows?
Perhaps they cannot die.

Lestat is fascinated enough to control the impulse within him.

MARIUS
In all the years I've cared for
them, talked to them, prayed...
not once have they moved...

LESTAT
Until tonight.

Suddenly Lestat roars and the manacles explode off his ankles and wrists. The cast iron scatters across the marble floor. Marius is surprised and cautious at Lestat's strength.

Lestat leaps to his feet and heads towards the trap door.

MARIUS
Lestat, no!

LESTAT
Oh, Marius, just one more time.

MARIUS
Something's happening to you...

Marius blocks his way.

LESTAT
(snarls)
You'll not stop me...

Marius shocked.

MARIUS
(hushed)
Lestat... I hear her blood in your
voice.

LESTAT
Get out of my way!

MARIUS
Akasha is the harbringer of death.
A force malignant beyond your
comprehension. If she were ever
to truly rise, she would drink the
earth dry.

(CONTINUED)

52.

101       CONTINUED (3)

LESTAT
She chose me, not you!

Flash.

Marius moves at super-speed, grabs Lestat by the neck, and pins him against a pillar. He does this with such force that the pillar almost collapses.

Lestat looks at Marius, newly aware of his true powers.

Marius horrified that he should lose control, moves away.

MARIUS
You are young and cruel, my son...

He looks at his fledgling with great sadness.

MARIUS
It was a mistake to bring you
here.

Lestat is thrown out onto the balcony by a great force.

102       INT. MARIUS'S VILLA - NEXT DAY

THROUGH the balcony we see the last warm colors of the sunset vanish into the blue of night. Lestat emerges, having just just risen. He stretches and scratches himself as any mortal would, but something causes him to stop...

... something has changed. Marius's paints have gone. Some of his paintings remain, but his easel and paint boxes are removed, leaving splattered outlines on the faded marble floor.

LESTAT
Marius!

No response.

103       INT. MARIUS'S VILLA - SECRET STAIRCASE

Lestat runs down the staircase, which is dark except for the candelabra in his hand.

104       INT. MARIUS'S VILLA - UNDERGROUND SANCTUARY

Lestat throws open the doors and enters to find...

(CONTINUED)

53.

104       CONTINUED:

Akasha and Enkil have gone, as have the thrones and most of the royal paraphernalia. Only the shell of open stone faces and columns remains...

LESTAT
Marius!

105       EXT. MARIUS'S VILLA - BEACH - NIGHT

... the sand below. Lestat runs down the beach... the sand showing no footprints.

LESTAT (V.O.)
Many times since, I have called to
Marius. I howled into the night
in loneliness and pain.

Lestat disappears off into the night.

LESTAT
But there was no answer -- just
the endless procession of days,
months, years...

106       INT. NEW ORLEANS HOUSE - NIGHT (PRESENT)

Under candlelight, Jesse sits cross-legged on the parlor floor.

JESSE
... my teacher left me to my
darkest lesson -- that in the end,
we are alone.

Reverently she closes the diary.

107       INT. TALBOT'S STUDY - LATER

Talbot sips his tea and studies an old manuscript. His PHONE line BUZZES. He picks up the line.

TALBOT
Talbot speaking...
(listens)
Jesse, slow down.

INTERCUT WITH:

54.

108       INT. NEW ORLEANS AIRPORT

Jesse on a pay phone.

JESSE
... it has everything in it!
Marius, the villa, everything!

TALBOT
Excellent work. I can't wait to
see it. What time do you arrive?

JESSE
David... I'm going to Los Angeles.

Talbot is horrified.

TALBOT
Jesse, you can't... You must not!
You'll return to London
immediately...

JESSE
Don't worry about me. I know what
I'm doing...

TALBOT
You know nothing. The Talamasca
observes, we do not intervene.
Lestat is a killer. You must not
go near him, do you understand me!

JESSE
I have to find him. I have to...
see him.

TALBOT
Jesse, please...

JESSE
I don't have a choice. Good-bye,
David. I'm sorry...

Jesse hangs up the phone.

TALBOT
(dazed)
Jesse...

55.

109       EXT. DOWNTOWN SKYLINE (LOS ANGELES) - NIGHT

Lestat sits high above the sparkling lights of downtown L.A...

PULL OUT to see - Lestat sits on the edge of a large, metal satellite dish on top of a building.

Lestat closes his eyes as if to listen closely to the communications being beamed out by the dish.

As we DESCEND INTO the center of the satellite dish, a LESTAT SONG BEGINS to play and magically we are in the music and with a visual splash we are...

MOVING SWIFTLY ACROSS the globe with the MUSIC -- there's a subliminal CHORUS BARELY DISCERNIBLE through the guitars, Lestat's lyric repeating over and over, "AKASHA, AKASHA, AKASHA," as we CUT ACROSS the world into the west and into...

The night fallen over Asia where we soon find ourselves in...

110       ASIAN FACTORY

where LESTAT'S MUSIC PLAYS for the evening shift over a sweatshop BOOM BOX.

111       INDIAN MARKETPLACE

where LESTAT'S MUSIC plays from SPEAKERS in a shop window.

We TRAVEL WESTWARD TO...

An ancient graveyard, where the...

Ground splits open before our very eyes.

From out of the dirt, a beautiful teenage boy stands naked...

112       VAMPIRE ARMAND

He pulls the pieces of a worm-eaten coffin from his person as we...

CUT TO:

113       TIBETAN TEMPLE

where another resurrected figure rises from beneath the structure's stone steps and reveals itself to be...

56.

114       VAMPIRE PANDORA

With one self-assured twist of her head, she shakes the red dust from her hair to reveal long curling black tresses falling down over her dark-skinned shoulders.

The MUSIC travels further to...

A PORTABLE RADIO held by a camel driver camping out in the Sahara Desert.

He cooks his dinner over a late-night fire, and taps his utensil to the MUSIC, when...

His CAMEL BRAYS fearfully...

The camel driver stops and looks before him, drop-jawed and terrified, as we now see what he sees...

115       CAMEL DRIVER'S POV

A corner stone of a desert sarcophagus begins to shift and move as...

The driver drops the...

RADIO in the sand, which keeps playing LESTAT'S MUSIC as...

A figure in tattered rags emerges from the sarcophagus and unbandages his face and neck, shakes the sand from his hair and eyes to reveal a skeletal form with white leathery skin bulging with strange blue veins...

The VAMPIRE KHAYMAN offers the driver a polite smile.

The driver faints back into the sand as the camels bolt off.

And still LESTAT'S MUSIC plays as we finally END UP...

116       INT. LESTAT'S MANSION - STRANGE POV - EVENING

We find ourselves in the strange blue-grey world of a vampire's POV walking THROUGH Lestat's mansion.

PAST his band, James, Louisa, Alex and Maudy, laying in the studio in a hazy sleep from yet another night of debauchery.

We MOVE menacingly INTO...

(CONTINUED)

57.

116       CONTINUED:

Lestat's living quarters, PAST the huge glassed-in space and into Lestat's private hall, leading to his bedroom door.

We ENTER easily, PASSING the familiar room with the enormous bed, and CONTINUE THROUGH INTO a smaller, darker chamber.

OVER TO Lestat's coffin, stealthily APPROACHING his "sleeping" figure laying closed-eyed and almost peaceful-looking, when...

Lestat bolts up and looks around the room to see... nobody.

Lestat's instincts are as alive as they could ever be as he scans the room with all his powers, and to his utter surprise finally sees...

A painting sitting by the wall, turned front-side-over.

Lestat gets out of his coffin and goes over to the painting with trepidation. He turns it over and then smiles to himself.

It is a portrait of Lestat as a rocker. The hand and style are unmistakable.

LESTAT
(whisper)
Marius...!

117       INT. LESTAT'S MANSION - LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS ACTION

Lestat bursts out the doors of his bedroom and looks down into the living room. Marius reclines on a couch, still dressed in red velvet, his legs crossed in the most human fashion, flicking through a magazine.

Marius puts down the magazine.

MARIUS
Lestat.

Lestat is overcome with conflicting emotions. The two vampires regard each other... then, slowly, smiles rise to their faces.

LESTAT
How did you manage to discreetly
get through the 1950's in red
velvet?

(CONTINUED)

58.

117       CONTINUED:

MARIUS
I slept.

LESTAT
Don't think you missed much.

MARIUS
Elvis.

LESTAT
Elvis, yes.

MARIUS
You're bigger than he is now.

LESTAT
I'd say a few pounds lighter.
Though, if you ever catch me
wearing a white jumpsuit, you
my permission to slice off my
head.

MARIUS
This is what you've always wanted.

LESTAT
Fame? Yes, although I can't go
out in public anymore. It's
become impossible for me to hide.

MARIUS
It's good to see you, Lestat.

LESTAT
Is it?

MARIUS
Don't look so sullen. I know that
you've called to me many times.
But the world's changed so quickly.

LESTAT
You just lost track of time.

MARIUS
Please, come down, I want to look
at you.

Lestat jumps down and lands gently beside Marius. Marius holds out his arms. Lestat moves closer but doesn't give Marius the satisfaction he wants. Marius lowers his arms.

(CONTINUED)

59.

117       CONTINUED:    (2)

MARIUS
You know, you still manage to
amaze me. You're not at all
frightened that you might be
killed for what you've done.

LESTAT
Is that what you've come to do?

MARIUS
Kill my own child? I'd miss you
too much. No, it's not me you
should fear.

LESTAT
Those fledgling idiots on
motorcycles? I can handle them.

MARIUS
I don't mean the young ones.
There are stirrings... I've sensed
them...

LESTAT
(rolls his eyes)
Them...? Who are 'them'?

MARIUS
The Ancient Ones, much older than
even me.

Lestat is surprised, but doesn't want Marius to see it. He covers with bluster.

LESTAT
So, let them come. Let them all
come.

Marius looks amused.

MARIUS
Your wish may come true my brat
prince. Your music has woken your
most dangerous admirer.

Lestat looks confused until it dawns on him.

MARIUS
Yes... And she hasn't just lifted
her arm this time.

LESTAT
Akasha...

(CONTINUED)

60.

117       CONTINUED:    (3)

MARIUS
Akasha has risen.

SMASH CUT TO:

118       FLASHBACK - INT. SANCTUARY OF AKASHA AND ENKIL

The same throne, but this time we seem to be in some sort of ice cave.

Enkil's throat gapes, torn open. He is a hollow, transparent shell, like the abandoned skeleton of an insect.

And next to him...

Akasha's throne sits empty. A god again walks the earth.

119       MARIUS

dressed in heavy furs encrusted with ice enters.

ENKIL CRACKS, SPLINTERS and falls into the dust.

120       INT. LESTAT MANSION - LIVING ROOM (BACK TO PRESENT)

Lestat's eyes are wide with excitement.

LESTAT
Akasha...

MARIUS
She has taken her King's blood. I
think she has absorbed his power.

LESTAT
She's left you. All those years
you've sacrificed and bound
yourself to their service. And
she kept her mysteries to herself,
and she never gave you anything.

Marius becomes eerily still. A deep somber TONE starts to VIBRATE. The GROUND RUMBLES with a sigh. Lestat looks around, a little taken aback, sensing the scope of Marius's power.

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Common script terms:
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INT = interior shot
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VO = voice-over
OS = off screen