Off Screen

DANIEL DAY Lewis, John Malkovich and Gerard Depardieu were all considered for the role of the vampire Lestat, in Neil Jordan's forthcoming film version of Anne Rice's complex, erotic horror story Interview With The Vampire. But the part of this evil, sensual, appetite orientated creation has gone instead to . . .

Tom Cruise.

And why not? It is unlikely that he is Neil Jordan's ideal leading man but it is hard to say no to an actor who has just taken a ploddingly dull thriller like the firm past the $200 million mark in America. Whatever Tom wants, Tom gets. And if he wants to play a homo-erotic, savagely evil, eternally ageless creature of the night, well, at least he already has the teeth, which could produce some savings in the make-up department.

Brad Pitt has been cast as the sad vampire Louis, confessing all the torment of his lost soul to an interviewer played by River Phoenix. This sounds like it is turning into Young Vamps. They weren't evil, just misunderstood . . .

In a succession of demanding roles, Tom has tossed cocktail shakers, twirled pool-cues and twizzled baseball bats. Personally I am looking forward to seeing what fun things he can do with a cape.

Monsters must be all the rage amongst thespians these days. Jack Nicholson, who never needed a full moon to go crazy before, will soon be appearing as a werewolf in the aptly titled Wolf and Robert De Niro will be taking the part of the monster in the Francis ford Coppola production of Frankenstein. Kenneth Brannagh will direct and star as the bad doctor and, if hubby Brannagh can still afford her after her Oscar victory, I expect Emma Thompson will appear in a supporting role. As Igor perhaps.

The only question is how does De Niro, the most notoriously diligent of method actors, plan to research the role of a creature assembled from spare parts and brought back from the dead? But after the critical drubbing most of his recent efforts have received, perhaps that will not be such a problem after all.

This new enthusiasm for all things ghoulish has led to the announcement that Hammer Films is being brought back from the dead. The British film company that chilled and amused audiences in about equal part with its bloody sagas of big breasted vampires throughout the sixties and seventies, was put out of its misery in 1980 by the receiver after the disastrous failure to attempt to widen its appeal with the comedy thriller The Lady Vanishes.

Roy Skeggs, a former production supervisor on Hammer's Frankenstein films bought the company from the receiver eight years ago and has just announced a five film deal to remake some of its 60s classics, bankrolled by Warner Brothers. The remakes, however, are not of Hammer's most notable films. They include the Quatermass Experiment, The Devil Rides Out and The Stolen Face but there are no plans to revive Hammer's many Draculas and Frankensteins. Mr Skeggs sadly observed that too many other film companies were already tackling the big two ghouls.

Neither would they be attempting to revive the careers of Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee, who between them portrayed just about every monster and mad scientist in the book. But if Tom Cruise is interested, they could probably find a good part for him, perhaps as The Mummy. At least, with all those bandages, he would have something to fiddle with on screen.

And while we are on the subject of the undead, a judge in San Francisco recently ruled that, contrary to rumour, Elvis Presley is, in fact, deceased. The ruling came some twenty years after the singer was originally reported to have passed away. Members of the public had to be escorted from the court after booing and cat-calling the judge, who apparently hadn't realised that Elvis is in fact alive and well in Termonfeckin, where he spends his days spotting UFOs and waiting for the right comeback film role.

At his current stage of putrefaction, he's probably make a good monster himself.