Phone Message Transcript: Jan. 16, 1997
[appearing on Anne's fan phone line]

"Hi, everybody. This is Anne Rice. It's January 15th and I'm in Hollywood. I finally succeeded in having my meeting with the head of Warner Brothers to ask him what was the fate of THE WITCHING HOUR and LASHER and THE VAMPIRE LESTAT and put to him many of the questions that you call have put to me. Basically, it does not seem that Warner Brothers is going to make these films. They'll revert back to me in about three and a half years, at which time we will then try to launch THE VAMPIRE LESTAT ourselves. The situation at Warners seems fairly hopeless. There is not a lot of interest in the properties or a lot of understanding of who the audience is.

Now I'd like to put a question to you guys, those of you who've called me many times. Which of these movies would you really like to see made? Do you think I should continue to hammer on this door in Hollywood or do you think I should give this up? By the way, the name of the head of Warner Brothers is Billy Gerber, and that's just like Gerber the baby food. And the man was just completely, really unfamiliar with the properties. He was unfamiliar with the scripts I've written and unfamiliar with the ideas, just didn't really seem to know much about what was going on. Now this is very strange, of course. When we go out on the road we see as many as 2,000 of you in one night at the signings and we hear your questions from all sides about these movies. So, it's all very puzzling. But anyway, give me your thoughts. There's a one minute message time. If you will, just tell me what you think--should I keep pounding on this door or should I forget about it? And remember that all the properties do revert in three and a half years. There's almost no time left for them to actually make a movie of THE WITCHING HOUR or THE VAMPIRE LESTAT from scratch. It's almost too late.

Thank you all very much. I love you. Bye-bye."