FILM 2179: QUEEN OF THE DAMNED (2002)

TRIVIA: Aaliyah died in a plane crash shortly after principal photography was completed but had not yet actually performed any ADR redubbing for her character. Michael Rymer called in Aaliyah's brother, Rashad Haughton, to help with overdubbing her voice following her death due to their similar voices, special vocal technology was also used to make his voice sound more feminine.

The singing voice of Lestat was supplied by Jonathan Davis of Korn. However due to contractual difficulties, Davis could not sing on the soundtrack album release. The five songs written by he and Richard Gibbs for the movie were then performed on the album by Marilyn Manson, Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, David Draiman of Disturbed, Wayne Static of Static-X and Jay Gordon of Orgy. Davis was still allowed to play several instruments on the album.

Aaliyah was the first actor to be cast for the film. She was enthusiastic about taking the role due to her fascination with Egyptian mythology and also being a huge fan of vampire horror fiction.

Stuart Townsend shares his name with a character from another Anne Rice novel, "The Witching Hour". Upon meeting Townsend, Rice handed him a copy of the book and instructed him to turn to a certain page number, whereupon was written "The Life of Stuart Townsend". Townsend was flattered that she had written him into her new book, until she told him that she had written it eleven years prior.

Stuart Townsend took the role of Lestat after originally being cast as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) but was recast with Viggo Mortensen after four days of shooting because the filmmakers realized he was too young for the role.

Warner Bros. was already into its last year of owning motion picture rights to the first three Vampire Chronicles books which would then have transferred back to author 'Anne Rice', who could then sell the rights to another company of her choosing. Knowing what little time they had left, despite the fact they've had the rights and opportunity to make the latter two movies for over seven years, Warner Bros. hastily hired writers to condense the books "The Vampire Lestat" and "Queen of the Damned" into one movie with the latter being the movie title.

The film was a subject of controversy due to inspiring a real life murder shortly after the film's theatrical release. In December 2002, Allan Menzies from West Lothian in Scotland murdered one of his friends. He claimed in court that it was Aaliyah's character "Queen Akasha" from the film that told him to do it.

Wes Bentley was originally cast as Lestat, but he dropped out.

Cameo: Jonathan Davis, Korn: the composer appears as a ticket scalper trying to peddle tickets outside the concert.

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This is featured on the podcast We Hate Movies Episode 476 - Queen of the Damned