When will we be getting over this vampire obsession?! Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, Buffy, Twighlight, True Blood…The world is fanatical with dark, blood sucking, sexy tales of the undead!

The latest is that Robert Downey Jr. is about to sign up to play the highly coveted role of Lestat Du Lioncort in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. The role was originally played by Tom Cruise in Interview with a Vampire (1994) and then by Stuart Townsend in the awful Queen of the Damned (2002). It’s not known yet which of Rice’s books Downey will tackle, there are 10 to choose from, but if Downey is in involved you know it’s going to have some oomph.

Lestat was the hero of most of Rice’s vampire novels. He was gripping lead character because he was blond, bisexual, eloquent, poetic, sarcastic and his seductive powers led him into all kinds of scrapes. He seduced men and women, ran around with the Devil, swapped bodies with humans, seduced the first vampire (who just happened to be an Egyptian queen), and found time to be a rock star.

Robert Downey Jr. is the man of the hour – and everyone is trying to sign him up to their movies. Universal has noticed the fact that the toothy brooders are fairly popular with audiences these days, and this is why they’re looking to restart adaptations of Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles. But this time the blood-sucking kicks will be aimed to the adult audience rather than the teenagers. Why should they get all the fun?!