Universal seems hell-bent on reigniting its reputation as Hollywood’s premiere studio for monster movies, with Deadline revealing that a deal has been struck to secure the rights to Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles.

Most famously adapted as Interview With The Vampire, the entire blood-sucking series will now be at Universal’s disposal, with all 14 books (including one that has yet to be released) included in the deal.

Universal favourites Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci will produce the first film in the series alongside Brian Grazer, with a remake of Interview thought to be a likely starting point.

The studio recently announced plans to create a single shared universe in which all of its classic movie monsters overlap and interact with each other, although there’s no indication that this franchise will be linked to that project in any way.

Just when Kurtzman and Orci are going to find time to juggle all this remains to be seen, with the two also involved in the studio’s Van Helsing and The Mummy revivals. However, it certainly seems as though Universal’s monster movie ambitions are deadly serious…