Big-screen gay vampires may get an update

For some reason, vampires and gays seem to be associated with one another quite a bit in the movies and in literature. From the Victorian lovers of Interview with the Vampire to the subtext-soaked California teens of The Lost Boys, there seems to be an inclination to equate bloodsuckers with... er... gay men. But a new film could change the way in which that association is made. The book Already Dead, which is about a vampire private eye living in modern-day New York City, is being made into a film in an attempt to launch a new vamp franchise. In the series of novels, contempo vampires are pretty much the same as regular, living folk (except for that pesky bloodlust, of course) -- and as such, they form a diverse community made up of lots of different clans. There are well-heeled corporate vampires, biker vamps, East Village hipster vamps, and even gay and lesbian vampires that fight for equal rights and gay vampire marriage. No word on whether the gay vamps from the book will make it to the screen, but given the heightened visibility of the gay marriage debate, it would be a missed opportunity to leave them out. I haven't read the book, but all accounts I've found suggest that the gay vamps are given a voice and presented as pretty righteous folk. This is a significant shift from the way that gay elements are generally handled in vampire movies, which usually use "deviant sexuality" as a metaphor for the monstrous vampire lifestyle, or vice-versa. Let's hope that Already Dead's more enlightened perspective makes its way to the final cut.