Universal to reboot Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles

Last week there was a rumor flying around that Universal is into the idea of forgetting about the awful Queen of the Damned flick and in doing so negating the 1994 Interview With the Vampire in preparation to start again from scratch...hopefully. No real details about the way they are structuring the film versions of the 10 book series by Anne Rice, by chances are that those two will be forgotten, with Interview actually being a GOOD movie ignored in lieu of a new franchise.

What we do know, thanks to the mad geniuses over at Bloody-Disgusting.com, is that Robert Downey Jr. is deep in talks to replace Tom Cruise and Stuart Townsend as the series' focus Lestat du Lioncourt in the upcoming films. This whole thing isn't a bad idea on paper since Twilight is currently ripping up the trendy teen scene and the fourth film will be wrapping up right around the time they get a rebooted Interview going, and  putting someone as hot button as Robert Downey Jr. in there they're guaranteed some press.

There's just one problem, I don't think Robert Downey Jr. is right for that role even a little bit. He is as seasoned a veteran as it gets, but thinking about him playing Tom Cruise's or Stuart Townsend's Lestat just feels really awkward in my head. He is sure to bring his A game as I'm convinced at this point that he doesn't even have a B game, but there's not a universe where I can imagine that casting feeling right. Anybody who has read the books think otherwise?