All language subtitles for King.On.Screen.2022.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-FLUX.en

To fight
the virus, Captain Trip,

there is nothing better
than Weinbaum's Laboratory.

News flash.

An explosion at Dairy College
took place this afternoon.

It's believed to be
due to a gas leak.

Four people are reportedly dead.

Inequity, and in sin
my mother conceived me.

Behold, thou desirest
truth in the inward parts

and in the hidden part thou
shalt make me to know wisdom.

Hey, how can I help you?

Can I have a green tea, please?

Sure.

Thanks.

If you're going to Cousin Town,

you should take the shortcut.

It's just the
first exit up I-95.

Once you see the black
house hang a left.

You'll be there in no time.

Breaking news just in.

A state prisoner
escaped this morning.

Maybe with the help of others.

We advise all citizens
to remain vigilant.

Welcome to the Running Man!

Tonight, he's in
Hardin, Tomorrow

in New York, Boise,
Albuquerque, Columbus,

skulking outside your home.

Will you report him?

Run, run, run, run, run,
run, run, run, run, run.

Run for...

Cujo.

How many times do
I have to tell you

you're going to fry your
brain using that thing?

Have you seen the Reverend
George Winston lately?

Ever since his wife died,
he hasn't been the same.

I heard he stayed with
the body for five days

before calling a mortician.

Richie.

I'll have the... a lucky devil.

Did you hear Brenda won
$2,700 last time she played?

And... ooh, give me a...

an American Grain.

Thanks, Richie.

Say hi to Miss Sidley
for me, will you?

Will do, Willy Wilmington.

Hi, Nona.

How can I help you?

It escaped again.

I hope it behaved well.

Picture perfect.

Nice.

Did you take the shortcut?

You've done well.

Take it to the master.

He's in the back.

Everybody who hasn't read
a Stephen King could've still

seen a Stephen King movie.

The Stand, The Dead
Zone or Cujo or...

Shawshank Redemption,
The Green Mile.

I mean, all the Frank Darabont
ones, all the Rob Reiner ones.

Stand by Me...

I thought it was terrific.

Christine was such a good film,

and Carrie was such a good film.

It completely traumatized me.

Cat's Eye and Silver Bullet
are two of my very favorites.

I adored them.

Creepshow had a massive
impact, and it's unique

and it's stylized.

Dolores Claiborne
was really good.

And 1408.

It's just such a descent into
madness that in that movie

almost anything could
happen at any moment.

Mick Garris did The Stand.

Misery is one of my favorites.

Pet Sematary is a great movie.

I love what he does
with characters.

The Dark Half obviously
was one that was successful.

Shining is pretty
hard to get past.

Let's face it.

A lot of people came to his
work because of the movies.

They probably started
with the movies

and then discovered the books.

It all started with Carrie.

It was the movie that really
brought a lot of attention

to Steve's work.

You couldn't miss Carrie, which

I remember seeing the movie
before I had read the book.

The book was not
well known until De

Palma's movie came out,
and the movie blew me away.

It was so great.

I think that's the first
time I became aware of who

he was back in 1976.

I was just struck by the story.

This character's journey and
like what she is going through

with her mom and the bullying
at school and then the powers

that she gets and how it works
as a metaphor for her entrance

into womanhood.

It really does that perfectly.

Watching the whole
transition of Carrie,

it was like Jekyll and Hyde.

King seemed to really bring
that in there too, that ability

people have to just have this
metamorphosis into something

that just wants to harm you.

From the way Brian De
Palma uses the split screen

in the prom, to the car flipping
over when they're trying,

to run her down on the road,
to the whole ending sequence

with the mom and the house
getting kind of crucified

to the door, the knives
thrown in her too,

that final jump scare moment,
which shows that jump scare

isn't always a dirty word.

Carrie wasn't really scary.

You just seeing her burn
everything down at the end.

You're watching it,
and it's thrilling.

I think it's more of a
thriller than a horror picture.

To me, as in much of
Stephen King's work,

Carrie is not just
a horror film.

It's come to be a horror
film because of the way

that it was first treated,
but the way it's written,

it sort of has a string going
through Stephen King's work.

When folks hear Stephen King,
most of the time, especially

those who aren't super
accustomed or knowledgeable

of his work, they think oh, the
horror guy, which is not true.

Stephen King
writes human beings,

and then he puts
them in incredibly

pressured, difficult, sometimes
phantasmagorical situations.

You know, you're dealing
with characters who are just so

interesting and so fascinating.

Like he really knows how to
explore it through characters

that you give a shit about.

Much of Stephen
King's work seems to be

about how we treat each other.

There was no real horror
genre in movies until Psycho.

Psycho brought that open and
then there were a huge number

of people who followed it.

You know, we went through the
'50s where we had great sci-fi

horror movies that were all
about the strangeness of things

that could happen to us.

The horror that
existed in the story

was really all about, oh,
that's a great monster

or that's a scary situation.

When Steve came
along in the '70s,

it was all about how people
were affected by what happened,

and I think that he's changed
horror and genre movie

making just by that alone.

He made it real
for so many people

because he put brand names in.

All of a sudden you had people
eating food that you ate

or using detergent that you
used in your dishwasher.

It became very American
and very recognizable.

And he also spread the
word to a huge swath

of the American public.

You could say it's
in the middle class.

And doing it in a way that
is without pretense, that

speaks to the common
people, is for

and about the common people.

He loves common people.

He loves folksy people, and
he's got that dialogue down pat.

He doesn't condescend to them.

He doesn't condescend
to middle Americans.

And I think that's important.

In many ways, he is
a man of the people.

Instead of setting
everything in big cities,

he chooses locations
and environments that

are identifiable for everybody.

You could make
name Pennsylvania,

you could make Maine the
countryside of France,

you could make name a
lot of different places

because we all have
places like that.

We all have small
towns and communities

and it allows the people
and the characters

to emerge as opposed to
being overwhelmed by, say,

a New York City environment.

Stephen King's
identity is wrapped

up in almost small town horror.

It's much more
relatable than, you know,

castle in Transylvania.

That's not what he does.

That can be scary too but
that's not what he does

and I think the thing about
these small American towns

is so interesting because
it's not what you expect.

I think he is so deeply an
American writer and writing

about America and the
darkness that lurks

within the heart of America.

He just has that gift to
kind of tap into what we all

can relate to and
connect to and it

always feels sort
of present time,

even if it's a period thing.

It always feels like America.

It's very kind of
Norman Rockwell Americana.

It's an idealized
America, but then it's

ripped apart and sent to hell.

No, please no!

It completely traumatized me.

My parents had refused to
let me watch the miniseries,

and so I would watch
it at a friend's house

when I was way too young really
to discover Stephen King.

Hi, Ben.

Want a balloon.

Ben?

It was all over the
airwaves in Australia

when it first came out,
and that just terrified me.

Me and my friends, we
had a video camera.

We'd recreate scenes from It.

It was just an obsession.

One of the first movies that
I ever made with my friends

in the back yard was an
adaptation of It actually.

When I was in seventh grade.

Horror movies in
particular were always

kind of what I was drawn to
and terrified of as a viewer.

When Tim Curry first
appears down in the drain...

Aren't you going to say...

As a 11-year-old boy, there
was nothing more terrifying.

Oh, come on, bucko.

Don't you want a balloon?

Tim Curry's
performance as Pennywise

is the ultimate terrifying
performance because he

plays it like a clown.

He doesn't play
it like a monster.

He plays it like
a birthday clown,

and that is so terrifying to me.

I do have to this day a
fear of clowns and Tim Curry

in It is the reason for that.

Basically every time
Pennywise appears in that movie,

it is truly terrifying to a kid.

I was so traumatized by
trying to watch horror films,

but so interested in horror
that I decided to switch over

to books and the very
first book I picked up

when I was like 10 years old was
It and that was a huge mistake.

I found myself in this really
intense conflicted situation

where I didn't want to
keep reading because I

was so frightened, and because I
was having horrible nightmares.

But I cared so much
about the losers club,

I cared so much about these
beautifully rendered characters

that I had to keep reading.

It's basically piss and shit.

So I'm just telling...

By the end of it, I
realized that he had created

an opportunity for me to
learn how to be braver

in very small increments
just to finish a chapter

or eventually to
finish the book.

And that became a
muscle that I would

try to exercise as I got
older and what I think

really horror is all about.

It's exercise for
courage in the same way

that we'd go to the gym to try
to get stronger physically.

Horror movies and
horror stories can

help us practice being brave
for a very short amount of time

in a completely safe space.

That journey started
with It for me,

but carried me very
quickly through all

of the available
works by Stephen King

and he almost immediately
became my hero.

When I hear stories
about other people talking

about their first
encounter with Stephen King

it was usually in childhood.

Certain works of art that you
experience as a child imprint

on you in a way that
I don't think they

can when you're an adult.
And I am of a very particular

generation, that first
generation of kids that were

exposed to Stephen King
and it unquestionably

left an indelible mark.

Early 1980s, My dad had a
giant library in our house

and on the very
bottom shelf he had

a couple of Stephen King books.

He had the paperbacks of
Carrie, he had the 'Salem's Lot

paperback that had pictures
from the Tobe Hooper miniseries

in the middle, so you
could see Barlow like right

before he was going
to get staked.

And so I knew the logo for
Stephen King's name on books

before I could even read.

Stephen King was a big
part of my childhood

and I think a lot of
people's childhoods

in the 1980s and the 1990s.

I think kids flocked
to Stephen King

because he wrote true,
authentic teenage characters

and kid characters.

And if he got you when you
were young, he had for life.

Tweet, tweet.

He rocks in the
treetop all day long.

Hoppin' and a-boppin'
and a-singing his song.

All the little birds
on Jaybird Street

love to hear the Robin
go tweet, tweet, tweet.

Rockin' robin...

One of the other ones that
really had an impact on me

was Stand by Me.

When I first saw it, I didn't
connect to Stephen King.

I thought it was a wonderful
drama about coming of age

and at the end of the film when
Stephen King's name came up,

I remember being shocked that
someone who I associated so

much with horror was
capable of creating

something so beautiful.

Stand by Me I grew up with.

My best friend, and I
would leave our homes

to go try to go on a
journey to find a dead body

and try to find train
tracks, and we'd

go down ditches all
day and be like we're

going to go find the body.

And, you know, we wished
we were in that movie.

So that was really
a touchstone movie

that to me when I think
about Stephen King,

I don't ever think about horror.

I always think about how
I felt when I read it

or the feelings it gave
me and the characters.

And when I think of my
favorite Stephen King movies,

I think of Stand by Me and
the Shawshank Redemption.

I remember seeing Stand by Me
and was just so taken with it.

I just loved it so much.

In fact, it's because of Stand
by Me that I took Shawshank,

the script, to Castle Rock
because of Stand by Me

I felt that Castle Rock
would really understand

the movie I was trying
to make and happily

that's exactly what happened.

I remember, in fact, being on
the set of Nightmare on Elm

Street 3 one night
going hmm, should I

ask Steve for the rights
to Shawshank or the Mist?

I finally went for
Shawshank because it

was so character based,
and Stephen King said yes.

Shawshank is different.

That's about redemption,
that's about humanity, that's

about a man falsely imprisoned
and trying to learn how to deal

with it and not go crazy.

It's what it makes you
feel for the people,

it's the heart
that it has in it.

You immediately
fall in love with Red.

He's just this awesome
character that you

would love just to
listen to and watch

for the entirety of the film.

And of course, the main
character Andy as well.

Inasmuch as the Shining
means to horror fans,

the Shawshank
Redemption means a lot

to fans that are looking for
some kind of hope in the world,

that their lives can improve
no matter how bad they get.

Well, it took five years for me

to actually get around
to writing the script

after Steve gave me the rights.

I know I had a certain ambition
for the creative aspect of what

I wanted that script to
be and I didn't think

I was a good enough writer yet.

That's another thing I
have to thank Stephen King

for, his patience.

Every once in a while, I would
let him know that I still

wanted to do it and finally,
one day, I felt ready,

and I wrote it in eight
weeks sent it to Castle Rock.

Castle Rock came back to me...

Liz Glotzer who was one of their
key development executives,

she's the first one who
read the script there

and walked into her
boss's office and said,

we have to make this movie.

She slapped it down on the desk
and said if we don't make this,

I quit.

So Liz called me and said
Rob Reiner read the script

and really loves it.

There was a moment when
Rob expressed interest

in directing it himself.

In fact, Tom Cruise
had read the script

and asked Rob if Rob wanted to
direct it and with Tom in it.

Then Rob said, let's offer
Frank a writing position.

Let's offer him a lot of money.

I thought about it
for a day, you know,

but then I called them back
and I said, you know what?

I want to stick with it.

I want to direct it myself
because I really feel

this deep, deep in my marrow.

I feel this story very deeply,
and if not this, then what

and if not now, then when?

When am I going to direct
a movie that matters to me?

If you're remembered
for anything,

it's for the kindness you
show or the art you create.

You're not remembered
for your bank account.

Nobody's impressed by that.

Nobody cares.

So yeah, it was a very handsome
offer, but it was money.

It was just money.

And Rob was such a sweetheart
and such a supporter

and a booster and a mentor.

He took no for an answer very
graciously and gracefully.

Frank is one of the
most consummate directors

I've ever worked with.

He loves movies more than
anything in the world.

Him and Quentin
Tarantino probably...

I don't know who
loves movies more.

Frank really... he
really loves it.

He agonizes over
every single detail,

and it shows in his movies.

I mean, Shawshank
Redemption is probably

one of the greatest American
made movies of our generation.

And my memory is that,
that wasn't the success

but has grown into
people thinking it's

one of the best movies ever.

It's set in prison.

It doesn't have Sylvester
Stallone or Van Damme in it.

It's not an action movie.

Clearly, it's a drama
with Morgan and Tim.

It looks like a
depressing movie.

There's no way you can cut the
trailer together and convince

the audience that it's
going to be something

they love for years to come.

So we had trouble getting
people to show up,

and that was very, very
disappointing, I have to admit.

Shortly thereafter...
I thank Academy.

They nominated us for
seven Academy Awards,

and we were one of the five
Best Picture nominees that year.

The Shawshank Redemption,
Nikki Marvin, producer.

And the Oscar goes to...

We didn't win a single award.

There was Forrest Gump.

Forrest Gump.

It's Forrest Gump's year.

They swept everything.

It's a great movie,
so I'm not surprised.

It was that and Pulp Fiction
and Four Weddings and a Funeral

and Quiz Show and Shawshank.

And everybody what is Shawshank?

I remember even
being at the awards

and when Shawshank
was announced, people

who were there would, go?

What movie?

Did we miss this?

So it so brought attention
to the film in a way

that we could not have purchased
by marketing or advertising.

That'll be one of those
movies that people

hold on to it seems and I'm...

boy, I'm so grateful for that.

I think Stephen King likes those

contained situations
where people are

stuck in one specific arena.

It's almost like a theater play.

From the situations comes a
lot of challenging moments

between characters
because they're

forced to challenge themselves
and challenge others.

That's the theme
obviously in The Mist

and The Shining and
1408, and the psychology

in this contained areas is
interesting and a lot of things

are happening, a lot
of things are coming

out because we get stuck.

Come on.

That's a situation that King
likes to put his character in

and as we come out
what we have learned

collectively from
months of lockdown

is a challenging situation.

The device he uses being
inside with nowhere to go.

He wants you to focus
on what's happening,

not on what's happening
outside in the world.

And in that environment,
there's no escape.

You really have to
face your demons.

I'm here because
island folk know

how to pull together for the
common good when they need to.

And that's what
these people did.

Trapped on Little Tall in
the storm of the century.

In the case of Rose Red, I
think it's the same thing.

They were trapped within
this controlled environment

where the house was
controlling the characters.

He's so descriptive
of his settings.

OK.

Very funny, but I want
to leave all right?

I think that's what makes
it scary and relatable,

because you could imagine
it happened to you.

What is this?

What is happening to me?

On Nightmares and
Dreamscapes, the autopsy room

too was really fun.

What is going on here?

Snake, why can't you see that?

Please, you can't do this.

You can't cut me up.

Help me.

Don't you realize
I can still feel!

One really clear example
of that dynamic is Misery.

We can all imagine it
could happen to us.

We are all James Caan's
character in that movie

and Kathy Bates is
so freaking scary.

Last night, it came so clear.

I realized you just
need more time.

Eventually you'll come to
accept the idea of being here.

Paul, do you know
about the early days

at the Kimberley Diamond mines?

Do you know what they
did to the native workers

who stole diamonds?

Don't worry, they
didn't kill them.

In the book, Annie Wilkes
cuts his foot off with an ax.

So we sit down in
the first meeting

and Rob goes, we can't
cut his foot off.

There's a myriad
of issues with it.

So they had pitched this
idea of the hobbling.

And they broke for
lunch, and they said,

OK, you guys get everything
rigged up for lunch,

and then when we come
back, we'll film it.

They all came back
from lunch, and they're

like, what are you doing?

Like you're supposed
to be ready.

I'm like well, those
are the fake legs.

So they didn't know because we
had disguised his leg so well.

Annie, for god's...

Shh, darling...

The first screening...

God's sake...

You could feel the
oxygen being sucked out

of the theater when she
raises the sledgehammer

because everybody at
the same time goes...

all at once.

Almost done.

You don't even
see it in close up.

You see it in wide.

You see her lift
the sledgehammer

and it's the real
sledgehammer and it's heavy,

and then when she swings and
she hits it a second time,

you never see it.

And you don't need to see it.

It's so much about
the sound effect.

Cut to the close
up, and she says...

God, I love you.

It's when Stephen gets the
combination of the humanity

along with the situation
was terrifying,

and they can say it's horror.

But I think what Stephen
does and also what I do

and what so many of us
do really is suspense.

Those are people.

I mean, yes, the situation
is one of rising dread.

But you're looking at people.

The secret is in the
casting and I think

that's the same for any role.

John Ford used to say
it's 70% of the job.

You make the right choice and
you're more than halfway there.

And the Oscar goes to
Kathy Bates in Misery.

Kathy Bates is
brilliant actress.

She'd won the Academy
Award for Misery.

I'd like to thank William
Goldman for bringing

the wonderful,
crazy Annie Wilkes

to the screen and
Stephen King for thinking

of her in the first place.

And Misery was a real
Stephen King crazy thing

and Kathy Bates was
great in the role.

Dolores was a very
different role...

strong, tough, but nuanced.

If you want to know somebody's
life, you look at the hands.

The challenge to me and
the thing that was probably

most interesting to
me is that Dolores

Claiborne is a woman's movie.

The three main
characters are women.

The women rule this movie.

Why I go through
20 years of hell?

Why mother?

I have a friend, Larry
Kasdan, who's a great director.

His son and went to Columbia.

During the first semester
back at Christmas,

I happened to run into them
and Larry's son said, you know,

I took this film class and
the teacher was a woman

and was trying to communicate
the fact that there are

no women stories out
there and that you

need to have filmmakers
who understand women.

And she was going
to show Dolores

Claiborne to say
Taylor is often times

used for men or women, right?

And that Taylor Hackford, this
woman who had directed Dolores

Claiborne, really understands
the women in this,

the four women that are here.

It's a brilliant woman's story.

And this... Larry Kasdan's
son sat down and said,

well, I just want to say, I know
Taylor Hackford, he's a man.

No, he's not.

No man could make this story.

Could I have a better
compliment than that?

It was great, but it all
started with Stephen King.

He had the inspiration.

Stephen King created
the characters.

You better sit back
down, Joe, if you

don't want this in your head.

Mommy...

Dolores is heroic.

How does a mother
deal with incest?

A lot of them know it and
just go along with it.

Dolores was not
about to ignore it.

Dolores understood the
horror of what her husband

was putting this child through.

It had to be repaid and she did.

I thought that was Stephen King.
All Stephen King.

The only thing
you're going to get

is a long stretch in Shawshank
prison for child molesting.

God damn bitch.

I think that
Stephen King probably

had a Delores in his life.

The way she was described,
the way all the women

were described was so real.

My mother had a
very difficult life,

and she still provided for
me by working her ass off.

When I wrote him, I
just said, listen, I see

my mother in this character.

Stephen King can write women.

He really can.

Stephen King has
a knack for writing

terrific female
characters and I think

he would credit a lot of
that to his wife Tabitha

and her influence on
him throughout his life.

And a lot of his books,
especially his most personal

with some of the most
fascinating heroines

are dedicated to
Tabitha and her sisters

and other women in his life
who are very powerful figures.

He was raised by a powerful
and strong single woman.

His relationship with his mother
shapes his writing quite a bit,

and he goes into
very moving detail

about that and on writing
and a lot of his interviews.

I think he's a man who
grew up in the presence

and under the influence
of remarkable women

and who married a remarkable
a woman who, in a lot of ways,

is responsible for the
biggest points of inflection

in his career and in
his personal life.

If you listen to him
talk about Tabitha

and you realize that she
pulled the manuscript of Carrie

out of the trash
can when he threw it

in there in complete despair,
when you imagine her being

the first set of eyes
on one of his stories

and giving him that
first critical feedback,

when you imagine some
of the stories he tells

about their marriage
not only kind

of in his fictionalized
versions of it,

but in on writing when he
talks about how she came to him

and made him confront
his addiction,

it's very easy to
see where he gets

a lot of that fortitude
and kind of mettle

that his heroines have.

I think he has that at home.

He came from a
broken home as I did.

His parents split
up early and he

was raised by a single
mother, very blue

collar, real hardscrabble life.

And his work is often
about the fractured family.

Your family is the place where
you're supposed to feel safe.

The outside world is the
other, your family is you.

And if that starts to crumble,
if that starts to present

danger and horrifying
circumstances to you,

you're not safe anywhere.

If you can't be safe
within the family unit,

how can you possibly
expect to survive?

And I think that theme running
through a lot of Stephen King's

work is actually what
adds to the terror

that we feel as we either
witness or read these stories.

Whether it's the
family and Cujo and what

they're going through before
the dog actually shows up

or what's happening in The
Shining between Jack and Wendy.

The first time I
encountered Stephen

King was through The Shining,
the book The Shining.

I read that and I
was just blown away.

I just thought this was
the most amazing thing.

I had to stop reading it.

I think I was in a remote lodge
in the mountains somewhere.

It was very similar to
the Colorado wilderness

that the hotel The Shining's in.

It really creeped me out.

The book club by accident
sent me The Shining.

I was going to send it back
because I didn't have the money

to buy it, but I
opened the book and it

random it was the
paragraph where

the dead woman sits
up in the bathtub,

and I thought, oh, I have to...

I have to read this book.

When I read The Shining, I think

that's the first
time I was enchanted

by the voice of the writer.

When you go inside
Jack Torrance's head,

you connect with him in
this very visceral way.

Stephen had a time
clock in there, which

was the boiler down
in the basement, which

was building and
building and building,

and of course, at
the end, blew up.

The boiler that
eventually blows up,

that is a metaphor
for what's going

on in Jack Torrance's head.

I was hired to direct
Dolan's Cadillac.

The writer and I, we were going
to have a call with Mr. King

and I was just vibrating,
I was so excited.

And I said, what do you
think I should say first?

I think I'm going to tell him
how much I love The Shining.

And he said, I wouldn't
do that, because he thinks

it's a total piece of shit.

It was very well
known that Stephen King

did not like the Kubrick film.

And there are a number of
reasons but one of the foremost

is that this was a really
personal book to him.

It was a book he wrote
while he was still drinking

about the guilt of a father
who, while he's drunk,

has broken his beautiful
little boy's arm.

It's about guilt and
seeking redemption.

He goes to this location that
is completely devoid of people

in the hopes that,
that will help him

stay away from the bottle
and be a responsible

husband and father.

And Kubrick turned it into
something very different.

Now I was at the Chinese Theater

in Hollywood, first day,
first show, to see The Shining

and pretty much everybody
in that huge theater had

read the book, so we're
all going all right,

Kubrick's doing this.

This is going to be great.

And they were booing
and hissing and

everybody was like pissed off.

It wasn't the book.

The creative personalities
of Stanley Kubrick and Stephen

King are very, very different.

King is a very warm and
human and emotional writer

and Kubrick is a very cool and
intellectualized filmmaker.

Scatman Crothers told
me he would do 85 takes

of one shot over and
over and over, and not

necessarily give any direction.

So his calculating
manner is kind

of in contrast to the
emotional warmth of what

King's stories are about.

In his entire
body of work, which

is substantial and
tremendously influential,

Kubrick was never an
emotional filmmaker.

Oh, come on, what do
you mean roll video?

Two seconds...

We're [muted] killing
ourselves out here

and you've got to be ready.

I am too, I'm standing
right by the door.

- Shall we play mood music?
- No, I can't hear it.

But when you came out like
this, you said you just...

because they say,
wait a minute, and then

you say on the radio, go...

When you do it, you've got
to look desperate, Shelley.

You're just wasting
everybody's time now.

I can't even get
this door open...

On the record, I got
such a bollocking

because they said turn over and
they said video rolling and all

that, and I got all ready
and jumped up and down,

and then they said never mind.

Cut it.

He had one emotional scene.

One.

Out of all the movies.

And that was the very end
of Paths of Glory, which

will move you to
tears, but never

again did Stanley Kubrick try
to get your emotions involved.

It was always... it's
cinematically stunning,

but it was a very
intellectual chess game...

him telling a story.

I think we should discuss Danny?

It's a really good
Stanley Kubrick movie,

but it's a terrible
Stephen King movie.

Danny!

The problem is Stanley
Kubrick didn't believe

in the supernatural in
any way, shape, or form

and the movie was
dictated on that belief

so it works on his
own logic perfectly.

It's just not
Stephen King's logic.

Kubrick would call him up
in the middle of the night

and ask things like,
do you believe in God?

When I talked to Stephen King, I

asked him a lot of
questions about The Shining

and the shooting of The Shining
and he told me this anecdote.

He said that he was home
sleeping, 2:00 in the morning

or something in
Maine where he lives

and his telephone was ringing,
and it was Stanley Kubrick.

And he said, hi,
Stephen, it's Stanley.

Are you OK?

And Stephen King said, yeah,
no it's 2:00 in the morning,

so I'm sleeping.

Oh yeah, sorry, I'm here in
London, we're shooting away

and I just have one
question for you

and Stephen King said,
yeah, what is it?

And Kubrick said,
does God exist?

Stephen King said, well, Stanley
that's the very big question,

you know, that really depends
on where you come from,

why you... it's a big discussion.

And Kubrick said, yeah,
yeah, no, that's...

That's all.
Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And he put down the phone.

When we meet Jack
Torrance Nicholson character

in the film, he seems to be
as mad from the first second

we meet him as he is in the
last second we meet him.

His madness lacks an arc.

He seems to be quite unhinged
from the very beginning.

David Cronenberg said to me
once, right after The Shining

came out, that the reason
The Shining doesn't work

is because they cast the ending.

Jack Nicholson's crazy
from the beginning.

That works in Kubrick's world,
but not in King's world.

Will then take the time
to get back to where it was.

You understand?

I know a famous film critic says

that Nicholson's
performance in The Shining

is both his best and
his worst performance,

which is an interesting
thing of putting it.

What you lose, I think, is,
again, the thing that I think

is Stephen's great strength
is the recognizable humanity

in all of these characters.

Why don't you start right now
and get the fuck out of here?

And who could imagine those two

actually ever being married?

You lose the horror
to me of someone

very familiar to you
becoming so other.

That's... to me, that goes
to my heart right now.

I imagine if my wife
and I had... if suddenly

they seemed so different,
how painful and difficult

that would be.

That wasn't in the movie at all.

Yet as time has gone
on as, we've all seen,

it has become what...

it has become this iconic
horror movie that based on that.

I guess King never
liked what he did,

but it really was
Kubrick's version of King.

He had to make it his
own like most artists do.

It's always tough to
make those adaptation

so everybody loves it.

Hollywood is a rough
and tumble place.

They call it show business
not show friendly.

And there's betrayal, and
treachery, and disappointment,

and all kinds of things.

There's a great joke.

I think it was Ernest Hemingway
who said when you make

a deal with Hollywood,
what you must do

is drive to the Colorado
River, stop on the bridge

halfway across between
Arizona and California

and throw your novel across.

When they throw
the money across,

then you put it in your car,
and you drive back East.

You know, the movie
went on to become iconic.

It's a huge success and
everybody knows here's Johnny,

but Stephen King
wanted the chance to do

something closer to his book.

And he himself wrote
the screenplay,

and he asked me
if I would do it.

Actually the first
question was if Brian

De Palma turns this down,
would you want to direct it?

Well, I don't know if it
ever went to Brian De Palma

but he didn't make it.
- Daddy!

He did.

Hi!

Heya, Danny boy.

Danny.

King asked me to because
we had two very successful

experiences together.

I was very naive.

I thought yeah, I want to
do the Stephen King version.

I was disappointed in
the Kubrick version

because I had loved the book
so much before I saw it.

So I thought, sure, why not?

Well, once people started
hearing that there was

going to be a shining
for television,

oh my god, for television?

How can that be any good?

And being directed by
the guy who directed

Critters 2, how could
that be any good?

Stanley Kubrick
versus Mick Garris...

All the guest
rooms, strong and...

But the script was wonderful.

And I thought,
we're going to make

something on our own, something
special, which we did.

It was an opportunity
to just tell

the story of the book, which
was very, very personal to King.

We ignored the Kubrick film.

There are times when
you can't help it

like the here's Johnny scene.

You still have somebody
breaking through the door in the

bathroom and attacking Wendy.

That's the place where it most
resembles the Kubrick film.

There was another important
differentiation too.

King was drinking
when he wrote the book

and King was dry when
he wrote the screenplay

for the miniseries.

My name is Hartwell, and I'm
an alcoholic with a fondness

for tranquilizers.

Hi, my name is Jack...

So he was able to give
it a new perspective

from outside of being someone
who was abusing substances.

You won't be sorry.

I was talking to Steve
on the phone one day.

I had called him just
to say, how are you?

How's it going?

And he said, oh, I think I might
be about to make the biggest

mistake of my life
because I have this story

that I'm thinking
of writing, and then

publishing it in six volumes.

And he told me the basic
idea, this mentally challenged

black inmate who is
in for apparently

murdering two little
white girls who

turns out to be this
miraculous instrument of God.

Your name is John Coffey?

Yes, sir boss.

It's his relationship
with the guards.

He didn't think I'd be
interested because it

was another prison thing.

And I said, you know,
you're probably right,

but that sounds
intriguing enough to me.

So the next thing
I know is I get

the very first volume of the
six sent to me by his agent.

I read it, and I
did something I've

never done before or since which
is I have to make this movie.

I don't even know what
the rest of it is.

I don't even know
how it ends, but this

is Stephen King at his best.

I just could tell.

I called his office in Maine
and the person I spoke to said,

well he's not here.

He's in Colorado on Mick Garris'
set of The Shining miniseries.

I did know Mick.

He and I were good
friends by then.

We had, sort of, a small circle
of friends in Los Angeles.

All of us involved in the movie
business in some way or other.

Mick's very good friends
with Greg Nicotero and Greg

is very good friends
with this guy,

and that guy and Robert
Rodriguez and Quentin

and so many of those guys.

This was back when I
was single and working

like a crazy machine.

And I would...
sometimes on a weekend,

I would have everybody come
over and just invite... and just

had this huge table and
put like 14 or 16 people

around the table and make this
giant pot of spaghetti and meat

sauce, and we'd
open bottles of wine

and we'd be there til 2:00
or 3:00 in the morning just

around the table just
talking and laughing.

And the rare occasion that he's
actually on the West Coast,

we did have Stephen
King and George Romero

and Mick would be
there quite a lot.

So I flew to Colorado,
and I rented a car

and I drove up the mountain
just like Jack Torrance

in the opening of The Shining
and I arrived at The Stanley,

this incredible hotel.

That was the very
hotel that gave

Stephen King the idea for The
Shining in the first place.

I walked into their ballroom,
and they were in the middle

of filming the big
New Year's Eve scene,

and there were all these extras
dressed as ghosts and ghouls

and Stephen King was up on
the stage as the bandleader

and shaking his butt,
and, you know, it was so

much fun to walk onto that set.

And of course, Mick is
a dear friend, so it was

like a very welcoming arrival.

I really like having
friends show up and do cameos,

and I didn't know that Frank
had an ulterior motive,

but it's the only
time in his life

Frank had ever
shaved off his beard.

So he... I don't...

I didn't ask him to
but he wanted to do it.

And so we had all these
wonderful people there,

especially people
within the genre

where the fans will see
that's Frank Darabont

and you feel like you're
part of a special club

because most people
don't know who Frank

Darabont is but we do, right?

And Steve saw me and he
said, what are you doing here?

And I said, I've come
all this way to tell you

I really want to
do The Green Mile.

He said, great, it's yours.

I said, fantastic, can
I read the rest of it?

He said, no, you can't.

You have to wait just
like everybody else.

And then that's when
he also admitted

that he actually
hadn't even written

the last volume or two of it.

I thought, what a bold,
crazy, high wire act that is.

He's an extraordinary writer.

He's sort of like
the Charles Dickens

of 20th and 21st century.

Literally writing these massive
novels almost in episodes.

What a giant.

The Green Mile was his
attempt to do Dickens, which

is to write an episodic
novel where he could publish

a new chapter every
week or whatever it was,

which is how Dickens came to
write so many of his novels.

That was how they
wrote in the 1800s,

and they were trying
to make a living

and they were paid a penny
a word or whatever it was.

But that was The Green Mile too.

The movie was set during
the Depression at a time,

and certainly in a
place where black people

were not respected at all.

Boy, you under
arrest for murder.

That's what I thought was
so interesting and powerful

about the theme of that
story when I read it.

What does the Bible speak of?

It speaks of the least of these,
the least will be the greatest.

You have a man who is not
even really considered a man.

What if that person is
actually a miracle of God?

What if that is the best of us?

And I find that so
moving and so powerful.

And just the basic
theme of don't

judge a book by its cover.

You don't judge a person
by the color of their skin.

You don't judge a person
by their status in life

or in society.

It's like what Martin
Luther King said,

which is judge somebody by the
content of their character,

not the color of their
skin, not by surface things.

Judge them by their actions.

And I'm a big believer
in that sort of thing.

I want it to be
over and done with.

I do.

I'm tired, boss.

I'm tired of being
on the road, lonely

as a sparrow in the rain.

I'm tired of never having
me a buddy to be with,

or to tell me where we's
going to, coming from or why.

Mostly I'm tired of people
being ugly to each other.

My favorite memory
of The Green Mile

is one of my favorite memories
from directing period.

There's the scene in The Green
Mile where Paul, Tom Hanks,

comes into the cell
with John Coffey

and they've now realized that
he is A, innocent of the crime,

and B, that he is
this miracle of God.

It's the scene that I got
Michael the nomination, right?

Shooting that scene,
this is an example

of what a generous
actor Tom Hanks is

and the wisdom of a
truly generous actor

because since Michael was
the least experienced actor

on the set when we began, I
would usually start shooting

a scene with him first
because he would generally

get there within a few takes.

The same with every actor.

They usually have their sweet
spot, whether it takes 1, to 3,

takes 5 to 6 or whatever.

As a director, you've got
to just make a note of that

and make sure you
don't wear them out

by the time they're on camera.

And Tom was always very
gracious about that

and movie stars aren't always.

They usually want
to start on them,

but he was very cool about
me starting on Michael.

I remember we started the same
way all on Michael and Tom

was off camera, but he wasn't
just giving him the lines.

He was acting his
heart out for Michael.

I was starting to get nervous,
thinking, I hope Tom still has

some gas left in the tank
by the time I turn around

and get the cameras on him
because he's winning an Academy

Award here off camera, but he
knew to get the performance

that Michael needed to give, he
had to give Michael everything

as his scene partner.

And that wisdom and that
generosity, the risk

of not having enough
left for yourself,

but giving it all to the
other actor, so that,

that actor can shine, that's
the kind of generosity

that Tom has.

It's certainly
nothing we discussed.

It's certainly... he just did it.

He just knew he had
to do it for Michael.

He had to be fully there 100%.

Tom was always on the set,
and he being the movie star,

we would try to be conscious
of the fact that it's Friday

night, you have your
weekend coming up,

I can let you go,
but he's... well, no,

we're still doing the scene.

Like yeah, but I've got
all your stuff already.

I've shot you.

We can have someone
stand in for you.

Oh, no, no, no, no, he has to
be there for the other actors.

So Tom would be there
sometimes till 2 o'clock

in the morning on a Friday.

We're now eating
into his weekend.

He didn't care.

He had to be there for the
other actors, even off camera.

Do you know how many
times I've been off camera

in all the movies I'm in?

Thousands.

Tom was one of my choices
for Andy in Shawshank.

He couldn't consider it because
he was doing Forrest Gump.

Things turned out great
regardless because Tim Robbins

is brilliant, and so is Morgan
Freeman so any other thoughts

we had don't matter.

We got the right guys for that.

But because of Shawshank
and because of the way

the movie turned out, Tom
approached me and said,

wow, I love the movies you make.

If you ever want me to
read anything, let me know.

So the very next thing
was The Green Mile

so I sent it straight to
Tom and he read it and said,

great, let's do it.

And it was the easiest yes
I ever got from an actor

and he was actually I would
say probably the easiest person

to work with in my career.

Michael, Clarke Duncan.

- Thanks for your time.
- All right.

I came home one day,
I clicked the messages,

and there's Bruce Willis on my
answering machine saying, hey,

I hear you're doing this movie.
I've read the book.

I really love the book.

You should read Michael
Clarke Duncan, a guy

I'm working with on Armageddon.

He's your guy.

I'm like, OK, Bruce,
I'll give him a try.

I'll have him in to read.

His first audition for
me, you thought, no way.

No way.

And then he became the only way.

Bruce was right,
as it turns out,

and I've never heard
from Bruce Willis since.

This is the only time...

this is one of those
weird surreal moments

you have sometimes in our
business where you go,

there's Bruce Willis on
my answering machine.

That's kind of great.

That's kind of cool.

It's pretty funny,
but no, he was right.

Michael was the guy.

We had the little girl
bodies that we had made.

The dummies were sculpted to
make John Coffey look larger.

He was very tall
actor to begin with,

but we sort of scaled
them down a little bit.

And for some reason or another,
the first time they filmed it,

the dummies weren't
positioned in the way

that they were sculpted.

We were editing the movie and
Frank had said there's just one

thing that I want to
take a second stab at

and we rebuilt the dummies
of the two little girls,

and we reshot it on the
backlot at Warner studios.

And it made a world
of difference.

People don't realize
what it takes

to make a movie and
every single element,

you have to make a decision.

Do you like that belt?

What about the
color of that shirt?

How does the sun look?

Do we want this
in the background?

And you have to have
an answer for every one

of those questions
and you get hit

as the director from the
second you step on set

to the second you go home.

I'm in heaven

and my heart beats so
that I can hardly speak.

And I seem to find the happiness
I SEEK When we're out together

dancing cheek to cheek.

There was something
about the musicals

that Hollywood was making
during the Depression

when the circumstances of
real life were so dire,

but the musicals
were this glossy sort

of unattainable
like heaven vision.

And that particular number
has always struck me

in such a delightful way because
it's Fred Astaire and Ginger

Rogers, they're the most
iconic musical performers

and dancers of that era.

And they are singing
about heaven.

It just felt like
the right anchor

for the movie and
Steve's story, it

was killer's kiss,
the Richard Widmark

playing some crazy killer.

That made our main
character, Paul, think

of the events of long ago
because that character

reminded him of Percy.

It didn't feel like quite
the right thing to me.

I wanted the contrast, I
think, between the reality

of that time versus
the dream reality

that Hollywood was telling us.

And I wanted it to
remind him of John Coffey

and not of Percy when he
was watching that clip

and being transported
by something

he'd never seen before.

And they're singing
about being in heaven.

I thought, OK that seems
really right to me.

I couldn't quite picture the
scene with John Coffey watching

Richard Widmark pushing
some lady down the stairs

in a wheelchair and giggling
because he's murdered her

and like, I didn't
see that having

a great effect on John Coffey.

That's one of those things
that when you're translating

from one language
to another language,

from written
storytelling to cinema

storytelling that
evolve along the way,

that change along the way.

It's like what do I want
the audience to feel when

they're watching this scene?

Frank and I have been
friends for decades

and when it came time
to shoot The Green Mile,

we knew that the
big moment would

be Del's, death and the
electrocution in the chair.

And we worked with Darrell
Pritchett who was the special

effects coordinator, and we
knew that first and foremost,

whatever we built,
whatever this puppet

that was going to
be built needed

to move 100% realistically.

So we had Michael
Jeter, the actor,

come to our studio in the chair,
and we filmed his movements.

We filmed how he would move
and how he would react,

and we sort of reverse
engineered the puppet

to match what the
actor had done,

which traditionally, you
don't usually do it that way.

The puppet... you just
kind of... the puppet

does what it's going to do
and what it's built to do.

But in that particular instance,
it was really, really important

that it felt 100% real.

Michael came to the studio.

We recorded all
of his movements,

and then at that point,
we did a body cast of him.

We built a fiberglass body the
puppeteer rods and controls

and cables went out
the bottom of the chair

and through the back wall.

So when we were
shooting the scene,

all the puppeteers
were behind the wall.

So we couldn't see
anything, because we

weren't in the room with Tom
Hanks and all the other actors.

We were on the other
side of the wall

so we had a little
monitor there.

Steve was there when
we shot that sequence.

We have Stephen King visiting
the set of The Green Mile.

How are you doing?

How are you?

OK.

Fabulous.

Is this the mile the
way you pictured it?

Yeah.

Sure it is.

Well, we're about...
we're about to roll.

- OK.
- Watch the magic.

Cut.

Frank, you maniac.

We're definitely going to...

There is no better man.

That's great.

Let me show you... let me
show you all Sparky, man.

And we fried the bastard.

Yeah, I don't blame you.

I would.

Check this out, man.

Is this ever cranky.

Look at this.

Check it out.

And then we strap the ankles.

Kind of be sort of
like a Houdini thing

if you could pull it off.

And that's exactly it.

Exactly.

This is a good look for you.

It's a good look for me.

Yeah.

Frank, could I get out now?

Stephen King
showed up on the set.

It was his birthday.

We brought out a cake, we all
sang happy birthday to him.

We do have a secret evil
plan for Stephen King.

Since last Monday
was his birthday,

we're going to spring
a birthday cake on him.

Oh, god.

You like me.

You really, really like me.

We pulled it off.

Success.

I think we really surprised him.

Eduard Delacroix
you are history.

Everybody sang happy
birthday in the theater.

God bless you.

Thank you.

Frank, when's your birthday?

January 28th.

Good.

Be prepared.

People so excited
to have him there.

- Give my best to everybody.
- All right.

Take care.

Bye, bye.

Bye, everybody.

Bye, Steve.

Gosh, it could have
all been taken away.

In something eerily
familiar from his book,

Stephen King was
hit by a truck as he

walked along an empty road.

He's in Maine.

He's walking his dog
and then typical Stephen

King, tragedy strikes.

He's in this horrible accident.

We were all afraid
after that accident

that, that was going to be it.

It's miraculous that
he came out of it alive,

and now fully ambulatory.

That's just amazing to me.

So thanking God for that.

That whole accident
is actually very much

connected to The Green Mile.

When we had our big premiere
screening in Westwood,

it was the first time Stephen
King had made an appearance

in public since his accident
and in a lot of pain

still, you know, but
he was very invested

emotionally in the movie, and
he really wanted to be there.

He really wanted to see it.

So that was his first
time out after that.

Appliance that holds the pins,

that hold the bones together.

On a home shopping network now,

operators are
standing by, use Tudi.

Humor and drugs, the
two things together.

And bitching.

A lot of bitching off camera.

Yeah, big time.

King is a believer.

Steve had often
talked about life

goes on after the story ends.

I am not a religious person by
any stretch of the imagination,

but religion and belief
are not the same thing.

Religion is often used to
control not to give comfort.

Praise God!

Praise the Lord!

King does
touch and use politics,

social issues, cultural
issues, and religion

in a lot of his work.

It's woven through.

It's one of his elements, I
guess we could call it, motifs.

Children of the Corn
was no different.

When I saw the script, I
realized that this script is

based on a exploration of dogma,
how people follow other people,

how cults work, why belief
systems are what they are

and how people
manipulate others.

It's really ingrained
in American culture,

even if we're not
religious, we've grown up

with religion from childhood.

Most kids go to church
in their early years,

and maybe they grow
out of it, or maybe

they never go,
but it's something

that's always around you.

In the late 1980s, my
parents who were Methodist

at that time, became Southern
Baptists, and all of a sudden,

a lot of the things that I
had loved were off limits.

For that intense dddd of time, I
sort of lived in Fahrenheit 451

in my house.

I had to hide Stephen King books
under my bed in the box springs

under my bed, and
they did at one time

find kind of my stash of
Stephen King books under the bed

and they burned them
in our fireplace.

I wrote Stephen King a letter
that my books had been burned.

I just put Stephen
King, Bangor, Maine

and I sent him the first
three dark tower books.

I had read that if you
sent Stephen King a book,

he'd sign it for you.
I didn't expect anything.

I wasn't even sure it would get
there, but a couple of weeks

later, I came home from the
private Christian school

that I went to every day.

My dad pulled me aside,
and he was like, Josh,

there's a box here
from Stephen King.

I didn't tell your mom.

King had written me this
beautiful message, kind of,

in the front cover
of each of the books.

And it was a continuing letter,
so you'd start reading one,

and then the next
one would pick up.

I couldn't imagine
that my mom was burning

The Stand in our
fireplace because it's

the most Christian
book he's ever written.

I was raised by
people who believed

the Antichrist was
coming at some point,

that the rapture
was going to happen.

Stephen King gave
me a counter myth

that allowed me to look
at some of this stuff

in a different way.

I'm seeing a lot of army traffic

on state 17 westbound in
the direction of Arnett.

You heard anything about that?

Just you let the army
mind their business

and you mind yours unit 16.

Goodbye.

Politics is something that
King doesn't shy away from

and neither do I. The whole
military industrial complex.

The military thinks
they're right,

and they can do whatever
the hell they want to do.

Well, that's not
why they're there.

They're there for protecting
us, not controlling us.

The idea that civilization
and society is a very fragile

construct, and it can fall
apart at the drop of a hat

is very appealing to
me, because if you

are a student of
history, you can

see that, that has
happened many, many times

in many, many ways.

Entire nations can go insane and
everything that we depend upon,

especially more and more
it's so very technological

that if you pull the
rug out from under us,

we revert to a very
primitive state.

You don't seem to understand
the situation here, ma'am.

Martial law has been declared.

We don't have to put up with you
and your pinko friends anymore.

Mike, are you getting all this?

Get him!

Get the driver!

You know, The
Stand shines a light

on what America is as a nation.

When all the societal norms
break down, who are they?

Yeats was right.

Things fall apart.

And here we are at this
moment seeing societal norms

break down and it's not pretty.

It's terrifying.

Bring out your dead.

The monster is coming.

He's coming.

Bring out your dead.

Bring out your dead.

Just the idea of what would you

do if like everyone
was dead and there was

just this handful of people?

I hadn't seen many
stories like that.

Now it seems like maybe
every story is about that,

but back then, seeing The
Stand mini series, that

was the first time I thought,
oh my god, imagine if I survived

something like that, and you
could go into a supermarket

and no one was
there, and there's

a town and everyone's dead.

Like, it was just so mind
blowing to me as a little kid.

I really
didn't want to do The Stand

again linear because
mix series meant

so much to me when I was a kid.

I don't know what reason
there is to make that again.

We had to do some
things too just

to make it more representative
of all of America

because if everybody
in the world died,

you don't just want
to see a poster

with a bunch of white people
and one old black Lady.

Because in the book, it
is... everybody's white

except for mother Abigail.

It was written 40 years
ago before I was even born.

So we really did try
to do what we could

to make it be if
the world ended,

this is a cross-section
of all the people.

And then just trying to
structure it in a way

that would be surprising
to people who were really

familiar with the
material, who had

seen the series many
times when they were young

or read the book.

We wanted to make sure that
even if you'd read the book,

you never would quite
know where it was

going to go next and all that.

The irony of that
was not lost upon us.

While we were shooting, we
were at the very last day shut

down by the COVID pandemic.

And of course, The
Stand begins with

a global pandemic that kills 90%
of the population of the world.

So it was truly unnerving
while we were shooting, seeing

how the disease was spreading.

It was strange.

It was surreal, and
it's still surreal now.

But I mean, yes, we
absolutely were making

a show about what is
happening in the world,

and that was weird.

That man has had a
crystal ball for a very

long time on his desk.

Just like show me the future.

That's the legend
of Stephen King.

He's able to see
things in the future

that the average person can't.

And then also the
fact that Randall Flagg,

the villain of The Stand,
has uncomfortable echoes

of Donald Trump.

We drown the rats, and
then we burn the witch.

In the way that he
appeals to the worst

of the American character and
is a kind of populist leader

in a world in crisis.

I really felt, when we were
making that mini series,

we were holding up a
mirror to the world.

And when you consider that
Stephen King wrote that book

sometime in the late '70s,
you, kind of, have to think

he's a bit of a prophet.

I think it's that
aspect of his work

that I like the most
is this deep, sort of,

resonant understanding
of what the moment are

that we're living in.

And in some ways the cell
had some reflections of that.

There were things in the book
that I felt were prophetic.

The signal isn't something
that might happen tomorrow.

It happened already.

This isn't like it's coming.

This is about what's here.

Even in the last
image of the film,

there's the initials
of Donald Trump.

Donald Trump was not on
the landscape at that time.

He's a prophet
of the apocalypse.

So you saw all this shit coming?

Craig Stillson in The
Dead Zone are just chilling.

What he saw coming was
unfortunately, precisely

accurate, and here we are.

Bastard!

You're not the
voice of the people

I am the voice of the people.

The people speak
through me, not you.

Came to me while I slept, Sonny.

My destiny.

In the middle of the
night, it came to me.

I must get up now, right
now and fulfill my destiny.

The Dead Zone remains my
favorite of all his King's

movies because Christopher
Walken's character, the love

story, all that wove
through that thing

was just incredible to me.

It really, really captured it.

When HBO started on television
here, they had five movies,

and they would play them
over and over again.

So I watched the dead
zone probably 100 times.

And I just think it's
one of the great love

stories, one of the
great performances

by Christopher Walken.

It's such a terrific film.

like to use this as
a shortcut to school.

And I came to really
feel like Stephen

King, in a way
like Bob Dylan, is

a sort of dreamer of America.

Like he contains
the entirety of it

and sort of dreams
in the language

of the chaos of America.

People, when you apply fear,
turn against one another.

Paranoia, suspicion,
aggression suddenly happens.

The veneer of
polite civilization

gets ripped away very quickly.

It is his fault. Yes, it is...

No!

We're dealing with a lot
of craziness these days,

and it's actually
only been getting

worse since I made The Mist.

People trying to
control an environment

and trying to
control a population

and here it's done in a
very claustrophobic sense.

Everybody is trapped together
in this one store that's

being invaded by monsters.

So politics has to go out
the window at one point,

and it's got the
grimmest ending ever,

and it's an ending that
Darabont came up with.

Frank would always send me
an early draft of the script.

Let me know what you think.

Let me know what you think.

He had done it with Shawshank.

He'd done it with Green Mile.

He'd done it with Majestic.

All of his movies, he
always send me one.

And he sent me The Mist
and I read the script,

and it got to the
end, and I threw

the script across the
room, and I called Frank.

I'm like, dude, really?

Stephen's a genius when it comes

to putting you in the
skin of those characters.

And then when I got to the end
of the story, I went, what?

There's no ending?

It was a very ambiguous
kind of non-ending

and I thought, well,
OK, that's fine.

He's taken me on this
incredible journey as a writer,

as a storyteller, fair enough.

If he doesn't have a
conclusive ending, that's OK.

But I thought if
it's a movie, I don't

think that's an ending that's
going to be very satisfactory.

I don't think it's going
to really land well.

Movies, I think, need an ending.

When I wrote the script,
I sent it to Stephen King

and my note was, Steve,
I gave it an ending,

and it's definitely a left turn
and I'm leaving this up to you.

The irony is when we went
to the premiere in New York,

Steve basically said, I wish
I would have thought of that

ending for the book because if
I would have thought of that,

that's how I would
have ended the story.

It's a unique situation
where the writer looks

at the body of work
of what that movie was

and where Frank took
it and was like dang,

I wish I would have
thought of that.

That's pretty great.

And I feel like The Mist
lives in the same world

as John Carpenter's The
Thing where the movie came

out right after ET
and people had a very

unique reaction to The Thing.

And then the movie has come
to be very well respected.

I think The Mist
is the same way.

Upon multiple viewings,
and as that movie ages,

it's like wine.

I think people really respect
it and understand it and get

a much better sense of it.

Just like being home in LA.

Yeah!

Yeah!

And tug of war!

When I read The
Mist, Steve's story,

I thought oh, this
is really cool.

This is very weird
pressure cooker happening.

You take all that and
put it into the microcosm

of a supermarket
as Steve King did

and you can hold that
mirror up to the audience

and say boy, look at this.

This is kind of ugly.

And I love when
stories can do that.

I love when a piece of
cinema holds that mirror up,

whether it's something truly
glorious like Schindler's List,

which I think is just about
the greatest movie ever made

or the Night of the Living
Dead on the opposite end

of the budget spectrum,
that also had a very

sociological component to it.

I don' think they
even intended it

but it showed up in
the movie, and that's

one of the reasons the movie
is so powerful, and so beloved.

I mean... well, we could talk
about movies that I love

for days, but Night of
the Living Dead, that

was in the '60s and the 1960s
when we were having the Civil

Rights struggle, which we
seem to be reliving now,

which is really crazy.

You would think that we would
have grown up more by now,

but apparently we don't
learn from the past.

I believe in 1968 was
when that movie came out.

The Civil Rights
struggle was going on,

and the lead of the
movie was a black man

who was not shy about
standing up for himself.

It is tough for the kid
that her old man is so stupid.

Now, you get the hell
down in the cellar.

You can be the boss down there.

I'm boss up here.

To see a black guy slap the
white guy around on screen back

then was sociologically
earth shattering.

It was amazing.

It was like Sidney Poitier
in The Heat of the Night.

If you really understand what
was going on in the United

States at the time that Night
of the Living Dead came out,

you'll realize what a bold
movie that really was.

George Romero came from a
documentary style background.

They made Night of the Living
Dead for literally no money.

At the time, a lot
of the directors

really had this unique
sort of Renegade spirit.

Between George and Tobe
Hooper and Wes Craven,

a lot of the filmmakers
at the time, horror

was very, very taboo.

George always
would claim that he

never really was trying to make
a statement, but he always did.

He was able to shine the
spotlight on specific elements

of what was relevant
during the day

without ever even realizing,
I think, that he had done it.

He cast Dawand Jones,
an African-American man,

and George would
always say, oh, he just

was the best actor which
is probably the case but

whether or not George meant
it, I always felt that maybe

in the back of his mind that
there was something there

because then from all of
his other subsequent movies

from that point on, there was
a strong African-American lead

and a female.

George liked pushing
the boundaries

and I think that's where
he had a kindred spirit

with Steve King.

He and Stephen met.

Steve being a fan of George's,
wanted to meet George.

I think it may have been
during Dawn of the Dead

that Steve and George
struck up a friendship,

and that carried
through into Knight

Riders and Knight Riders,
Stephen King has a cameo.

That's all.

They're like like
the wrestlers on TV.

You got the blood bag.

And I believe that it
was during Knight Riders

that they started
talking about EC Comics

and like wanting to
do a movie together

and it ended up being Creepshow.

Hey, buddy.

What the fuck happened?

Looks like a hit and run.

Yeah?

It's like a Black guy, huh?

The number one most
important thing about Creepshow

is every story had
a different tone.

One of them was funny.

The Jordy Verrill story
that Steve starred in

was very silly and
very outrageous.

And then you had the Crate
which was a straight horror.

And then you had things
like Father's Day.

I got my cake.

Every single
story was different.

So that was one
of the main things

that I took away from
Creepshow when I was younger

and what I wanted to instill
in the current iteration

of Creepshow which is you're
going on a different journey

every single time and it might
be fun, it might be scary,

it might be suspenseful,
it might be tense,

it might be ridiculous.

But no matter what,
every experience that

you go on in the
show, you're getting

a different vibe from it.

If there was one
of those stories that

really had a major
impact, it was probably

They're Creeping Up on You.

To live with cockroaches
for four or five weeks,

was a life changing experience.

We would find them on us
all the time no matter

how much we tried
to wrap ourselves up

and not take them home with us.

The roach wranglers...
that's what we called them,

roach wranglers... promised
us that they could actually

control the behavior
of the roaches

with certain Skinnerian
or Pavlovian tricks.

It's like no.

A roach does not take
direction, right?

So we had the big dump.

We had to dump all
the roaches and they

would scatter everywhere.

And if you've seen the movie,
you know that it's when

E.G. Marshall finally gets his.

So they said, well, how are
we going to prevent them

from getting out of here because
the set lights and no ceiling?

Oh, no, don't worry about it.

What we'll do is we'll put
Vaseline all around the top

of the set so that
when they scatter,

because they hate light,
they'll go up the walls,

they'll hit the Vaseline,
and they'll fall back down.

OK.

We'll take your word for it.

So the day comes, Vaseline
all around the top of the set,

dump the roaches into the
set and off they go right up

the wall over the Vaseline and
out into the rest of the world.

The Vaseline didn't work.

I don't know how
I came up with it.

There are times when I
wish I hadn't like now.

I'm sure some people
in the surrounding area

woke up with certain roaches
that they'd never seen before.

These were big fat
Trinidadian roaches,

and I think there are a few new
species in Western Pennsylvania

now.

It was an accident.

A legitimate accident.

So why should I fuck
up my life right?

How are you doing lady?

Thanks for the ride.

One of the things that
both Steve and George had

is the ability to mix the
humor with the horror.

Now of course Creepshow is
the perfect example of that.

That was kind of the beginning
of their working relationship,

and it was a very unique one
because King trusted George.

He trusted him
implicitly, and that

was something that back in the
day was very hard to come by.

So George was set to direct
Pet Sematary at one point,

and then of course,
George did the Dark Half

an he's collaborated with
Stephen King probably

as many times as Rob
Reiner or Frank Darabont

they had really very
successful collaborations.

But George always
was ahead of his time

very much like
Steve's writing was.

I think everybody
loves to be scared.

I think it's a way of
working things out.

I mean, after all, horror is
as ancient as human beings.

In all storytelling
and all cultures,

there is horror story.

Fairy tales were a way for
people to teach their children

about the real
world, but I think

a good horror movie allows us
to put some order to the chaos.

I'm interested in
fear because all my life

I've been a fearful person.

I've wasted so much
of my life being

afraid of imaginary things.

Afraid of not going to get that
job, afraid I'll lose the job I

have, afraid that I'm not
going to meet the girl

I love or she's going to
leave me once I do find her.

All those fears, none of them
has ever come true in my life,

but I had them anyway.

So I felt that's a
really interesting topic.

And that's what
this story in Cujo

gives me an opportunity to tell.

The dog becomes the metaphor for
the insanity that fear people.

You know, obviously, a
lot of it's about mortality.

A lot of it's about death.

A lot of it's about questions
of existence and meaning.

So undercover of
almost silliness,

you can tangle with some pretty
deep existential questions,

I think.

It's one of the
reasons, I think,

horror is super interesting.

I mean, on the one hand,
he's just incredibly creative

and has great concepts.

He can take something
like a killer car

and make it a very scary story.

But I think the thing that's
scarier about something

like Christine is the
journey that Arnie

Cunningham is going through.

You care more about that
car than you care about me.

Where really the car is just
a metaphor for the change.

He's going through being
bullied in high school

and, kind of, being
an outcast and then

trying to find his voice.

And I would say that's the
thing, for me, that makes

his work, so memorable, that
these stories don't leave

my brain is because
the people in them

and the journeys they
go through is always,

for me, more visceral
and stronger.

For me, that is always
more powerful than even

like supernatural aspects of it.

Decided to wake up and see
what home looks like, huh?

In our opinion, Pet Sematary
is one of the scariest things

he's ever done.

Ellie be careful.

Ellie.

Daddy!

He himself wrote
the book and then

was so disturbed by what he
did, he put it in a drawer

for like a year.

He knew he tapped into
something because he

had kids at that time.

You got it.

Gage is flying it.

You got it?

Can I fly it now?

In a minute, honey...

And I have a son now.

And so to me the thought of
anything happening to him

is the scariest thing I
could possibly imagine.

Don't let him go
on the road, Louise!

Get him, Louis!

Get the baby!

Get the baby!

More heart rendering
than parents who want

to bring their dead child back.

I should never have
shown you that place.

Your child is not the only
thing that will come back.

One of the great
themes of horror,

be careful what you wish for.

Did you weigh yourself?

297.

Billy, you were 297 last week.

It'll take some time
for these diets to work.

For Billy Hallock,
life is sweet.

I thought Thinner was a
terrific character study.

I thought it was elevated
from being pure horror.

I thought there was something
very human and very universal

about a fat man who wanted
desperately to lose weight

and finally had
his wish answered.

It's a universal theme.

If everybody isn't
trying to lose weight,

they know somebody who is.

Nobody is ever too
thin or too rich.

I cast Stephen in it, and
he was very good actually.

And he was sitting on
set waiting to be called

and he was reading
the Bangor newspaper.

And I looked over his shoulder
to see what he was reading

and Stephen King was
reading the obituaries

and which I thought
was very telling.

I think you'd better come
along with me, Reverend.

King is always
after deeper things.

He's willing to look
into the darkness

completely and
allow what emerges

and he's not interested
in shutting anything out.

It's an ass kicker, isn't it?

Is that for me?

I found some of
those original scripts

that he wrote for movies
back then that people, sort

of, crapped on at the time.

I think Silver Bullet's
actually really beautiful

and is a really great love story
about a brother and a sister

and a family and one of the
best uncles you could ever meet.

And a kid who's in a really
interesting situation where he

gave him almost a superpower.

He gave an identity and a voice
to people who had problems

that most fiction
would never touch,

for people with
disabilities, for people

with mental health issues.

I just think all that stuff,
he's been so brilliant at.

And some people look
back now, and it

might be dated but he broke new
ground really in a lot of ways.

He did it over the whole
course of his career

from African-Americans
back then who would never

be featured in a book in
that way where he had balls

and he did it.

He has empathy for everyone.

What I interpreted the film to
be about is about woundedness.

We all as human beings
carry some sort of wound.

What we are called upon to do
is to accept life, to embrace it

and to go forward.

And Corey just was a
kid who just seemed

like nothing could bother.

So I thought the werewolf was
a beautiful metaphor for what

human beings can
become if they can't

embrace their full nature.

But it's not my fault!

The reverend, he had
lustful impulses, for example.

Instead of being
able to accept them,

he suppressed them so
far below the surface

that they came out in
these monstrous ways.

Every single time Stephen
King created characters

that I could relate to.

He taps into his subconscious
and gets a truth that are not

necessarily apparent
to everybody

else, about where we are
as a country and a culture.

Stephen King has such
an incalculable reach

on popular culture in
ways that I don't think

can ever be measured.

He's the guy who married
American pop culture to horror.

Great stories translate
from page to celluloid

and there's so many references.

Everywhere you look there's
Stephen King references.

Have gun will
travel reads the card of a man.

I've heard people refer
to big dogs as Cujo.

Down, Cujo.

So it's fun to have worked
on a film, the title of which

has entered the language
as big dangerous dog.

He's been such a
mirror for pop culture,

but now he is his
own pop culture.

Stephen King helped
define so many of what

now are cliches and tropes
of the cinematic world.

You see it parodied even.

That's when you, kind of, know
you've done something special

whether in literature
or in filmmaking or both

in this case with Stephen
King and adaptations.

Oh, come on.

Films like Shawshank
Redemption, that classic

narration by Morgan Freeman.

It is used as a trope
now, as a cliche.

It did feel like a prison, and
that meant only one thing made

sense conceptually,
we had to break out

and someone with the
gravitas of Morgan Freeman

had to narrate it.

The same thing can be
said for The Shining.

Like that film in itself
is now like almost

in its entirety as a trope.

I had a couple of people that
actually worked on The Shining

working 1408 and both films
being about writers in hotel

rooms and so on, which was to
me kind of cool and inspiring

being at the same studio
where the great Kubrick shot

this great movie.

In the end of the film,
the hotel room is on fire.

The fire guys is coming
to break down the door

and to get Ensline
out of the room.

And the prop guy came up to me
just before we shot the scene

and said I worked on
The Shining as well.

And, this is actually the ax
that we used in The Shining.

The famous ax that
Jack Nicholson

have when he breaks
down the door.

And I was thinking maybe you
want to use it for this scene,

and I was like
fantastic, absolutely.

So I gave the ax to the fire
guy who breaks down the door

and helps out Enslin
from the hotel room.

And nobody knows that obviously.

Now you know it
but it's a secret,

but that's Nicholson's ax, and
to me, that was a cool detail.

You can see The Shining in just

about every successful horror
film made in the last 25 years.

And sometimes in the
tiniest little ways.

But I think we filmmakers
want to express our love

for that material and
so it feeds itself,

and then that becomes this
kind of self-perpetuating cycle

of references, homage
and celebration.

When I read Doctor
Sleep as a fan of Kubrick

and as a fan of King, I was
fascinated by the tug of war

that was happening internally.

I'm reading this great story,
but all of the visual language

in my brain is Kubrick's.

It just is.

Danny!

Danny boy!

No, doc.

You can put things
from the overlook

away in boxes, but not memories.

Never those.

They are the real ghosts.

I had a fateful meeting with
John Berg at Warner Brothers

and he was a Stephen
King fan and I

had just finished Gerald's Game
and no one had seen it yet.

And he asked how it went and he
was like, that's a crazy one.

Hard one to crack.

And I said, yep, it was
really it was really difficult

but I think we
might have done it.

And he said, we have one
that's really hard to crack.

Have you ever read Doctor Sleep?

And I was like, yes.

And he said out of curiosity,
what would you recommend?

And the pitch I gave him was...

I was like I think what
you do is you stay as

close to the book as you
can for the first two thirds

but you have to
assume that story

takes place in the established
Kubrick cinematic universe.

It's too well known.

It's too iconic.

If you try to come off
of it, it'll backfire.

Mike Flanagan really had to
walk the tightrope because he

knew that King was not a
fan of the Kubrick film,

but he also knew
that most audiences

know The Shining
from the Kubrick film

and not from the book.

What if you could take Stephen
King's Shining and Stanley

Kubrick's Shining and what if
you could just kind of Parent

Trap them back together?

Is it possible?

I decided, going
into it, that if King

didn't like anything
that was up to,

that I wouldn't do the movie.

His initial answer to the idea
of using the Kubrick canon

was no.

He didn't want to do
it, but wanted to have

a creative conversation.

The pitch that I made
was all about one scene.

I said, if you can just
imagine Dan goes back

into the condemned overlook
and it's all dormant,

it's all asleep, and
he has to wake it up

and he makes it to the
gold room, and at the bar

is a glass waiting for
him, because Dan is eight

years sober at that point.

There's a man in the familiar
Kubrick red tuxedo pouring

the whiskey for Dan and imagine
that, that man is his father,

and the two of them have a
conversation about alcohol.

That was what turned him around.

This is the medicine.

So tell me, pup, are you
going to take your medicine?

I'm not.

Adaptation is
complicated, because very

bold choices have to be made.

There's no way you can
translate 600 pages of a book

into a screenplay
and keep everything.

Rewrite Stephen King,
it really doesn't make

sense when you think about it.

Why do a Stephen
King movie and not

to have Stephen King's story?

Why buy a book if you're
not going to follow it?

It's always about what you
don't do, what you can't do.

You have to have a
strategy about what

you're not going to do.

So I come to it
as a reader, and I

want to recreate the
experience that the reader

has, the emotional experience,
not the plot detail.

Stephen had a very cool
phrase when people would

say, well, what do
you think of what

they've done to your books?

And he'd say, well, what
do you mean what have

they done to you to my books?

Well, look at the bookshelf.

My books are all there.

Nobody's done
anything to my books.

So I think he has a really
great attitude about how

his books are adapted.

A novel is not a film.

It isn't.

Sometimes it's working with
the dialogue in the head

or narration or all the things.

You've got to make a film that
an audience can look at, find

themselves in and
at the same time,

be true to the original story.

That calls for the
actual term adaptation.

And I think that you have to
be bold in the sense of staying

true to material, but also
being bold about adapting it

so that it fits on the
screen not on the page.

Movies are what you
see and what you hear,

but as Hitchcock said, they're
called moving pictures,

not talking pictures.

Movies are still
a visual medium.

Writing a screenplay is
a very interesting process.

It's half mechanics
and half poetry.

When you're adapting
a great author,

if the story is excellent,
what you're trying to do

is capture the essence of it,
if you're changing certain facts

and you moving the
plugs around and sawing

the wood a little
bit differently,

it still feels like
they experienced

the same emotions and the
same story by the end of it.

Everybody has their own
way to approach material,

but it doesn't matter whether
it's Stephen King or not,

but the thing about Stephen
King it usually works

really well for the screen.

The reason any filmmaker
wants to adapt Stephen King

is the material is so good.

He's all about character,
all about story

and where he keeps coming up
with these, I have no idea.

The man is so prolific.

I can't believe how much he's
written, how much he's produced

and how good it is.

I don't know where
that comes from.

Nobody does otherwise they'd
bottle it up and sell it.

He believes that these
stories already exist.

They're already
out there, and he

says it all the time because
people think he's joking.

He's not joking.

This is what he believes that
the stories are just out there

and he's just like an
archaeologist just digging

around until he finds
something, and then

he just starts excavating
it, extracting it and pulling

from it and revealing it.

Michelangelo the
great sculptor he

said something extremely similar
that every block of marble

has the masterpiece in it.

He takes a big idea, and
he turns it and he turns it,

and he turns it, and that's why
the book keeps going and going

and going because he keeps
taking this one idea,

and he doesn't stick with
what it meant on chapter 1.

Stephen also has a
great look which helps.

To look like who you are.

I think that he looks
like who he is and a lot.

So the second you see
him, he could only be him.

It's a very admirable
quality, I think,

to look like who you are.

I wouldn't go out
there if I were you.

I think I'll be all right.

Told you.

They never listen.

But of course, It Chapter
Two, Doctor Sleep, The Stand.

The Outsider on HBO
starts in January.

And then you're working on
something with J.J. Abrams too.

No, wait, I'm not done.

I would guess that he's
as shocked as everybody

else about this resurgence.

Mr. Mercedes starts
tonight on DirecTV.

I'm not really
sure what happened,

but there we were
just smack bang

in the middle of the... as I
call it, the King nascent.

Like it was an explosion and
then the rest is history.

Suddenly every studio
that had a Stephen

King property sitting
on their shelf,

they wanted to get it made.

We sort of like tentatively
raised our hand.

A movie that we would
have done for free.

It was just something
indelible in our childhood.

Some of the series have
been inspired by his work.

Stranger Things, which kind
of sounds like Needful Things.

Certainly you have to give
Stephen a big nod of thanks

for, sort of,
inventing the weird

'80s supernatural adventure
story that often stars kids.

The way digital technology has
improved over the last decade

has made it easier
and easier for people

to realize, in a fairly
realistic way, some

of the more spectacular
things that Stephen

King has been writing about.

I love that he'll go
out and do anything.

As I said, you could
give him an orange

and he could write
a novel about it.

He wrote about the
Kennedy assassination

and time travel and basically
anything he wants to.

He's a writer that
knows no bounds.

Cable and streaming have
really helped that along.

TV matured to the point
where TV can be novelistic.

Sitting down in front
of the television

and being able to watch 10
or 12 hours of a great story.

It's wonderful.

It didn't exist
not that long ago.

I think the other reason that
he's timeless is because he's

also completely contemporary.

He's not a novelist who takes
10 years to write a book.

He's writing, he's writing,
he's writing, he's writing,

and speed, I think,
gives him this...

he's alive in the moment.

Different generation
of directors

and different approaches but
still the essence of Stephen

King's work is in there.

He shows us a mirror of
where we are as people.

And even though the symptoms
of how we behave change

as the ages change
and the years go by,

he keeps his basic
humanity in his stories.

His stuff doesn't really age.

Like he was writing
about the darkness that

lurks in the heart of
America, and that darkness

sadly has not dissipated.

His stories are about
the human condition.

So it doesn't matter
whether you're my age,

those themes resonate
and every generation

can find those themes.

And within that
we find deep truths

that we didn't see
before that are

things we need to know about
what's happening right now.

I think that's his genius.

Stephen King is just one of
the rare careers I don't think

anyone's going to
ever come along

again that has this kind of
body of work and still continue.

I think he's like a clown car.

This is your 61st book.

Do you have a target number
of books you're going for?

Is there a certain point
at which you will stop?

Is retirement in any
way an option for you?

God will tell me when to retire.

He'll say get out of the game,
hang up your jock, you're done.