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To fight
the virus, Captain Trip,
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00:00:48,047 --> 00:00:51,565
there is nothing better
than Weinbaum's Laboratory.
3
00:00:59,255 --> 00:01:00,703
News flash.
4
00:01:00,704 --> 00:01:03,394
An explosion at Dairy College
took place this afternoon.
5
00:01:03,497 --> 00:01:05,325
It's believed to be
due to a gas leak.
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00:01:05,428 --> 00:01:07,256
Four people are reportedly dead.
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00:01:33,294 --> 00:01:37,191
Inequity, and in sin
my mother conceived me.
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00:01:37,295 --> 00:01:40,950
Behold, thou desirest
truth in the inward parts
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and in the hidden part thou
shalt make me to know wisdom.
10
00:01:46,951 --> 00:01:49,227
Hey, how can I help you?
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00:01:49,330 --> 00:01:51,537
Can I have a green tea, please?
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00:01:51,538 --> 00:01:52,814
Sure.
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00:01:52,917 --> 00:01:53,745
Thanks.
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00:02:10,954 --> 00:02:12,540
If you're going to Cousin Town,
15
00:02:12,541 --> 00:02:14,955
you should take the shortcut.
16
00:02:15,093 --> 00:02:17,712
It's just the
first exit up I-95.
17
00:02:17,713 --> 00:02:19,885
Once you see the black
house hang a left.
18
00:02:19,886 --> 00:02:21,265
You'll be there in no time.
19
00:02:31,750 --> 00:02:34,406
Breaking news just in.
20
00:02:34,509 --> 00:02:37,060
A state prisoner
escaped this morning.
21
00:02:37,164 --> 00:02:39,268
Maybe with the help of others.
22
00:02:39,371 --> 00:02:42,614
We advise all citizens
to remain vigilant.
23
00:03:42,931 --> 00:03:47,207
Welcome to the Running Man!
24
00:03:55,623 --> 00:03:59,347
Tonight, he's in
Hardin, Tomorrow
25
00:03:59,451 --> 00:04:05,796
in New York, Boise,
Albuquerque, Columbus,
26
00:04:05,934 --> 00:04:09,763
skulking outside your home.
27
00:04:09,865 --> 00:04:14,866
Will you report him?
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00:04:14,970 --> 00:04:20,626
Run, run, run, run, run,
run, run, run, run, run.
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00:04:20,764 --> 00:04:23,040
Run for...
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00:04:25,109 --> 00:04:26,281
Cujo.
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00:04:59,079 --> 00:05:00,561
How many times do
I have to tell you
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00:05:00,562 --> 00:05:03,286
you're going to fry your
brain using that thing?
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00:05:13,287 --> 00:05:16,288
Have you seen the Reverend
George Winston lately?
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00:05:22,634 --> 00:05:29,807
Ever since his wife died,
he hasn't been the same.
35
00:05:29,945 --> 00:05:34,532
I heard he stayed with
the body for five days
36
00:05:34,636 --> 00:05:36,808
before calling a mortician.
37
00:05:46,051 --> 00:05:47,947
Richie.
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00:05:48,051 --> 00:05:50,809
I'll have the... a lucky devil.
39
00:05:50,947 --> 00:05:57,190
Did you hear Brenda won
$2,700 last time she played?
40
00:05:57,293 --> 00:06:02,604
And... ooh, give me a...
41
00:06:05,260 --> 00:06:06,605
an American Grain.
42
00:06:16,364 --> 00:06:17,399
Thanks, Richie.
43
00:06:25,711 --> 00:06:28,090
Say hi to Miss Sidley
for me, will you?
44
00:06:28,194 --> 00:06:30,366
Will do, Willy Wilmington.
45
00:06:36,712 --> 00:06:37,850
Hi, Nona.
46
00:06:37,953 --> 00:06:39,816
How can I help you?
47
00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:42,265
It escaped again.
48
00:06:42,367 --> 00:06:44,265
I hope it behaved well.
49
00:06:44,368 --> 00:06:46,679
Picture perfect.
50
00:06:46,783 --> 00:06:47,955
Nice.
51
00:06:48,092 --> 00:06:49,368
Did you take the shortcut?
52
00:06:52,128 --> 00:06:53,817
You've done well.
53
00:06:53,921 --> 00:06:54,818
Take it to the master.
54
00:06:54,921 --> 00:06:55,715
He's in the back.
55
00:07:11,130 --> 00:07:13,131
Everybody who hasn't read
a Stephen King could've still
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00:07:13,233 --> 00:07:14,648
seen a Stephen King movie.
57
00:07:14,786 --> 00:07:17,579
The Stand, The Dead
Zone or Cujo or...
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00:07:17,580 --> 00:07:19,407
Shawshank Redemption,
The Green Mile.
59
00:07:19,511 --> 00:07:22,959
I mean, all the Frank Darabont
ones, all the Rob Reiner ones.
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00:07:23,063 --> 00:07:23,959
Stand by Me...
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00:07:24,063 --> 00:07:25,096
I thought it was terrific.
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00:07:25,097 --> 00:07:26,477
Christine was such a good film,
63
00:07:26,615 --> 00:07:28,201
and Carrie was such a good film.
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00:07:28,304 --> 00:07:30,512
It completely traumatized me.
65
00:07:30,650 --> 00:07:33,063
Cat's Eye and Silver Bullet
are two of my very favorites.
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00:07:33,064 --> 00:07:34,408
I adored them.
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00:07:34,409 --> 00:07:37,789
Creepshow had a massive
impact, and it's unique
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00:07:37,927 --> 00:07:38,996
and it's stylized.
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00:07:39,099 --> 00:07:41,134
Dolores Claiborne
was really good.
70
00:07:41,237 --> 00:07:42,652
And 1408.
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00:07:42,790 --> 00:07:44,306
It's just such a descent into
madness that in that movie
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almost anything could
happen at any moment.
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00:07:46,273 --> 00:07:48,204
Mick Garris did The Stand.
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00:07:48,307 --> 00:07:50,237
Misery is one of my favorites.
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00:07:50,238 --> 00:07:52,204
Pet Sematary is a great movie.
76
00:07:52,307 --> 00:07:53,722
I love what he does
with characters.
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00:07:53,825 --> 00:07:57,067
The Dark Half obviously
was one that was successful.
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00:07:57,170 --> 00:07:59,619
Shining is pretty
hard to get past.
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00:07:59,723 --> 00:08:02,756
Let's face it.
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00:08:02,757 --> 00:08:05,551
A lot of people came to his
work because of the movies.
81
00:08:05,655 --> 00:08:07,137
They probably started
with the movies
82
00:08:07,275 --> 00:08:09,448
and then discovered the books.
83
00:08:13,621 --> 00:08:15,966
It all started with Carrie.
84
00:08:17,587 --> 00:08:22,553
It was the movie that really
brought a lot of attention
85
00:08:22,657 --> 00:08:23,657
to Steve's work.
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00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:25,829
You couldn't miss Carrie, which
87
00:08:25,967 --> 00:08:29,071
I remember seeing the movie
before I had read the book.
88
00:08:29,174 --> 00:08:31,658
The book was not
well known until De
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00:08:31,761 --> 00:08:34,761
Palma's movie came out,
and the movie blew me away.
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00:08:34,865 --> 00:08:36,831
It was so great.
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00:08:36,968 --> 00:08:39,831
I think that's the first
time I became aware of who
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00:08:39,935 --> 00:08:41,452
he was back in 1976.
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00:08:41,555 --> 00:08:43,624
I was just struck by the story.
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00:08:43,625 --> 00:08:47,522
This character's journey and
like what she is going through
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00:08:47,660 --> 00:08:50,592
with her mom and the bullying
at school and then the powers
96
00:08:50,694 --> 00:08:53,937
that she gets and how it works
as a metaphor for her entrance
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00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:55,006
into womanhood.
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00:08:55,109 --> 00:08:57,316
It really does that perfectly.
99
00:08:57,420 --> 00:09:01,558
Watching the whole
transition of Carrie,
100
00:09:01,662 --> 00:09:03,145
it was like Jekyll and Hyde.
101
00:09:03,247 --> 00:09:06,937
King seemed to really bring
that in there too, that ability
102
00:09:06,938 --> 00:09:10,214
people have to just have this
metamorphosis into something
103
00:09:10,317 --> 00:09:12,594
that just wants to harm you.
104
00:09:15,767 --> 00:09:18,836
From the way Brian De
Palma uses the split screen
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00:09:18,974 --> 00:09:21,836
in the prom, to the car flipping
over when they're trying,
106
00:09:21,940 --> 00:09:24,492
to run her down on the road,
to the whole ending sequence
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00:09:24,630 --> 00:09:26,665
with the mom and the house
getting kind of crucified
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00:09:26,803 --> 00:09:28,975
to the door, the knives
thrown in her too,
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00:09:29,079 --> 00:09:32,976
that final jump scare moment,
which shows that jump scare
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isn't always a dirty word.
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00:09:37,321 --> 00:09:39,425
Carrie wasn't really scary.
112
00:09:39,529 --> 00:09:42,252
You just seeing her burn
everything down at the end.
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You're watching it,
and it's thrilling.
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I think it's more of a
thriller than a horror picture.
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To me, as in much of
Stephen King's work,
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Carrie is not just
a horror film.
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It's come to be a horror
film because of the way
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that it was first treated,
but the way it's written,
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it sort of has a string going
through Stephen King's work.
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00:10:01,738 --> 00:10:04,635
When folks hear Stephen King,
most of the time, especially
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00:10:04,739 --> 00:10:07,015
those who aren't super
accustomed or knowledgeable
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00:10:07,153 --> 00:10:12,671
of his work, they think oh, the
horror guy, which is not true.
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Stephen King
writes human beings,
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00:10:16,119 --> 00:10:19,430
and then he puts
them in incredibly
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00:10:19,534 --> 00:10:23,602
pressured, difficult, sometimes
phantasmagorical situations.
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00:10:23,603 --> 00:10:26,120
You know, you're dealing
with characters who are just so
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interesting and so fascinating.
128
00:10:27,811 --> 00:10:31,328
Like he really knows how to
explore it through characters
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00:10:31,467 --> 00:10:32,742
that you give a shit about.
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00:10:32,845 --> 00:10:35,328
Much of Stephen
King's work seems to be
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00:10:35,467 --> 00:10:38,295
about how we treat each other.
132
00:10:40,846 --> 00:10:47,020
There was no real horror
genre in movies until Psycho.
133
00:10:47,158 --> 00:10:51,503
Psycho brought that open and
then there were a huge number
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00:10:51,607 --> 00:10:53,159
of people who followed it.
135
00:10:53,261 --> 00:10:56,677
You know, we went through the
'50s where we had great sci-fi
136
00:10:56,814 --> 00:11:00,987
horror movies that were all
about the strangeness of things
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00:11:01,091 --> 00:11:02,229
that could happen to us.
138
00:11:02,332 --> 00:11:04,367
The horror that
existed in the story
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00:11:04,471 --> 00:11:07,125
was really all about, oh,
that's a great monster
140
00:11:07,229 --> 00:11:09,230
or that's a scary situation.
141
00:11:09,332 --> 00:11:11,506
When Steve came
along in the '70s,
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00:11:11,609 --> 00:11:15,471
it was all about how people
were affected by what happened,
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00:11:15,472 --> 00:11:19,851
and I think that he's changed
horror and genre movie
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00:11:19,955 --> 00:11:21,818
making just by that alone.
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00:11:26,128 --> 00:11:29,474
He made it real
for so many people
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00:11:29,577 --> 00:11:31,853
because he put brand names in.
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00:11:31,957 --> 00:11:34,681
All of a sudden you had people
eating food that you ate
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00:11:34,819 --> 00:11:38,336
or using detergent that you
used in your dishwasher.
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00:11:38,475 --> 00:11:41,784
It became very American
and very recognizable.
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00:11:41,785 --> 00:11:46,752
And he also spread the
word to a huge swath
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00:11:46,855 --> 00:11:48,510
of the American public.
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00:11:48,614 --> 00:11:50,303
You could say it's
in the middle class.
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00:11:50,304 --> 00:11:53,268
And doing it in a way that
is without pretense, that
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speaks to the common
people, is for
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00:11:57,167 --> 00:11:58,269
and about the common people.
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00:11:58,270 --> 00:11:59,856
He loves common people.
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00:11:59,960 --> 00:12:03,615
He loves folksy people, and
he's got that dialogue down pat.
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00:12:03,616 --> 00:12:05,305
He doesn't condescend to them.
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00:12:05,306 --> 00:12:07,409
He doesn't condescend
to middle Americans.
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And I think that's important.
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00:12:09,133 --> 00:12:11,202
In many ways, he is
a man of the people.
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Instead of setting
everything in big cities,
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he chooses locations
and environments that
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are identifiable for everybody.
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00:12:20,273 --> 00:12:22,411
You could make
name Pennsylvania,
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00:12:22,515 --> 00:12:24,688
you could make Maine the
countryside of France,
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00:12:24,826 --> 00:12:27,515
you could make name a
lot of different places
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because we all have
places like that.
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00:12:30,274 --> 00:12:33,135
We all have small
towns and communities
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00:12:33,136 --> 00:12:35,654
and it allows the people
and the characters
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00:12:35,758 --> 00:12:39,861
to emerge as opposed to
being overwhelmed by, say,
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00:12:39,965 --> 00:12:41,206
a New York City environment.
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00:12:41,310 --> 00:12:43,035
Stephen King's
identity is wrapped
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up in almost small town horror.
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It's much more
relatable than, you know,
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castle in Transylvania.
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That's not what he does.
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That can be scary too but
that's not what he does
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and I think the thing about
these small American towns
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is so interesting because
it's not what you expect.
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I think he is so deeply an
American writer and writing
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00:13:06,451 --> 00:13:09,865
about America and the
darkness that lurks
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00:13:10,003 --> 00:13:11,624
within the heart of America.
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00:13:11,625 --> 00:13:16,039
He just has that gift to
kind of tap into what we all
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can relate to and
connect to and it
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00:13:18,108 --> 00:13:19,969
always feels sort
of present time,
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even if it's a period thing.
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00:13:21,177 --> 00:13:22,418
It always feels like America.
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00:13:22,522 --> 00:13:26,315
It's very kind of
Norman Rockwell Americana.
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00:13:26,316 --> 00:13:29,178
It's an idealized
America, but then it's
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ripped apart and sent to hell.
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00:13:31,937 --> 00:13:34,179
No, please no!
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It completely traumatized me.
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00:13:36,800 --> 00:13:39,593
My parents had refused to
let me watch the miniseries,
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00:13:39,697 --> 00:13:41,490
and so I would watch
it at a friend's house
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00:13:41,491 --> 00:13:46,525
when I was way too young really
to discover Stephen King.
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00:13:46,629 --> 00:13:49,699
Hi, Ben.
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00:13:49,836 --> 00:13:50,595
Want a balloon.
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00:13:50,699 --> 00:13:51,699
Ben?
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00:13:51,802 --> 00:13:54,940
It was all over the
airwaves in Australia
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when it first came out,
and that just terrified me.
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00:13:58,527 --> 00:14:00,872
Me and my friends, we
had a video camera.
203
00:14:00,976 --> 00:14:02,802
We'd recreate scenes from It.
204
00:14:02,803 --> 00:14:05,631
It was just an obsession.
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00:14:05,632 --> 00:14:09,528
One of the first movies that
I ever made with my friends
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00:14:09,666 --> 00:14:13,184
in the back yard was an
adaptation of It actually.
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00:14:13,322 --> 00:14:15,356
When I was in seventh grade.
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00:14:15,460 --> 00:14:17,494
Horror movies in
particular were always
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00:14:17,495 --> 00:14:21,496
kind of what I was drawn to
and terrified of as a viewer.
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00:14:21,599 --> 00:14:25,151
When Tim Curry first
appears down in the drain...
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00:14:25,255 --> 00:14:26,703
Aren't you going to say...
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00:14:26,806 --> 00:14:31,911
As a 11-year-old boy, there
was nothing more terrifying.
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00:14:32,014 --> 00:14:35,256
Oh, come on, bucko.
214
00:14:35,359 --> 00:14:37,118
Don't you want a balloon?
215
00:14:37,221 --> 00:14:39,290
Tim Curry's
performance as Pennywise
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00:14:39,394 --> 00:14:43,084
is the ultimate terrifying
performance because he
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00:14:43,188 --> 00:14:44,671
plays it like a clown.
218
00:14:44,774 --> 00:14:46,636
He doesn't play
it like a monster.
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00:14:46,637 --> 00:14:48,360
He plays it like
a birthday clown,
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00:14:48,499 --> 00:14:50,533
and that is so terrifying to me.
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00:14:50,637 --> 00:14:54,327
I do have to this day a
fear of clowns and Tim Curry
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00:14:54,430 --> 00:14:56,052
in It is the reason for that.
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00:14:56,155 --> 00:14:58,879
Basically every time
Pennywise appears in that movie,
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00:14:58,983 --> 00:15:02,052
it is truly terrifying to a kid.
225
00:15:02,155 --> 00:15:06,570
I was so traumatized by
trying to watch horror films,
226
00:15:06,708 --> 00:15:10,881
but so interested in horror
that I decided to switch over
227
00:15:10,985 --> 00:15:13,640
to books and the very
first book I picked up
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00:15:13,743 --> 00:15:18,882
when I was like 10 years old was
It and that was a huge mistake.
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00:15:18,986 --> 00:15:22,951
I found myself in this really
intense conflicted situation
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00:15:23,055 --> 00:15:25,642
where I didn't want to
keep reading because I
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00:15:25,745 --> 00:15:30,711
was so frightened, and because I
was having horrible nightmares.
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00:15:30,849 --> 00:15:33,056
But I cared so much
about the losers club,
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00:15:33,159 --> 00:15:35,953
I cared so much about these
beautifully rendered characters
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00:15:36,057 --> 00:15:37,195
that I had to keep reading.
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00:15:37,333 --> 00:15:39,125
It's basically piss and shit.
236
00:15:39,126 --> 00:15:40,540
So I'm just telling...
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00:15:40,644 --> 00:15:44,782
By the end of it, I
realized that he had created
238
00:15:44,885 --> 00:15:49,368
an opportunity for me to
learn how to be braver
239
00:15:49,472 --> 00:15:53,438
in very small increments
just to finish a chapter
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00:15:53,541 --> 00:15:55,266
or eventually to
finish the book.
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00:15:55,369 --> 00:15:57,956
And that became a
muscle that I would
242
00:15:58,060 --> 00:16:00,438
try to exercise as I got
older and what I think
243
00:16:00,542 --> 00:16:01,887
really horror is all about.
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00:16:01,991 --> 00:16:04,716
It's exercise for
courage in the same way
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00:16:04,854 --> 00:16:08,268
that we'd go to the gym to try
to get stronger physically.
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00:16:08,371 --> 00:16:11,026
Horror movies and
horror stories can
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00:16:11,130 --> 00:16:16,027
help us practice being brave
for a very short amount of time
248
00:16:16,165 --> 00:16:17,786
in a completely safe space.
249
00:16:17,889 --> 00:16:21,683
That journey started
with It for me,
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00:16:21,787 --> 00:16:24,718
but carried me very
quickly through all
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00:16:24,856 --> 00:16:27,304
of the available
works by Stephen King
252
00:16:27,408 --> 00:16:30,960
and he almost immediately
became my hero.
253
00:16:31,064 --> 00:16:32,960
When I hear stories
about other people talking
254
00:16:33,064 --> 00:16:35,064
about their first
encounter with Stephen King
255
00:16:35,167 --> 00:16:36,684
it was usually in childhood.
256
00:16:36,685 --> 00:16:40,134
Certain works of art that you
experience as a child imprint
257
00:16:40,237 --> 00:16:43,065
on you in a way that
I don't think they
258
00:16:43,203 --> 00:16:46,823
can when you're an adult.
And I am of a very particular
259
00:16:46,824 --> 00:16:50,307
generation, that first
generation of kids that were
260
00:16:50,411 --> 00:16:53,860
exposed to Stephen King
and it unquestionably
261
00:16:53,963 --> 00:16:55,411
left an indelible mark.
262
00:16:55,549 --> 00:16:59,377
Early 1980s, My dad had a
giant library in our house
263
00:16:59,516 --> 00:17:01,068
and on the very
bottom shelf he had
264
00:17:01,170 --> 00:17:02,550
a couple of Stephen King books.
265
00:17:02,654 --> 00:17:04,792
He had the paperbacks of
Carrie, he had the 'Salem's Lot
266
00:17:04,895 --> 00:17:07,482
paperback that had pictures
from the Tobe Hooper miniseries
267
00:17:07,586 --> 00:17:09,551
in the middle, so you
could see Barlow like right
268
00:17:09,655 --> 00:17:11,069
before he was going
to get staked.
269
00:17:11,172 --> 00:17:14,999
And so I knew the logo for
Stephen King's name on books
270
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:16,310
before I could even read.
271
00:17:16,414 --> 00:17:17,827
Stephen King was a big
part of my childhood
272
00:17:17,828 --> 00:17:19,552
and I think a lot of
people's childhoods
273
00:17:19,656 --> 00:17:20,725
in the 1980s and the 1990s.
274
00:17:20,828 --> 00:17:22,726
I think kids flocked
to Stephen King
275
00:17:22,829 --> 00:17:25,966
because he wrote true,
authentic teenage characters
276
00:17:25,967 --> 00:17:27,518
and kid characters.
277
00:17:27,519 --> 00:17:29,554
And if he got you when you
were young, he had for life.
278
00:17:29,658 --> 00:17:31,347
Tweet, tweet.
279
00:17:31,450 --> 00:17:33,657
He rocks in the
treetop all day long.
280
00:17:33,658 --> 00:17:36,521
Hoppin' and a-boppin'
and a-singing his song.
281
00:17:36,624 --> 00:17:39,382
All the little birds
on Jaybird Street
282
00:17:39,486 --> 00:17:42,038
love to hear the Robin
go tweet, tweet, tweet.
283
00:17:42,142 --> 00:17:43,555
Rockin' robin...
284
00:17:43,659 --> 00:17:45,729
One of the other ones that
really had an impact on me
285
00:17:45,831 --> 00:17:47,003
was Stand by Me.
286
00:17:47,004 --> 00:17:49,556
When I first saw it, I didn't
connect to Stephen King.
287
00:17:49,660 --> 00:17:52,729
I thought it was a wonderful
drama about coming of age
288
00:17:52,867 --> 00:17:55,902
and at the end of the film when
Stephen King's name came up,
289
00:17:56,006 --> 00:17:59,695
I remember being shocked that
someone who I associated so
290
00:17:59,799 --> 00:18:02,972
much with horror was
capable of creating
291
00:18:03,075 --> 00:18:03,972
something so beautiful.
292
00:18:04,076 --> 00:18:05,833
Stand by Me I grew up with.
293
00:18:05,834 --> 00:18:08,524
My best friend, and I
would leave our homes
294
00:18:08,525 --> 00:18:10,732
to go try to go on a
journey to find a dead body
295
00:18:10,870 --> 00:18:12,386
and try to find train
tracks, and we'd
296
00:18:12,525 --> 00:18:15,042
go down ditches all
day and be like we're
297
00:18:15,180 --> 00:18:16,387
going to go find the body.
298
00:18:16,526 --> 00:18:19,835
And, you know, we wished
we were in that movie.
299
00:18:19,836 --> 00:18:22,457
So that was really
a touchstone movie
300
00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:24,457
that to me when I think
about Stephen King,
301
00:18:24,561 --> 00:18:26,250
I don't ever think about horror.
302
00:18:26,388 --> 00:18:28,527
I always think about how
I felt when I read it
303
00:18:28,630 --> 00:18:30,734
or the feelings it gave
me and the characters.
304
00:18:30,872 --> 00:18:33,079
And when I think of my
favorite Stephen King movies,
305
00:18:33,217 --> 00:18:35,942
I think of Stand by Me and
the Shawshank Redemption.
306
00:18:42,908 --> 00:18:47,391
I remember seeing Stand by Me
and was just so taken with it.
307
00:18:47,495 --> 00:18:48,977
I just loved it so much.
308
00:18:49,081 --> 00:18:52,978
In fact, it's because of Stand
by Me that I took Shawshank,
309
00:18:53,082 --> 00:18:56,840
the script, to Castle Rock
because of Stand by Me
310
00:18:56,841 --> 00:18:59,184
I felt that Castle Rock
would really understand
311
00:18:59,185 --> 00:19:02,117
the movie I was trying
to make and happily
312
00:19:02,221 --> 00:19:03,704
that's exactly what happened.
313
00:19:03,807 --> 00:19:05,566
I remember, in fact, being on
the set of Nightmare on Elm
314
00:19:05,704 --> 00:19:08,566
Street 3 one night
going hmm, should I
315
00:19:08,670 --> 00:19:14,740
ask Steve for the rights
to Shawshank or the Mist?
316
00:19:14,843 --> 00:19:16,740
I finally went for
Shawshank because it
317
00:19:16,878 --> 00:19:22,017
was so character based,
and Stephen King said yes.
318
00:19:44,053 --> 00:19:45,674
Shawshank is different.
319
00:19:45,675 --> 00:19:49,158
That's about redemption,
that's about humanity, that's
320
00:19:49,261 --> 00:19:52,538
about a man falsely imprisoned
and trying to learn how to deal
321
00:19:52,641 --> 00:19:54,227
with it and not go crazy.
322
00:19:54,330 --> 00:19:57,400
It's what it makes you
feel for the people,
323
00:19:57,539 --> 00:19:59,746
it's the heart
that it has in it.
324
00:19:59,884 --> 00:20:02,848
You immediately
fall in love with Red.
325
00:20:02,849 --> 00:20:05,746
He's just this awesome
character that you
326
00:20:05,849 --> 00:20:08,056
would love just to
listen to and watch
327
00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:09,436
for the entirety of the film.
328
00:20:09,540 --> 00:20:12,230
And of course, the main
character Andy as well.
329
00:20:12,333 --> 00:20:15,678
Inasmuch as the Shining
means to horror fans,
330
00:20:15,679 --> 00:20:17,712
the Shawshank
Redemption means a lot
331
00:20:17,713 --> 00:20:20,748
to fans that are looking for
some kind of hope in the world,
332
00:20:20,886 --> 00:20:24,162
that their lives can improve
no matter how bad they get.
333
00:20:24,265 --> 00:20:26,232
Well, it took five years for me
334
00:20:26,334 --> 00:20:29,507
to actually get around
to writing the script
335
00:20:29,508 --> 00:20:31,612
after Steve gave me the rights.
336
00:20:31,750 --> 00:20:36,544
I know I had a certain ambition
for the creative aspect of what
337
00:20:36,646 --> 00:20:38,405
I wanted that script to
be and I didn't think
338
00:20:38,544 --> 00:20:40,370
I was a good enough writer yet.
339
00:20:40,371 --> 00:20:42,371
That's another thing I
have to thank Stephen King
340
00:20:42,474 --> 00:20:44,613
for, his patience.
341
00:20:44,716 --> 00:20:46,923
Every once in a while, I would
let him know that I still
342
00:20:47,027 --> 00:20:49,579
wanted to do it and finally,
one day, I felt ready,
343
00:20:49,683 --> 00:20:52,200
and I wrote it in eight
weeks sent it to Castle Rock.
344
00:20:52,304 --> 00:20:53,854
Castle Rock came back to me...
345
00:20:53,855 --> 00:20:57,822
Liz Glotzer who was one of their
key development executives,
346
00:20:57,925 --> 00:21:00,477
she's the first one who
read the script there
347
00:21:00,581 --> 00:21:03,098
and walked into her
boss's office and said,
348
00:21:03,201 --> 00:21:04,718
we have to make this movie.
349
00:21:04,719 --> 00:21:06,857
She slapped it down on the desk
and said if we don't make this,
350
00:21:06,961 --> 00:21:08,374
I quit.
351
00:21:08,375 --> 00:21:13,134
So Liz called me and said
Rob Reiner read the script
352
00:21:13,238 --> 00:21:15,720
and really loves it.
353
00:21:15,824 --> 00:21:18,168
There was a moment when
Rob expressed interest
354
00:21:18,169 --> 00:21:19,583
in directing it himself.
355
00:21:19,721 --> 00:21:22,618
In fact, Tom Cruise
had read the script
356
00:21:22,721 --> 00:21:26,066
and asked Rob if Rob wanted to
direct it and with Tom in it.
357
00:21:26,170 --> 00:21:29,584
Then Rob said, let's offer
Frank a writing position.
358
00:21:29,722 --> 00:21:33,378
Let's offer him a lot of money.
359
00:21:33,481 --> 00:21:35,999
I thought about it
for a day, you know,
360
00:21:36,103 --> 00:21:38,999
but then I called them back
and I said, you know what?
361
00:21:39,103 --> 00:21:40,413
I want to stick with it.
362
00:21:40,517 --> 00:21:43,482
I want to direct it myself
because I really feel
363
00:21:43,586 --> 00:21:45,759
this deep, deep in my marrow.
364
00:21:45,897 --> 00:21:50,311
I feel this story very deeply,
and if not this, then what
365
00:21:50,414 --> 00:21:51,829
and if not now, then when?
366
00:21:51,932 --> 00:21:54,725
When am I going to direct
a movie that matters to me?
367
00:21:57,899 --> 00:21:59,933
If you're remembered
for anything,
368
00:22:00,037 --> 00:22:05,416
it's for the kindness you
show or the art you create.
369
00:22:05,555 --> 00:22:07,519
You're not remembered
for your bank account.
370
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:08,969
Nobody's impressed by that.
371
00:22:09,072 --> 00:22:10,452
Nobody cares.
372
00:22:10,589 --> 00:22:13,970
So yeah, it was a very handsome
offer, but it was money.
373
00:22:14,072 --> 00:22:15,452
It was just money.
374
00:22:15,556 --> 00:22:18,659
And Rob was such a sweetheart
and such a supporter
375
00:22:18,763 --> 00:22:20,210
and a booster and a mentor.
376
00:22:20,211 --> 00:22:25,591
He took no for an answer very
graciously and gracefully.
377
00:22:25,695 --> 00:22:30,385
Frank is one of the
most consummate directors
378
00:22:30,488 --> 00:22:31,765
I've ever worked with.
379
00:22:31,903 --> 00:22:35,075
He loves movies more than
anything in the world.
380
00:22:35,179 --> 00:22:38,075
Him and Quentin
Tarantino probably...
381
00:22:38,179 --> 00:22:39,489
I don't know who
loves movies more.
382
00:22:39,593 --> 00:22:42,249
Frank really... he
really loves it.
383
00:22:42,387 --> 00:22:44,938
He agonizes over
every single detail,
384
00:22:45,076 --> 00:22:46,249
and it shows in his movies.
385
00:22:46,352 --> 00:22:48,042
I mean, Shawshank
Redemption is probably
386
00:22:48,043 --> 00:22:52,837
one of the greatest American
made movies of our generation.
387
00:22:52,940 --> 00:22:56,698
And my memory is that,
that wasn't the success
388
00:22:56,699 --> 00:22:58,492
but has grown into
people thinking it's
389
00:22:58,596 --> 00:22:59,837
one of the best movies ever.
390
00:22:59,940 --> 00:23:02,527
It's set in prison.
391
00:23:02,631 --> 00:23:07,079
It doesn't have Sylvester
Stallone or Van Damme in it.
392
00:23:07,183 --> 00:23:08,424
It's not an action movie.
393
00:23:08,528 --> 00:23:11,217
Clearly, it's a drama
with Morgan and Tim.
394
00:23:11,218 --> 00:23:14,217
It looks like a
depressing movie.
395
00:23:14,218 --> 00:23:17,287
There's no way you can cut the
trailer together and convince
396
00:23:17,425 --> 00:23:19,150
the audience that it's
going to be something
397
00:23:19,254 --> 00:23:20,873
they love for years to come.
398
00:23:20,874 --> 00:23:23,943
So we had trouble getting
people to show up,
399
00:23:24,047 --> 00:23:28,737
and that was very, very
disappointing, I have to admit.
400
00:23:28,841 --> 00:23:32,773
Shortly thereafter...
I thank Academy.
401
00:23:32,911 --> 00:23:35,462
They nominated us for
seven Academy Awards,
402
00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:40,774
and we were one of the five
Best Picture nominees that year.
403
00:23:40,912 --> 00:23:45,498
The Shawshank Redemption,
Nikki Marvin, producer.
404
00:23:52,016 --> 00:23:54,499
And the Oscar goes to...
405
00:23:54,603 --> 00:23:58,086
We didn't win a single award.
406
00:23:58,224 --> 00:23:59,086
There was Forrest Gump.
407
00:23:59,190 --> 00:24:00,259
Forrest Gump.
408
00:24:02,190 --> 00:24:03,224
It's Forrest Gump's year.
409
00:24:03,328 --> 00:24:04,534
They swept everything.
410
00:24:04,535 --> 00:24:06,639
It's a great movie,
so I'm not surprised.
411
00:24:06,777 --> 00:24:09,398
It was that and Pulp Fiction
and Four Weddings and a Funeral
412
00:24:09,501 --> 00:24:12,501
and Quiz Show and Shawshank.
413
00:24:12,605 --> 00:24:14,847
And everybody what is Shawshank?
414
00:24:14,950 --> 00:24:16,847
I remember even
being at the awards
415
00:24:16,950 --> 00:24:19,433
and when Shawshank
was announced, people
416
00:24:19,572 --> 00:24:20,882
who were there would, go?
417
00:24:20,986 --> 00:24:21,744
What movie?
418
00:24:21,848 --> 00:24:23,469
Did we miss this?
419
00:24:23,606 --> 00:24:27,642
So it so brought attention
to the film in a way
420
00:24:27,745 --> 00:24:32,608
that we could not have purchased
by marketing or advertising.
421
00:24:32,745 --> 00:24:34,608
That'll be one of those
movies that people
422
00:24:34,746 --> 00:24:37,263
hold on to it seems and I'm...
423
00:24:37,366 --> 00:24:41,953
boy, I'm so grateful for that.
424
00:24:42,091 --> 00:24:44,678
I think Stephen King likes those
425
00:24:44,782 --> 00:24:48,127
contained situations
where people are
426
00:24:48,230 --> 00:24:50,437
stuck in one specific arena.
427
00:24:50,541 --> 00:24:51,955
It's almost like a theater play.
428
00:24:52,059 --> 00:24:55,404
From the situations comes a
lot of challenging moments
429
00:24:55,507 --> 00:24:56,921
between characters
because they're
430
00:24:57,024 --> 00:25:00,369
forced to challenge themselves
and challenge others.
431
00:25:00,473 --> 00:25:02,611
That's the theme
obviously in The Mist
432
00:25:02,749 --> 00:25:05,474
and The Shining and
1408, and the psychology
433
00:25:05,578 --> 00:25:08,612
in this contained areas is
interesting and a lot of things
434
00:25:08,716 --> 00:25:10,370
are happening, a lot
of things are coming
435
00:25:10,371 --> 00:25:13,923
out because we get stuck.
436
00:25:14,026 --> 00:25:15,544
Come on.
437
00:25:15,648 --> 00:25:18,441
That's a situation that King
likes to put his character in
438
00:25:18,579 --> 00:25:21,131
and as we come out
what we have learned
439
00:25:21,234 --> 00:25:22,925
collectively from
months of lockdown
440
00:25:23,028 --> 00:25:25,510
is a challenging situation.
441
00:25:29,788 --> 00:25:34,753
The device he uses being
inside with nowhere to go.
442
00:25:34,857 --> 00:25:37,616
He wants you to focus
on what's happening,
443
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:42,409
not on what's happening
outside in the world.
444
00:25:42,410 --> 00:25:44,720
And in that environment,
there's no escape.
445
00:25:44,721 --> 00:25:46,547
You really have to
face your demons.
446
00:25:46,548 --> 00:25:48,790
I'm here because
island folk know
447
00:25:48,893 --> 00:25:51,342
how to pull together for the
common good when they need to.
448
00:25:51,445 --> 00:25:52,791
And that's what
these people did.
449
00:25:52,928 --> 00:25:55,032
Trapped on Little Tall in
the storm of the century.
450
00:26:00,101 --> 00:26:02,619
In the case of Rose Red, I
think it's the same thing.
451
00:26:02,723 --> 00:26:04,861
They were trapped within
this controlled environment
452
00:26:04,964 --> 00:26:06,861
where the house was
controlling the characters.
453
00:26:06,964 --> 00:26:09,827
He's so descriptive
of his settings.
454
00:26:09,931 --> 00:26:10,965
OK.
455
00:26:11,069 --> 00:26:12,585
Very funny, but I want
to leave all right?
456
00:26:12,586 --> 00:26:14,379
I think that's what makes
it scary and relatable,
457
00:26:14,483 --> 00:26:16,241
because you could imagine
it happened to you.
458
00:26:16,345 --> 00:26:17,551
What is this?
459
00:26:17,552 --> 00:26:19,483
What is happening to me?
460
00:26:19,621 --> 00:26:22,449
On Nightmares and
Dreamscapes, the autopsy room
461
00:26:22,553 --> 00:26:24,207
too was really fun.
462
00:26:24,208 --> 00:26:27,622
What is going on here?
463
00:26:27,726 --> 00:26:30,036
Snake, why can't you see that?
464
00:26:30,140 --> 00:26:31,796
Please, you can't do this.
465
00:26:31,898 --> 00:26:32,899
You can't cut me up.
466
00:26:33,002 --> 00:26:34,140
Help me.
467
00:26:34,243 --> 00:26:37,796
Don't you realize
I can still feel!
468
00:26:37,934 --> 00:26:43,590
One really clear example
of that dynamic is Misery.
469
00:26:43,693 --> 00:26:45,591
We can all imagine it
could happen to us.
470
00:26:45,693 --> 00:26:48,452
We are all James Caan's
character in that movie
471
00:26:48,556 --> 00:26:51,521
and Kathy Bates is
so freaking scary.
472
00:26:51,625 --> 00:26:54,245
Last night, it came so clear.
473
00:26:54,246 --> 00:26:56,626
I realized you just
need more time.
474
00:26:56,764 --> 00:27:00,799
Eventually you'll come to
accept the idea of being here.
475
00:27:00,902 --> 00:27:02,696
Paul, do you know
about the early days
476
00:27:02,799 --> 00:27:04,730
at the Kimberley Diamond mines?
477
00:27:04,731 --> 00:27:06,902
Do you know what they
did to the native workers
478
00:27:06,903 --> 00:27:08,800
who stole diamonds?
479
00:27:08,903 --> 00:27:10,972
Don't worry, they
didn't kill them.
480
00:27:11,110 --> 00:27:15,318
In the book, Annie Wilkes
cuts his foot off with an ax.
481
00:27:15,455 --> 00:27:16,870
So we sit down in
the first meeting
482
00:27:16,973 --> 00:27:18,767
and Rob goes, we can't
cut his foot off.
483
00:27:18,870 --> 00:27:21,491
There's a myriad
of issues with it.
484
00:27:21,595 --> 00:27:25,940
So they had pitched this
idea of the hobbling.
485
00:27:28,803 --> 00:27:31,044
And they broke for
lunch, and they said,
486
00:27:31,148 --> 00:27:33,250
OK, you guys get everything
rigged up for lunch,
487
00:27:33,251 --> 00:27:34,804
and then when we come
back, we'll film it.
488
00:27:34,906 --> 00:27:36,597
They all came back
from lunch, and they're
489
00:27:36,700 --> 00:27:37,804
like, what are you doing?
490
00:27:37,942 --> 00:27:39,597
Like you're supposed
to be ready.
491
00:27:39,700 --> 00:27:41,667
I'm like well, those
are the fake legs.
492
00:27:41,769 --> 00:27:45,287
So they didn't know because we
had disguised his leg so well.
493
00:27:45,425 --> 00:27:46,770
Annie, for god's...
494
00:27:46,874 --> 00:27:48,046
Shh, darling...
495
00:27:48,150 --> 00:27:49,874
The first screening...
496
00:27:49,977 --> 00:27:50,943
God's sake...
497
00:27:51,046 --> 00:27:53,908
You could feel the
oxygen being sucked out
498
00:27:53,909 --> 00:27:55,978
of the theater when she
raises the sledgehammer
499
00:27:56,082 --> 00:27:58,254
because everybody at
the same time goes...
500
00:27:58,358 --> 00:28:00,634
all at once.
501
00:28:02,772 --> 00:28:04,221
Almost done.
502
00:28:04,324 --> 00:28:05,909
You don't even
see it in close up.
503
00:28:05,910 --> 00:28:07,082
You see it in wide.
504
00:28:07,083 --> 00:28:08,565
You see her lift
the sledgehammer
505
00:28:08,566 --> 00:28:10,635
and it's the real
sledgehammer and it's heavy,
506
00:28:10,739 --> 00:28:14,809
and then when she swings and
she hits it a second time,
507
00:28:14,912 --> 00:28:16,153
you never see it.
508
00:28:16,291 --> 00:28:17,602
And you don't need to see it.
509
00:28:17,705 --> 00:28:19,292
It's so much about
the sound effect.
510
00:28:19,430 --> 00:28:20,911
Cut to the close
up, and she says...
511
00:28:20,912 --> 00:28:22,912
God, I love you.
512
00:28:22,913 --> 00:28:27,810
It's when Stephen gets the
combination of the humanity
513
00:28:27,913 --> 00:28:31,223
along with the situation
was terrifying,
514
00:28:31,224 --> 00:28:33,534
and they can say it's horror.
515
00:28:33,638 --> 00:28:36,535
But I think what Stephen
does and also what I do
516
00:28:36,639 --> 00:28:40,294
and what so many of us
do really is suspense.
517
00:28:40,397 --> 00:28:42,329
Those are people.
518
00:28:42,467 --> 00:28:45,640
I mean, yes, the situation
is one of rising dread.
519
00:28:45,744 --> 00:28:49,260
But you're looking at people.
520
00:28:49,261 --> 00:28:51,641
The secret is in the
casting and I think
521
00:28:51,744 --> 00:28:52,985
that's the same for any role.
522
00:28:53,123 --> 00:28:55,952
John Ford used to say
it's 70% of the job.
523
00:28:56,055 --> 00:28:58,848
You make the right choice and
you're more than halfway there.
524
00:29:03,953 --> 00:29:08,918
And the Oscar goes to
Kathy Bates in Misery.
525
00:29:13,470 --> 00:29:15,230
Kathy Bates is
brilliant actress.
526
00:29:15,333 --> 00:29:17,506
She'd won the Academy
Award for Misery.
527
00:29:17,644 --> 00:29:21,402
I'd like to thank William
Goldman for bringing
528
00:29:21,403 --> 00:29:23,058
the wonderful,
crazy Annie Wilkes
529
00:29:23,162 --> 00:29:25,990
to the screen and
Stephen King for thinking
530
00:29:26,127 --> 00:29:27,334
of her in the first place.
531
00:29:27,472 --> 00:29:29,818
And Misery was a real
Stephen King crazy thing
532
00:29:29,956 --> 00:29:32,093
and Kathy Bates was
great in the role.
533
00:29:32,094 --> 00:29:33,991
Dolores was a very
different role...
534
00:29:34,094 --> 00:29:36,026
strong, tough, but nuanced.
535
00:29:38,957 --> 00:29:43,751
If you want to know somebody's
life, you look at the hands.
536
00:29:46,061 --> 00:29:48,958
The challenge to me and
the thing that was probably
537
00:29:49,061 --> 00:29:51,372
most interesting to
me is that Dolores
538
00:29:51,475 --> 00:29:53,406
Claiborne is a woman's movie.
539
00:29:53,407 --> 00:29:56,131
The three main
characters are women.
540
00:29:56,269 --> 00:29:58,166
The women rule this movie.
541
00:29:58,304 --> 00:30:01,822
Why I go through
20 years of hell?
542
00:30:01,925 --> 00:30:03,097
Why mother?
543
00:30:03,098 --> 00:30:05,443
I have a friend, Larry
Kasdan, who's a great director.
544
00:30:05,546 --> 00:30:07,305
His son and went to Columbia.
545
00:30:07,408 --> 00:30:09,754
During the first semester
back at Christmas,
546
00:30:09,857 --> 00:30:12,996
I happened to run into them
and Larry's son said, you know,
547
00:30:13,099 --> 00:30:15,720
I took this film class and
the teacher was a woman
548
00:30:15,824 --> 00:30:18,618
and was trying to communicate
the fact that there are
549
00:30:18,721 --> 00:30:22,341
no women stories out
there and that you
550
00:30:22,479 --> 00:30:24,825
need to have filmmakers
who understand women.
551
00:30:24,963 --> 00:30:26,722
And she was going
to show Dolores
552
00:30:26,825 --> 00:30:29,446
Claiborne to say
Taylor is often times
553
00:30:29,549 --> 00:30:31,309
used for men or women, right?
554
00:30:31,411 --> 00:30:35,101
And that Taylor Hackford, this
woman who had directed Dolores
555
00:30:35,102 --> 00:30:38,137
Claiborne, really understands
the women in this,
556
00:30:38,240 --> 00:30:39,654
the four women that are here.
557
00:30:39,758 --> 00:30:41,102
It's a brilliant woman's story.
558
00:30:41,103 --> 00:30:45,172
And this... Larry Kasdan's
son sat down and said,
559
00:30:45,310 --> 00:30:48,966
well, I just want to say, I know
Taylor Hackford, he's a man.
560
00:30:49,104 --> 00:30:50,276
No, he's not.
561
00:30:50,380 --> 00:30:52,829
No man could make this story.
562
00:30:52,967 --> 00:30:55,448
Could I have a better
compliment than that?
563
00:30:55,449 --> 00:30:57,931
It was great, but it all
started with Stephen King.
564
00:30:57,932 --> 00:30:59,243
He had the inspiration.
565
00:30:59,346 --> 00:31:01,830
Stephen King created
the characters.
566
00:31:01,933 --> 00:31:03,657
You better sit back
down, Joe, if you
567
00:31:03,795 --> 00:31:05,864
don't want this in your head.
568
00:31:05,968 --> 00:31:06,831
Mommy...
569
00:31:06,933 --> 00:31:08,554
Dolores is heroic.
570
00:31:08,658 --> 00:31:10,727
How does a mother
deal with incest?
571
00:31:10,831 --> 00:31:12,831
A lot of them know it and
just go along with it.
572
00:31:12,969 --> 00:31:14,762
Dolores was not
about to ignore it.
573
00:31:14,763 --> 00:31:17,555
Dolores understood the
horror of what her husband
574
00:31:17,659 --> 00:31:19,004
was putting this child through.
575
00:31:19,108 --> 00:31:20,797
It had to be repaid and she did.
576
00:31:20,901 --> 00:31:22,902
I thought that was Stephen King.
All Stephen King.
577
00:31:23,004 --> 00:31:24,695
The only thing
you're going to get
578
00:31:24,798 --> 00:31:28,385
is a long stretch in Shawshank
prison for child molesting.
579
00:31:28,488 --> 00:31:30,834
God damn bitch.
580
00:31:30,937 --> 00:31:33,488
I think that
Stephen King probably
581
00:31:33,627 --> 00:31:35,006
had a Delores in his life.
582
00:31:35,110 --> 00:31:37,282
The way she was described,
the way all the women
583
00:31:37,386 --> 00:31:40,662
were described was so real.
584
00:31:40,766 --> 00:31:42,524
My mother had a
very difficult life,
585
00:31:42,628 --> 00:31:45,732
and she still provided for
me by working her ass off.
586
00:31:45,836 --> 00:31:48,180
When I wrote him, I
just said, listen, I see
587
00:31:48,283 --> 00:31:49,490
my mother in this character.
588
00:31:49,629 --> 00:31:50,905
Stephen King can write women.
589
00:31:51,008 --> 00:31:52,319
He really can.
590
00:31:52,422 --> 00:31:54,594
Stephen King has
a knack for writing
591
00:31:54,595 --> 00:31:56,630
terrific female
characters and I think
592
00:31:56,733 --> 00:31:59,837
he would credit a lot of
that to his wife Tabitha
593
00:31:59,975 --> 00:32:03,112
and her influence on
him throughout his life.
594
00:32:03,113 --> 00:32:05,665
And a lot of his books,
especially his most personal
595
00:32:05,769 --> 00:32:07,631
with some of the most
fascinating heroines
596
00:32:07,734 --> 00:32:10,113
are dedicated to
Tabitha and her sisters
597
00:32:10,114 --> 00:32:13,528
and other women in his life
who are very powerful figures.
598
00:32:13,666 --> 00:32:16,977
He was raised by a powerful
and strong single woman.
599
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:20,185
His relationship with his mother
shapes his writing quite a bit,
600
00:32:20,287 --> 00:32:22,840
and he goes into
very moving detail
601
00:32:22,978 --> 00:32:26,012
about that and on writing
and a lot of his interviews.
602
00:32:26,150 --> 00:32:30,013
I think he's a man who
grew up in the presence
603
00:32:30,117 --> 00:32:32,704
and under the influence
of remarkable women
604
00:32:32,841 --> 00:32:36,911
and who married a remarkable
a woman who, in a lot of ways,
605
00:32:37,014 --> 00:32:40,980
is responsible for the
biggest points of inflection
606
00:32:41,083 --> 00:32:43,289
in his career and in
his personal life.
607
00:32:43,290 --> 00:32:46,670
If you listen to him
talk about Tabitha
608
00:32:46,808 --> 00:32:52,189
and you realize that she
pulled the manuscript of Carrie
609
00:32:52,326 --> 00:32:53,946
out of the trash
can when he threw it
610
00:32:53,947 --> 00:32:59,464
in there in complete despair,
when you imagine her being
611
00:32:59,465 --> 00:33:02,500
the first set of eyes
on one of his stories
612
00:33:02,604 --> 00:33:04,915
and giving him that
first critical feedback,
613
00:33:05,017 --> 00:33:07,811
when you imagine some
of the stories he tells
614
00:33:07,915 --> 00:33:09,776
about their marriage
not only kind
615
00:33:09,777 --> 00:33:12,018
of in his fictionalized
versions of it,
616
00:33:12,156 --> 00:33:16,674
but in on writing when he
talks about how she came to him
617
00:33:16,812 --> 00:33:18,847
and made him confront
his addiction,
618
00:33:18,950 --> 00:33:22,813
it's very easy to
see where he gets
619
00:33:22,917 --> 00:33:27,849
a lot of that fortitude
and kind of mettle
620
00:33:27,986 --> 00:33:30,158
that his heroines have.
621
00:33:30,296 --> 00:33:32,332
I think he has that at home.
622
00:33:32,434 --> 00:33:35,263
He came from a
broken home as I did.
623
00:33:35,366 --> 00:33:37,469
His parents split
up early and he
624
00:33:37,470 --> 00:33:41,125
was raised by a single
mother, very blue
625
00:33:41,126 --> 00:33:43,678
collar, real hardscrabble life.
626
00:33:43,782 --> 00:33:46,989
And his work is often
about the fractured family.
627
00:33:47,092 --> 00:33:50,471
Your family is the place where
you're supposed to feel safe.
628
00:33:50,472 --> 00:33:53,541
The outside world is the
other, your family is you.
629
00:33:53,679 --> 00:33:57,852
And if that starts to crumble,
if that starts to present
630
00:33:57,955 --> 00:34:01,610
danger and horrifying
circumstances to you,
631
00:34:01,611 --> 00:34:02,922
you're not safe anywhere.
632
00:34:03,025 --> 00:34:05,336
If you can't be safe
within the family unit,
633
00:34:05,439 --> 00:34:08,854
how can you possibly
expect to survive?
634
00:34:08,957 --> 00:34:11,647
And I think that theme running
through a lot of Stephen King's
635
00:34:11,750 --> 00:34:14,682
work is actually what
adds to the terror
636
00:34:14,820 --> 00:34:18,371
that we feel as we either
witness or read these stories.
637
00:34:18,509 --> 00:34:21,855
Whether it's the
family and Cujo and what
638
00:34:21,958 --> 00:34:25,545
they're going through before
the dog actually shows up
639
00:34:25,683 --> 00:34:30,994
or what's happening in The
Shining between Jack and Wendy.
640
00:34:58,032 --> 00:35:01,825
The first time I
encountered Stephen
641
00:35:01,929 --> 00:35:04,515
King was through The Shining,
the book The Shining.
642
00:35:04,619 --> 00:35:07,963
I read that and I
was just blown away.
643
00:35:07,964 --> 00:35:10,171
I just thought this was
the most amazing thing.
644
00:35:10,309 --> 00:35:11,826
I had to stop reading it.
645
00:35:11,827 --> 00:35:14,516
I think I was in a remote lodge
in the mountains somewhere.
646
00:35:14,620 --> 00:35:17,103
It was very similar to
the Colorado wilderness
647
00:35:17,207 --> 00:35:19,172
that the hotel The Shining's in.
648
00:35:19,276 --> 00:35:20,586
It really creeped me out.
649
00:35:20,690 --> 00:35:25,656
The book club by accident
sent me The Shining.
650
00:35:25,657 --> 00:35:28,346
I was going to send it back
because I didn't have the money
651
00:35:28,449 --> 00:35:31,209
to buy it, but I
opened the book and it
652
00:35:31,312 --> 00:35:33,519
random it was the
paragraph where
653
00:35:33,658 --> 00:35:37,348
the dead woman sits
up in the bathtub,
654
00:35:37,485 --> 00:35:38,588
and I thought, oh, I have to...
655
00:35:38,692 --> 00:35:39,658
I have to read this book.
656
00:35:39,761 --> 00:35:41,520
When I read The Shining, I think
657
00:35:41,624 --> 00:35:44,693
that's the first
time I was enchanted
658
00:35:44,797 --> 00:35:46,623
by the voice of the writer.
659
00:35:46,624 --> 00:35:49,521
When you go inside
Jack Torrance's head,
660
00:35:49,625 --> 00:35:53,314
you connect with him in
this very visceral way.
661
00:35:53,315 --> 00:35:55,797
Stephen had a time
clock in there, which
662
00:35:55,798 --> 00:35:58,661
was the boiler down
in the basement, which
663
00:35:58,764 --> 00:36:00,384
was building and
building and building,
664
00:36:00,522 --> 00:36:02,213
and of course, at
the end, blew up.
665
00:36:02,316 --> 00:36:04,351
The boiler that
eventually blows up,
666
00:36:04,454 --> 00:36:06,696
that is a metaphor
for what's going
667
00:36:06,834 --> 00:36:08,662
on in Jack Torrance's head.
668
00:36:12,041 --> 00:36:14,801
I was hired to direct
Dolan's Cadillac.
669
00:36:14,904 --> 00:36:17,387
The writer and I, we were going
to have a call with Mr. King
670
00:36:17,490 --> 00:36:20,042
and I was just vibrating,
I was so excited.
671
00:36:20,180 --> 00:36:22,835
And I said, what do you
think I should say first?
672
00:36:22,836 --> 00:36:25,146
I think I'm going to tell him
how much I love The Shining.
673
00:36:25,147 --> 00:36:27,354
And he said, I wouldn't
do that, because he thinks
674
00:36:27,492 --> 00:36:28,768
it's a total piece of shit.
675
00:36:35,700 --> 00:36:37,630
It was very well
known that Stephen King
676
00:36:37,631 --> 00:36:39,700
did not like the Kubrick film.
677
00:36:39,804 --> 00:36:43,563
And there are a number of
reasons but one of the foremost
678
00:36:43,667 --> 00:36:46,218
is that this was a really
personal book to him.
679
00:36:46,321 --> 00:36:49,666
It was a book he wrote
while he was still drinking
680
00:36:49,667 --> 00:36:53,840
about the guilt of a father
who, while he's drunk,
681
00:36:53,944 --> 00:36:56,494
has broken his beautiful
little boy's arm.
682
00:36:56,495 --> 00:36:59,841
It's about guilt and
seeking redemption.
683
00:36:59,944 --> 00:37:04,945
He goes to this location that
is completely devoid of people
684
00:37:05,048 --> 00:37:07,566
in the hopes that,
that will help him
685
00:37:07,704 --> 00:37:10,634
stay away from the bottle
and be a responsible
686
00:37:10,635 --> 00:37:12,118
husband and father.
687
00:37:12,222 --> 00:37:15,843
And Kubrick turned it into
something very different.
688
00:37:19,671 --> 00:37:21,705
Now I was at the Chinese Theater
689
00:37:21,843 --> 00:37:26,120
in Hollywood, first day,
first show, to see The Shining
690
00:37:26,223 --> 00:37:29,534
and pretty much everybody
in that huge theater had
691
00:37:29,638 --> 00:37:32,051
read the book, so we're
all going all right,
692
00:37:32,189 --> 00:37:33,052
Kubrick's doing this.
693
00:37:33,155 --> 00:37:34,225
This is going to be great.
694
00:37:34,327 --> 00:37:36,776
And they were booing
and hissing and
695
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:39,293
everybody was like pissed off.
696
00:37:39,294 --> 00:37:40,846
It wasn't the book.
697
00:37:40,950 --> 00:37:44,364
The creative personalities
of Stanley Kubrick and Stephen
698
00:37:44,502 --> 00:37:46,675
King are very, very different.
699
00:37:46,778 --> 00:37:50,054
King is a very warm and
human and emotional writer
700
00:37:50,158 --> 00:37:57,848
and Kubrick is a very cool and
intellectualized filmmaker.
701
00:37:57,952 --> 00:38:01,883
Scatman Crothers told
me he would do 85 takes
702
00:38:02,021 --> 00:38:05,228
of one shot over and
over and over, and not
703
00:38:05,331 --> 00:38:07,229
necessarily give any direction.
704
00:38:07,367 --> 00:38:10,781
So his calculating
manner is kind
705
00:38:10,885 --> 00:38:14,539
of in contrast to the
emotional warmth of what
706
00:38:14,678 --> 00:38:16,126
King's stories are about.
707
00:38:19,540 --> 00:38:22,505
In his entire
body of work, which
708
00:38:22,506 --> 00:38:25,024
is substantial and
tremendously influential,
709
00:38:25,127 --> 00:38:27,058
Kubrick was never an
emotional filmmaker.
710
00:38:27,162 --> 00:38:29,025
Oh, come on, what do
you mean roll video?
711
00:38:29,163 --> 00:38:30,370
Two seconds...
712
00:38:30,472 --> 00:38:31,508
We're [muted] killing
ourselves out here
713
00:38:31,610 --> 00:38:32,783
and you've got to be ready.
714
00:38:32,887 --> 00:38:34,232
I am too, I'm standing
right by the door.
715
00:38:34,335 --> 00:38:35,888
- Shall we play mood music?
- No, I can't hear it.
716
00:38:35,991 --> 00:38:37,888
But when you came out like
this, you said you just...
717
00:38:37,991 --> 00:38:40,129
because they say,
wait a minute, and then
718
00:38:40,233 --> 00:38:41,647
you say on the radio, go...
719
00:38:41,751 --> 00:38:42,889
When you do it, you've got
to look desperate, Shelley.
720
00:38:43,026 --> 00:38:44,543
You're just wasting
everybody's time now.
721
00:38:44,682 --> 00:38:46,441
I can't even get
this door open...
722
00:38:46,543 --> 00:38:48,061
On the record, I got
such a bollocking
723
00:38:48,165 --> 00:38:52,820
because they said turn over and
they said video rolling and all
724
00:38:52,821 --> 00:38:56,338
that, and I got all ready
and jumped up and down,
725
00:38:56,442 --> 00:38:58,821
and then they said never mind.
726
00:38:58,822 --> 00:38:59,614
Cut it.
727
00:38:59,718 --> 00:39:01,201
He had one emotional scene.
728
00:39:01,305 --> 00:39:02,132
One.
729
00:39:02,236 --> 00:39:03,546
Out of all the movies.
730
00:39:03,649 --> 00:39:06,063
And that was the very end
of Paths of Glory, which
731
00:39:06,201 --> 00:39:08,133
will move you to
tears, but never
732
00:39:08,236 --> 00:39:13,994
again did Stanley Kubrick try
to get your emotions involved.
733
00:39:13,995 --> 00:39:16,962
It was always... it's
cinematically stunning,
734
00:39:17,065 --> 00:39:20,478
but it was a very
intellectual chess game...
735
00:39:20,479 --> 00:39:21,687
him telling a story.
736
00:39:21,790 --> 00:39:25,410
I think we should discuss Danny?
737
00:39:25,514 --> 00:39:27,549
It's a really good
Stanley Kubrick movie,
738
00:39:27,653 --> 00:39:29,791
but it's a terrible
Stephen King movie.
739
00:39:29,895 --> 00:39:31,618
Danny!
740
00:39:31,722 --> 00:39:33,549
The problem is Stanley
Kubrick didn't believe
741
00:39:33,688 --> 00:39:35,825
in the supernatural in
any way, shape, or form
742
00:39:35,826 --> 00:39:38,412
and the movie was
dictated on that belief
743
00:39:38,550 --> 00:39:40,550
so it works on his
own logic perfectly.
744
00:39:40,654 --> 00:39:42,206
It's just not
Stephen King's logic.
745
00:39:42,310 --> 00:39:44,551
Kubrick would call him up
in the middle of the night
746
00:39:44,655 --> 00:39:47,206
and ask things like,
do you believe in God?
747
00:39:47,310 --> 00:39:49,035
When I talked to Stephen King, I
748
00:39:49,138 --> 00:39:50,966
asked him a lot of
questions about The Shining
749
00:39:51,069 --> 00:39:53,587
and the shooting of The Shining
and he told me this anecdote.
750
00:39:53,725 --> 00:39:58,243
He said that he was home
sleeping, 2:00 in the morning
751
00:39:58,346 --> 00:40:00,070
or something in
Maine where he lives
752
00:40:00,174 --> 00:40:04,450
and his telephone was ringing,
and it was Stanley Kubrick.
753
00:40:04,553 --> 00:40:06,864
And he said, hi,
Stephen, it's Stanley.
754
00:40:06,968 --> 00:40:08,209
Are you OK?
755
00:40:08,313 --> 00:40:11,038
And Stephen King said, yeah,
no it's 2:00 in the morning,
756
00:40:11,176 --> 00:40:12,658
so I'm sleeping.
757
00:40:12,762 --> 00:40:14,417
Oh yeah, sorry, I'm here in
London, we're shooting away
758
00:40:14,521 --> 00:40:16,417
and I just have one
question for you
759
00:40:16,555 --> 00:40:18,555
and Stephen King said,
yeah, what is it?
760
00:40:18,694 --> 00:40:22,176
And Kubrick said,
does God exist?
761
00:40:22,177 --> 00:40:27,591
Stephen King said, well, Stanley
that's the very big question,
762
00:40:27,729 --> 00:40:31,557
you know, that really depends
on where you come from,
763
00:40:31,696 --> 00:40:34,903
why you... it's a big discussion.
764
00:40:35,041 --> 00:40:37,455
And Kubrick said, yeah,
yeah, no, that's...
765
00:40:37,558 --> 00:40:38,627
That's all.
Thank you.
766
00:40:38,731 --> 00:40:39,558
Thank you very much.
767
00:40:39,697 --> 00:40:41,558
And he put down the phone.
768
00:41:01,527 --> 00:41:04,907
When we meet Jack
Torrance Nicholson character
769
00:41:05,045 --> 00:41:08,699
in the film, he seems to be
as mad from the first second
770
00:41:08,700 --> 00:41:11,492
we meet him as he is in the
last second we meet him.
771
00:41:11,493 --> 00:41:12,977
His madness lacks an arc.
772
00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:15,666
He seems to be quite unhinged
from the very beginning.
773
00:41:15,770 --> 00:41:19,046
David Cronenberg said to me
once, right after The Shining
774
00:41:19,149 --> 00:41:21,736
came out, that the reason
The Shining doesn't work
775
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:23,666
is because they cast the ending.
776
00:41:23,667 --> 00:41:25,909
Jack Nicholson's crazy
from the beginning.
777
00:41:26,047 --> 00:41:31,048
That works in Kubrick's world,
but not in King's world.
778
00:41:31,151 --> 00:41:34,531
Will then take the time
to get back to where it was.
779
00:41:34,634 --> 00:41:35,565
You understand?
780
00:41:35,704 --> 00:41:37,704
I know a famous film critic says
781
00:41:37,807 --> 00:41:39,841
that Nicholson's
performance in The Shining
782
00:41:39,842 --> 00:41:42,497
is both his best and
his worst performance,
783
00:41:42,601 --> 00:41:45,187
which is an interesting
thing of putting it.
784
00:41:45,188 --> 00:41:48,739
What you lose, I think, is,
again, the thing that I think
785
00:41:48,843 --> 00:41:53,567
is Stephen's great strength
is the recognizable humanity
786
00:41:53,671 --> 00:41:55,223
in all of these characters.
787
00:41:55,327 --> 00:41:58,258
Why don't you start right now
and get the fuck out of here?
788
00:41:58,396 --> 00:42:00,223
And who could imagine those two
789
00:42:00,327 --> 00:42:01,637
actually ever being married?
790
00:42:01,741 --> 00:42:04,431
You lose the horror
to me of someone
791
00:42:04,569 --> 00:42:07,086
very familiar to you
becoming so other.
792
00:42:07,190 --> 00:42:09,742
That's... to me, that goes
to my heart right now.
793
00:42:09,846 --> 00:42:13,017
I imagine if my wife
and I had... if suddenly
794
00:42:13,018 --> 00:42:17,295
they seemed so different,
how painful and difficult
795
00:42:17,398 --> 00:42:18,330
that would be.
796
00:42:18,331 --> 00:42:19,709
That wasn't in the movie at all.
797
00:42:23,848 --> 00:42:27,400
Yet as time has gone
on as, we've all seen,
798
00:42:27,503 --> 00:42:29,227
it has become what...
799
00:42:29,331 --> 00:42:32,918
it has become this iconic
horror movie that based on that.
800
00:42:33,056 --> 00:42:36,056
I guess King never
liked what he did,
801
00:42:36,159 --> 00:42:38,815
but it really was
Kubrick's version of King.
802
00:42:38,919 --> 00:42:42,746
He had to make it his
own like most artists do.
803
00:42:42,850 --> 00:42:46,195
It's always tough to
make those adaptation
804
00:42:46,298 --> 00:42:50,368
so everybody loves it.
805
00:42:52,885 --> 00:42:55,714
Hollywood is a rough
and tumble place.
806
00:42:55,817 --> 00:42:58,023
They call it show business
not show friendly.
807
00:42:58,024 --> 00:43:01,334
And there's betrayal, and
treachery, and disappointment,
808
00:43:01,335 --> 00:43:03,231
and all kinds of things.
809
00:43:03,335 --> 00:43:04,715
There's a great joke.
810
00:43:04,818 --> 00:43:06,749
I think it was Ernest Hemingway
who said when you make
811
00:43:06,853 --> 00:43:08,715
a deal with Hollywood,
what you must do
812
00:43:08,716 --> 00:43:11,750
is drive to the Colorado
River, stop on the bridge
813
00:43:11,888 --> 00:43:15,233
halfway across between
Arizona and California
814
00:43:15,371 --> 00:43:17,268
and throw your novel across.
815
00:43:17,406 --> 00:43:18,924
When they throw
the money across,
816
00:43:19,027 --> 00:43:21,717
then you put it in your car,
and you drive back East.
817
00:43:28,890 --> 00:43:32,063
You know, the movie
went on to become iconic.
818
00:43:32,166 --> 00:43:35,442
It's a huge success and
everybody knows here's Johnny,
819
00:43:35,580 --> 00:43:37,753
but Stephen King
wanted the chance to do
820
00:43:37,857 --> 00:43:39,823
something closer to his book.
821
00:43:39,926 --> 00:43:42,720
And he himself wrote
the screenplay,
822
00:43:42,823 --> 00:43:46,029
and he asked me
if I would do it.
823
00:43:46,030 --> 00:43:48,341
Actually the first
question was if Brian
824
00:43:48,444 --> 00:43:52,030
De Palma turns this down,
would you want to direct it?
825
00:43:52,031 --> 00:43:54,824
Well, I don't know if it
ever went to Brian De Palma
826
00:43:54,928 --> 00:43:56,686
but he didn't make it.
- Daddy!
827
00:43:56,687 --> 00:43:57,307
He did.
828
00:43:57,411 --> 00:43:58,238
Hi!
829
00:44:01,239 --> 00:44:02,723
Heya, Danny boy.
830
00:44:07,171 --> 00:44:08,515
Danny.
831
00:44:08,619 --> 00:44:11,515
King asked me to because
we had two very successful
832
00:44:11,516 --> 00:44:13,896
experiences together.
833
00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:15,345
I was very naive.
834
00:44:15,447 --> 00:44:19,759
I thought yeah, I want to
do the Stephen King version.
835
00:44:19,897 --> 00:44:22,104
I was disappointed in
the Kubrick version
836
00:44:22,208 --> 00:44:25,345
because I had loved the book
so much before I saw it.
837
00:44:25,346 --> 00:44:28,173
So I thought, sure, why not?
838
00:44:28,277 --> 00:44:31,380
Well, once people started
hearing that there was
839
00:44:31,381 --> 00:44:34,243
going to be a shining
for television,
840
00:44:34,347 --> 00:44:35,554
oh my god, for television?
841
00:44:35,657 --> 00:44:37,036
How can that be any good?
842
00:44:37,037 --> 00:44:39,553
And being directed by
the guy who directed
843
00:44:39,554 --> 00:44:42,934
Critters 2, how could
that be any good?
844
00:44:43,037 --> 00:44:44,935
Stanley Kubrick
versus Mick Garris...
845
00:44:45,073 --> 00:44:46,658
All the guest
rooms, strong and...
846
00:44:46,762 --> 00:44:49,693
But the script was wonderful.
847
00:44:49,694 --> 00:44:51,832
And I thought,
we're going to make
848
00:44:51,936 --> 00:44:55,383
something on our own, something
special, which we did.
849
00:44:55,384 --> 00:44:57,281
It was an opportunity
to just tell
850
00:44:57,384 --> 00:45:01,419
the story of the book, which
was very, very personal to King.
851
00:45:06,489 --> 00:45:09,007
We ignored the Kubrick film.
852
00:45:09,110 --> 00:45:11,695
There are times when
you can't help it
853
00:45:11,696 --> 00:45:13,628
like the here's Johnny scene.
854
00:45:13,732 --> 00:45:16,559
You still have somebody
breaking through the door in the
855
00:45:16,662 --> 00:45:18,939
bathroom and attacking Wendy.
856
00:45:19,077 --> 00:45:23,111
That's the place where it most
resembles the Kubrick film.
857
00:45:23,215 --> 00:45:25,940
There was another important
differentiation too.
858
00:45:26,043 --> 00:45:28,733
King was drinking
when he wrote the book
859
00:45:28,836 --> 00:45:31,664
and King was dry when
he wrote the screenplay
860
00:45:31,768 --> 00:45:34,803
for the miniseries.
861
00:45:34,906 --> 00:45:38,043
My name is Hartwell, and I'm
an alcoholic with a fondness
862
00:45:38,044 --> 00:45:39,079
for tranquilizers.
863
00:45:40,769 --> 00:45:42,458
Hi, my name is Jack...
864
00:45:42,562 --> 00:45:45,287
So he was able to give
it a new perspective
865
00:45:45,390 --> 00:45:50,081
from outside of being someone
who was abusing substances.
866
00:45:50,184 --> 00:45:51,219
You won't be sorry.
867
00:45:55,184 --> 00:45:58,598
I was talking to Steve
on the phone one day.
868
00:45:58,702 --> 00:46:00,944
I had called him just
to say, how are you?
869
00:46:01,082 --> 00:46:02,358
How's it going?
870
00:46:02,461 --> 00:46:05,634
And he said, oh, I think I might
be about to make the biggest
871
00:46:05,738 --> 00:46:08,600
mistake of my life
because I have this story
872
00:46:08,739 --> 00:46:10,290
that I'm thinking
of writing, and then
873
00:46:10,393 --> 00:46:12,600
publishing it in six volumes.
874
00:46:12,704 --> 00:46:16,463
And he told me the basic
idea, this mentally challenged
875
00:46:16,567 --> 00:46:19,360
black inmate who is
in for apparently
876
00:46:19,463 --> 00:46:20,912
murdering two little
white girls who
877
00:46:21,016 --> 00:46:23,774
turns out to be this
miraculous instrument of God.
878
00:46:23,912 --> 00:46:25,568
Your name is John Coffey?
879
00:46:25,671 --> 00:46:26,948
Yes, sir boss.
880
00:46:27,086 --> 00:46:28,948
It's his relationship
with the guards.
881
00:46:29,086 --> 00:46:30,500
He didn't think I'd be
interested because it
882
00:46:30,602 --> 00:46:31,844
was another prison thing.
883
00:46:31,948 --> 00:46:33,568
And I said, you know,
you're probably right,
884
00:46:33,569 --> 00:46:36,294
but that sounds
intriguing enough to me.
885
00:46:36,396 --> 00:46:37,811
So the next thing
I know is I get
886
00:46:37,949 --> 00:46:41,396
the very first volume of the
six sent to me by his agent.
887
00:46:41,397 --> 00:46:43,122
I read it, and I
did something I've
888
00:46:43,225 --> 00:46:46,846
never done before or since which
is I have to make this movie.
889
00:46:46,950 --> 00:46:48,605
I don't even know what
the rest of it is.
890
00:46:48,709 --> 00:46:50,535
I don't even know
how it ends, but this
891
00:46:50,536 --> 00:46:52,227
is Stephen King at his best.
892
00:46:52,330 --> 00:46:53,813
I just could tell.
893
00:46:53,951 --> 00:46:57,330
I called his office in Maine
and the person I spoke to said,
894
00:46:57,434 --> 00:46:59,227
well he's not here.
895
00:46:59,228 --> 00:47:06,365
He's in Colorado on Mick Garris'
set of The Shining miniseries.
896
00:47:06,366 --> 00:47:07,504
I did know Mick.
897
00:47:07,607 --> 00:47:09,055
He and I were good
friends by then.
898
00:47:09,056 --> 00:47:12,816
We had, sort of, a small circle
of friends in Los Angeles.
899
00:47:12,919 --> 00:47:16,229
All of us involved in the movie
business in some way or other.
900
00:47:16,230 --> 00:47:19,023
Mick's very good friends
with Greg Nicotero and Greg
901
00:47:19,126 --> 00:47:20,885
is very good friends
with this guy,
902
00:47:20,886 --> 00:47:24,127
and that guy and Robert
Rodriguez and Quentin
903
00:47:24,231 --> 00:47:25,541
and so many of those guys.
904
00:47:25,644 --> 00:47:27,713
This was back when I
was single and working
905
00:47:27,714 --> 00:47:31,576
like a crazy machine.
906
00:47:31,679 --> 00:47:33,818
And I would...
sometimes on a weekend,
907
00:47:33,921 --> 00:47:36,646
I would have everybody come
over and just invite... and just
908
00:47:36,750 --> 00:47:39,888
had this huge table and
put like 14 or 16 people
909
00:47:39,991 --> 00:47:43,267
around the table and make this
giant pot of spaghetti and meat
910
00:47:43,371 --> 00:47:44,923
sauce, and we'd
open bottles of wine
911
00:47:45,027 --> 00:47:47,715
and we'd be there til 2:00
or 3:00 in the morning just
912
00:47:47,716 --> 00:47:50,060
around the table just
talking and laughing.
913
00:47:50,061 --> 00:47:53,752
And the rare occasion that he's
actually on the West Coast,
914
00:47:53,855 --> 00:47:56,855
we did have Stephen
King and George Romero
915
00:47:56,959 --> 00:47:58,924
and Mick would be
there quite a lot.
916
00:48:02,545 --> 00:48:04,718
So I flew to Colorado,
and I rented a car
917
00:48:04,822 --> 00:48:07,098
and I drove up the mountain
just like Jack Torrance
918
00:48:07,201 --> 00:48:10,443
in the opening of The Shining
and I arrived at The Stanley,
919
00:48:10,546 --> 00:48:11,788
this incredible hotel.
920
00:48:11,926 --> 00:48:14,651
That was the very
hotel that gave
921
00:48:14,789 --> 00:48:16,962
Stephen King the idea for The
Shining in the first place.
922
00:48:17,100 --> 00:48:19,478
I walked into their ballroom,
and they were in the middle
923
00:48:19,616 --> 00:48:21,962
of filming the big
New Year's Eve scene,
924
00:48:22,065 --> 00:48:24,790
and there were all these extras
dressed as ghosts and ghouls
925
00:48:24,894 --> 00:48:28,032
and Stephen King was up on
the stage as the bandleader
926
00:48:28,135 --> 00:48:31,308
and shaking his butt,
and, you know, it was so
927
00:48:31,446 --> 00:48:32,791
much fun to walk onto that set.
928
00:48:32,929 --> 00:48:35,791
And of course, Mick is
a dear friend, so it was
929
00:48:35,895 --> 00:48:37,550
like a very welcoming arrival.
930
00:48:37,654 --> 00:48:41,584
I really like having
friends show up and do cameos,
931
00:48:41,585 --> 00:48:45,310
and I didn't know that Frank
had an ulterior motive,
932
00:48:45,448 --> 00:48:47,586
but it's the only
time in his life
933
00:48:47,689 --> 00:48:50,068
Frank had ever
shaved off his beard.
934
00:48:50,069 --> 00:48:52,104
So he... I don't...
935
00:48:52,207 --> 00:48:55,035
I didn't ask him to
but he wanted to do it.
936
00:48:55,138 --> 00:48:57,621
And so we had all these
wonderful people there,
937
00:48:57,725 --> 00:48:59,553
especially people
within the genre
938
00:48:59,656 --> 00:49:02,691
where the fans will see
that's Frank Darabont
939
00:49:02,795 --> 00:49:04,898
and you feel like you're
part of a special club
940
00:49:04,899 --> 00:49:07,451
because most people
don't know who Frank
941
00:49:07,554 --> 00:49:10,899
Darabont is but we do, right?
942
00:49:10,900 --> 00:49:13,554
And Steve saw me and he
said, what are you doing here?
943
00:49:13,658 --> 00:49:17,244
And I said, I've come
all this way to tell you
944
00:49:17,245 --> 00:49:19,141
I really want to
do The Green Mile.
945
00:49:19,279 --> 00:49:21,797
He said, great, it's yours.
946
00:49:21,901 --> 00:49:24,108
I said, fantastic, can
I read the rest of it?
947
00:49:24,211 --> 00:49:25,417
He said, no, you can't.
948
00:49:25,418 --> 00:49:28,280
You have to wait just
like everybody else.
949
00:49:28,384 --> 00:49:30,454
And then that's when
he also admitted
950
00:49:30,556 --> 00:49:32,212
that he actually
hadn't even written
951
00:49:32,316 --> 00:49:33,971
the last volume or two of it.
952
00:49:34,109 --> 00:49:38,317
I thought, what a bold,
crazy, high wire act that is.
953
00:49:38,455 --> 00:49:39,902
He's an extraordinary writer.
954
00:49:39,903 --> 00:49:41,593
He's sort of like
the Charles Dickens
955
00:49:41,696 --> 00:49:43,731
of 20th and 21st century.
956
00:49:43,835 --> 00:49:48,213
Literally writing these massive
novels almost in episodes.
957
00:49:48,214 --> 00:49:49,663
What a giant.
958
00:49:49,801 --> 00:49:51,974
The Green Mile was his
attempt to do Dickens, which
959
00:49:52,077 --> 00:49:55,698
is to write an episodic
novel where he could publish
960
00:49:55,801 --> 00:49:58,905
a new chapter every
week or whatever it was,
961
00:49:58,906 --> 00:50:02,596
which is how Dickens came to
write so many of his novels.
962
00:50:02,698 --> 00:50:04,560
That was how they
wrote in the 1800s,
963
00:50:04,561 --> 00:50:06,044
and they were trying
to make a living
964
00:50:06,147 --> 00:50:08,630
and they were paid a penny
a word or whatever it was.
965
00:50:08,734 --> 00:50:10,148
But that was The Green Mile too.
966
00:50:10,286 --> 00:50:13,493
The movie was set during
the Depression at a time,
967
00:50:13,631 --> 00:50:15,389
and certainly in a
place where black people
968
00:50:15,390 --> 00:50:17,631
were not respected at all.
969
00:50:17,735 --> 00:50:21,079
Boy, you under
arrest for murder.
970
00:50:21,080 --> 00:50:23,908
That's what I thought was
so interesting and powerful
971
00:50:23,909 --> 00:50:26,599
about the theme of that
story when I read it.
972
00:50:26,701 --> 00:50:28,219
What does the Bible speak of?
973
00:50:28,323 --> 00:50:32,048
It speaks of the least of these,
the least will be the greatest.
974
00:50:32,151 --> 00:50:35,599
You have a man who is not
even really considered a man.
975
00:50:35,600 --> 00:50:38,600
What if that person is
actually a miracle of God?
976
00:50:38,703 --> 00:50:40,980
What if that is the best of us?
977
00:50:41,083 --> 00:50:43,808
And I find that so
moving and so powerful.
978
00:50:43,945 --> 00:50:46,152
And just the basic
theme of don't
979
00:50:46,290 --> 00:50:47,635
judge a book by its cover.
980
00:50:47,739 --> 00:50:49,567
You don't judge a person
by the color of their skin.
981
00:50:49,670 --> 00:50:52,188
You don't judge a person
by their status in life
982
00:50:52,291 --> 00:50:53,498
or in society.
983
00:50:53,602 --> 00:50:55,051
It's like what Martin
Luther King said,
984
00:50:55,154 --> 00:50:58,741
which is judge somebody by the
content of their character,
985
00:50:58,844 --> 00:51:02,257
not the color of their
skin, not by surface things.
986
00:51:02,258 --> 00:51:03,706
Judge them by their actions.
987
00:51:03,810 --> 00:51:05,604
And I'm a big believer
in that sort of thing.
988
00:51:05,706 --> 00:51:09,431
I want it to be
over and done with.
989
00:51:09,535 --> 00:51:10,604
I do.
990
00:51:15,639 --> 00:51:18,950
I'm tired, boss.
991
00:51:19,054 --> 00:51:21,157
I'm tired of being
on the road, lonely
992
00:51:21,261 --> 00:51:24,675
as a sparrow in the rain.
993
00:51:24,779 --> 00:51:27,261
I'm tired of never having
me a buddy to be with,
994
00:51:27,262 --> 00:51:33,125
or to tell me where we's
going to, coming from or why.
995
00:51:33,227 --> 00:51:36,883
Mostly I'm tired of people
being ugly to each other.
996
00:51:36,987 --> 00:51:40,746
My favorite memory
of The Green Mile
997
00:51:40,850 --> 00:51:43,815
is one of my favorite memories
from directing period.
998
00:51:43,919 --> 00:51:47,643
There's the scene in The Green
Mile where Paul, Tom Hanks,
999
00:51:47,747 --> 00:51:50,299
comes into the cell
with John Coffey
1000
00:51:50,402 --> 00:51:54,472
and they've now realized that
he is A, innocent of the crime,
1001
00:51:54,575 --> 00:51:56,990
and B, that he is
this miracle of God.
1002
00:51:57,093 --> 00:52:00,920
It's the scene that I got
Michael the nomination, right?
1003
00:52:00,921 --> 00:52:03,748
Shooting that scene,
this is an example
1004
00:52:03,749 --> 00:52:06,991
of what a generous
actor Tom Hanks is
1005
00:52:07,094 --> 00:52:10,956
and the wisdom of a
truly generous actor
1006
00:52:11,060 --> 00:52:16,784
because since Michael was
the least experienced actor
1007
00:52:16,785 --> 00:52:21,268
on the set when we began, I
would usually start shooting
1008
00:52:21,269 --> 00:52:25,234
a scene with him first
because he would generally
1009
00:52:25,338 --> 00:52:27,234
get there within a few takes.
1010
00:52:27,338 --> 00:52:28,856
The same with every actor.
1011
00:52:28,959 --> 00:52:31,442
They usually have their sweet
spot, whether it takes 1, to 3,
1012
00:52:31,546 --> 00:52:32,959
takes 5 to 6 or whatever.
1013
00:52:33,063 --> 00:52:34,822
As a director, you've got
to just make a note of that
1014
00:52:34,926 --> 00:52:36,788
and make sure you
don't wear them out
1015
00:52:36,891 --> 00:52:38,442
by the time they're on camera.
1016
00:52:38,443 --> 00:52:40,925
And Tom was always very
gracious about that
1017
00:52:40,926 --> 00:52:42,580
and movie stars aren't always.
1018
00:52:42,581 --> 00:52:44,754
They usually want
to start on them,
1019
00:52:44,858 --> 00:52:47,685
but he was very cool about
me starting on Michael.
1020
00:52:47,823 --> 00:52:52,099
I remember we started the same
way all on Michael and Tom
1021
00:52:52,100 --> 00:52:56,618
was off camera, but he wasn't
just giving him the lines.
1022
00:52:56,721 --> 00:53:00,100
He was acting his
heart out for Michael.
1023
00:53:00,101 --> 00:53:03,825
I was starting to get nervous,
thinking, I hope Tom still has
1024
00:53:03,963 --> 00:53:06,445
some gas left in the tank
by the time I turn around
1025
00:53:06,446 --> 00:53:09,068
and get the cameras on him
because he's winning an Academy
1026
00:53:09,171 --> 00:53:14,171
Award here off camera, but he
knew to get the performance
1027
00:53:14,309 --> 00:53:18,483
that Michael needed to give, he
had to give Michael everything
1028
00:53:18,585 --> 00:53:21,586
as his scene partner.
1029
00:53:21,690 --> 00:53:26,103
And that wisdom and that
generosity, the risk
1030
00:53:26,104 --> 00:53:29,656
of not having enough
left for yourself,
1031
00:53:29,760 --> 00:53:31,932
but giving it all to the
other actor, so that,
1032
00:53:31,933 --> 00:53:37,002
that actor can shine, that's
the kind of generosity
1033
00:53:37,105 --> 00:53:38,830
that Tom has.
1034
00:53:38,934 --> 00:53:40,415
It's certainly
nothing we discussed.
1035
00:53:40,416 --> 00:53:41,726
It's certainly... he just did it.
1036
00:53:41,830 --> 00:53:44,278
He just knew he had
to do it for Michael.
1037
00:53:44,279 --> 00:53:46,831
He had to be fully there 100%.
1038
00:53:46,935 --> 00:53:50,796
Tom was always on the set,
and he being the movie star,
1039
00:53:50,797 --> 00:53:54,451
we would try to be conscious
of the fact that it's Friday
1040
00:53:54,452 --> 00:53:56,625
night, you have your
weekend coming up,
1041
00:53:56,728 --> 00:54:00,143
I can let you go,
but he's... well, no,
1042
00:54:00,246 --> 00:54:01,488
we're still doing the scene.
1043
00:54:01,591 --> 00:54:03,660
Like yeah, but I've got
all your stuff already.
1044
00:54:03,764 --> 00:54:04,902
I've shot you.
1045
00:54:05,006 --> 00:54:06,523
We can have someone
stand in for you.
1046
00:54:06,627 --> 00:54:08,834
Oh, no, no, no, no, he has to
be there for the other actors.
1047
00:54:08,938 --> 00:54:11,316
So Tom would be there
sometimes till 2 o'clock
1048
00:54:11,420 --> 00:54:12,421
in the morning on a Friday.
1049
00:54:12,523 --> 00:54:14,145
We're now eating
into his weekend.
1050
00:54:14,248 --> 00:54:15,697
He didn't care.
1051
00:54:15,835 --> 00:54:17,801
He had to be there for the
other actors, even off camera.
1052
00:54:17,904 --> 00:54:19,835
Do you know how many
times I've been off camera
1053
00:54:19,939 --> 00:54:21,284
in all the movies I'm in?
1054
00:54:21,387 --> 00:54:22,698
Thousands.
1055
00:54:22,835 --> 00:54:26,181
Tom was one of my choices
for Andy in Shawshank.
1056
00:54:26,284 --> 00:54:30,939
He couldn't consider it because
he was doing Forrest Gump.
1057
00:54:30,940 --> 00:54:34,492
Things turned out great
regardless because Tim Robbins
1058
00:54:34,595 --> 00:54:38,665
is brilliant, and so is Morgan
Freeman so any other thoughts
1059
00:54:38,803 --> 00:54:41,182
we had don't matter.
1060
00:54:41,286 --> 00:54:42,630
We got the right guys for that.
1061
00:54:42,631 --> 00:54:44,838
But because of Shawshank
and because of the way
1062
00:54:44,942 --> 00:54:47,666
the movie turned out, Tom
approached me and said,
1063
00:54:47,770 --> 00:54:49,321
wow, I love the movies you make.
1064
00:54:49,425 --> 00:54:52,459
If you ever want me to
read anything, let me know.
1065
00:54:52,460 --> 00:54:54,667
So the very next thing
was The Green Mile
1066
00:54:54,771 --> 00:54:58,115
so I sent it straight to
Tom and he read it and said,
1067
00:54:58,116 --> 00:54:59,323
great, let's do it.
1068
00:54:59,426 --> 00:55:03,151
And it was the easiest yes
I ever got from an actor
1069
00:55:03,254 --> 00:55:08,497
and he was actually I would
say probably the easiest person
1070
00:55:08,599 --> 00:55:10,497
to work with in my career.
1071
00:55:10,635 --> 00:55:13,461
Michael, Clarke Duncan.
1072
00:55:13,462 --> 00:55:14,738
- Thanks for your time.
- All right.
1073
00:55:14,842 --> 00:55:16,946
I came home one day,
I clicked the messages,
1074
00:55:17,049 --> 00:55:19,705
and there's Bruce Willis on my
answering machine saying, hey,
1075
00:55:19,843 --> 00:55:21,600
I hear you're doing this movie.
I've read the book.
1076
00:55:21,601 --> 00:55:22,912
I really love the book.
1077
00:55:23,016 --> 00:55:24,464
You should read Michael
Clarke Duncan, a guy
1078
00:55:24,568 --> 00:55:26,326
I'm working with on Armageddon.
1079
00:55:26,464 --> 00:55:27,982
He's your guy.
1080
00:55:28,085 --> 00:55:31,844
I'm like, OK, Bruce,
I'll give him a try.
1081
00:55:31,948 --> 00:55:33,155
I'll have him in to read.
1082
00:55:39,328 --> 00:55:43,225
His first audition for
me, you thought, no way.
1083
00:55:43,328 --> 00:55:44,570
No way.
1084
00:55:44,673 --> 00:55:47,329
And then he became the only way.
1085
00:55:47,433 --> 00:55:49,191
Bruce was right,
as it turns out,
1086
00:55:49,329 --> 00:55:53,571
and I've never heard
from Bruce Willis since.
1087
00:55:53,674 --> 00:55:54,847
This is the only time...
1088
00:55:54,985 --> 00:55:56,537
this is one of those
weird surreal moments
1089
00:55:56,675 --> 00:55:58,675
you have sometimes in our
business where you go,
1090
00:55:58,779 --> 00:56:00,503
there's Bruce Willis on
my answering machine.
1091
00:56:00,641 --> 00:56:02,434
That's kind of great.
1092
00:56:02,435 --> 00:56:03,917
That's kind of cool.
1093
00:56:04,021 --> 00:56:06,331
It's pretty funny,
but no, he was right.
1094
00:56:06,435 --> 00:56:08,193
Michael was the guy.
1095
00:56:08,297 --> 00:56:12,469
We had the little girl
bodies that we had made.
1096
00:56:12,470 --> 00:56:17,850
The dummies were sculpted to
make John Coffey look larger.
1097
00:56:17,988 --> 00:56:19,746
He was very tall
actor to begin with,
1098
00:56:19,850 --> 00:56:21,987
but we sort of scaled
them down a little bit.
1099
00:56:21,988 --> 00:56:24,643
And for some reason or another,
the first time they filmed it,
1100
00:56:24,644 --> 00:56:26,334
the dummies weren't
positioned in the way
1101
00:56:26,472 --> 00:56:27,989
that they were sculpted.
1102
00:56:28,093 --> 00:56:31,782
We were editing the movie and
Frank had said there's just one
1103
00:56:31,783 --> 00:56:35,335
thing that I want to
take a second stab at
1104
00:56:35,439 --> 00:56:40,128
and we rebuilt the dummies
of the two little girls,
1105
00:56:40,129 --> 00:56:43,509
and we reshot it on the
backlot at Warner studios.
1106
00:56:43,612 --> 00:56:46,371
And it made a world
of difference.
1107
00:56:46,509 --> 00:56:48,473
People don't realize
what it takes
1108
00:56:48,474 --> 00:56:50,750
to make a movie and
every single element,
1109
00:56:50,854 --> 00:56:52,475
you have to make a decision.
1110
00:56:52,579 --> 00:56:53,648
Do you like that belt?
1111
00:56:53,751 --> 00:56:55,097
What about the
color of that shirt?
1112
00:56:55,199 --> 00:56:56,474
How does the sun look?
1113
00:56:56,475 --> 00:56:58,028
Do we want this
in the background?
1114
00:56:58,166 --> 00:57:00,683
And you have to have
an answer for every one
1115
00:57:00,822 --> 00:57:02,994
of those questions
and you get hit
1116
00:57:03,098 --> 00:57:05,856
as the director from the
second you step on set
1117
00:57:05,960 --> 00:57:07,167
to the second you go home.
1118
00:57:07,270 --> 00:57:10,201
I'm in heaven
1119
00:57:10,339 --> 00:57:17,030
and my heart beats so
that I can hardly speak.
1120
00:57:17,133 --> 00:57:25,514
And I seem to find the happiness
I SEEK When we're out together
1121
00:57:25,617 --> 00:57:27,825
dancing cheek to cheek.
1122
00:57:27,928 --> 00:57:30,928
There was something
about the musicals
1123
00:57:31,032 --> 00:57:33,204
that Hollywood was making
during the Depression
1124
00:57:33,342 --> 00:57:36,826
when the circumstances of
real life were so dire,
1125
00:57:36,929 --> 00:57:39,343
but the musicals
were this glossy sort
1126
00:57:39,447 --> 00:57:41,930
of unattainable
like heaven vision.
1127
00:57:42,034 --> 00:57:45,861
And that particular number
has always struck me
1128
00:57:45,965 --> 00:57:49,654
in such a delightful way because
it's Fred Astaire and Ginger
1129
00:57:49,655 --> 00:57:53,276
Rogers, they're the most
iconic musical performers
1130
00:57:53,380 --> 00:57:54,862
and dancers of that era.
1131
00:57:54,966 --> 00:57:57,829
And they are singing
about heaven.
1132
00:57:57,932 --> 00:57:59,966
It just felt like
the right anchor
1133
00:57:59,967 --> 00:58:02,519
for the movie and
Steve's story, it
1134
00:58:02,622 --> 00:58:05,449
was killer's kiss,
the Richard Widmark
1135
00:58:05,450 --> 00:58:06,864
playing some crazy killer.
1136
00:58:07,002 --> 00:58:10,175
That made our main
character, Paul, think
1137
00:58:10,278 --> 00:58:13,692
of the events of long ago
because that character
1138
00:58:13,831 --> 00:58:15,348
reminded him of Percy.
1139
00:58:15,451 --> 00:58:18,176
It didn't feel like quite
the right thing to me.
1140
00:58:18,279 --> 00:58:22,383
I wanted the contrast, I
think, between the reality
1141
00:58:22,521 --> 00:58:24,969
of that time versus
the dream reality
1142
00:58:24,970 --> 00:58:26,522
that Hollywood was telling us.
1143
00:58:26,625 --> 00:58:28,833
And I wanted it to
remind him of John Coffey
1144
00:58:28,936 --> 00:58:32,385
and not of Percy when he
was watching that clip
1145
00:58:32,523 --> 00:58:34,316
and being transported
by something
1146
00:58:34,419 --> 00:58:35,695
he'd never seen before.
1147
00:58:35,799 --> 00:58:39,557
And they're singing
about being in heaven.
1148
00:58:39,695 --> 00:58:42,143
I thought, OK that seems
really right to me.
1149
00:58:42,144 --> 00:58:45,731
I couldn't quite picture the
scene with John Coffey watching
1150
00:58:45,869 --> 00:58:48,007
Richard Widmark pushing
some lady down the stairs
1151
00:58:48,111 --> 00:58:50,938
in a wheelchair and giggling
because he's murdered her
1152
00:58:51,042 --> 00:58:53,317
and like, I didn't
see that having
1153
00:58:53,318 --> 00:58:55,112
a great effect on John Coffey.
1154
00:58:55,215 --> 00:58:57,939
That's one of those things
that when you're translating
1155
00:58:58,043 --> 00:58:59,974
from one language
to another language,
1156
00:58:59,975 --> 00:59:02,871
from written
storytelling to cinema
1157
00:59:03,009 --> 00:59:05,457
storytelling that
evolve along the way,
1158
00:59:05,458 --> 00:59:06,872
that change along the way.
1159
00:59:06,975 --> 00:59:10,629
It's like what do I want
the audience to feel when
1160
00:59:10,630 --> 00:59:12,045
they're watching this scene?
1161
00:59:23,287 --> 00:59:26,770
Frank and I have been
friends for decades
1162
00:59:26,874 --> 00:59:31,392
and when it came time
to shoot The Green Mile,
1163
00:59:31,495 --> 00:59:35,220
we knew that the
big moment would
1164
00:59:35,324 --> 00:59:39,841
be Del's, death and the
electrocution in the chair.
1165
00:59:39,842 --> 00:59:43,049
And we worked with Darrell
Pritchett who was the special
1166
00:59:43,152 --> 00:59:48,669
effects coordinator, and we
knew that first and foremost,
1167
00:59:48,670 --> 00:59:51,635
whatever we built,
whatever this puppet
1168
00:59:51,636 --> 00:59:53,844
that was going to
be built needed
1169
00:59:53,947 --> 00:59:56,567
to move 100% realistically.
1170
00:59:56,671 --> 00:59:59,016
So we had Michael
Jeter, the actor,
1171
00:59:59,120 --> 01:00:04,121
come to our studio in the chair,
and we filmed his movements.
1172
01:00:04,224 --> 01:00:07,224
We filmed how he would move
and how he would react,
1173
01:00:07,328 --> 01:00:10,535
and we sort of reverse
engineered the puppet
1174
01:00:10,673 --> 01:00:12,225
to match what the
actor had done,
1175
01:00:12,362 --> 01:00:15,155
which traditionally, you
don't usually do it that way.
1176
01:00:15,156 --> 01:00:16,949
The puppet... you just
kind of... the puppet
1177
01:00:17,053 --> 01:00:19,846
does what it's going to do
and what it's built to do.
1178
01:00:19,847 --> 01:00:23,847
But in that particular instance,
it was really, really important
1179
01:00:23,950 --> 01:00:27,709
that it felt 100% real.
1180
01:00:27,813 --> 01:00:29,469
Michael came to the studio.
1181
01:00:29,571 --> 01:00:32,124
We recorded all
of his movements,
1182
01:00:32,227 --> 01:00:35,227
and then at that point,
we did a body cast of him.
1183
01:00:35,365 --> 01:00:39,849
We built a fiberglass body the
puppeteer rods and controls
1184
01:00:39,952 --> 01:00:42,194
and cables went out
the bottom of the chair
1185
01:00:42,297 --> 01:00:43,366
and through the back wall.
1186
01:00:43,470 --> 01:00:44,884
So when we were
shooting the scene,
1187
01:00:44,988 --> 01:00:48,022
all the puppeteers
were behind the wall.
1188
01:00:48,126 --> 01:00:50,159
So we couldn't see
anything, because we
1189
01:00:50,160 --> 01:00:53,127
weren't in the room with Tom
Hanks and all the other actors.
1190
01:00:53,230 --> 01:00:54,712
We were on the other
side of the wall
1191
01:00:54,851 --> 01:00:56,230
so we had a little
monitor there.
1192
01:00:56,368 --> 01:00:58,230
Steve was there when
we shot that sequence.
1193
01:00:58,368 --> 01:01:03,369
We have Stephen King visiting
the set of The Green Mile.
1194
01:01:03,507 --> 01:01:05,887
How are you doing?
1195
01:01:06,025 --> 01:01:07,299
How are you?
1196
01:01:07,300 --> 01:01:08,129
OK.
1197
01:01:08,130 --> 01:01:09,232
Fabulous.
1198
01:01:09,336 --> 01:01:11,128
Is this the mile the
way you pictured it?
1199
01:01:11,129 --> 01:01:12,198
Yeah.
1200
01:01:12,336 --> 01:01:13,543
Sure it is.
1201
01:01:13,646 --> 01:01:14,508
Well, we're about...
we're about to roll.
1202
01:01:14,612 --> 01:01:15,923
- OK.
- Watch the magic.
1203
01:01:19,164 --> 01:01:22,337
Cut.
1204
01:01:22,440 --> 01:01:23,200
Frank, you maniac.
1205
01:01:24,372 --> 01:01:25,234
We're definitely going to...
1206
01:01:25,372 --> 01:01:26,269
There is no better man.
1207
01:01:26,372 --> 01:01:27,717
That's great.
1208
01:01:27,821 --> 01:01:29,303
Let me show you... let me
show you all Sparky, man.
1209
01:01:29,407 --> 01:01:30,338
And we fried the bastard.
1210
01:01:30,339 --> 01:01:31,475
Yeah, I don't blame you.
1211
01:01:31,476 --> 01:01:33,648
I would.
1212
01:01:33,649 --> 01:01:36,615
Check this out, man.
1213
01:01:36,718 --> 01:01:38,373
Is this ever cranky.
1214
01:01:38,511 --> 01:01:39,202
Look at this.
1215
01:01:39,340 --> 01:01:40,305
Check it out.
1216
01:01:40,409 --> 01:01:41,547
And then we strap the ankles.
1217
01:01:41,650 --> 01:01:43,374
Kind of be sort of
like a Houdini thing
1218
01:01:43,478 --> 01:01:46,858
if you could pull it off.
1219
01:01:46,961 --> 01:01:48,513
And that's exactly it.
1220
01:01:48,616 --> 01:01:49,513
Exactly.
1221
01:01:49,617 --> 01:01:50,823
This is a good look for you.
1222
01:01:50,824 --> 01:01:52,444
It's a good look for me.
1223
01:01:52,548 --> 01:01:53,893
Yeah.
1224
01:01:54,031 --> 01:01:55,686
Frank, could I get out now?
1225
01:01:55,789 --> 01:01:57,823
Stephen King
showed up on the set.
1226
01:01:57,824 --> 01:01:59,825
It was his birthday.
1227
01:01:59,929 --> 01:02:02,721
We brought out a cake, we all
sang happy birthday to him.
1228
01:02:02,860 --> 01:02:05,997
We do have a secret evil
plan for Stephen King.
1229
01:02:05,998 --> 01:02:08,136
Since last Monday
was his birthday,
1230
01:02:08,239 --> 01:02:10,998
we're going to spring
a birthday cake on him.
1231
01:02:10,999 --> 01:02:12,344
Oh, god.
1232
01:02:24,724 --> 01:02:26,379
You like me.
1233
01:02:26,517 --> 01:02:28,690
You really, really like me.
1234
01:02:40,312 --> 01:02:42,210
We pulled it off.
1235
01:02:42,313 --> 01:02:43,313
Success.
1236
01:02:43,417 --> 01:02:44,555
I think we really surprised him.
1237
01:02:44,658 --> 01:02:47,348
Eduard Delacroix
you are history.
1238
01:02:51,866 --> 01:02:54,728
Everybody sang happy
birthday in the theater.
1239
01:02:54,832 --> 01:02:55,901
God bless you.
1240
01:02:56,039 --> 01:02:56,970
Thank you.
1241
01:02:57,074 --> 01:02:58,350
Frank, when's your birthday?
1242
01:02:58,453 --> 01:02:59,384
January 28th.
1243
01:02:59,488 --> 01:03:00,695
Good.
1244
01:03:00,797 --> 01:03:01,557
Be prepared.
1245
01:03:02,868 --> 01:03:04,040
People so excited
to have him there.
1246
01:03:04,144 --> 01:03:05,902
- Give my best to everybody.
- All right.
1247
01:03:06,040 --> 01:03:06,557
Take care.
1248
01:03:06,660 --> 01:03:08,075
Bye, bye.
1249
01:03:08,213 --> 01:03:09,075
Bye, everybody.
1250
01:03:09,178 --> 01:03:10,144
Bye, Steve.
1251
01:03:10,247 --> 01:03:13,076
Gosh, it could have
all been taken away.
1252
01:03:13,179 --> 01:03:16,041
In something eerily
familiar from his book,
1253
01:03:16,145 --> 01:03:18,628
Stephen King was
hit by a truck as he
1254
01:03:18,731 --> 01:03:22,042
walked along an empty road.
1255
01:03:22,146 --> 01:03:23,179
He's in Maine.
1256
01:03:23,180 --> 01:03:26,560
He's walking his dog
and then typical Stephen
1257
01:03:26,663 --> 01:03:28,629
King, tragedy strikes.
1258
01:03:28,732 --> 01:03:30,732
He's in this horrible accident.
1259
01:03:30,871 --> 01:03:32,871
We were all afraid
after that accident
1260
01:03:32,974 --> 01:03:34,906
that, that was going to be it.
1261
01:03:35,044 --> 01:03:38,320
It's miraculous that
he came out of it alive,
1262
01:03:38,424 --> 01:03:41,492
and now fully ambulatory.
1263
01:03:41,493 --> 01:03:43,492
That's just amazing to me.
1264
01:03:43,493 --> 01:03:45,873
So thanking God for that.
1265
01:03:48,149 --> 01:03:50,321
That whole accident
is actually very much
1266
01:03:50,425 --> 01:03:53,150
connected to The Green Mile.
1267
01:03:53,253 --> 01:03:56,322
When we had our big premiere
screening in Westwood,
1268
01:03:56,426 --> 01:03:59,219
it was the first time Stephen
King had made an appearance
1269
01:03:59,322 --> 01:04:03,978
in public since his accident
and in a lot of pain
1270
01:04:04,082 --> 01:04:06,945
still, you know, but
he was very invested
1271
01:04:07,048 --> 01:04:09,496
emotionally in the movie, and
he really wanted to be there.
1272
01:04:09,497 --> 01:04:10,806
He really wanted to see it.
1273
01:04:10,910 --> 01:04:14,393
So that was his first
time out after that.
1274
01:04:14,497 --> 01:04:17,566
Appliance that holds the pins,
1275
01:04:17,704 --> 01:04:20,084
that hold the bones together.
1276
01:04:20,187 --> 01:04:21,808
On a home shopping network now,
1277
01:04:21,912 --> 01:04:25,601
operators are
standing by, use Tudi.
1278
01:04:25,705 --> 01:04:27,740
Humor and drugs, the
two things together.
1279
01:04:27,844 --> 01:04:28,671
And bitching.
1280
01:04:29,809 --> 01:04:31,602
A lot of bitching off camera.
1281
01:04:31,706 --> 01:04:34,326
Yeah, big time.
1282
01:04:34,327 --> 01:04:36,086
King is a believer.
1283
01:04:36,189 --> 01:04:38,017
Steve had often
talked about life
1284
01:04:38,018 --> 01:04:41,156
goes on after the story ends.
1285
01:04:41,259 --> 01:04:45,604
I am not a religious person by
any stretch of the imagination,
1286
01:04:45,708 --> 01:04:49,502
but religion and belief
are not the same thing.
1287
01:04:49,605 --> 01:04:54,295
Religion is often used to
control not to give comfort.
1288
01:04:58,089 --> 01:04:59,399
Praise God!
1289
01:04:59,537 --> 01:05:00,779
Praise the Lord!
1290
01:05:00,917 --> 01:05:03,159
King does
touch and use politics,
1291
01:05:03,262 --> 01:05:06,159
social issues, cultural
issues, and religion
1292
01:05:06,262 --> 01:05:07,366
in a lot of his work.
1293
01:05:07,469 --> 01:05:08,953
It's woven through.
1294
01:05:09,091 --> 01:05:11,987
It's one of his elements, I
guess we could call it, motifs.
1295
01:05:12,091 --> 01:05:13,780
Children of the Corn
was no different.
1296
01:05:13,884 --> 01:05:17,092
When I saw the script, I
realized that this script is
1297
01:05:17,194 --> 01:05:22,057
based on a exploration of dogma,
how people follow other people,
1298
01:05:22,161 --> 01:05:25,850
how cults work, why belief
systems are what they are
1299
01:05:25,851 --> 01:05:27,747
and how people
manipulate others.
1300
01:05:27,851 --> 01:05:30,334
It's really ingrained
in American culture,
1301
01:05:30,438 --> 01:05:32,714
even if we're not
religious, we've grown up
1302
01:05:32,817 --> 01:05:34,610
with religion from childhood.
1303
01:05:34,714 --> 01:05:36,990
Most kids go to church
in their early years,
1304
01:05:37,094 --> 01:05:38,852
and maybe they grow
out of it, or maybe
1305
01:05:38,853 --> 01:05:41,369
they never go,
but it's something
1306
01:05:41,370 --> 01:05:43,198
that's always around you.
1307
01:05:46,785 --> 01:05:49,542
In the late 1980s, my
parents who were Methodist
1308
01:05:49,543 --> 01:05:53,923
at that time, became Southern
Baptists, and all of a sudden,
1309
01:05:54,027 --> 01:05:56,441
a lot of the things that I
had loved were off limits.
1310
01:05:56,579 --> 01:06:01,027
For that intense dddd of time, I
sort of lived in Fahrenheit 451
1311
01:06:01,028 --> 01:06:03,269
in my house.
1312
01:06:03,373 --> 01:06:06,614
I had to hide Stephen King books
under my bed in the box springs
1313
01:06:06,752 --> 01:06:08,856
under my bed, and
they did at one time
1314
01:06:08,960 --> 01:06:11,615
find kind of my stash of
Stephen King books under the bed
1315
01:06:11,753 --> 01:06:13,892
and they burned them
in our fireplace.
1316
01:06:16,237 --> 01:06:19,685
I wrote Stephen King a letter
that my books had been burned.
1317
01:06:19,789 --> 01:06:21,789
I just put Stephen
King, Bangor, Maine
1318
01:06:21,927 --> 01:06:25,341
and I sent him the first
three dark tower books.
1319
01:06:25,445 --> 01:06:27,341
I had read that if you
sent Stephen King a book,
1320
01:06:27,445 --> 01:06:29,239
he'd sign it for you.
I didn't expect anything.
1321
01:06:29,341 --> 01:06:31,101
I wasn't even sure it would get
there, but a couple of weeks
1322
01:06:31,239 --> 01:06:33,480
later, I came home from the
private Christian school
1323
01:06:33,584 --> 01:06:34,825
that I went to every day.
1324
01:06:34,929 --> 01:06:37,722
My dad pulled me aside,
and he was like, Josh,
1325
01:06:37,825 --> 01:06:40,343
there's a box here
from Stephen King.
1326
01:06:40,447 --> 01:06:41,895
I didn't tell your mom.
1327
01:06:41,896 --> 01:06:45,103
King had written me this
beautiful message, kind of,
1328
01:06:45,241 --> 01:06:47,068
in the front cover
of each of the books.
1329
01:06:47,172 --> 01:06:49,724
And it was a continuing letter,
so you'd start reading one,
1330
01:06:49,827 --> 01:06:51,620
and then the next
one would pick up.
1331
01:06:51,758 --> 01:06:53,897
I couldn't imagine
that my mom was burning
1332
01:06:54,000 --> 01:06:55,621
The Stand in our
fireplace because it's
1333
01:06:55,724 --> 01:06:57,862
the most Christian
book he's ever written.
1334
01:06:57,863 --> 01:06:59,898
I was raised by
people who believed
1335
01:07:00,001 --> 01:07:02,105
the Antichrist was
coming at some point,
1336
01:07:02,208 --> 01:07:03,932
that the rapture
was going to happen.
1337
01:07:04,036 --> 01:07:06,105
Stephen King gave
me a counter myth
1338
01:07:06,243 --> 01:07:08,518
that allowed me to look
at some of this stuff
1339
01:07:08,519 --> 01:07:09,933
in a different way.
1340
01:07:10,037 --> 01:07:12,278
I'm seeing a lot of army traffic
1341
01:07:12,416 --> 01:07:16,658
on state 17 westbound in
the direction of Arnett.
1342
01:07:16,761 --> 01:07:17,934
You heard anything about that?
1343
01:07:18,072 --> 01:07:19,728
Just you let the army
mind their business
1344
01:07:19,830 --> 01:07:21,590
and you mind yours unit 16.
1345
01:07:21,693 --> 01:07:23,073
Goodbye.
1346
01:07:23,177 --> 01:07:25,797
Politics is something that
King doesn't shy away from
1347
01:07:25,901 --> 01:07:29,693
and neither do I. The whole
military industrial complex.
1348
01:07:29,694 --> 01:07:31,280
The military thinks
they're right,
1349
01:07:31,384 --> 01:07:33,902
and they can do whatever
the hell they want to do.
1350
01:07:34,005 --> 01:07:35,867
Well, that's not
why they're there.
1351
01:07:35,971 --> 01:07:38,937
They're there for protecting
us, not controlling us.
1352
01:07:39,041 --> 01:07:43,385
The idea that civilization
and society is a very fragile
1353
01:07:43,386 --> 01:07:46,455
construct, and it can fall
apart at the drop of a hat
1354
01:07:46,593 --> 01:07:48,904
is very appealing to
me, because if you
1355
01:07:49,007 --> 01:07:50,594
are a student of
history, you can
1356
01:07:50,697 --> 01:07:52,594
see that, that has
happened many, many times
1357
01:07:52,732 --> 01:07:54,249
in many, many ways.
1358
01:07:54,352 --> 01:07:58,284
Entire nations can go insane and
everything that we depend upon,
1359
01:07:58,422 --> 01:08:02,113
especially more and more
it's so very technological
1360
01:08:02,215 --> 01:08:04,940
that if you pull the
rug out from under us,
1361
01:08:05,078 --> 01:08:07,078
we revert to a very
primitive state.
1362
01:08:07,182 --> 01:08:09,596
You don't seem to understand
the situation here, ma'am.
1363
01:08:09,734 --> 01:08:11,216
Martial law has been declared.
1364
01:08:11,217 --> 01:08:14,079
We don't have to put up with you
and your pinko friends anymore.
1365
01:08:14,183 --> 01:08:16,872
Mike, are you getting all this?
1366
01:08:16,873 --> 01:08:18,769
Get him!
1367
01:08:18,873 --> 01:08:19,769
Get the driver!
1368
01:08:21,700 --> 01:08:23,700
You know, The
Stand shines a light
1369
01:08:23,701 --> 01:08:26,356
on what America is as a nation.
1370
01:08:26,460 --> 01:08:31,737
When all the societal norms
break down, who are they?
1371
01:08:31,840 --> 01:08:34,356
Yeats was right.
1372
01:08:34,357 --> 01:08:35,806
Things fall apart.
1373
01:08:35,944 --> 01:08:38,874
And here we are at this
moment seeing societal norms
1374
01:08:38,875 --> 01:08:41,083
break down and it's not pretty.
1375
01:08:41,186 --> 01:08:41,703
It's terrifying.
1376
01:08:41,704 --> 01:08:44,428
Bring out your dead.
1377
01:08:44,565 --> 01:08:46,014
The monster is coming.
1378
01:08:46,118 --> 01:08:47,428
He's coming.
1379
01:08:47,566 --> 01:08:50,119
Bring out your dead.
1380
01:08:50,222 --> 01:08:52,084
Bring out your dead.
1381
01:08:52,188 --> 01:08:54,119
Just the idea of what would you
1382
01:08:54,257 --> 01:08:57,291
do if like everyone
was dead and there was
1383
01:08:57,395 --> 01:08:58,774
just this handful of people?
1384
01:08:58,913 --> 01:09:00,258
I hadn't seen many
stories like that.
1385
01:09:00,361 --> 01:09:03,222
Now it seems like maybe
every story is about that,
1386
01:09:03,223 --> 01:09:05,465
but back then, seeing The
Stand mini series, that
1387
01:09:05,603 --> 01:09:08,535
was the first time I thought,
oh my god, imagine if I survived
1388
01:09:08,637 --> 01:09:10,948
something like that, and you
could go into a supermarket
1389
01:09:11,086 --> 01:09:11,949
and no one was
there, and there's
1390
01:09:12,086 --> 01:09:13,535
a town and everyone's dead.
1391
01:09:13,638 --> 01:09:17,432
Like, it was just so mind
blowing to me as a little kid.
1392
01:09:17,536 --> 01:09:19,674
I really
didn't want to do The Stand
1393
01:09:19,777 --> 01:09:22,019
again linear because
mix series meant
1394
01:09:22,123 --> 01:09:23,468
so much to me when I was a kid.
1395
01:09:23,570 --> 01:09:27,123
I don't know what reason
there is to make that again.
1396
01:09:27,226 --> 01:09:28,917
We had to do some
things too just
1397
01:09:29,020 --> 01:09:31,193
to make it more representative
of all of America
1398
01:09:31,296 --> 01:09:32,881
because if everybody
in the world died,
1399
01:09:32,882 --> 01:09:34,296
you don't just want
to see a poster
1400
01:09:34,434 --> 01:09:36,193
with a bunch of white people
and one old black Lady.
1401
01:09:36,296 --> 01:09:38,434
Because in the book, it
is... everybody's white
1402
01:09:38,572 --> 01:09:39,918
except for mother Abigail.
1403
01:09:40,021 --> 01:09:42,194
It was written 40 years
ago before I was even born.
1404
01:09:42,297 --> 01:09:44,677
So we really did try
to do what we could
1405
01:09:44,780 --> 01:09:46,091
to make it be if
the world ended,
1406
01:09:46,195 --> 01:09:48,264
this is a cross-section
of all the people.
1407
01:09:48,367 --> 01:09:50,264
And then just trying to
structure it in a way
1408
01:09:50,367 --> 01:09:52,540
that would be surprising
to people who were really
1409
01:09:52,643 --> 01:09:54,402
familiar with the
material, who had
1410
01:09:54,403 --> 01:09:56,712
seen the series many
times when they were young
1411
01:09:56,713 --> 01:09:58,265
or read the book.
1412
01:09:58,368 --> 01:10:00,024
We wanted to make sure that
even if you'd read the book,
1413
01:10:00,128 --> 01:10:01,782
you never would quite
know where it was
1414
01:10:01,921 --> 01:10:04,645
going to go next and all that.
1415
01:10:04,783 --> 01:10:07,403
The irony of that
was not lost upon us.
1416
01:10:07,404 --> 01:10:10,886
While we were shooting, we
were at the very last day shut
1417
01:10:10,887 --> 01:10:13,025
down by the COVID pandemic.
1418
01:10:13,129 --> 01:10:15,957
And of course, The
Stand begins with
1419
01:10:16,061 --> 01:10:19,819
a global pandemic that kills 90%
of the population of the world.
1420
01:10:19,923 --> 01:10:22,854
So it was truly unnerving
while we were shooting, seeing
1421
01:10:22,958 --> 01:10:24,268
how the disease was spreading.
1422
01:10:24,406 --> 01:10:25,647
It was strange.
1423
01:10:25,751 --> 01:10:27,407
It was surreal, and
it's still surreal now.
1424
01:10:30,131 --> 01:10:32,303
But I mean, yes, we
absolutely were making
1425
01:10:32,407 --> 01:10:35,752
a show about what is
happening in the world,
1426
01:10:35,855 --> 01:10:38,960
and that was weird.
1427
01:10:39,064 --> 01:10:41,202
That man has had a
crystal ball for a very
1428
01:10:41,305 --> 01:10:42,478
long time on his desk.
1429
01:10:42,615 --> 01:10:44,098
Just like show me the future.
1430
01:10:44,202 --> 01:10:46,063
That's the legend
of Stephen King.
1431
01:10:46,064 --> 01:10:48,306
He's able to see
things in the future
1432
01:10:48,409 --> 01:10:50,203
that the average person can't.
1433
01:10:50,306 --> 01:10:53,927
And then also the
fact that Randall Flagg,
1434
01:10:53,928 --> 01:10:57,411
the villain of The Stand,
has uncomfortable echoes
1435
01:10:57,513 --> 01:10:58,928
of Donald Trump.
1436
01:10:59,031 --> 01:11:03,205
We drown the rats, and
then we burn the witch.
1437
01:11:03,307 --> 01:11:05,481
In the way that he
appeals to the worst
1438
01:11:05,618 --> 01:11:09,791
of the American character and
is a kind of populist leader
1439
01:11:09,930 --> 01:11:11,756
in a world in crisis.
1440
01:11:11,757 --> 01:11:15,275
I really felt, when we were
making that mini series,
1441
01:11:15,378 --> 01:11:19,309
we were holding up a
mirror to the world.
1442
01:11:19,447 --> 01:11:22,207
And when you consider that
Stephen King wrote that book
1443
01:11:22,310 --> 01:11:26,379
sometime in the late '70s,
you, kind of, have to think
1444
01:11:26,483 --> 01:11:27,585
he's a bit of a prophet.
1445
01:11:27,586 --> 01:11:29,139
I think it's that
aspect of his work
1446
01:11:29,277 --> 01:11:31,208
that I like the most
is this deep, sort of,
1447
01:11:31,311 --> 01:11:33,622
resonant understanding
of what the moment are
1448
01:11:33,725 --> 01:11:35,140
that we're living in.
1449
01:11:35,278 --> 01:11:37,312
And in some ways the cell
had some reflections of that.
1450
01:11:37,416 --> 01:11:40,002
There were things in the book
that I felt were prophetic.
1451
01:11:40,105 --> 01:11:43,141
The signal isn't something
that might happen tomorrow.
1452
01:11:43,244 --> 01:11:43,934
It happened already.
1453
01:11:44,037 --> 01:11:45,451
This isn't like it's coming.
1454
01:11:45,555 --> 01:11:47,037
This is about what's here.
1455
01:11:52,245 --> 01:11:53,969
Even in the last
image of the film,
1456
01:11:54,107 --> 01:11:55,969
there's the initials
of Donald Trump.
1457
01:11:56,073 --> 01:11:58,073
Donald Trump was not on
the landscape at that time.
1458
01:11:58,074 --> 01:12:01,970
He's a prophet
of the apocalypse.
1459
01:12:02,074 --> 01:12:03,833
So you saw all this shit coming?
1460
01:12:03,937 --> 01:12:07,763
Craig Stillson in The
Dead Zone are just chilling.
1461
01:12:07,764 --> 01:12:11,799
What he saw coming was
unfortunately, precisely
1462
01:12:11,903 --> 01:12:14,420
accurate, and here we are.
1463
01:12:14,523 --> 01:12:15,627
Bastard!
1464
01:12:15,730 --> 01:12:16,799
You're not the
voice of the people
1465
01:12:16,903 --> 01:12:17,972
I am the voice of the people.
1466
01:12:18,076 --> 01:12:20,800
The people speak
through me, not you.
1467
01:12:20,939 --> 01:12:22,385
Came to me while I slept, Sonny.
1468
01:12:22,386 --> 01:12:23,731
My destiny.
1469
01:12:23,835 --> 01:12:25,146
In the middle of the
night, it came to me.
1470
01:12:25,249 --> 01:12:28,766
I must get up now, right
now and fulfill my destiny.
1471
01:12:28,767 --> 01:12:32,043
The Dead Zone remains my
favorite of all his King's
1472
01:12:32,147 --> 01:12:34,940
movies because Christopher
Walken's character, the love
1473
01:12:35,043 --> 01:12:38,286
story, all that wove
through that thing
1474
01:12:38,388 --> 01:12:39,975
was just incredible to me.
1475
01:12:40,079 --> 01:12:42,010
It really, really captured it.
1476
01:12:42,148 --> 01:12:45,079
When HBO started on television
here, they had five movies,
1477
01:12:45,080 --> 01:12:46,942
and they would play them
over and over again.
1478
01:12:47,045 --> 01:12:49,321
So I watched the dead
zone probably 100 times.
1479
01:12:49,425 --> 01:12:51,149
And I just think it's
one of the great love
1480
01:12:51,252 --> 01:12:52,804
stories, one of the
great performances
1481
01:12:52,908 --> 01:12:54,701
by Christopher Walken.
1482
01:12:54,804 --> 01:12:56,046
It's such a terrific film.
1483
01:12:56,150 --> 01:12:57,907
like to use this as
a shortcut to school.
1484
01:12:57,908 --> 01:13:00,116
And I came to really
feel like Stephen
1485
01:13:00,219 --> 01:13:03,392
King, in a way
like Bob Dylan, is
1486
01:13:03,496 --> 01:13:05,151
a sort of dreamer of America.
1487
01:13:05,289 --> 01:13:08,426
Like he contains
the entirety of it
1488
01:13:08,427 --> 01:13:10,254
and sort of dreams
in the language
1489
01:13:10,255 --> 01:13:13,255
of the chaos of America.
1490
01:13:31,051 --> 01:13:35,155
People, when you apply fear,
turn against one another.
1491
01:13:35,293 --> 01:13:39,465
Paranoia, suspicion,
aggression suddenly happens.
1492
01:13:39,569 --> 01:13:41,707
The veneer of
polite civilization
1493
01:13:41,810 --> 01:13:43,879
gets ripped away very quickly.
1494
01:13:43,983 --> 01:13:46,087
It is his fault. Yes, it is...
1495
01:13:46,190 --> 01:13:47,258
No!
1496
01:13:47,259 --> 01:13:49,570
We're dealing with a lot
of craziness these days,
1497
01:13:49,673 --> 01:13:51,570
and it's actually
only been getting
1498
01:13:51,571 --> 01:13:53,053
worse since I made The Mist.
1499
01:13:53,157 --> 01:13:55,088
People trying to
control an environment
1500
01:13:55,089 --> 01:13:57,227
and trying to
control a population
1501
01:13:57,330 --> 01:14:01,848
and here it's done in a
very claustrophobic sense.
1502
01:14:01,952 --> 01:14:05,537
Everybody is trapped together
in this one store that's
1503
01:14:05,641 --> 01:14:07,228
being invaded by monsters.
1504
01:14:07,331 --> 01:14:10,606
So politics has to go out
the window at one point,
1505
01:14:10,607 --> 01:14:12,779
and it's got the
grimmest ending ever,
1506
01:14:12,780 --> 01:14:15,401
and it's an ending that
Darabont came up with.
1507
01:14:15,505 --> 01:14:18,988
Frank would always send me
an early draft of the script.
1508
01:14:19,126 --> 01:14:20,333
Let me know what you think.
1509
01:14:20,436 --> 01:14:21,781
Let me know what you think.
1510
01:14:21,884 --> 01:14:23,333
He had done it with Shawshank.
1511
01:14:23,471 --> 01:14:24,471
He'd done it with Green Mile.
1512
01:14:24,609 --> 01:14:25,816
He'd done it with Majestic.
1513
01:14:25,920 --> 01:14:27,263
All of his movies, he
always send me one.
1514
01:14:27,264 --> 01:14:29,919
And he sent me The Mist
and I read the script,
1515
01:14:29,920 --> 01:14:32,092
and it got to the
end, and I threw
1516
01:14:32,093 --> 01:14:34,264
the script across the
room, and I called Frank.
1517
01:14:34,265 --> 01:14:36,403
I'm like, dude, really?
1518
01:14:40,990 --> 01:14:42,922
Stephen's a genius when it comes
1519
01:14:43,026 --> 01:14:45,026
to putting you in the
skin of those characters.
1520
01:14:45,129 --> 01:14:47,716
And then when I got to the end
of the story, I went, what?
1521
01:14:47,819 --> 01:14:49,750
There's no ending?
1522
01:14:49,854 --> 01:14:52,819
It was a very ambiguous
kind of non-ending
1523
01:14:52,923 --> 01:14:55,337
and I thought, well,
OK, that's fine.
1524
01:14:55,475 --> 01:14:58,510
He's taken me on this
incredible journey as a writer,
1525
01:14:58,648 --> 01:15:00,993
as a storyteller, fair enough.
1526
01:15:01,131 --> 01:15:04,511
If he doesn't have a
conclusive ending, that's OK.
1527
01:15:04,649 --> 01:15:07,613
But I thought if
it's a movie, I don't
1528
01:15:07,614 --> 01:15:11,684
think that's an ending that's
going to be very satisfactory.
1529
01:15:11,822 --> 01:15:15,580
I don't think it's going
to really land well.
1530
01:15:15,581 --> 01:15:17,409
Movies, I think, need an ending.
1531
01:15:17,513 --> 01:15:19,926
When I wrote the script,
I sent it to Stephen King
1532
01:15:19,927 --> 01:15:23,651
and my note was, Steve,
I gave it an ending,
1533
01:15:23,754 --> 01:15:28,238
and it's definitely a left turn
and I'm leaving this up to you.
1534
01:15:28,341 --> 01:15:31,239
The irony is when we went
to the premiere in New York,
1535
01:15:31,342 --> 01:15:33,962
Steve basically said, I wish
I would have thought of that
1536
01:15:33,963 --> 01:15:37,067
ending for the book because if
I would have thought of that,
1537
01:15:37,170 --> 01:15:38,825
that's how I would
have ended the story.
1538
01:15:38,929 --> 01:15:42,688
It's a unique situation
where the writer looks
1539
01:15:42,792 --> 01:15:45,654
at the body of work
of what that movie was
1540
01:15:45,757 --> 01:15:47,965
and where Frank took
it and was like dang,
1541
01:15:48,068 --> 01:15:49,551
I wish I would have
thought of that.
1542
01:15:49,655 --> 01:15:50,895
That's pretty great.
1543
01:15:50,999 --> 01:15:54,138
And I feel like The Mist
lives in the same world
1544
01:15:54,242 --> 01:15:57,242
as John Carpenter's The
Thing where the movie came
1545
01:15:57,345 --> 01:16:01,345
out right after ET
and people had a very
1546
01:16:01,483 --> 01:16:03,932
unique reaction to The Thing.
1547
01:16:04,036 --> 01:16:08,898
And then the movie has come
to be very well respected.
1548
01:16:09,002 --> 01:16:11,175
I think The Mist
is the same way.
1549
01:16:11,278 --> 01:16:14,485
Upon multiple viewings,
and as that movie ages,
1550
01:16:14,623 --> 01:16:16,139
it's like wine.
1551
01:16:16,140 --> 01:16:19,451
I think people really respect
it and understand it and get
1552
01:16:19,452 --> 01:16:21,555
a much better sense of it.
1553
01:16:21,659 --> 01:16:23,279
Just like being home in LA.
1554
01:16:23,383 --> 01:16:24,141
Yeah!
1555
01:16:24,245 --> 01:16:24,797
Yeah!
1556
01:16:24,900 --> 01:16:25,659
And tug of war!
1557
01:16:26,970 --> 01:16:29,004
When I read The
Mist, Steve's story,
1558
01:16:29,108 --> 01:16:30,901
I thought oh, this
is really cool.
1559
01:16:31,004 --> 01:16:33,867
This is very weird
pressure cooker happening.
1560
01:16:33,971 --> 01:16:36,143
You take all that and
put it into the microcosm
1561
01:16:36,247 --> 01:16:38,178
of a supermarket
as Steve King did
1562
01:16:38,281 --> 01:16:41,419
and you can hold that
mirror up to the audience
1563
01:16:41,523 --> 01:16:42,557
and say boy, look at this.
1564
01:16:42,661 --> 01:16:45,006
This is kind of ugly.
1565
01:16:45,110 --> 01:16:47,248
And I love when
stories can do that.
1566
01:16:47,351 --> 01:16:50,593
I love when a piece of
cinema holds that mirror up,
1567
01:16:50,696 --> 01:16:53,490
whether it's something truly
glorious like Schindler's List,
1568
01:16:53,594 --> 01:16:55,973
which I think is just about
the greatest movie ever made
1569
01:16:55,974 --> 01:16:58,146
or the Night of the Living
Dead on the opposite end
1570
01:16:58,250 --> 01:17:01,491
of the budget spectrum,
that also had a very
1571
01:17:01,595 --> 01:17:03,491
sociological component to it.
1572
01:17:03,595 --> 01:17:05,078
I don' think they
even intended it
1573
01:17:05,182 --> 01:17:06,664
but it showed up in
the movie, and that's
1574
01:17:06,767 --> 01:17:10,009
one of the reasons the movie
is so powerful, and so beloved.
1575
01:17:10,113 --> 01:17:13,148
I mean... well, we could talk
about movies that I love
1576
01:17:13,252 --> 01:17:17,045
for days, but Night of
the Living Dead, that
1577
01:17:17,148 --> 01:17:20,149
was in the '60s and the 1960s
when we were having the Civil
1578
01:17:20,253 --> 01:17:26,563
Rights struggle, which we
seem to be reliving now,
1579
01:17:26,667 --> 01:17:28,529
which is really crazy.
1580
01:17:28,632 --> 01:17:31,839
You would think that we would
have grown up more by now,
1581
01:17:31,943 --> 01:17:34,426
but apparently we don't
learn from the past.
1582
01:17:34,530 --> 01:17:36,702
I believe in 1968 was
when that movie came out.
1583
01:17:36,840 --> 01:17:38,186
The Civil Rights
struggle was going on,
1584
01:17:38,324 --> 01:17:40,288
and the lead of the
movie was a black man
1585
01:17:40,289 --> 01:17:42,841
who was not shy about
standing up for himself.
1586
01:17:42,945 --> 01:17:46,187
It is tough for the kid
that her old man is so stupid.
1587
01:17:46,290 --> 01:17:48,842
Now, you get the hell
down in the cellar.
1588
01:17:48,945 --> 01:17:50,600
You can be the boss down there.
1589
01:17:50,601 --> 01:17:53,257
I'm boss up here.
1590
01:17:53,360 --> 01:17:56,671
To see a black guy slap the
white guy around on screen back
1591
01:17:56,774 --> 01:18:00,498
then was sociologically
earth shattering.
1592
01:18:00,602 --> 01:18:02,808
It was amazing.
1593
01:18:02,809 --> 01:18:05,499
It was like Sidney Poitier
in The Heat of the Night.
1594
01:18:05,603 --> 01:18:09,500
If you really understand what
was going on in the United
1595
01:18:09,603 --> 01:18:12,362
States at the time that Night
of the Living Dead came out,
1596
01:18:12,500 --> 01:18:16,500
you'll realize what a bold
movie that really was.
1597
01:18:16,604 --> 01:18:22,054
George Romero came from a
documentary style background.
1598
01:18:22,157 --> 01:18:25,674
They made Night of the Living
Dead for literally no money.
1599
01:18:25,777 --> 01:18:27,778
At the time, a lot
of the directors
1600
01:18:27,882 --> 01:18:32,089
really had this unique
sort of Renegade spirit.
1601
01:18:32,193 --> 01:18:34,950
Between George and Tobe
Hooper and Wes Craven,
1602
01:18:34,951 --> 01:18:37,331
a lot of the filmmakers
at the time, horror
1603
01:18:37,434 --> 01:18:39,159
was very, very taboo.
1604
01:18:39,263 --> 01:18:41,296
George always
would claim that he
1605
01:18:41,297 --> 01:18:44,849
never really was trying to make
a statement, but he always did.
1606
01:18:44,953 --> 01:18:49,609
He was able to shine the
spotlight on specific elements
1607
01:18:49,711 --> 01:18:51,264
of what was relevant
during the day
1608
01:18:51,367 --> 01:18:54,678
without ever even realizing,
I think, that he had done it.
1609
01:18:54,781 --> 01:18:56,953
He cast Dawand Jones,
an African-American man,
1610
01:18:56,954 --> 01:18:58,885
and George would
always say, oh, he just
1611
01:18:58,989 --> 01:19:02,643
was the best actor which
is probably the case but
1612
01:19:02,644 --> 01:19:06,299
whether or not George meant
it, I always felt that maybe
1613
01:19:06,300 --> 01:19:09,817
in the back of his mind that
there was something there
1614
01:19:09,818 --> 01:19:12,025
because then from all of
his other subsequent movies
1615
01:19:12,129 --> 01:19:15,474
from that point on, there was
a strong African-American lead
1616
01:19:15,577 --> 01:19:17,543
and a female.
1617
01:19:17,681 --> 01:19:20,095
George liked pushing
the boundaries
1618
01:19:20,199 --> 01:19:24,337
and I think that's where
he had a kindred spirit
1619
01:19:24,475 --> 01:19:25,820
with Steve King.
1620
01:19:25,923 --> 01:19:27,302
He and Stephen met.
1621
01:19:27,303 --> 01:19:29,889
Steve being a fan of George's,
wanted to meet George.
1622
01:19:30,027 --> 01:19:33,372
I think it may have been
during Dawn of the Dead
1623
01:19:33,476 --> 01:19:36,683
that Steve and George
struck up a friendship,
1624
01:19:36,786 --> 01:19:38,201
and that carried
through into Knight
1625
01:19:38,304 --> 01:19:41,441
Riders and Knight Riders,
Stephen King has a cameo.
1626
01:19:41,442 --> 01:19:42,718
That's all.
1627
01:19:42,822 --> 01:19:43,856
They're like like
the wrestlers on TV.
1628
01:19:43,960 --> 01:19:45,202
You got the blood bag.
1629
01:19:45,305 --> 01:19:46,995
And I believe that it
was during Knight Riders
1630
01:19:47,098 --> 01:19:49,203
that they started
talking about EC Comics
1631
01:19:49,340 --> 01:19:52,133
and like wanting to
do a movie together
1632
01:19:52,134 --> 01:19:54,858
and it ended up being Creepshow.
1633
01:20:03,342 --> 01:20:06,479
Hey, buddy.
1634
01:20:06,480 --> 01:20:08,377
What the fuck happened?
1635
01:20:08,481 --> 01:20:10,170
Looks like a hit and run.
1636
01:20:10,274 --> 01:20:11,067
Yeah?
1637
01:20:14,447 --> 01:20:15,791
It's like a Black guy, huh?
1638
01:20:15,895 --> 01:20:18,102
The number one most
important thing about Creepshow
1639
01:20:18,206 --> 01:20:21,276
is every story had
a different tone.
1640
01:20:21,378 --> 01:20:22,379
One of them was funny.
1641
01:20:22,516 --> 01:20:24,791
The Jordy Verrill story
that Steve starred in
1642
01:20:24,792 --> 01:20:27,309
was very silly and
very outrageous.
1643
01:20:27,310 --> 01:20:31,862
And then you had the Crate
which was a straight horror.
1644
01:20:31,966 --> 01:20:34,346
And then you had things
like Father's Day.
1645
01:20:34,449 --> 01:20:36,760
I got my cake.
1646
01:20:37,725 --> 01:20:39,760
Every single
story was different.
1647
01:20:39,863 --> 01:20:42,209
So that was one
of the main things
1648
01:20:42,312 --> 01:20:44,554
that I took away from
Creepshow when I was younger
1649
01:20:44,657 --> 01:20:48,899
and what I wanted to instill
in the current iteration
1650
01:20:49,003 --> 01:20:51,969
of Creepshow which is you're
going on a different journey
1651
01:20:52,073 --> 01:20:55,313
every single time and it might
be fun, it might be scary,
1652
01:20:55,314 --> 01:20:57,866
it might be suspenseful,
it might be tense,
1653
01:20:57,970 --> 01:20:59,280
it might be ridiculous.
1654
01:20:59,383 --> 01:21:03,039
But no matter what,
every experience that
1655
01:21:03,177 --> 01:21:05,797
you go on in the
show, you're getting
1656
01:21:05,798 --> 01:21:09,213
a different vibe from it.
1657
01:21:09,316 --> 01:21:11,696
If there was one
of those stories that
1658
01:21:11,798 --> 01:21:13,868
really had a major
impact, it was probably
1659
01:21:14,007 --> 01:21:15,213
They're Creeping Up on You.
1660
01:21:15,351 --> 01:21:18,696
To live with cockroaches
for four or five weeks,
1661
01:21:18,799 --> 01:21:21,007
was a life changing experience.
1662
01:21:21,110 --> 01:21:24,353
We would find them on us
all the time no matter
1663
01:21:24,455 --> 01:21:27,800
how much we tried
to wrap ourselves up
1664
01:21:27,801 --> 01:21:29,905
and not take them home with us.
1665
01:21:30,043 --> 01:21:31,974
The roach wranglers...
that's what we called them,
1666
01:21:32,078 --> 01:21:36,009
roach wranglers... promised
us that they could actually
1667
01:21:36,112 --> 01:21:39,044
control the behavior
of the roaches
1668
01:21:39,148 --> 01:21:44,147
with certain Skinnerian
or Pavlovian tricks.
1669
01:21:44,148 --> 01:21:45,941
It's like no.
1670
01:21:46,045 --> 01:21:49,769
A roach does not take
direction, right?
1671
01:21:49,872 --> 01:21:52,045
So we had the big dump.
1672
01:21:52,149 --> 01:21:54,320
We had to dump all
the roaches and they
1673
01:21:54,321 --> 01:21:55,563
would scatter everywhere.
1674
01:21:55,701 --> 01:21:57,701
And if you've seen the movie,
you know that it's when
1675
01:21:57,839 --> 01:22:00,046
E.G. Marshall finally gets his.
1676
01:22:00,150 --> 01:22:02,978
So they said, well, how are
we going to prevent them
1677
01:22:03,082 --> 01:22:08,392
from getting out of here because
the set lights and no ceiling?
1678
01:22:08,530 --> 01:22:09,910
Oh, no, don't worry about it.
1679
01:22:10,048 --> 01:22:12,737
What we'll do is we'll put
Vaseline all around the top
1680
01:22:12,841 --> 01:22:15,290
of the set so that
when they scatter,
1681
01:22:15,393 --> 01:22:18,084
because they hate light,
they'll go up the walls,
1682
01:22:18,187 --> 01:22:21,462
they'll hit the Vaseline,
and they'll fall back down.
1683
01:22:21,463 --> 01:22:22,670
OK.
1684
01:22:22,774 --> 01:22:24,222
We'll take your word for it.
1685
01:22:24,325 --> 01:22:29,223
So the day comes, Vaseline
all around the top of the set,
1686
01:22:29,361 --> 01:22:33,086
dump the roaches into the
set and off they go right up
1687
01:22:33,223 --> 01:22:37,017
the wall over the Vaseline and
out into the rest of the world.
1688
01:22:40,396 --> 01:22:42,225
The Vaseline didn't work.
1689
01:22:42,327 --> 01:22:44,052
I don't know how
I came up with it.
1690
01:22:44,156 --> 01:22:47,949
There are times when I
wish I hadn't like now.
1691
01:22:48,052 --> 01:22:50,570
I'm sure some people
in the surrounding area
1692
01:22:50,708 --> 01:22:53,983
woke up with certain roaches
that they'd never seen before.
1693
01:22:53,984 --> 01:22:57,226
These were big fat
Trinidadian roaches,
1694
01:22:57,329 --> 01:23:01,020
and I think there are a few new
species in Western Pennsylvania
1695
01:23:01,123 --> 01:23:02,675
now.
1696
01:23:02,779 --> 01:23:03,882
It was an accident.
1697
01:23:04,021 --> 01:23:06,882
A legitimate accident.
1698
01:23:07,021 --> 01:23:09,297
So why should I fuck
up my life right?
1699
01:23:11,711 --> 01:23:14,435
How are you doing lady?
1700
01:23:14,538 --> 01:23:15,918
Thanks for the ride.
1701
01:23:16,022 --> 01:23:18,884
One of the things that
both Steve and George had
1702
01:23:18,987 --> 01:23:21,988
is the ability to mix the
humor with the horror.
1703
01:23:22,092 --> 01:23:24,230
Now of course Creepshow is
the perfect example of that.
1704
01:23:24,333 --> 01:23:28,127
That was kind of the beginning
of their working relationship,
1705
01:23:28,230 --> 01:23:32,747
and it was a very unique one
because King trusted George.
1706
01:23:32,851 --> 01:23:36,231
He trusted him
implicitly, and that
1707
01:23:36,334 --> 01:23:39,990
was something that back in the
day was very hard to come by.
1708
01:23:40,094 --> 01:23:44,404
So George was set to direct
Pet Sematary at one point,
1709
01:23:44,542 --> 01:23:46,405
and then of course,
George did the Dark Half
1710
01:23:46,542 --> 01:23:48,887
an he's collaborated with
Stephen King probably
1711
01:23:48,991 --> 01:23:52,233
as many times as Rob
Reiner or Frank Darabont
1712
01:23:52,371 --> 01:23:54,750
they had really very
successful collaborations.
1713
01:23:54,888 --> 01:23:57,130
But George always
was ahead of his time
1714
01:23:57,234 --> 01:23:59,199
very much like
Steve's writing was.
1715
01:24:01,855 --> 01:24:04,235
I think everybody
loves to be scared.
1716
01:24:04,338 --> 01:24:06,304
I think it's a way of
working things out.
1717
01:24:06,407 --> 01:24:10,236
I mean, after all, horror is
as ancient as human beings.
1718
01:24:10,339 --> 01:24:12,684
In all storytelling
and all cultures,
1719
01:24:12,788 --> 01:24:14,236
there is horror story.
1720
01:24:14,339 --> 01:24:18,237
Fairy tales were a way for
people to teach their children
1721
01:24:18,340 --> 01:24:20,651
about the real
world, but I think
1722
01:24:20,754 --> 01:24:25,789
a good horror movie allows us
to put some order to the chaos.
1723
01:24:32,032 --> 01:24:35,411
I'm interested in
fear because all my life
1724
01:24:35,549 --> 01:24:37,894
I've been a fearful person.
1725
01:24:38,033 --> 01:24:40,791
I've wasted so much
of my life being
1726
01:24:40,894 --> 01:24:42,412
afraid of imaginary things.
1727
01:24:42,516 --> 01:24:45,481
Afraid of not going to get that
job, afraid I'll lose the job I
1728
01:24:45,585 --> 01:24:47,826
have, afraid that I'm not
going to meet the girl
1729
01:24:47,930 --> 01:24:50,586
I love or she's going to
leave me once I do find her.
1730
01:24:50,723 --> 01:24:54,413
All those fears, none of them
has ever come true in my life,
1731
01:24:54,517 --> 01:24:55,896
but I had them anyway.
1732
01:24:56,000 --> 01:24:58,965
So I felt that's a
really interesting topic.
1733
01:24:59,069 --> 01:25:01,587
And that's what
this story in Cujo
1734
01:25:01,690 --> 01:25:03,656
gives me an opportunity to tell.
1735
01:25:03,759 --> 01:25:09,208
The dog becomes the metaphor for
the insanity that fear people.
1736
01:25:13,416 --> 01:25:16,899
You know, obviously, a
lot of it's about mortality.
1737
01:25:17,003 --> 01:25:18,416
A lot of it's about death.
1738
01:25:18,554 --> 01:25:22,072
A lot of it's about questions
of existence and meaning.
1739
01:25:22,210 --> 01:25:26,177
So undercover of
almost silliness,
1740
01:25:26,279 --> 01:25:29,246
you can tangle with some pretty
deep existential questions,
1741
01:25:29,349 --> 01:25:30,177
I think.
1742
01:25:30,178 --> 01:25:31,384
It's one of the
reasons, I think,
1743
01:25:31,487 --> 01:25:33,349
horror is super interesting.
1744
01:26:08,595 --> 01:26:12,423
I mean, on the one hand,
he's just incredibly creative
1745
01:26:12,527 --> 01:26:13,698
and has great concepts.
1746
01:26:13,699 --> 01:26:15,079
He can take something
like a killer car
1747
01:26:15,183 --> 01:26:16,837
and make it a very scary story.
1748
01:26:16,941 --> 01:26:18,906
But I think the thing that's
scarier about something
1749
01:26:19,045 --> 01:26:21,493
like Christine is the
journey that Arnie
1750
01:26:21,597 --> 01:26:22,942
Cunningham is going through.
1751
01:26:23,046 --> 01:26:24,598
You care more about that
car than you care about me.
1752
01:26:24,735 --> 01:26:29,253
Where really the car is just
a metaphor for the change.
1753
01:26:29,391 --> 01:26:31,254
He's going through being
bullied in high school
1754
01:26:31,357 --> 01:26:32,908
and, kind of, being
an outcast and then
1755
01:26:33,047 --> 01:26:34,426
trying to find his voice.
1756
01:26:34,530 --> 01:26:36,426
And I would say that's the
thing, for me, that makes
1757
01:26:36,530 --> 01:26:39,771
his work, so memorable, that
these stories don't leave
1758
01:26:39,875 --> 01:26:42,082
my brain is because
the people in them
1759
01:26:42,186 --> 01:26:43,910
and the journeys they
go through is always,
1760
01:26:44,014 --> 01:26:45,496
for me, more visceral
and stronger.
1761
01:26:45,600 --> 01:26:47,876
For me, that is always
more powerful than even
1762
01:26:47,979 --> 01:26:51,566
like supernatural aspects of it.
1763
01:26:51,670 --> 01:26:56,498
Decided to wake up and see
what home looks like, huh?
1764
01:26:56,602 --> 01:26:59,842
In our opinion, Pet Sematary
is one of the scariest things
1765
01:26:59,843 --> 01:27:00,671
he's ever done.
1766
01:27:00,672 --> 01:27:02,051
Ellie be careful.
1767
01:27:02,154 --> 01:27:03,740
Ellie.
1768
01:27:03,878 --> 01:27:06,775
Daddy!
1769
01:27:06,879 --> 01:27:08,568
He himself wrote
the book and then
1770
01:27:08,672 --> 01:27:10,913
was so disturbed by what he
did, he put it in a drawer
1771
01:27:11,017 --> 01:27:12,224
for like a year.
1772
01:27:12,328 --> 01:27:13,397
He knew he tapped into
something because he
1773
01:27:13,500 --> 01:27:14,466
had kids at that time.
1774
01:27:14,569 --> 01:27:15,328
You got it.
1775
01:27:15,431 --> 01:27:16,259
Gage is flying it.
1776
01:27:16,397 --> 01:27:17,362
You got it?
1777
01:27:17,363 --> 01:27:18,811
Can I fly it now?
1778
01:27:18,914 --> 01:27:19,811
In a minute, honey...
1779
01:27:19,914 --> 01:27:21,949
And I have a son now.
1780
01:27:22,053 --> 01:27:24,088
And so to me the thought of
anything happening to him
1781
01:27:24,192 --> 01:27:26,399
is the scariest thing I
could possibly imagine.
1782
01:27:29,088 --> 01:27:31,330
Don't let him go
on the road, Louise!
1783
01:27:31,433 --> 01:27:32,674
Get him, Louis!
1784
01:27:32,675 --> 01:27:34,469
Get the baby!
1785
01:27:34,571 --> 01:27:36,020
Get the baby!
1786
01:27:41,779 --> 01:27:44,090
More heart rendering
than parents who want
1787
01:27:44,228 --> 01:27:46,918
to bring their dead child back.
1788
01:27:47,022 --> 01:27:50,091
I should never have
shown you that place.
1789
01:27:50,195 --> 01:27:53,194
Your child is not the only
thing that will come back.
1790
01:27:53,195 --> 01:27:55,539
One of the great
themes of horror,
1791
01:27:55,540 --> 01:27:57,574
be careful what you wish for.
1792
01:28:00,644 --> 01:28:01,644
Did you weigh yourself?
1793
01:28:01,748 --> 01:28:02,679
297.
1794
01:28:02,680 --> 01:28:04,403
Billy, you were 297 last week.
1795
01:28:04,506 --> 01:28:06,611
It'll take some time
for these diets to work.
1796
01:28:06,748 --> 01:28:09,404
For Billy Hallock,
life is sweet.
1797
01:28:09,507 --> 01:28:12,368
I thought Thinner was a
terrific character study.
1798
01:28:12,369 --> 01:28:16,405
I thought it was elevated
from being pure horror.
1799
01:28:16,508 --> 01:28:19,267
I thought there was something
very human and very universal
1800
01:28:19,405 --> 01:28:22,888
about a fat man who wanted
desperately to lose weight
1801
01:28:22,991 --> 01:28:24,751
and finally had
his wish answered.
1802
01:28:24,889 --> 01:28:26,715
It's a universal theme.
1803
01:28:26,716 --> 01:28:28,578
If everybody isn't
trying to lose weight,
1804
01:28:28,682 --> 01:28:30,096
they know somebody who is.
1805
01:28:30,234 --> 01:28:33,889
Nobody is ever too
thin or too rich.
1806
01:28:33,890 --> 01:28:37,511
I cast Stephen in it, and
he was very good actually.
1807
01:28:37,614 --> 01:28:40,891
And he was sitting on
set waiting to be called
1808
01:28:40,994 --> 01:28:44,029
and he was reading
the Bangor newspaper.
1809
01:28:44,133 --> 01:28:47,994
And I looked over his shoulder
to see what he was reading
1810
01:28:48,098 --> 01:28:51,685
and Stephen King was
reading the obituaries
1811
01:28:51,788 --> 01:28:55,479
and which I thought
was very telling.
1812
01:28:59,066 --> 01:29:01,169
I think you'd better come
along with me, Reverend.
1813
01:29:01,273 --> 01:29:04,066
King is always
after deeper things.
1814
01:29:04,169 --> 01:29:06,756
He's willing to look
into the darkness
1815
01:29:06,894 --> 01:29:10,515
completely and
allow what emerges
1816
01:29:10,619 --> 01:29:14,860
and he's not interested
in shutting anything out.
1817
01:29:18,240 --> 01:29:21,860
It's an ass kicker, isn't it?
1818
01:29:21,861 --> 01:29:23,033
Is that for me?
1819
01:29:23,034 --> 01:29:24,585
I found some of
those original scripts
1820
01:29:24,689 --> 01:29:26,896
that he wrote for movies
back then that people, sort
1821
01:29:26,999 --> 01:29:28,276
of, crapped on at the time.
1822
01:29:28,414 --> 01:29:30,277
I think Silver Bullet's
actually really beautiful
1823
01:29:30,414 --> 01:29:33,069
and is a really great love story
about a brother and a sister
1824
01:29:33,070 --> 01:29:35,760
and a family and one of the
best uncles you could ever meet.
1825
01:29:35,863 --> 01:29:38,690
And a kid who's in a really
interesting situation where he
1826
01:29:38,691 --> 01:29:40,278
gave him almost a superpower.
1827
01:29:40,381 --> 01:29:43,623
He gave an identity and a voice
to people who had problems
1828
01:29:43,726 --> 01:29:45,380
that most fiction
would never touch,
1829
01:29:45,381 --> 01:29:47,588
for people with
disabilities, for people
1830
01:29:47,692 --> 01:29:49,279
with mental health issues.
1831
01:29:49,382 --> 01:29:51,762
I just think all that stuff,
he's been so brilliant at.
1832
01:29:51,865 --> 01:29:53,348
And some people look
back now, and it
1833
01:29:53,451 --> 01:29:56,280
might be dated but he broke new
ground really in a lot of ways.
1834
01:29:56,418 --> 01:29:58,210
He did it over the whole
course of his career
1835
01:29:58,211 --> 01:30:00,970
from African-Americans
back then who would never
1836
01:30:01,074 --> 01:30:03,281
be featured in a book in
that way where he had balls
1837
01:30:03,384 --> 01:30:04,108
and he did it.
1838
01:30:04,246 --> 01:30:06,108
He has empathy for everyone.
1839
01:30:06,212 --> 01:30:11,075
What I interpreted the film to
be about is about woundedness.
1840
01:30:11,178 --> 01:30:14,074
We all as human beings
carry some sort of wound.
1841
01:30:14,075 --> 01:30:20,765
What we are called upon to do
is to accept life, to embrace it
1842
01:30:20,868 --> 01:30:23,730
and to go forward.
1843
01:30:23,731 --> 01:30:25,766
And Corey just was a
kid who just seemed
1844
01:30:25,869 --> 01:30:27,077
like nothing could bother.
1845
01:30:30,456 --> 01:30:34,078
So I thought the werewolf was
a beautiful metaphor for what
1846
01:30:34,181 --> 01:30:36,042
human beings can
become if they can't
1847
01:30:36,043 --> 01:30:37,939
embrace their full nature.
1848
01:30:38,078 --> 01:30:41,113
But it's not my fault!
1849
01:30:41,217 --> 01:30:44,837
The reverend, he had
lustful impulses, for example.
1850
01:30:44,940 --> 01:30:46,355
Instead of being
able to accept them,
1851
01:30:46,458 --> 01:30:48,458
he suppressed them so
far below the surface
1852
01:30:48,562 --> 01:30:50,941
that they came out in
these monstrous ways.
1853
01:30:56,115 --> 01:30:59,045
Every single time Stephen
King created characters
1854
01:30:59,046 --> 01:31:00,633
that I could relate to.
1855
01:31:00,771 --> 01:31:02,943
He taps into his subconscious
and gets a truth that are not
1856
01:31:03,082 --> 01:31:05,254
necessarily apparent
to everybody
1857
01:31:05,358 --> 01:31:09,116
else, about where we are
as a country and a culture.
1858
01:31:09,254 --> 01:31:13,806
Stephen King has such
an incalculable reach
1859
01:31:13,910 --> 01:31:16,738
on popular culture in
ways that I don't think
1860
01:31:16,842 --> 01:31:18,220
can ever be measured.
1861
01:31:18,221 --> 01:31:21,048
He's the guy who married
American pop culture to horror.
1862
01:31:21,049 --> 01:31:24,601
Great stories translate
from page to celluloid
1863
01:31:24,705 --> 01:31:25,981
and there's so many references.
1864
01:31:26,118 --> 01:31:28,119
Everywhere you look there's
Stephen King references.
1865
01:31:28,223 --> 01:31:32,119
Have gun will
travel reads the card of a man.
1866
01:31:32,223 --> 01:31:36,361
I've heard people refer
to big dogs as Cujo.
1867
01:31:36,464 --> 01:31:37,637
Down, Cujo.
1868
01:31:37,775 --> 01:31:41,776
So it's fun to have worked
on a film, the title of which
1869
01:31:41,879 --> 01:31:47,190
has entered the language
as big dangerous dog.
1870
01:31:47,294 --> 01:31:49,259
He's been such a
mirror for pop culture,
1871
01:31:49,363 --> 01:31:52,260
but now he is his
own pop culture.
1872
01:31:52,364 --> 01:31:57,295
Stephen King helped
define so many of what
1873
01:31:57,398 --> 01:32:01,434
now are cliches and tropes
of the cinematic world.
1874
01:32:01,537 --> 01:32:03,054
You see it parodied even.
1875
01:32:03,158 --> 01:32:05,468
That's when you, kind of, know
you've done something special
1876
01:32:05,606 --> 01:32:08,124
whether in literature
or in filmmaking or both
1877
01:32:08,262 --> 01:32:11,090
in this case with Stephen
King and adaptations.
1878
01:32:17,436 --> 01:32:18,780
Oh, come on.
1879
01:32:18,883 --> 01:32:21,850
Films like Shawshank
Redemption, that classic
1880
01:32:21,953 --> 01:32:23,953
narration by Morgan Freeman.
1881
01:32:24,092 --> 01:32:26,161
It is used as a trope
now, as a cliche.
1882
01:32:26,299 --> 01:32:29,229
It did feel like a prison, and
that meant only one thing made
1883
01:32:29,230 --> 01:32:31,989
sense conceptually,
we had to break out
1884
01:32:32,093 --> 01:32:33,920
and someone with the
gravitas of Morgan Freeman
1885
01:32:34,023 --> 01:32:35,265
had to narrate it.
1886
01:32:35,369 --> 01:32:36,747
The same thing can be
said for The Shining.
1887
01:32:36,748 --> 01:32:39,197
Like that film in itself
is now like almost
1888
01:32:39,301 --> 01:32:40,817
in its entirety as a trope.
1889
01:32:40,921 --> 01:32:44,197
I had a couple of people that
actually worked on The Shining
1890
01:32:44,301 --> 01:32:47,371
working 1408 and both films
being about writers in hotel
1891
01:32:47,473 --> 01:32:51,232
rooms and so on, which was to
me kind of cool and inspiring
1892
01:32:51,233 --> 01:32:54,440
being at the same studio
where the great Kubrick shot
1893
01:32:54,543 --> 01:32:55,819
this great movie.
1894
01:32:55,957 --> 01:32:59,060
In the end of the film,
the hotel room is on fire.
1895
01:32:59,061 --> 01:33:02,304
The fire guys is coming
to break down the door
1896
01:33:02,441 --> 01:33:05,096
and to get Ensline
out of the room.
1897
01:33:05,097 --> 01:33:08,406
And the prop guy came up to me
just before we shot the scene
1898
01:33:08,407 --> 01:33:10,442
and said I worked on
The Shining as well.
1899
01:33:10,545 --> 01:33:13,752
And, this is actually the ax
that we used in The Shining.
1900
01:33:13,753 --> 01:33:16,132
The famous ax that
Jack Nicholson
1901
01:33:16,236 --> 01:33:17,788
have when he breaks
down the door.
1902
01:33:17,891 --> 01:33:21,651
And I was thinking maybe you
want to use it for this scene,
1903
01:33:21,789 --> 01:33:24,444
and I was like
fantastic, absolutely.
1904
01:33:24,547 --> 01:33:27,961
So I gave the ax to the fire
guy who breaks down the door
1905
01:33:28,100 --> 01:33:31,479
and helps out Enslin
from the hotel room.
1906
01:33:31,583 --> 01:33:32,790
And nobody knows that obviously.
1907
01:33:32,928 --> 01:33:35,066
Now you know it
but it's a secret,
1908
01:33:35,170 --> 01:33:38,860
but that's Nicholson's ax, and
to me, that was a cool detail.
1909
01:33:38,963 --> 01:33:41,480
You can see The Shining in just
1910
01:33:41,584 --> 01:33:45,929
about every successful horror
film made in the last 25 years.
1911
01:33:46,032 --> 01:33:48,103
And sometimes in the
tiniest little ways.
1912
01:33:48,205 --> 01:33:53,482
But I think we filmmakers
want to express our love
1913
01:33:53,586 --> 01:33:56,482
for that material and
so it feeds itself,
1914
01:33:56,586 --> 01:34:00,104
and then that becomes this
kind of self-perpetuating cycle
1915
01:34:00,207 --> 01:34:06,794
of references, homage
and celebration.
1916
01:34:06,897 --> 01:34:09,657
When I read Doctor
Sleep as a fan of Kubrick
1917
01:34:09,760 --> 01:34:15,795
and as a fan of King, I was
fascinated by the tug of war
1918
01:34:15,933 --> 01:34:17,760
that was happening internally.
1919
01:34:17,761 --> 01:34:21,968
I'm reading this great story,
but all of the visual language
1920
01:34:22,107 --> 01:34:24,624
in my brain is Kubrick's.
1921
01:34:24,728 --> 01:34:26,521
It just is.
1922
01:34:26,624 --> 01:34:28,452
Danny!
1923
01:34:28,590 --> 01:34:29,590
Danny boy!
1924
01:34:32,900 --> 01:34:33,970
No, doc.
1925
01:34:34,108 --> 01:34:35,660
You can put things
from the overlook
1926
01:34:35,798 --> 01:34:39,316
away in boxes, but not memories.
1927
01:34:39,419 --> 01:34:41,109
Never those.
1928
01:34:41,212 --> 01:34:42,557
They are the real ghosts.
1929
01:34:47,179 --> 01:34:50,282
I had a fateful meeting with
John Berg at Warner Brothers
1930
01:34:50,386 --> 01:34:52,489
and he was a Stephen
King fan and I
1931
01:34:52,593 --> 01:34:55,110
had just finished Gerald's Game
and no one had seen it yet.
1932
01:34:55,111 --> 01:34:57,973
And he asked how it went and he
was like, that's a crazy one.
1933
01:34:58,111 --> 01:34:59,456
Hard one to crack.
1934
01:34:59,559 --> 01:35:02,112
And I said, yep, it was
really it was really difficult
1935
01:35:02,215 --> 01:35:04,146
but I think we
might have done it.
1936
01:35:04,284 --> 01:35:06,560
And he said, we have one
that's really hard to crack.
1937
01:35:06,664 --> 01:35:07,802
Have you ever read Doctor Sleep?
1938
01:35:07,905 --> 01:35:09,320
And I was like, yes.
1939
01:35:09,458 --> 01:35:11,974
And he said out of curiosity,
what would you recommend?
1940
01:35:12,113 --> 01:35:13,320
And the pitch I gave him was...
1941
01:35:13,458 --> 01:35:15,250
I was like I think what
you do is you stay as
1942
01:35:15,251 --> 01:35:17,905
close to the book as you
can for the first two thirds
1943
01:35:17,906 --> 01:35:19,596
but you have to
assume that story
1944
01:35:19,597 --> 01:35:23,390
takes place in the established
Kubrick cinematic universe.
1945
01:35:23,493 --> 01:35:24,561
It's too well known.
1946
01:35:24,562 --> 01:35:25,941
It's too iconic.
1947
01:35:25,942 --> 01:35:27,667
If you try to come off
of it, it'll backfire.
1948
01:35:27,770 --> 01:35:32,150
Mike Flanagan really had to
walk the tightrope because he
1949
01:35:32,254 --> 01:35:35,323
knew that King was not a
fan of the Kubrick film,
1950
01:35:35,426 --> 01:35:38,151
but he also knew
that most audiences
1951
01:35:38,288 --> 01:35:40,633
know The Shining
from the Kubrick film
1952
01:35:40,771 --> 01:35:42,220
and not from the book.
1953
01:35:42,324 --> 01:35:44,669
What if you could take Stephen
King's Shining and Stanley
1954
01:35:44,772 --> 01:35:47,807
Kubrick's Shining and what if
you could just kind of Parent
1955
01:35:47,910 --> 01:35:49,463
Trap them back together?
1956
01:35:49,566 --> 01:35:51,290
Is it possible?
1957
01:35:51,394 --> 01:35:54,394
I decided, going
into it, that if King
1958
01:35:54,497 --> 01:35:56,704
didn't like anything
that was up to,
1959
01:35:56,808 --> 01:35:58,256
that I wouldn't do the movie.
1960
01:35:58,257 --> 01:36:01,533
His initial answer to the idea
of using the Kubrick canon
1961
01:36:01,636 --> 01:36:02,981
was no.
1962
01:36:03,085 --> 01:36:05,602
He didn't want to do
it, but wanted to have
1963
01:36:05,603 --> 01:36:08,327
a creative conversation.
1964
01:36:08,465 --> 01:36:11,224
The pitch that I made
was all about one scene.
1965
01:36:11,328 --> 01:36:14,121
I said, if you can just
imagine Dan goes back
1966
01:36:14,224 --> 01:36:16,914
into the condemned overlook
and it's all dormant,
1967
01:36:17,018 --> 01:36:20,018
it's all asleep, and
he has to wake it up
1968
01:36:20,156 --> 01:36:25,915
and he makes it to the
gold room, and at the bar
1969
01:36:26,019 --> 01:36:29,053
is a glass waiting for
him, because Dan is eight
1970
01:36:29,157 --> 01:36:31,399
years sober at that point.
1971
01:36:31,502 --> 01:36:37,193
There's a man in the familiar
Kubrick red tuxedo pouring
1972
01:36:37,331 --> 01:36:42,021
the whiskey for Dan and imagine
that, that man is his father,
1973
01:36:42,125 --> 01:36:47,745
and the two of them have a
conversation about alcohol.
1974
01:36:47,746 --> 01:36:49,434
That was what turned him around.
1975
01:36:49,435 --> 01:36:52,471
This is the medicine.
1976
01:36:55,195 --> 01:37:00,885
So tell me, pup, are you
going to take your medicine?
1977
01:37:03,472 --> 01:37:04,472
I'm not.
1978
01:37:07,266 --> 01:37:11,162
Adaptation is
complicated, because very
1979
01:37:11,300 --> 01:37:13,094
bold choices have to be made.
1980
01:37:13,198 --> 01:37:17,853
There's no way you can
translate 600 pages of a book
1981
01:37:17,956 --> 01:37:20,266
into a screenplay
and keep everything.
1982
01:37:20,267 --> 01:37:23,509
Rewrite Stephen King,
it really doesn't make
1983
01:37:23,612 --> 01:37:25,991
sense when you think about it.
1984
01:37:26,095 --> 01:37:27,820
Why do a Stephen
King movie and not
1985
01:37:27,958 --> 01:37:29,337
to have Stephen King's story?
1986
01:37:29,475 --> 01:37:31,510
Why buy a book if you're
not going to follow it?
1987
01:37:31,614 --> 01:37:34,683
It's always about what you
don't do, what you can't do.
1988
01:37:34,821 --> 01:37:37,614
You have to have a
strategy about what
1989
01:37:37,717 --> 01:37:38,785
you're not going to do.
1990
01:37:38,786 --> 01:37:41,304
So I come to it
as a reader, and I
1991
01:37:41,408 --> 01:37:43,339
want to recreate the
experience that the reader
1992
01:37:43,442 --> 01:37:46,063
has, the emotional experience,
not the plot detail.
1993
01:37:46,167 --> 01:37:49,236
Stephen had a very cool
phrase when people would
1994
01:37:49,340 --> 01:37:50,892
say, well, what do
you think of what
1995
01:37:50,995 --> 01:37:52,237
they've done to your books?
1996
01:37:52,340 --> 01:37:54,134
And he'd say, well, what
do you mean what have
1997
01:37:54,237 --> 01:37:55,995
they done to you to my books?
1998
01:37:56,134 --> 01:37:58,513
Well, look at the bookshelf.
1999
01:37:58,617 --> 01:37:59,686
My books are all there.
2000
01:37:59,824 --> 01:38:01,443
Nobody's done
anything to my books.
2001
01:38:01,444 --> 01:38:05,065
So I think he has a really
great attitude about how
2002
01:38:05,169 --> 01:38:06,135
his books are adapted.
2003
01:38:06,238 --> 01:38:08,755
A novel is not a film.
2004
01:38:08,756 --> 01:38:10,481
It isn't.
2005
01:38:10,584 --> 01:38:12,997
Sometimes it's working with
the dialogue in the head
2006
01:38:13,136 --> 01:38:14,653
or narration or all the things.
2007
01:38:14,757 --> 01:38:18,688
You've got to make a film that
an audience can look at, find
2008
01:38:18,791 --> 01:38:20,928
themselves in and
at the same time,
2009
01:38:20,929 --> 01:38:23,068
be true to the original story.
2010
01:38:23,172 --> 01:38:27,345
That calls for the
actual term adaptation.
2011
01:38:27,483 --> 01:38:33,690
And I think that you have to
be bold in the sense of staying
2012
01:38:33,793 --> 01:38:37,484
true to material, but also
being bold about adapting it
2013
01:38:37,587 --> 01:38:40,243
so that it fits on the
screen not on the page.
2014
01:38:40,347 --> 01:38:42,588
Movies are what you
see and what you hear,
2015
01:38:42,691 --> 01:38:45,623
but as Hitchcock said, they're
called moving pictures,
2016
01:38:45,726 --> 01:38:47,830
not talking pictures.
2017
01:38:47,968 --> 01:38:49,692
Movies are still
a visual medium.
2018
01:38:49,795 --> 01:38:53,762
Writing a screenplay is
a very interesting process.
2019
01:38:53,865 --> 01:38:56,762
It's half mechanics
and half poetry.
2020
01:38:56,865 --> 01:38:59,624
When you're adapting
a great author,
2021
01:38:59,625 --> 01:39:02,211
if the story is excellent,
what you're trying to do
2022
01:39:02,349 --> 01:39:06,832
is capture the essence of it,
if you're changing certain facts
2023
01:39:06,935 --> 01:39:10,280
and you moving the
plugs around and sawing
2024
01:39:10,281 --> 01:39:11,935
the wood a little
bit differently,
2025
01:39:11,936 --> 01:39:15,281
it still feels like
they experienced
2026
01:39:15,282 --> 01:39:18,592
the same emotions and the
same story by the end of it.
2027
01:39:18,696 --> 01:39:21,352
Everybody has their own
way to approach material,
2028
01:39:21,490 --> 01:39:24,454
but it doesn't matter whether
it's Stephen King or not,
2029
01:39:24,455 --> 01:39:27,007
but the thing about Stephen
King it usually works
2030
01:39:27,146 --> 01:39:28,491
really well for the screen.
2031
01:39:28,593 --> 01:39:31,836
The reason any filmmaker
wants to adapt Stephen King
2032
01:39:31,939 --> 01:39:33,939
is the material is so good.
2033
01:39:34,043 --> 01:39:36,423
He's all about character,
all about story
2034
01:39:36,526 --> 01:39:40,629
and where he keeps coming up
with these, I have no idea.
2035
01:39:40,630 --> 01:39:42,217
The man is so prolific.
2036
01:39:42,354 --> 01:39:48,907
I can't believe how much he's
written, how much he's produced
2037
01:39:49,010 --> 01:39:50,769
and how good it is.
2038
01:39:50,872 --> 01:39:52,458
I don't know where
that comes from.
2039
01:39:52,459 --> 01:39:55,079
Nobody does otherwise they'd
bottle it up and sell it.
2040
01:39:55,183 --> 01:39:58,803
He believes that these
stories already exist.
2041
01:39:58,804 --> 01:40:00,287
They're already
out there, and he
2042
01:40:00,288 --> 01:40:02,908
says it all the time because
people think he's joking.
2043
01:40:03,011 --> 01:40:04,529
He's not joking.
2044
01:40:04,633 --> 01:40:06,254
This is what he believes that
the stories are just out there
2045
01:40:06,357 --> 01:40:08,288
and he's just like an
archaeologist just digging
2046
01:40:08,289 --> 01:40:10,220
around until he finds
something, and then
2047
01:40:10,358 --> 01:40:13,530
he just starts excavating
it, extracting it and pulling
2048
01:40:13,668 --> 01:40:15,805
from it and revealing it.
2049
01:40:15,806 --> 01:40:18,151
Michelangelo the
great sculptor he
2050
01:40:18,152 --> 01:40:21,187
said something extremely similar
that every block of marble
2051
01:40:21,324 --> 01:40:22,669
has the masterpiece in it.
2052
01:40:22,773 --> 01:40:24,773
He takes a big idea, and
he turns it and he turns it,
2053
01:40:24,876 --> 01:40:27,256
and he turns it, and that's why
the book keeps going and going
2054
01:40:27,360 --> 01:40:29,257
and going because he keeps
taking this one idea,
2055
01:40:29,360 --> 01:40:32,188
and he doesn't stick with
what it meant on chapter 1.
2056
01:40:32,292 --> 01:40:35,809
Stephen also has a
great look which helps.
2057
01:40:35,913 --> 01:40:38,533
To look like who you are.
2058
01:40:38,637 --> 01:40:42,189
I think that he looks
like who he is and a lot.
2059
01:40:42,293 --> 01:40:45,017
So the second you see
him, he could only be him.
2060
01:40:45,156 --> 01:40:47,741
It's a very admirable
quality, I think,
2061
01:40:47,845 --> 01:40:49,294
to look like who you are.
2062
01:40:59,260 --> 01:41:03,192
I wouldn't go out
there if I were you.
2063
01:41:03,296 --> 01:41:05,158
I think I'll be all right.
2064
01:41:22,643 --> 01:41:24,161
Told you.
2065
01:41:27,195 --> 01:41:28,919
They never listen.
2066
01:41:30,471 --> 01:41:33,851
But of course, It Chapter
Two, Doctor Sleep, The Stand.
2067
01:41:33,954 --> 01:41:36,438
The Outsider on HBO
starts in January.
2068
01:41:36,541 --> 01:41:39,024
And then you're working on
something with J.J. Abrams too.
2069
01:41:39,163 --> 01:41:40,334
No, wait, I'm not done.
2070
01:41:41,714 --> 01:41:45,024
I would guess that he's
as shocked as everybody
2071
01:41:45,163 --> 01:41:46,472
else about this resurgence.
2072
01:41:46,473 --> 01:41:49,129
Mr. Mercedes starts
tonight on DirecTV.
2073
01:41:52,267 --> 01:41:54,026
I'm not really
sure what happened,
2074
01:41:54,164 --> 01:41:56,026
but there we were
just smack bang
2075
01:41:56,130 --> 01:41:58,441
in the middle of the... as I
call it, the King nascent.
2076
01:41:58,544 --> 01:42:01,441
Like it was an explosion and
then the rest is history.
2077
01:42:01,544 --> 01:42:04,338
Suddenly every studio
that had a Stephen
2078
01:42:04,441 --> 01:42:05,957
King property sitting
on their shelf,
2079
01:42:05,958 --> 01:42:07,889
they wanted to get it made.
2080
01:42:07,993 --> 01:42:11,338
We sort of like tentatively
raised our hand.
2081
01:42:11,442 --> 01:42:13,339
A movie that we would
have done for free.
2082
01:42:13,443 --> 01:42:15,512
It was just something
indelible in our childhood.
2083
01:42:15,615 --> 01:42:20,684
Some of the series have
been inspired by his work.
2084
01:42:20,788 --> 01:42:23,513
Stranger Things, which kind
of sounds like Needful Things.
2085
01:42:23,616 --> 01:42:28,203
Certainly you have to give
Stephen a big nod of thanks
2086
01:42:28,307 --> 01:42:30,548
for, sort of,
inventing the weird
2087
01:42:30,686 --> 01:42:35,135
'80s supernatural adventure
story that often stars kids.
2088
01:42:35,239 --> 01:42:40,791
The way digital technology has
improved over the last decade
2089
01:42:40,894 --> 01:42:42,963
has made it easier
and easier for people
2090
01:42:43,067 --> 01:42:46,480
to realize, in a fairly
realistic way, some
2091
01:42:46,481 --> 01:42:48,757
of the more spectacular
things that Stephen
2092
01:42:48,861 --> 01:42:50,033
King has been writing about.
2093
01:42:50,172 --> 01:42:52,481
I love that he'll go
out and do anything.
2094
01:42:52,482 --> 01:42:54,344
As I said, you could
give him an orange
2095
01:42:54,448 --> 01:42:55,931
and he could write
a novel about it.
2096
01:42:56,033 --> 01:42:57,724
He wrote about the
Kennedy assassination
2097
01:42:57,862 --> 01:43:00,827
and time travel and basically
anything he wants to.
2098
01:43:00,931 --> 01:43:03,276
He's a writer that
knows no bounds.
2099
01:43:03,380 --> 01:43:06,070
Cable and streaming have
really helped that along.
2100
01:43:06,174 --> 01:43:09,897
TV matured to the point
where TV can be novelistic.
2101
01:43:10,035 --> 01:43:11,450
Sitting down in front
of the television
2102
01:43:11,553 --> 01:43:16,520
and being able to watch 10
or 12 hours of a great story.
2103
01:43:16,622 --> 01:43:17,692
It's wonderful.
2104
01:43:17,795 --> 01:43:20,451
It didn't exist
not that long ago.
2105
01:43:20,554 --> 01:43:23,176
I think the other reason that
he's timeless is because he's
2106
01:43:23,279 --> 01:43:24,727
also completely contemporary.
2107
01:43:24,830 --> 01:43:26,555
He's not a novelist who takes
10 years to write a book.
2108
01:43:26,659 --> 01:43:28,968
He's writing, he's writing,
he's writing, he's writing,
2109
01:43:28,969 --> 01:43:30,831
and speed, I think,
gives him this...
2110
01:43:30,935 --> 01:43:31,968
he's alive in the moment.
2111
01:43:31,969 --> 01:43:33,625
Different generation
of directors
2112
01:43:33,729 --> 01:43:37,763
and different approaches but
still the essence of Stephen
2113
01:43:37,867 --> 01:43:40,039
King's work is in there.
2114
01:43:40,143 --> 01:43:45,144
He shows us a mirror of
where we are as people.
2115
01:43:45,247 --> 01:43:48,179
And even though the symptoms
of how we behave change
2116
01:43:48,282 --> 01:43:50,524
as the ages change
and the years go by,
2117
01:43:50,627 --> 01:43:54,007
he keeps his basic
humanity in his stories.
2118
01:43:54,110 --> 01:43:55,558
His stuff doesn't really age.
2119
01:43:55,662 --> 01:43:58,283
Like he was writing
about the darkness that
2120
01:43:58,387 --> 01:44:01,559
lurks in the heart of
America, and that darkness
2121
01:44:01,663 --> 01:44:03,042
sadly has not dissipated.
2122
01:44:03,181 --> 01:44:05,904
His stories are about
the human condition.
2123
01:44:06,008 --> 01:44:08,974
So it doesn't matter
whether you're my age,
2124
01:44:09,078 --> 01:44:12,561
those themes resonate
and every generation
2125
01:44:12,665 --> 01:44:13,836
can find those themes.
2126
01:44:13,837 --> 01:44:16,319
And within that
we find deep truths
2127
01:44:16,320 --> 01:44:18,734
that we didn't see
before that are
2128
01:44:18,837 --> 01:44:22,492
things we need to know about
what's happening right now.
2129
01:44:22,493 --> 01:44:23,873
I think that's his genius.
2130
01:44:23,976 --> 01:44:27,321
Stephen King is just one of
the rare careers I don't think
2131
01:44:27,322 --> 01:44:29,080
anyone's going to
ever come along
2132
01:44:29,218 --> 01:44:33,219
again that has this kind of
body of work and still continue.
2133
01:44:33,323 --> 01:44:35,494
I think he's like a clown car.
2134
01:44:35,495 --> 01:44:36,805
This is your 61st book.
2135
01:44:36,908 --> 01:44:38,564
Do you have a target number
of books you're going for?
2136
01:44:38,702 --> 01:44:42,323
Is there a certain point
at which you will stop?
2137
01:44:42,324 --> 01:44:45,220
Is retirement in any
way an option for you?
2138
01:44:45,324 --> 01:44:47,357
God will tell me when to retire.
2139
01:44:47,358 --> 01:44:51,876
He'll say get out of the game,
hang up your jock, you're done.
171152
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