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Interview in NY Daily News
How the dark half lives
As '1408' opens, it's time to check in with Stephen King
BY MARSHALL FINE
Talk about praise from the master: Stephen King uses the word "terrifying" to describe the movie of his short story "1408," a horror film about a haunted hotel that opens Friday. And he's not someone who scares, or doles out praise, easily.
Now a few months shy of 60, King has spent three decades at the top of the best-seller lists and become something of an American icon: an author whose writing has transcended a genre and who has become a kind of twisted contemporary Mark Twain, or maybe a dark version of populist Will Rogers. (King, after all, never met a ghoul he didn't like.)
"He writes great characters, and there's so much detail in his work," says John Cusack, who stars in "1408" as Enslin, a writer who debunks haunted houses but meets his match when he spends the night in a New York hotel room with a history of suicides, and finds the real ghosts living within.
"The room is using this guy's past against him," Cusack says.
Since the film of "Carrie" in 1976, there have been dozens of film and TV miniseries spawned from King's huge body of work. The author maintains a steady flow of nonfiction and stories (his latest, "The Gingerbread Girl," is in this month's Esquire). There are about a half-dozen projects based on his work due in the next year and a half. And King's commentaries - on all aspects of present and past pop culture and the hobgoblins that haunt our national zeitgeist - are always lurking in several forms of media, dispatched from his home in Maine.
But as for the movies, King admitted in an exclusive interview that except for "1408" and a few others, filmmakers don't often do right by his creepy, memorable and oh-so-visual tales.
Do people give you the credit for the shocker ending to "Carrie," the hand from the grave?
Oh, sure. People are always coming up to me in the supermarket and saying, "Stephen King - I love your movies!" And I say, "Well, I wrote a few books, too."
What's the key to turning one of your works into a good film?
You have to concentrate on character - and throw out the notion that you need a lot of blood spurting and eyeballs flying. That's not what fear is about.
That seems to be the trend in horror films.
Yeah, there's a lot of gore about. I don't carry a sign for or against gory horror films. But I just saw "Hostel: Part II." I think that guy [director Eli Roth] is a fantastic director - but the movie doesn't generate much dread. That's what I like about "1408," which is [more] like those Japanese horror films, though before they get [remade] as American films! These are movies where there's a lot going on that makes you feel dismay and dread. It's the feeling that there's something wrong here - and getting wronger. The first 40 or 50 minutes of "1408" are a classic example. It's rated PG-13, but it's very intense; you don't want to take a young kid to it.
"1408" is based on a short story. Do short stories or novels make better movies?
Short stories do. Novels have a tendency to be traps. There's a lot of backstory and, among directors and writers, there's this need to explain too much. With "1408," there's not a big explanation about what's going on in this [death-haunted] room. It's just a bad place. Some of the best films from my work have come from short stories: "Stand By Me," "The Shawshank Redemption."
Any others?
I thought "Cujo" was a good one. And "The Dead Zone." They work on a character-driven level. If you don't care about the people, it's just a shooting gallery.
Is it true you have casting approval over films based on your work?
Yeah, well, they send you a list of names - generally, I'll okay all of them.
Can you think of an example where you said "no" to a suggested actor?
Some producers are putting together "Misery" for Broadway. They gave me the list for the character of Annie Wilkes, and I think Julia Roberts was on the list. I mean, c'mon! She's a fine actor, but Annie is a big, brawny woman who's capable of slinging a guy around. Don't give me a pixie!
I had questions about Morgan Freeman for "Shawshank." When [writer-director] Frank Darabont wanted to cast him, I said, "Wait a minute, this was 1949 Maine. There weren't many black prisoners in the Maine prison then." Plus, his character's name was Red, and he was supposed to be Irish! But ... obviously, he was right.
What about adaptations of your work that you don't like?
I promised Stanley Kubrick that, if he signed off on [there being a] "Shining" miniseries, I would never again say anything bad about his film of "The Shining." So I won't.
[continued]
As '1408' opens, it's time to check in with Stephen King
BY MARSHALL FINE
Talk about praise from the master: Stephen King uses the word "terrifying" to describe the movie of his short story "1408," a horror film about a haunted hotel that opens Friday. And he's not someone who scares, or doles out praise, easily.
Now a few months shy of 60, King has spent three decades at the top of the best-seller lists and become something of an American icon: an author whose writing has transcended a genre and who has become a kind of twisted contemporary Mark Twain, or maybe a dark version of populist Will Rogers. (King, after all, never met a ghoul he didn't like.)
"He writes great characters, and there's so much detail in his work," says John Cusack, who stars in "1408" as Enslin, a writer who debunks haunted houses but meets his match when he spends the night in a New York hotel room with a history of suicides, and finds the real ghosts living within.
"The room is using this guy's past against him," Cusack says.
Since the film of "Carrie" in 1976, there have been dozens of film and TV miniseries spawned from King's huge body of work. The author maintains a steady flow of nonfiction and stories (his latest, "The Gingerbread Girl," is in this month's Esquire). There are about a half-dozen projects based on his work due in the next year and a half. And King's commentaries - on all aspects of present and past pop culture and the hobgoblins that haunt our national zeitgeist - are always lurking in several forms of media, dispatched from his home in Maine.
But as for the movies, King admitted in an exclusive interview that except for "1408" and a few others, filmmakers don't often do right by his creepy, memorable and oh-so-visual tales.
Do people give you the credit for the shocker ending to "Carrie," the hand from the grave?
Oh, sure. People are always coming up to me in the supermarket and saying, "Stephen King - I love your movies!" And I say, "Well, I wrote a few books, too."
What's the key to turning one of your works into a good film?
You have to concentrate on character - and throw out the notion that you need a lot of blood spurting and eyeballs flying. That's not what fear is about.
That seems to be the trend in horror films.
Yeah, there's a lot of gore about. I don't carry a sign for or against gory horror films. But I just saw "Hostel: Part II." I think that guy [director Eli Roth] is a fantastic director - but the movie doesn't generate much dread. That's what I like about "1408," which is [more] like those Japanese horror films, though before they get [remade] as American films! These are movies where there's a lot going on that makes you feel dismay and dread. It's the feeling that there's something wrong here - and getting wronger. The first 40 or 50 minutes of "1408" are a classic example. It's rated PG-13, but it's very intense; you don't want to take a young kid to it.
"1408" is based on a short story. Do short stories or novels make better movies?
Short stories do. Novels have a tendency to be traps. There's a lot of backstory and, among directors and writers, there's this need to explain too much. With "1408," there's not a big explanation about what's going on in this [death-haunted] room. It's just a bad place. Some of the best films from my work have come from short stories: "Stand By Me," "The Shawshank Redemption."
Any others?
I thought "Cujo" was a good one. And "The Dead Zone." They work on a character-driven level. If you don't care about the people, it's just a shooting gallery.
Is it true you have casting approval over films based on your work?
Yeah, well, they send you a list of names - generally, I'll okay all of them.
Can you think of an example where you said "no" to a suggested actor?
Some producers are putting together "Misery" for Broadway. They gave me the list for the character of Annie Wilkes, and I think Julia Roberts was on the list. I mean, c'mon! She's a fine actor, but Annie is a big, brawny woman who's capable of slinging a guy around. Don't give me a pixie!
I had questions about Morgan Freeman for "Shawshank." When [writer-director] Frank Darabont wanted to cast him, I said, "Wait a minute, this was 1949 Maine. There weren't many black prisoners in the Maine prison then." Plus, his character's name was Red, and he was supposed to be Irish! But ... obviously, he was right.
What about adaptations of your work that you don't like?
I promised Stanley Kubrick that, if he signed off on [there being a] "Shining" miniseries, I would never again say anything bad about his film of "The Shining." So I won't.
[continued]
Comments
What did directing a movie teach you about the page-to-screen process?
When I'm working on a book, I trust myself. I'm the only guy there. It's like playing solitaire: If you win, you're good, and if you lose, you screwed up. But when you make a movie, there are other elements. You've got a director and a writer and a producer and a cast of actors and a cinematographer ... and the uncertainty principle rules.
Your son Joe had a well-reviewed novel, "Heart-Shaped Box," earlier this year. How did that make you feel?
I was absolutely, totally proud. He didn't want any questions in his own mind about why it was published, which is why he writes under the name Joe Hill. My son Owen has published an anthology of superhero stories. And my two boys have written a screenplay together that's making the rounds - but it will probably never get made because it's really smart. But I've also got a daughter who's a Unitarian Universalist minister in Florida and I'm proud of her, too.
You're pretty public about the fact that you're a big fan of "Lost." What other TV shows do you like?
I like "Heroes," "The Shield," "Rescue Me." I watched "The Sopranos." And I watch "24," even though I think this past season was the worst they've done. I still watched it. If I had a favorite last year, it was "Prison Break."
Any thoughts on "The Sopranos" finale?
I thought it was fantastic. How can anyone think it was the least ambiguous?
Do you have concerns about the fact that we seem to be in a postliterate period, where people read less and less?
Oh, I'm in pretty good shape. I'm a fiction writer and we have an arc of popularity ... The thing I'd hate to be is a standup comic. They seem to have their moment and then kind of fade out. There are guys who beat that, like Steve Martin, but they're few and far between.
You've got a new book out, "Blaze" [which King started in the '70s but has updated for publication], and a novella, "The Gingerbread Girl." What happened to that vow you made, after your accident, that you were going to stop publishing books? [In 1999, King was struck by a motorist while walking on a Maine road. Surgeries were needed to repair a collapsed lung, multiple fractures of the right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip.]
Well, I feel better now. I was in a lot of pain at the time. I was taking a lot of painkillers. The more you take, the more you need. And the more you need, the more you want. It all makes you feel crappy and washed out. So I said, "I think I'll retire." And I've been explaining it ever since.
Are you a compulsive writer?
I don't think I'm a compulsive writer. The truth is, I'm having fun again. I can't explain it. I'm sure Derek Jeter feels the same way about hitting. But you'll notice that Esquire put Angelina Jolie on the cover because they didn't want me in a Speedo. That was my suggestion: Me in a Speedo and boots, like Pierce Brosnan in "The Matador."