You've mentioned a few times that 'Bag of Bones' is your most favourite, or one of the best of Stephen King's books. What is so special in it for you?
Well, it's certainly one of my favorite books. I love how personal and emotional it is, how deeply it looks at love and humanity, as well as the opposite end of the human spectrum: what we're capable of doing to one another. The deep loss Mike Noonan feels at the death of his wife has a significant contrast with the brutality of what happened at the Dark Score Fair. Plus, it's a genuinely frightening ghost story.
Pierce Borsnan is in the leading role. I must confess, that this choice surprised me in a good way. Was it your decision, or coproducers insisted on a big star?
It was a group decision, but one I was very, very enthusiastic about. Pierce is a terrific actor, and a bold one, who isn't afraid to try new and unconventional things. He's also a wonderful man, very intelligent and kind, and easy to work with. He may not be exactly what you have in mind when you read the book, but he makes the best Mike Noonan I can imagine. The studio and the network were both very pleased that we got him for the film, but my producing partners and I pursued him pretty hard once we found he might be available and interested.
Did the work on this mini series was different in any ways, than what you did on your previous projects?
Well, this is similar in a lot of ways to THE SHINING, as it's a ghost story primarily about the haunting of a man who is all alone in a big building. Of course, in THE SHINING, Jack Torrance has his family with him, and in BAG OF BONES, Mike Noonan only has ghosts to share the house with him. So much of BAG OF BONES is played entirely with Pierce by himself, and that was a big challenge. The locations were very complex, and a very important part of the story, and the shooting in Nova Scotia was complicated but with wonderful scenery to work with. But the primary challenge was to put an intimate story in a large setting, and build these relationships, romantic and otherwise, to where the audience is invested in them.
Because of the production schedule, and how we had to work with the actors' availabilities and contracts, each of the three leading women had their parts in order, so in a way it was like shooting three movies, and each of them had its own personality: Mike and Jo, Mike and Mattie, and Mike and Sara. All of them had different styles and approaches. And of course, we had the period scenes in 1939, which was a bit of a change. But perhaps most challenging was the rape and murder of Sara Tidwell; it had to be brutal, not titillating, and powerful. It was one of the most unpleasant days of shooting I've ever had. The actors were wonderful and prepared, and this was Anika's first day of shooting with us and she continues to amaze me, but it's no fun playing out scenes like this on location for a full couple of days.
Your previous Stephen King's adaptations had a screenplay written by you, or King himself. This time it was Matt Venne who wrote it. Where this change came from? Did you have any impact on a screenplay?
Matt and I worked very closely together on building the screenplay. King was not available to write the script; normally when he produces the project, he writes the screenplay, and we developed this separately. I wasn't able to adapt the script because of scheduling and other reasons, and I had found Matt Venne when I was producing MASTERS OF HORROR, and found him to be a terrific young writer, on the verge of great success. BAG OF BONES was his very favorite book, and we had a great time working on this together. It was kind of a relief not being the writer, as I was producing and directing, and had a lot of other responsibilities, so to be able to have a very talented writer to share ideas with worked out perfectly on this.
This winks for King's fans and refeneces to him and his works are probably your work, are they?
Well, a little bit, but really, most of them were Matt's ideas. I actually didn't want to do too many of those and distract from the story. But it's always fun to provide a nod to the master...
The very beginning of the adaptaion is different than book's. You decided to show the death of Mike'a wife in a different way. It's both more dramatically and emotionally.
Thanks. We wanted to be surprising, even to those who'd read the book. And it happens so early in the movie that we needed it to be fast and powerful.
I must say that I expierenced Noonan's grief more during the movie, than during reading the novel. Many people will probably say otherwise, but in my opinion you and Brosnan have shown this aspect better than King. Scenes where Mike phones every few second to listen his wife's recorded voice, drowning his sorrows in alcohol, despair after waking up from dreams... It really made a great impression on me.
Again, thank you. So much of that is due to Pierce's brilliant work, but it was in the book and it was in the script. I have experienced grief on too many occasions, and I don't like when it's treated like a dramatic device in a movie, rather than the real pain that's experienced in real life. I remember calling my brother's number after he died and hearing his voice on the machine and being shocked and heartbroken by it. I've lost loved ones, and seen the pain and devastation that those losses have caused others who are close to me, and it's important to me to respect that emotion, even in the confines of a "horror movie". And Pierce, of course, lost his first wife, and surely drew upon that experience.
You said in interviews that this time you didn't have problems with a tv censorship. But it must be said, that there were moments where you smoothed out the impact of few scenes. For exampre the moment of rape in the book was much more brutal and expanded.
Well, you have to tell the story in a cinematic form. I wouldn't have wanted to rape to be any more ugly and graphic than it appears in the film. I do not love scenes that revel in brutalization, especially of women, for the benefit of our entertainment. Frankly, I expected the network to force us to trim down Sara's rape and murder from what it is, and was pleasantly surprised that they didn't. We got a lot more graphic, in those scenes and in the death of Rogette Whitmore and some other cases than I anticipated. I don't believe in censorship, mind you, but I do believe in what's best for storytelling. The story is the point, and whatever graphic violence is required to tell the tale is fine with me.
Comparing the book you moved the events with Sara Tidwell one generation further. They are happening about 40 years later. Why did you do so?
That was one of the trickiest things we had to deal with: the timeline. We had to figure out a way that Max Devore was involved in the rape and murder of Sara, and still be alive. Matt worked very hard on making all of the dates work out so that the lineage all worked out, and that Max could still be around to protect his arm of the curse, and pass it off to Mike Noonan. That's why we worked it out so that Sara's murder took place in 1939.
Your King's adaptaions are known of giving a faithful account of book events. This time there are a lot of changes. Is it because the screenplay was written by somebody else, or this book was too difficult to adapt this way?
It's funny, I think of this one as pretty faithful, but you're not the first one to say this. I think it's mostly because we really needed to compress and streamline the actual curse of Dark Score Lake. It needed to be conveyed visually and dramatically. So much of the book is internal, the workings of the mind of a writer and his remorse and pain. The movie had to be something to compel the audience to follow this story. I love the book, it's one of my favorites, but sometimes the hardest work is how to turn something you read into something you watch. That was my job here, and all the changes that were made were to make it as cinematic as I could.
The music for this mini series was composed by Nicholas Pike. You've been working together for many years, if I'm correct 8 times. Tell me about this partnership.
It started on my first movie, CRITTERS 2. Nicholas actually had composed some music cues on his own and submitted them to me as an audition after reading the screenplay. I was knocked out by what he did, and we hired him on his first theatrical feature. He did an amazing job with a small orchestra... so good that I found out that Steven Spielberg's editor used the music as temporary music in several of Steven's movies! Nicholas is a brilliant composer and musician: he can write music that is emotional, romantic, suspenseful, dramatic... he's very versatile. I love the guy. And he can work in many different areas, with an orchestra or with samples all by himself. Just about everyone I've introduced him to, from William Malone to Tobe Hooper to Michael Jackson, has worked with him more than once.
Very often in your movies there are cameos of your wife Cynthia and yourself. There was also a small part for you in 'Bag of Bones'. But I think that this time only fans could watch out for you on the screen.
Well, you'd have to know what I look like from behind to recognize me here, because it's one shot, and you never see my face. Cynthia had been through some surgery not long before we shot, and was not able to make it this time. She was going to play Audrey, the cook in Buddy Jellison's cafe. In fact, King was originally going to play Buddy, but wasn't able.
During our previous conversation you said that filmmaker is never satisfied in 100% with the final look of his movie. How is it with this mini series?
Oh, I really like this one, am very proud of it, but I see many areas where I wish we could have done it differently, maybe better. But I'm not going to point out what they are, because then that's all you'll see!
'Bag of Bones' had a big promotion. Two web sites, a facebook account, many teasers, trailers, billboards, press kits, and other collectables... It's probably the most promoted King's adaptaion of yours?
Yes, I think it is. I could not be happier with the way that A&E have handled this, and it received very high ratings here in the States. They did a great job with this, and they involved us in it all the way through. I'm very grateful to them.
What is the situation with 'From a Buick 8' adaptation? Still nothing?
I hadn't heard anything about it for a long time, but Johnathon Schaech just sent me a screenplay for the film to read. I haven't had the chance to look at it yet. But for now, it doesn't yet have a home.
Recently rights for King's new novels are sold almost immediately after they are out. Many times even before! However the fact is that the newest Kings book that was filmed is 'Dreamcatcher' which was published a decade ago. Is it so hard to make a movie, or filmmakers buy everything that is written by King just in case, to be first?
Both. I have a feeling that 11/22/63 will get bought and made soon, but yes, it takes a long time to get anything off the ground these days. And horror goes in cycles. King doesn't really write about teenagers, not since CARRIE, anyway, and Hollywood now seems to feel that all horror films have to be about kids. But we'll see.
Do you think that someday big movie companies will again reach for such stories like 'Bag of Bones' and they will hit big screens? How long remakes, sequels and prequels will rule in cinemas?
Well, as long as they make them money. We tried to make BAG OF BONES as a feature film for the big screen, but just couldn't make it happen. But the next time there's something original and successful, that might change the tide. But these days it's all about "branding", or offering something familiar to an audience so that it's easier to sell and market it to them. Fair enough, it's always been about making something that an audience wants to see. I'm hoping that it will change course soon. Of course, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN was a brilliant sequel, Cronenberg's THE FLY and Carptenter's THE THING were both remakes that, in my humble opinion, were superior to the originals. It's all about good ideas and good movies more than where they come from. But there are original creative minds out there creating material that's dying to be made into films. With luck, we'll see more of them soon.
Thank you very much Mick.
[With Mick Garris talked: Grzesiek Tupikowski]
|
Stephen King 
