Cool News
Lane Meyer steps into Stephen King's evil hotel room, number 1408!!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with some great casting news. I'm a big fan of Stephen King's short stories and his last book of shorts he published, EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL was fantastic. From that book comes this story, 1408, about a man who debunks paranormal phenomena. He investigates a notorious haunted hotel room in a place called the Hotel Dolphin, room 1408, and encounters real evil.
That man is being played by Lane Meyer himself, Mr. John Cusack. Great casting. In the story, it's very much a one character show. We spend most of our time as a reader along for the ride in Mike Enslin's mind, or at the very least sitting on Enslin's shoulder.
If Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT, ED WOOD) rewriting Matt Greenberg's (REIGN OF FIRE) first stab at the script can successfully crack the story into feature length this could be the creepiest Stephen King movie since the heyday of CARRIE and THE SHINING. Scott and Larry are talented folk, so if anyone can do it they can.
DERAILED's Mikael Hafstrom is set to direct at Dimension, who also have picked up King's CELL recently. It's an interesting time for us Stephen King fans with the above two projects in the works, THE TALISMAN still lingering somewhere in the void and Johnathan Schaech adapting BLACK HOUSE (for Akiva Goldsman) and FROM A BUICK 8... plus there's George Romero's possible take on THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON and Frank Darabont still floating about with two of King's career best works, THE MIST and THE LONG WALK. Interesting time!
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Like me some Cusack.
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But Eli Roth on Cell still sounds greater. Some call King a hack. Many call Roth a hack. I call anyone with as much love for boobs / gore as both of those guys brilliant. Rock on.
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Eli Roth going to do this originally? I remember it being announced as a project for him long, long ago, but I guess it got handed to some other people, but at least he's doing "Cell" I suppose...
Wait Johnathon Schaech is a writer? I guess he had a lot of free time now that he's not banging Christina Applegate anymore... -
I haven't read 'everythings eventual' but if you read stephen kings 'on writing' you get an early draft (or at least the first bit of it) of this story. He is nice enough to give you a first draft, then show you how he edits his work,It's pretty sweet. I've always had a three foot hard on for Stephen King's non fiction. I know his fictions can be addictive, but something about his non fiction (On Writing, Danse Macabre)has a certain conversational tone that makes it pretty much impossible to put down.
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It's a great collection of short stories. King's compilation of short stories does an amazing job of showing his range in the world of horror. 1408 (which adds up to 13) is just one of the many great stories in there. The scariest part about the story in my opinion isn't the fact that he checks into the room. It's the conversation he has with the Hotel owner who desperately persuades him to not go into the room. After all of the exposition of what has happened in the room, the reader knows the protagonist is screwed.
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That was the first King story in a long while that had me leaving the light on after I read it. Love that story, Love Cusack and will probably see this during the day.
Also, I'm glad Roth isn't doing it, because he would've had the ghosts drill through Cusack's knees and then scream "PANCAKES!" God, I hate that guy. -
As it's written, would be great for one of those hour long anthology shows (45 minutes + commercials), for a full 90 minute movie, they'll have to create more material, ie investigating the hotel in other parts of it or something. This could work well or backfire horribly.
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... when Stephen King came to Australia in 1997 to speak to a whole group of us who bought tickets, I did ask him about an ending for The Mist past the one in the book (ie like what finally happened) when they passed the microphone around and his answer was "Frank Darabont is making a film" which wasn't an answer at all. Damn!
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Mar 09, 2006 5:42:02 AM CST
Nothing screams King classic than a no name director
by chickengeorgevii
OH YEAH BABY!!!! JUST LIKE MICK JACKSON'S CLASSIC SLEEPWALKERS!!!! OR RALP SINGLETON'S GRAVEYARD SHIFT!!!! OR BETTER YET...FRASER CLARK HESTON'S NEEDFUL THINGS!!!!! ADD MIKAEL HALFSTROM TO THAT LASTING LIST OF CINEMATIC MASTERS!!!!! CALL THE SCHOOLS AND ADJUST THE CURRICULUM!!!! THERE IS A NEW AUTEUR!!!!....And thus, is Alan Smithee available? - - - George, the 7th Chicken!!!!
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Still, Alexander/Karaszewski do some beautiful work (we'll all just forget SCREWED ever happened) and I love the Great Lane Meyer/Lloyd Dobler/Martin Q Blank/Rob Gordon... I'd watch him in anything (except another bland-ass romantic comedy). Hopefully everyone involved can hit some form. But I long for the days when A-List directors (late 70s De Palma, late 70s Tobe Hooper, Kubrick, late 80s Reiner, Darabont, et al) took on the King. Speaking of Darabont, his Mist would own.
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But i dont have that much hope since its a direct to tv movie and has Garris attached to it.
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I dig Kings stuff big time, finished Desperation 2 weeks ago and thought it was pretty lame. Don't think it'll work on screen at all.
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"That Thing You Do!"'s Johnathan Schaech? I didn't know he had it in him, though I guess if your upcoming movies are 8MM 2 and Road House 2, you need to have something to fall back on...
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Damn. Darabont's adapting The Long Walk, too? I think I'm looking forward to that more than The Mist.
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Am I right?
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How can you make Black House without doind Talisman first. I realize that Black House isn't really a direct sequel, simply utilizes Talisman's main character, but how are you supposed to be invested in Jack's character without having seen his childhood experiences. Besides, Talisman totally kicks ass over Black House in terms of Story, characters, etc...
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...was absolutely dreadful.
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Sure, the comic book is cool, but I want a show on HBO.
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Mr. King is writing a comic book series in the Dark Tower world for Marvel Comics, saw an article a while ago, but don't remember much more details other than it'll come out later this year (November?).
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...on HBO witht he following conditions: 1.) Roland has the horn and this is his LAST run through the cycle, 2.) this being his last run, things go a bit differently -- 2a.) his drawn comrades don't spend the entire series predicting their own deaths and then die (one of them can, but not all three), 2b.) Modred is actually menacing and sympathetic, two things King didn't even make an effort to acheive in the books, 2c.) Flagg plays a more significant role and gets a better death, 2d.) we get a little fucking background/motivation for the Crimson King (even if its cryptic shit like the smoke house origin of It), 2e.) and speaking of It, why not just have Dandelo be an otherworldly incarnation of It and establish some sort of connection between Dandelo and the Crimson King? It all takes place in the same multiverse. As for Cusack in a more in-his-own-head King story? Sounds like a winner to me, actually. Cusack's one of my Top Five actors and one of the few guys around that can make what's going on in his own head interesting on screen (see High Fidelity and Grosse Point Blank). As it happens, King's characters are at their best when they're in their own heads, so it seems like a dream teaming. Back on the tower: is that comic out yet and is it any good?
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Worst one YET:
http://www.aintitcool.com/media/konghorn.gif -
Yes, a Black House without a Talisman first will be weak. Also, I'm willing to bet that they'll remove all references to the Dark Tower as well.
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HBO should simply film the books as an extended multi-season miniseries. A season for each novel or since the first novel is short you could devote a season for books 1-2 and then a season each for the rest.
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He was Lloyd Dobler for Chrissakes!!!
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Not for nothing, but a PG-13 version of _The Taliman_ could only ever be a piece of shit. And Taking the Sunlight home out of it is like taking the prom out of Carrie. The rest of the book doesn't make any sense if you skip that section altogether. He's in Nebraska and just winds up with Richard all sad for no reason? Or does Wolf live to the end, thus making his character irrelevant? I'm sorry, but I just don't see any satisfactory adaptation of the book being possible without making a little too strong for the kiddies. In all fairness, though, I fuckin' HATE PG-13 "horror" films.
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but Beazer was a grrreat character. And a great name. Can't remember the blind dudes' character name, but I nominate a makeup aged D. Hyde Pierce for that part.
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where do i sign up
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If they did it they would probably have to significantly change the last 3 books around including a happy ending which would make Childe Roland happy but would piss off me and the small group of people who actually think the whole series is brilliant. Also why all the hate for Black House. The Talsiman is better but Black House had great characters and a truly twisted idea of an old man in a nursing home whos actually a serial killer. I think you guyd are just pissed cause he brought DT into it.
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Its been a while since I read the story but isnt the idea that nothing overt really happens but rather it screws with him mentally. How are they possibly going to achieve that. I remember the end of the story when the guy is listening to the tape the investigator made. Very creepy and great story overall.
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Wasn't that a line in an old episode of MASH?
Charles: I hate living in this backward country. (or some such setup)
BJ: Backard? Charles, these people were printing with moveable type in 1407!
Hawkeye: Yeah, I was in 1408 and the noise kept me awake all night! -
...it doesn't have to be a happy ending. I'd settle for a real ending (rather than a built-in reboot that effectively invalidates everything that came before it in the story). Let Roland die before ever getting into the Tower or some such. The ending of the last book not only shows Roland beginning the cycle again but implies strongly that he's brought some knowledge of his past/the cycle's future with him on some level and that the presence of the horn will change things significantly this time around...so why not run with that concept in a movie/serial adaptation? That way we all win: the books series remains what it is (and if you enjoyed it all the way through, more power to you) and the TV show or movie inspired by it gives the rest of us the closure we wanted from the saga. I know you love the books just as they are, but a lot of us think the series (and King) ran out of gas a little more than halfway though and would be willing to give him a second chance just like he gave Roland.
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While cutting down R ratings to get PG-13 is evil in itself, if a story is simply eerie and scary without gore, then PG-13 is more than sufficient. This short story wouldn't need to be R, unless the ghosts are going to be decapitating folks.
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"1408" was a sufficiently creepy story. That being said, I can't imagine it padded into a feature length film. I'd actually like another anthology type film that would feature 3 or 4 of King's better stories from recent years. "1408" would work fine as a 25 minute segment. I'd also like to see "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe." As for DT, I just finished the series a couple of weeks ago, and while a part of me would love to see it put to film RIGHT, there's another part of me that knows it's impossible. Ultimately I'm happy with the saga, but I can understand those who felt a little let down. Walter's end wasn't satisfying. Roland should've been the one to put paid to him. The "climactic" showdown with Mordred was only slightly lamer than the "climactic" showdown with the Crimson King. The Crimson King wasn't even so much a character as a screaming Scooby Doo villain who made the Emperor in ROTS seem actually menacing by comparison. The CK was much more intriguing and creepy when he was a Sauron type who stayed offscreen but whose shadow fell over the entire quest.
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Hehe. Remember the game Out of This World? Hehe.
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There actually already is an independent short of "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe." Here's the site:
http://tinyurl.com/qzx9j
And the comics are supposed to take place around the time of Wizard and Glass, IIRC. -
It was pretty bad. Read like a straight to video script. But who knows--maybe they worked on it.
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Who told this guy he can go on existing, let alone adapt a book I've never read!?!?
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Please expand how did they add to the story? Did they keep the stories conceit that the horrors were more mental than anything else.
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Don't know if this is old news around these parts, but here's a copy of the Rospo Pallenberg script adaptation of
"The Stand"-
"At one time, George Romero was slated to direct an
R-rated theatrical version based on this screenplay.
Unfortunately, it ended up as a watered-down and
rather silly network miniseries, instead of the graphic,
hard-hitting, surrealistic horror film it deserved to be.
I have finally located the fabled screenplay
by the genius who wrote EXCALIBUR! "
http://www.subcin.com/stand.html -
...or at least a fan of his work these days. Too cool. Cusack is a wonderful choice. I can't wait.
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Moreover, can anyone here name a GOOD movie that was adapted (padded) from one of King's short stories? And I don't mean the so-bad-it's-good kind either. "Children of the Corn," "Maximum Overdrive," "Graveyard Shift," just to name a few. They really want to impress me, adapt "Rage." don't look at me like that, if Gus van Sant can make that shitty "Elephant" movie, then King can do the same thing.
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I just want to lend my support to this idea. I'm one of the ones who kinda felt it ended the only way it could have to keep the overall feel. King said himself said it was the journey that was the interesting and fun part. If HBO and King collaborate, and if King can get some kind of deal where they won't change anything from the original without his go-ahead, and HBO gets a deal where King is removed from the creative process at that point (sorry, but King likes Mick Garris' work), then the potential exists for an amazing three or four years of TV. Battlestar Galactica is proving again, like the Sopranos and Six Feet Under before, that there is a serious audience for well done, serial fiction with strong overall narratives, hell Lost is doing it too. And just to be on topic, 1408 was a great twenty or thirty page cheap scare, but the idea of making a feature length film is just silly. You'll have to add so much, you might as well call it a different name.
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I think you may also want to add that Desperation will be shown on ABC on May 18th.
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The story has a great tone, but it sort of lacks, you know, a plot. It's hard for me to see any halfway decent adaptation about this getting approved by studio heads without a conventional haunted house plot being tacked onto it.
As far as casting goes, John Cusack makes me wonder just how good this movie can be. John Cusack+horror movie= piece of shit. I'd take a look at Campbell Scott, Bill Paxton or Billy Bob Thornton. I don't know why, but those guys come to mind when thinking of that role. -
You are SO right.
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Was a creepy little book, except for the part where she drinks the creek water and it makes her throw up from both ends, if you smell what I'm steppin in. I say cut that part out, or at least limit it to just vomiting.
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Is Oscar here your main wiener man?
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No way they could make a theatrical release out of it; it would have to be at least six films (and that would be if the whole Susan Delgado plot in Wizard and Glass were cut to a long flashback!) Overall, I think it's a terrific opus; and casting would be key (at last there'll be a good reason for King to show up in his own movie): even though Eastwood was the model for Roland, I'm thinking either Viggo Mortensen or Hugh Jackman would do very well. Nona Gaye (Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions) would make a great Susannah; and how bout Nick Stahl for Eddie and Cameron Bright for Jake? BTW, 1408 should be great; but wouldn't it make a better "Masters of Horror" episode than feature-length film?
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Indeed, a fantastic game. You could almost put it into some kind of art house genre of gaming. I never could look at my SNES the same way again. SWING DAT CAGE! Peace.
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Between this and the TMNT talkback... we're a Master Blaster short of a Xargon: Beyond Reality. Um... anyone up for some tea and Monuments of Mars? I feel older than should. Peace.
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Zeke, I also considered Viggo for the role of Roland. I can see him doing a fine job, especially after his work in "A History of Violence," but I'd be a little leery of him simply coming off as another version of Aragorn. I had never thought of Hugh Jackman, but I can see that too. Alan Rickman as Walter. Anthony Hopkins could reprise his role as Ted Brautigan. Eddie and Jake are both tough ones for me. And Susannah would probably require a lot of CGI for her missing legs, unless they went with a legless actress. And then there's all the stuff toward the end when she has legs again. Either way, tricky.
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How come nobody has tried to make that into a movie yet?
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As seemingly everyone else who's read it agrees. It's just a one act story. Guy should not go in hotel room, guy does anyway, the end. Whoever said they scary part was the conversation with the owner hit it right on the head. An Everything's Eventual movie would rock though. Get this one with the title story and maybe the one where the waiter stabs everyone. That's a movie for your ass.
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The Talkbacker, not the character
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EVIL was ok. DERAILED was terrible. For this movie (that's set almost entirely inside a hotel room) you need a director with a strong visual sense. Hafstrom is not the guy. Whatever happened to Matt Greenberg's draft of the screenplay (which I thought was actually quite good). Did Alexander & Karaszewski rewrite or did they start from scratch?
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