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If you like Stephen King and Peter Straub's THE TALISMAN, you should check out what this guy's doing...
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Being the resident Stephen King nut around these parts, I was sent a link by Moriarty to a website called The Wordslinger which is championing a young Canadian filmmaker who has taken a giant leap of faith.
I remember as a kid consuming every Stephen King book I could get my hands on and when I read The Talisman I was floored. Then I heard that noneother than Steven Spielberg optioned the book and I've been dying to see him tackle it for damn near 2/3rds of my life.
But he hasn't done it. There have been attempts, the most recent by Ehren Kruger. I got my hands on his script back in 2003 and... I wasn't happy.
Thank God that script didn't happen (where there were only a couple of scenes in the territories, Morgan Sloat was Jack's daddy and Jack started out with the Talisman), even when Kruger retooled it for a 6-hour mini-series he was to produce.
Now we are here today and a young filmmaker named Mathieu Ratthe has taken the initiative to try to convince the powers that be that he's the man for this material. He created a sequence from the book and with little money and a lot of called-in favors he made it the best he could.
And it is impressive. What he was able to get done with little money is a damn fine little piece. Is it my perfect imagining of the story? Not really. It's nice he got Cameron Bright to play Jack, but in my mind Jack has to be younger, not a teenager, someone who really is on a grand adventure. And the mom has to be more regal, elegant. But that's all casting stuff... I'll say some more below, but check out what Mr. Ratthe put together:
It looks sharp, I love the imagery outside the window and when it cracks. I doubt Mr. Ratthe will get to make this flick, but his heart's in the right place and he's really taken a leap of faith putting his effort into this piece, so I wish him luck. For us Talisman fans, we at the very least get to see a nifty curiosity, a little bit of the story realized.
I hope someday we'll see The Talisman made (with the Sunlight Gardener sequence intact) and I doubly hope that whoever is behind the camera is as passionate about it as Mr. Ratthe seems to be.
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Sounds rad.
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And on a SK talkback. This is a dream come true.
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...as a kid, and I haven't read the sequel (BLACK HOUSE) for fear of it ruining the original. So long as it isn't "meh", I'm interested to see what they do with it - one of the great unfilmed odysseys in print.
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Seemed like a transcript of a drug and cheese-fuelled dream.
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Jul 17, 2008 4:25:11 AM CDT
Very Slick, actiing's a bit iffy & music is boring and predictab
by quantize
but its v well done, good luck to him
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not sure i would give the kid the project, but he has the right idea, and looks to have a very promising career in the movies...and despite watchmen being made into a feature length, talisman must be a mini series
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Yeah, the acting's a little stilted and the pace is a little slow, but the imagery is spot on, the attempted abduction scene is suitably scary, and the whole thing feels like I think THE TALISMAN should feel. Personally I'd give that guy a good $50-60 million dollars and let him blow us all away, but then I'm not a forward-thinking studio with that kind of money - I'm an under-achieving dreamer with nothing more to do than post on a TALISMAN thread.
WHAT AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?!? AAAAAAAARGGGGHHHH!!!
But, seriously, the book's awesome. And I do think this guy has a handle on the material. Damn well done, Mr Ratthe. -
9pm pacific, 5am gmt...and from all accounts, it is made for you and me...so if you hate it, zack is doomed
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Get your facts straight Quint!
Actually I thought it looked cool and a great calling card for Mr Ratthe. Must re-read the Talisman one day. -
Ok, not everyone, but id say a good percentage of talkbackers have dreams of helming some kind of film project. I know i do. Id suck, but i never let that get in the way of a good yearn. Now here's a guy who has taken the initiative and gone for it. Im impressed. I agree its not all there yet, the acting (specifically on, "MOOOOOOOOOOM!")is an obvious one, but the majority of it is very positive. If Uwe Boll and Ratner can get projects greenlit every year, then i, as a exec would say "fuck it. Here's the money, go crazy." The guy clearly has talent.
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Jul 17, 2008 5:07:47 AM CDT
Effective, Give him money if PTA can get work why not him?
by stormwatcher
Seriously, I'd watch his stuff over half the hacks that get 100mil budgets despite bombing repeatedly .
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A palpable feeling of suspense is created in a short time here. Terrific lighting and camera movement. The effects were neat. I particularly liked the creatures and almost wished to see a little more of them. Didn't much care for the use of the music, found it too gimmicky. The kid doesn't seem very fazed at the end. If I saw monsters like that dragging my mother screaming into a car like that, I'd be a hell of a lot more freaked out.
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Spielberg is too dedicated to happy endings to bring any King (or Straub for that matter) work faithfully to life. --G
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... "The Talisman" and "Battlefield Earth".
Both books had "soon to be motion pictures" on them and I had been salivatating over the prospects for both for a loong time.
Of course, we all know how "Battlefield Earth" turned out, don't we......
Here's hoping "The Talisman" gets the treatment it deserves coz I'd still love to see it.
Right here.
Right now.
Wolf. -
The guy's got some directing chops. Even if it is not the Talisman I'm sure we'll be hearing more about Mr. Ratthe.
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If the reports are true and King isn't gonna let him do "The Dark Tower" then he should definately get a go at this and then "Black House", the sequel. Personally i'd love to see how they would handle Wolf. He's such a great character.
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Man, it takes 100 pages before a single thing happens. Big yawn.
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It really must suck finding out you can't appreciate art.
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I just can't stand Cameron Bright. The mother was also incredibly annoying. The direction, production design and effects were all terrific though - really good job on that front!
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... that every goddamn script writer in hollywood always changes everything when they "adapt" a book? Leave the material alone, or call it something else!!
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I like the look of it. The colors give it a little atmosphere. Just on the edge of being too much. I couldn't watch "Heart's in Atlantis" and I really liked the book. King is so hard to adapt. I think most of his stuff takes someone who is a little fearless and passionate. I don't think the studio system is set up to make a very faithful adaptation of most of his works.
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I have no doubt making this clip was difficult and a huge sacrifice of money time and effort. I hope you get your chance. I'll be there.
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Jul 17, 2008 8:06:04 AM CDT
That was sweet. Never read the Talisman but...
by nomoredirtyjokespleaseweareyanks
.... were those Taheen, or Low-Men? I actually have the book, picked it up the other day for 3 bucks. I'll read it after Nightwatch
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I too dig the imagery outside the window.... but the amusement park is closed. The ferris wheel should be stationary.
And I agree - Cameron Bright is too old to play Jack. And I'll always see Recebba DeMornay as Lily. -
Rebecca too!
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Frank Darabont's career was started by two short King adaptations much like this one. Mr. Ratthe may indeed have a future if King gets a look at this.
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but when the hell am I going to get my Dark Tower movies with all the fixins Peter Jackson style?
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is awesome! Can anyone tell me if that's from the soundtrack of another movie, or is it original?
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Black House is dreck. As bad as the worst of King. I'm not as excited about a Talisman movie as I one would have been . . . but Black House? Yuck. It didn't work for me at all.
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Is going to get suckered into going to your scam millionaire site. Give it up.
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In the end, every [actual] Stephen King fan knows he's the one to pull it off. Why request all these potential people who in the process of making the movie will give us the anxiety of the movie being fucked up?
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If you have fond memories of the Talisman, stay far FAR away from 'Black House.' If anybody comes out in support of that turd I would be shocked.
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It wasn't very good. The plot was fine, but it was waaaay over written. It took forever for anything to happen, and when it did, it took forever for anything else to happen. The rules for "migrating" between America and the Territories kept changing, especially regarding Sloat, his bodies, and his stuff (lighting rods, guns, grenades, c-4 explosive, and trains). The Black Hotel was supposed to be frightening, a total mindfuck, and it wasn't. All Jack had to do was touch 5 guys in the head. For the same themes and a similar plot, lets do Dark Tower instead.
By the way I started Black House this morning. After 8 or so pages, the book is also very overwritten and I don't like the real-time, camera-floating-behind-the-action narrative device.
Finally, this video was terrible. Too slow and terrible acting. The kid doesn't want to fuck his mom, as this video makes it seem, he wants to fuck his best friend. They should have chosen the scene where he is working in the bar and is attacked by the were-goat. -
nice film, but come on, the credits were almost longer than the superaction film!
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They have to keep the Sulight Gardener sequence though.
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but it's been 15 years since I read it. Pretty good from what I remember. The real question, WHEN THE FUCK ARE WE GETTING A GUNSLINGER MOVIE?!?!?!
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I think "Black House" is getting a bad rap here. I think its easily on a par with "The Talisman" Maybe thats because I read "The Talisman" years after it came out and I came of age. I still read my fair share of King but there's nothing like reading something like "IT" or "The Talisman" when you're 10 or 11 and just getting your literary legs. For me nothing will ever beat that first reading of "IT" at age ten.
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is a much better book than talisman. Talisman is slow, and as someone stated before, the internal rules are not consistent and the end is anticlimactic. Black House, once you get over the third person present tense perspective, is awesome and a must read if you're a dark tower fan.
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...is only good for the way it ends. Otherwise it's too long, doesn't really go anywhere plotwise, and doesn't add much to the book thematically.
The character of Sunlight was all over the place. Unfocused. He was like 3 separate 1-dimensional characters who, coincidentally, all had the same name. He was not a well-developed 3-dimensional character. He only switched between his different characters as the plot needed.
Leave Osmond as the one who hates all little boys and let Sunlight just be Sloat's right-hand hitman. Instead of Jack and Wolf getting caught in the Sunlight home, they can get caught in the Territories version of it, the evil mine which is by far more interesting that the Home, but which was only glimpsed for about 5 paragraphs. Or, rewrite the Sunlight Gardener section so that it's actually compelling and interesting and that it moves along.
The sequence in the book is only interesting because it gets you to remember far superior stories about bad kids trapped in rehabilitation boarding houses. -
Don't think it's gonna happen any time soon. There was a rumor that JJ Abrams had been talking to King. Don't know what happened to that. It would be near impossible to make a movie/mini-series that would satisfy us Tower junkies, come-calla come come
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I'm the one who mentioned the inconsistent internal rules in Talisman. I'm glad you think Black House is better, I just started it today. I'm reading Dark Tower again, and decided to take a break between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla for Hearts in Atlantis (great Tower sidestory), Talisman (a spiritual precursor to the Tower in many ways, with a lot of plot and thematic parallels, but ultimately lackluster, mediocre, and unnecessary), Black House (which I have high hopes for once I get past the perspective), and Insomnia (because, umm, Patrick Danville gets kind of important, wouldn't you say?)
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with, meaybe, each book getting a season. and that would take a long time, and Jake would get older so they'd have to replace him, and it would just be silly.
Maybe a very dark animated movie would be the way to go. -
Like the The Stand and IT, this is another opus that would cost too much to make as an R-rated feature (The Talsiman, done right, is not a kids movie). So maybe this fellow will get too make a miniseries out of it.
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Great job, Matt Ratt (his name as presented in the logo). I liked the lighting, the slightly washed out colors, the rising tension as he walks into the bathroom, and the cracked window visual of his mother being dragged away. He created a lot of tension in a short amount of time, which is more than I can say about half the supposedly professional horror directors out there. The man's got talent.
As for the best film adaptation of a King story, I'd easily say "The Shawshank Redemption." There was Frank Darabont directing from his hauntingly good script, Thomas Newman writing the music, Roger Deakins etching his timeless cinematography, and most of all, every actor giving the best, most dramatic and memorable performance of their career, all at once. I read King's short story "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" years before I saw the film, was blown away by it, and then was blown much further away by the movie. -
The window effect is cool, but much of the music is way too cliche, and the sound design is beyond awful. Yes, the focus puller did a good job, and they shot in HD. If they want to convince us that they should make the movie they should better demonstrate that they know more than standard suspense made for tv cliche filmmaking and show some real character interaction.
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Gotta be one or the other. Perhaps a collaberation?
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But considering the rejection of his brilliant The Mist by mainstream audiences, it'll likely never happen, and Darabont will slink back into making "Capra-esque" period dramas.
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I also read the feature film scripts draft and it was very sad. Not only do they wreck Wolfie but the Sunlight Gardener sequence is gone(I believe) among many other things. Much like Dark Tower either Talisman or Black House cannot be done in a single film.
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Good job Matt! I love the Talisman but Black House was such a letdown. I just read that TNT is turning this into a 6 part mini-series in 2009!
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Say Mom again, muthafucka! I dare you!
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Horrible casting for the clip. I think that Camron Bright kid is about as overplayed and annoying as Dakota Fanning. Between them and Freddie Highmore, you'd think those were the only kid actors on the planet. I know its shallow (even somewhat asshole-ish) but if I never saw either of them again it would be too soon. Far too precocious and distracting and I do think both of them are talented. But yes the kid must actually be a kid and not a teenager (Bright is currently 15...too old by at least 3 years). Particularly when we meet a few other characters...his reaction to them and the world would be different if it was a teenager and not a 'kid'. And yes, the mother cannot be a 'normal mom'...she has to be down on her luck and very regal and elegant...The Talisman is one of my favorite King books and deserves the Durabont or Durabont-esque treatment no question. King's mini-series, as a whole, suck quite badly for the most part and this story begs for long screen time so...it will probably never happen and if it does...it will be a castrated burnt monkey's ass of a film.
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black house makes rose madder look like the friggin' stand. it actually makes me angry as book; even more than dempsey's magical pencil or making oy click ruby red booties together. danielowski's unreadable upside down free verse bullshit is less frustrating.
love talisman, though. spielberg woulda done the black knights justice (and you just know morgan freeman would be a great speedy. i know he's in everything, but c'mon... ) -
but the performances were rank and the scares all notoriously tied in with sound design shocks.
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I think he did an excellent job with the demo. I've certainly seen worse adaptations of King's work(many, many worse adaptaions!). Give Mr. Ratthe the opportunity to go all the way on this!
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Jul 17, 2008 2:02:26 PM CDT
If/when they actually get around to making this fucker...
by caruso_stalker217
...please set it in the goddamn motherfucking '80s.
And Cate Blanchett for Lily. My two cents. -
What you were expecting the same thing over again, even tho they made it CLEAR that the book wasn't going to resemble The Talisman at all? Well boo hoo on you for buying it and reading it then.
I thought it was great, and the climax shocking as hell. Can't wait for the final installment. -
I wish this was a full movie. He did an amazing job! Love it. Love it! Love it! Give the man the money!
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I wish this was a full movie. He did an amazing job! Love it. Love it! Love it! Give the man the money!
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I wish this was a full movie. He did an amazing job! Love it. Love it! Love it! Give the man the money!
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Mom? Mom!! Mom? Mom? MOM? mom.... Mom???? MOm!???? MOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!! Mom.
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Or probably more ideally, Lindelof to write, Abrams to produce, Darabont to direct. The opening shot of The Mist surely indicates Darabont would like to be involved in The Dark Tower. Who would you cast as Roland? Jim Caviezel? Viggo Mortenson?? The kid in The Mist, Nathan Gamble (who plays Gordon's son in The Dark Knight!!), would be a good choice to play Jake Chambers, but by the time they get the movie going he might be too old. He needs to be around 11-12. The first book, The Gunslinger, could make an excellent movie.
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is one of those books that I grew up on too. I remember it really grabbing me with it's rich sense of what the Territories were like and made it a place I wished I could go, with Wolf at my side as the best friend you could have. The dark relationship to the
Wizard of Oz wasn't lost on me either and I started to read the subtext of the book. I also learned to do that with other books, but I just remember that The Talisman taught me that it was there, just like Jack learned the Territories existed. Then a couple of months ago I read The Black House. It disappointed me. Sorry, 7, but I didn't have any pre-conceptions about it going in so I didn't know it would resemble The Talisman in the name of the lead character only. I wanted to go back to that world, and not just fall asleep in a field and wake up there for 20 minutes. But standing on their own merits, The Talisman completely outshines The Black House on just about every level. And I agree that Frank Darabont should direct every King story from here on out. Shawshank, The Mist, and the under rated Green Mile are wonderful films that capture the rich characterizations that make Stephen King Stories so engaging for me. Put me in the camp that thought The Mist was one of the best movies of last year. It will be a long time before I see an ending that bold. Maybe. -
...is Daniel Day-Lewis. And he would never do it.
As for this little short film, well, it's not THE TALISMAN. And if this is anything like this guy would make it then I don't want him making it. When I hear movie news about THE TALISMAN I truly turn into a fanboy and I feel like I fit in here. It's one of my favorite books and I'm pretty much dreading a film version, which I predict will be shit no matter who makes it.
So, yeah, fanboy. -
Seriously. The book picks up when Wolf enters the picture. The Sunlight Gardener sequence is the best damn part of the book and, frankly, the only reason the book should exist. The rest is awful. Black House? It was okay. Only okay. As for The Dark Tower... It should be done in three seasons ... on TV ... on HBO. Have it run by J.J. Abrams and crew, and throw in Frank Darabont to help it along (let him write; don't let him direct). As for Mick Garris... throw him out the window. THAT guy is a talentless hack. The kid who made this Talisman clip has more talent. A LOT more. Fucking fire hoses and Cortland Mead, my ass!
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But he had about 80 "Moms" too many.
If he'd only said Mom once or twice, and was silent the rest of the time it would have allowed the tension to build better.
The visuals, editing, and music cues were all very nice though. -
Jul 18, 2008 4:21:07 AM CDT
Jesus, let's hope Mr. Ratthe doesn't "get to make this flick"
by doc_mccoy
There was admittedly some degree of talent involved in the making of that scene, but it was still child's play compared to what countless working filmmakers could do.
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MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!
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So says my wife, and I agree.
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