Lilja's Library (22 page)

Lilja:
Had you read
The Dark Tower
books, or any other King book for that matter, when you started working on the
Concordances
?

Robin Furth:
I’d never read
The Dark Tower
books; however I’d been a fan of Steve’s other novels for quite a while. I’d read
’Salem’s Lot
as a kid and absolutely adored it. (I have a soft spot for vampire tales.) I felt the same about his other stories, many of which deal with psychic ability—a subject that fascinates me. Believe it or not, my ambition at the age of fourteen was to grow up and work with Stephen King. Well, I guess some dreams do come true!

Lilja:
How did you go by writing the concordances? Did you read it all first or did you write as you read? After all,
The Dark Tower
saga isn’t read in an afternoon.

Robin Furth:
To create the proto-Concordance which I sent to Steve I had to read each of
The Dark Tower
books from cover-to-cover about four or five times. (First for plot, second for characters, third for places, fourth for language/games/historical characters.) While adapting the
Concordances
for publication I probably read them an additional three times since I had to get page references for the U.K.
Concordances
as well as the U.S. editions. While going through the books and taking notes I had to stop every one hundred pages or so to type references into my computer file. Otherwise, my notes became too unwieldy.

Lilja:
I bet there were things that were unclear when you read the book, right? How often in those cases did you decide for yourself what was correct and how often did you ask Stephen?

Robin Furth:
Even now, as I write the story lines for Marvel comics, I try to run my
Dark Tower
theories by Steve. I think that’s only fair, since Mid-World is his world. (He’s on the white charger up ahead, I’m on my rotund little donkey behind him, pencil and paper in hand!) As I’ve said already, I really love folklore, so some of the sub-stories which
The Dark Tower
cycle contains resonate with old myths. Hence, I can fill in many of the blanks because those same stories appear the world over, but in slightly different guises. I think that’s part of the appeal of
The Dark Tower
books. I know it is for me.

Lilja:
Will there ever be one volume of the
Concordance
? There are quite a few listings that appear in both volumes, so I imagine it would be a big job to get them combined into one volume, right? And, if done, it would be a really big book!

Robin Furth:
Yes, there’s going to be a single volume
Concordance
coming out either in late 2006 or perhaps early 2007, I’m not certain which. (I’ve started work on it already and I must admit it’s a pretty daunting task.) Since, as you say, just pasting the two books together would mean a lot of repetition, I have to go through and edit the text while compiling the page references. I’m really hoping my computer doesn’t crash due to the size of the documents it’s dealing with.

Unlike the two-volume set which (except for the U.K. edition) only appeared in paperback, the single volume
Concordance
will also be in hardback. Scribner is still going to publish the paperback, but Cemetery Dance is going to publish a limited edition hardback. I’m not sure yet whether a single volume
Concordance
will come out in any other country.

Lilja:
I read that you will outline
The Dark Tower
comic-book series, providing scene-by-scene plotting, and maintaining the continuity and consistency of each story arc. What does that mean exactly?

Robin Furth:
It means a lot of work, but I must say it is fascinating work. Basically, I’m writing the story lines for the comics. I’m not certain how other writers handle this kind of thing, but what I’m doing is constructing a series of stories which, when taken together, make up a five-chapter visual novel. (The first chapter recounts the events of
Wizard and Glass
, the second describes the adventures Roland and his friends’ encounter on the way back to Gilead, etc.)

However, as in film or any other visual medium, my plots are just the beginning. The stories are then adapted and reworked by the other artists working on the project. Once I finish with my plots I send them on to Ralph Macchio,
The Dark Tower
editor at Marvel. He and two other editors go over what I’ve done. If they like the work, they keep it. If they think the plots need more changes, they send the story lines back with suggestions. Once the story lines go through this rigorous process and meet with approval, they are handed over to Jae Lee, who does the line drawings. (By the way, I’ve seen some of Jae’s drawings for the first issue and they are superb.) After Jae is done, his drawings go to a colorist. The final work (besides that done by the artist who writes the physical words on the page) will be the scripting. (In other words, the word balloons and commentary that you see when you read the comics.) I don’t think Marvel has made a final decision yet about who will script.

As you can imagine, it can be nerve-wracking trying to adapt another writer’s stories to a new medium, but so far Steve has been very supportive of the work I’ve done. I guess I’ve worked on the project with him for so long that I’ve served a fairly exacting apprenticeship. I do believe that I am now a naturalized citizen of Mid-World.

Lilja:
Can you tell me more about the comics? Any plot information? Will there be more than the initial six?

Robin Furth:
The first seven comics (which will eventually be published as a single volume) are a retelling of
Wizard and Glass
. As you can imagine, it was really difficult to take such a complicated tale and cut it back to a story that could be contained within seven comics of roughly twenty-five pages each! Unfortunately it meant leaving out quite a few secondary characters as well as many of the plot’s twists and turns, but I did my best to catch the essence of the story, if not the exact detail. At times I had to alter the plot a little to fit within the parameters of the new form, but hopefully they remain really true to the heart of the tale.

The rest of the comics (there will be thirty in all) cover the time period between Roland leaving Hambry and the fall of Gilead. The later comics are in some ways the hardest, because I have to go back to my
Dark Tower
timeline and to my many notes to expand upon the childhood/adolescent adventures that Roland mentions in the books.

As well as writing the plots, I’m also writing some Mid-World legends. (I’ve bounced these off Steve, so they’re consistent with his vision.) The first one is about the origin of the Wizard’s Rainbow, and was great fun to write. There will be lots of others too. I’m also mapping the baronies of Mejis and New Canaan (don’t worry, the Marvel artists are going to draw them based on my descriptions—I won’t draw them myself!). So, it should be a lot of fun.

Lilja:
I imagine this is something you will work with for quite some time, right? Are you working full-time for Stephen King at the moment or are you doing other things as well?

Robin Furth:
I still do freelance work for Steve (the most recent being some research for
Cell
), but the majority of my work right now is being done for Marvel and Scribner. The comics will probably keep me pretty busy for much of the next year, as will the single volume
Concordance
. I’m also finishing up my second novel, which I really hope I can coax into an envelope and out to my agent and then a publisher over the next twelve months or so. In addition, I have several batches of poems that I have to get in the mail, so there’s never a dull moment. (There’s rarely enough sleep either, but in that I’m in the same boat as everybody else.) Over the past few years, my life has gone through a lot of changes, thanks to Steve and Roland. I feel very lucky. Hopefully, the changes will continue in a creative direction.

****

Mikael Håfström

Posted: April 13, 2006

Lilja:
How did it happen that you got to do
1408
? Was it you who set out to get it or were you asked to do it?

Mikael Håfström:
I read an early draft of the script about a year ago and really liked it. I asked Scott Alexander and Larry Karaskewski (
Ed Wood
) if they would like to work with me on the script and they said yes. Lorenzo Di Bonaventura is producing for Dimension (The Weinstein Company).

Lilja:
You are the first Swede to do a Stephen King movie. How does that feel? Is this even something you have considered?

Mikael Håfström:
No. I have not met Stephen King, but I have talked to him on the phone. He is very enthusiastic about the project and likes the script. A lot of films have been made from King’s books. Some great ones and a lot of bad ones. I hope we’ll end up on the right list.

Lilja:
The first actor attached to the project was John Cusack. Why did you pick him?

Mikael Håfström:
I think he’s pretty perfect for the part of Mike Enslin. He has the edge and also the humor I’m looking for. And he’s a cool guy and an actor I always liked.

Lilja:
Same question about the second actor, Samuel L. Jackson. Why did you pick him?

Mikael Håfström:
It’s a bit of going away from the conventions. In King’s short story, most people see Olin as a white guy with some European background. Sam Jackson can take this guy a step further.

Lilja:
When can we expect to see this one in theatres?

Mikael Håfström:
Late 2007 is a good guess.

Lilja:
Anything else you can tell us about
1408
?

Mikael Håfström:
We will start shooting in London this summer, and then go to New York for exteriors. At this moment I’m working on putting the right crew together. It’s as important as finding the right actors.

****

Mick Garris

Posted: May 22, 2006

Lilja:
What made you want to turn
Desperation
into a movie?

Mick Garris:
I love the “desert noir” or, more accurately, “desert blanc” stories:
Red Rock West
, the novels of James M. Cain, etc. And King’s book was like a horror desert noir, which blends a lot of my favorite tropes of storytelling. It’s a very human story, quite emotional, and terrifically challenging. We first planned on making it as a feature film while we were shooting
The Shining
miniseries; a couple of producers came out to the location in Colorado to discuss it with us, but, though it had been set up as a feature at New Line, they never really got behind it.

I love the themes: so much of it is reminiscent of
The Stand
, although, of course, it’s a very different story. But shooting in a dead town, with no one around for miles, the ensemble cast, all the location and road work, it was very similar.

Lilja:
The cast is very good. Did you do the casting?

Mick Garris:
I’m very, very happy with the cast, for the most part. There are more actors in
Desperation
whom I had worked with in movies before than any other movie I’ve ever made. This was my fourth film with Matt Frewer (the fifth was
Chocolate
, for
Masters of Horror
), my third with Henry Thomas, second with Charles Durning, third with Steven Weber, second with Ron Perlman. Most of those actors were my first choice.

The network and I did not always agree; they fought me on Ron Perlman, and a couple other actors. They forced us to offer it to Clancy Brown, who is a wonderful actor, but I’m glad he passed on it, for whatever reasons he had. I was planning on Perlman in 1996, when we first talked about making it. He’s quite wonderful in it, and brings to it elements no other actor could have.

Lilja:
Were there some actors/actresses that you had in mind from the start?

Mick Garris:
Weber, Frewer, Thomas and Perlman were all my first choices. It’s great to work with actors with whom you already have a personal and professional relationship. It’s a lot of work, and any shorthand you can get going is very valuable. And if you’re going to work under these very trying circumstances, it’s even better if you have reliable, enjoyable personalities surrounding you on the set. Particularly on difficult locations.