Authors: Hans-Ake Lilja
Peter Straub:
We cooked up the “bible” together over a week in Florida during February 2000. We talked about the story, then took turns sitting down at the computer and pushing the ideas forward.
Lilja:
When you wrote
The Talisman
you imitated each other’s writing styles so you came up with a collaborative “voice” (King once said that you should have published the book under the name Chauncey Boogerheart, to stop readers from making a guessing game out of who wrote what in the book)—do you feel that this voice (Chauncey Boogerheart, if you want!) is present in
Black House,
and if that’s the case, was it hard to find that voice again?
Peter Straub:
This time around, Chauncey Boogerheart’s voice is considerably more elevated, riper, plummier than heretofore. The direness of the situation seemed to call for an increase in dignity.
Lilja:
I read how
The Talisman
came together (meetings in England and the U.S., long drives where you came up with the Territories, “the great Thanksgiving putsch,” etc.). It seems like you had a lot of fun writing the book. King once said, “When Peter said he was going to send something, I would get excited because I was going to get to read some more of the story.” I understand most of the work this time was done electronically—the long drives changed to daily emails for a couple of months, then a meeting in Florida (where the “bible” was written?) and the fifty-page installments back and forth as email attachments. Was it really as fun this time as back in the early 80s when you wrote
The Talisman
? How many times did you meet and write together this time?
Peter Straub:
Actually, this was more fun than the first time around. We got together only once, in Florida, and did the rest by e-mail or in telephone conversations. Everything flew by. Everything fell into place.
Lilja:
Oddly, it seems like this method of writing was really effective since you finished the script six weeks before deadline! Did this surprise you or is it a common thing?
Peter Straub:
I have to say, it was a very happy surprise.
Lilja:
We’ve read that
The Talisman
should have originally been a “Go-get-it-and-bring-it-back” book, but you decided to cut the outline in half since the book had become way too long (you have said something about a four thousand page novel). What about this time? Did you write an outline that you knew would be enough for the length of the novel or did you have to cut it this time as well?
Peter Straub:
Nope, this time we simply expanded on the outline. The first two pages of the outline took up about fifty pages of manuscript. The book wound up being longer than we had anticipated. It is almost exactly as long as
The Talisman
.
Lilja:
Going back to the outline for
The Talisman
, do you remember anything from the part that was cut that you really wanted to write? A “kill your darlings,” so to speak.
Peter Straub:
I always liked the massacre in a farmhouse that was never written. It was inspired by the murders Capote wrote about in
In Cold Blood
.
Lilja:
How do you feel about Mick Garris turning
The Talisman
into a miniseries? Is this something you look forward to? Do you have any power over the script? One script, written by Richard Lagravenese, was very strange and not true to the book, but we know that Garris is writing his own script and that he will stay true to the book.
Peter Straub:
Sounds pretty good to me.
Lilja:
It’s taken almost twenty years to turn
The Talisman
into a film (although the rights were sold before the book was published, according to the rumors, that is)—do you have any hopes for
Black House
turning into a movie? Seeing the trailer for the book on the Internet gave us the impression that a movie was already made!
Peter Straub:
The book has been sent to the various relevant parties, and we should have some information before long.
Lilja:
We understand that there will be a special e-book version of
Black House
, one that will contain notes from you, King and the editor. Do you see this as a twentieth-century version of a limited edition of the book?
Peter Straub:
Well, there will be a limited, too, of course. I guess this added stuff is only an inducement, a sales tool, for the e-book. Me, I don’t know why anybody would want to read
Black House
in the e-book format.
Lilja:
Early on there was some talk that King should write, what he called, a “bridge” between
The Talisman
and
Black House
, and publish this as an e-book. The book would update us on Jack Sawyer’s life during the last twenty years (roughly). This information came from King’s agent Ralph Vincinanza in an interview in
Publishers Weekly
, but when we asked you about this, you didn’t know anything about it. Do you know something about this now? Will there be a “bridge”? Are you involved at all?
Peter Straub:
The “bridge” story is still completely up in the air. If it happens at all, I’ll start it, and King will finish it. (If Steve reads this, he’ll be surprised, because we haven’t even discussed the matter. My editor thought I might begin it, then pass it along to Steve.)
Lilja:
How do you feel about publishing on the Internet? We know King has published some stuff exclusively on the Internet (
Riding the Bullet
and
The Plant
). Do you have any plans to publish on the Internet?
Peter Straub:
I don’t really write enough material to experiment with the Internet.
Lilja:
Black House
has already been promoted a lot—advertisements almost a year ahead of the release, websites, trailers, etc. Do you have any thoughts on this? Is this the future of promoting a new book?
Peter Straub:
It may be the future of promoting a book considered highly marketable by its publishers.
Lilja:
Will you and King do a signing tour for the book? If so, do you know any of the dates?
Peter Straub:
No, there will not be a tour.
Lilja:
Do you surf the Internet to see what your fans think of your work?
Peter Straub:
Now and again, I use Google/Deja to find out if anyone’s been talking about me.
Lilja:
One reader once pointed out the similarities between King’s
IT
and your
Floating Dragon
(how catastrophes with supernatural elements strike an American town in intervals, how it all ends with a struggle against a beast underground and how a group of selected people fight against the evil)—any idea how this happened, being you wrote the books more or less at the same time?
Peter Straub:
I seem to remember that we each read the other’s manuscript when we were about halfway along, and that’s probably how it happened.
Lilja:
Do you think you and King will work together again? Can we look forward to
The Talisman 3
in fifteen years?
Peter Straub:
I’d say the chances for a third volume look pretty good.
Lilja:
On that interesting note we would like to thank Peter for the interview. It was great to talk to you!
****
Michael Piller
Posted: June 10, 2002
Here is an interview I did with Michael Piller, the writer, executive producer and creator of the new TV series
The Dead Zone
.
Piller’s credits as a writer-producer include the series
Simon & Simon
,
Cagney & Lacey
,
Miami Vice
,
Probe
and
Hard Time on Planet Earth
. He is also known to television viewers around the world as the executive producer and co-creator of more than five hundred hours of Star Trek. In 1998 he wrote and co-produced
Star Trek: Insurrection
, the ninth installment in the enormously successful Star Trek feature film franchise for Paramount Pictures.
Previously, Piller served as executive producer & head writer on
Star Trek: The Next Generation
(1989-1994). He also co-created and executive produced
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
(1992-1999) and
Star Trek: Voyager
(1994-2001). During the 1994-95 television season, Piller also co-created and executive produced the UPN series
Legend
.
More information about Michael Piller can be found at http://www.piller2.com.
Lilja:
Why was it
The Dead Zone
(of all Stephen King’s books) that you chose to turn into a series? Was it your decision or the network’s?
Michael Piller:
The network bought the series from a pitch by producer Lloyd Segan and then they hired me. I was attracted to the project after I read the book. I felt it would give me an opportunity to explore the world we live in through Johnny Smith’s eyes.
Lilja:
After watching the pilot, I must say that I’m positively surprised. The show looks really professional (not that it shouldn’t) and the parts where Johnny has his visions are really well done. Was it a big problem for you to come up with ideas on how to do the look of Johnny’s visions? I guess you had some to choose from, right?
Michael Piller:
First of all, director Rob Lieberman deserves enormous credit for what you see in the pilot. As far as ideas, I can only say that I try to watch the movie as I write it and try to see what I would like to see as a viewer—and ideas come (or not, sometimes).
Lilja:
I also noticed that there are some additional characters in the series that aren’t in King’s book. I’m thinking of Bruce Lewis (played by John L. Adams) and Reverend Gene Purdy (played by David Ogden Stiers). How did you come up with these characters and why were they given a bigger part in the series?
Michael Piller:
Bruce was created because the network and studios felt that Johnny needed someone to talk to, to express his intimate thoughts to, besides Sarah. John Adams has turned what was originally envisioned as a small role into a major regular—there’s real chemistry between the two guys, as you’ll see.
Purdy was my son Shawn’s idea. He felt we needed an antagonist in the series to provide conflict for Johnny. I wanted to continue to explore the spiritual themes in the novel, but in a contemporary way. Purdy allows us to do that. He’s a mutli-faceted character, however, not your typical moustache-twirling villain.
Lilja:
I also think you did a great job with the casting of the show. I especially like Anthony Michael Hall as Johnny, but both Nicole deBoer (as Sarah Bannerman) and Chris Bruno (as Walt Bannerman) are great. Who did the casting? I guess you must have been nervous in casting Johnny’s role since Christopher Walken did such a great job in the movie version.
Michael Piller:
Casting Johnny was our first and most important challenge for the very reason you point out—we had to find someone who could fill Chris Walken’s shoes. Because of Walken, I didn’t want to cast a leading-man type in the role. I wanted someone off center. When I saw Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates in
Pirates of Silicon Valley
, I knew he was our guy. He was my first choice for the role.
Ellie Kanner cast our pilot.
Lilja:
In the pilot, the King feeling is present, but as a Stephen King fan I’m a bit worried that King’s feeling will get lost (as it does in so many of the adaptations of his work). How are you planning to keep the King feeling in the series?