Authors: Hans-Ake Lilja
Jae Lee:
So far, nothing.
Lilja:
How far into the series are you now? I’m guessing you have done quite a lot on the second story arc, right?
Jae Lee:
I’m chugging along on the second arc. I hope to be done before the first issue hits in February 2008.
Lilja:
Are you still enjoying it as much now as when you started with issue one of the first story arc?
Jae Lee:
Absolutely. I could never get tired of this. I get to play with so many genres. One minute I’m drawing horses, the next, someone getting electrocuted by a robot. How crazy is that?
Lilja:
How about the upcoming story arcs? I take it that you are in for all thirty-something, right?
Jae Lee:
I’m on for all thirty.
Lilja:
OK, thanks for your time. It was very nice to talk to you.
****
Gregory Nicotero
Posted: January 7, 2008
Lilja:
Hi Greg! Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to me. I really appreciate it. I was looking you up at IMDb.com and you have a very impressive list of movies you have been involved with. Can you tell my readers a little about yourself?
Gregory Nicotero:
Well, I started in Pittsburgh in 1984 under Tom Savini and George Romero’s wings on
Day of the Dead
…given the impact
Dawn of the Dead
had on me, we all felt (Howard Berger, Everett Burrell, Mike Trcic) that we were treading sacred ground. I went from there to NY and then LA, and hooked up on
Evil Dead 2
. It was during that film that we decided to start KNB, and 650 movies later and twenty years under our belt, Howard and I have certainly carved our niche in the annals of modern cinema.
Lilja:
You have been involved in several Stephen King movies as well. I noticed
Creepshow 2
,
The Green Mile
,
Misery
,
Desperation
and
The Mist
. Did I miss any?
Gregory Nicotero:
We also did
Tales from the Darkside
,
Riding the Bullet
,
Hearts in Atlantis
…I’m sure there are a few more. I was a huge fan of King’s growing up…loved
’Salem’s Lot
…read
Pet Sematary
in one day…there was so much about his writing and the “everyday guy getting thrown into these situations” that I always fell in love with. It felt like he hit every nerve in every book. We provided corpses on
The Stand
for a prop department as well. In terms of his movies I felt like
The Dead Zone
was a near perfect film…still moves me when Brooke Adams is holding Chris Walken’s hand at the end. I have a framed copy of the Newsweek cover in my office that King signed for me that says, “No future for Stillson,” but he crossed out Stillson and wrote “Bush”…
Lilja:
Are you a Stephen King fan or have they just been like any other job for you?
Gregory Nicotero:
Very big fan. I’d have to say
’Salem’s Lot
and
The Stand
are my favorite books. I’ve read most of his stuff.... I recall reading
Pet Sematary
in one day over high school break. These are definitely not just another job...bringing life to characters and creatures that he has created...and literally redefine how people read and accept horror is a tremendous honor.
Lilja:
How did you get involved with
The Mist
?
Gregory Nicotero:
Darabont and I have been friends for fifteen years Initially the idea was to do
The Mist
after
The Shawshank Redemption
, but
The Green Mile
came up first. Frank had always wanted us to do
The Mist
,
so when it came up we kicked into the design phase and between Frank, myself and Everett Burrell we really mapped out each sequence and executed them to a “T.” We had a two-month design phase, then a two-month build and a six-week shoot, so it was over before it really started and I’m very proud of the film.
Lilja:
Can you talk a little about how the effects in
The Mist
were done? I guess the tentacle scene must have involved quite a lot of work?
Gregory Nicotero:
Frank’s intention always was that he wanted to do digital creature work. Everett and I pressed on him that even if the puppet pieces didn’t appear on screen they would be invaluable for reference, animation, lighting, etc. So, we had always known that our main contribution would be puppets and then most likely they would serve as a guide shot on set under our supervision to ensure the perfect blend and as much creative control as we could put forth. Given Everett comes from a makeup FX background and we’d known each other for twenty years it was really a perfect match.
Lilja:
When I saw the tentacle scene it wasn’t one hundred percent convincing, no offense. It was almost as if the tentacles at times were “above” the kid instead of “on” him. What are your own feelings about that scene and how it turned out?
Gregory Nicotero:
The CGI work was challenging, of course…adding the levels of mist…we shot quite a bit with the practical tentacles grabbing him and interacting, but for the sake of time some of those where omitted and if anything it is more of a lighting issue and density of mist around the tentacles. Making something that isn’t there have weight and mass is the hardest thing to do, and I may have opted for more practical shots myself, but that’s the process, and Frank’s final vision is up there.
Lilja:
I liked the creatures. I understand they are based on drawings from Bernie Wrightson. Is that often the case that someone else designs the monsters or do you usually do that yourself?
Gregory Nicotero:
We have a team of designers, and on this film I had very specific concepts in mind, so I was able to direct Bernie as well as others like Mike Broom, Aaron Sims, Jordy Schell to the direction I wanted. Ironically, I found a sketch we had done for the final creature literally a dozen years ago when Frank first mentioned the project, and I was shocked at how much it looked like it when we finished the movie…good ideas are always good ideas. I did a lot of research beforehand as well…calling on the concept that these aren’t monsters, but animals that have just been misplaced into a new ecosystem…and if they happen to eat someone it is almost mistaken identity, like a shark attack.
Lilja:
Were they all created in a computer or do they actually, physically exist?
Gregory Nicotero:
We made puppets of the tentacles, bugs, birds and spiders. From these the CGI house was able to make 3D models, and Everett consulted with me about each step on the way (which is rare in the VFX field) and I feel it allowed for a better final product.
Lilja:
The mist itself, how was that created? It looks very real.
Gregory Nicotero:
A combination of CGI and practical mist engineered by amazing physical effects supervisor Darryl Pritchett. We worked with Darryl on
Vampires
,
Spy Kids 2
and
The Green Mile
,
and he and his team are top notch.
Lilja:
You have also been doing some acting. Is that something you enjoy and wish to do more of?
Gregory Nicotero:
Nah. It’s just fun once in a while to be in front of the camera…nothing I think I am very good at…even though Rodriguez has always been talking about doing a movie about the life of Stevie Ray Vaughan and I always tell him I want to play a guy in one of his early bands.
Lilja:
What are you working on now?
Gregory Nicotero:
Currently doing a film called
Splice
being directed by Vincenzo (
Cube
) Notali, a miniseries from Spielberg and Tom Hanks called
The Pacific
…a companion piece to
Band of Brothers
for HBO, a film with DJ (
Disturbia
) Caruso called
Eagle Eye
, and getting ready to start a TV series called
Fear Itself
for NBC. We’ve wrapped on the second Narnia film, a movie called
Mirrors
with Alex Aja and Kiefer Sutherland and some work on
Indiana Jones
…so all in all business as usual here at KNB.
Lilja:
OK, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to me. I enjoyed it!
****
Frank Darabont
Posted: January 7, 2008
Lilja:
Hi Frank. It’s nice to talk to you again. Last time we talked you were about to shoot
The Mist
, and now it’s done and has had its premier. Are you happy with the result?
Frank Darabont:
Delighted. It was deeply satisfying to put this story I’ve loved for so long on film. The result is the story I always saw in my head when reading the book—and I’m very happy to say that Stephen King loves the movie. That’s our best endorsement, as well as my greatest personal satisfaction: the fact that it pleases him.
Also very satisfying for me was the opportunity to try a completely different stylistic approach from anything I’d ever done before as a director, which was very exhilarating and liberating for me. It was a blast, tremendously fun in that regard, and a great learning experience.
Mostly I’m very happy that we accomplished what we set out to do, which was to make a movie on a low budget and a very tight schedule—for the record, it was seventeen million dollars and a thirty-seven-day shoot. That’s not much money these days when major studios are regularly making genre films in the one hundred to two hundred million dollar budget range. Our goal was to make an ambitious movie with limited resources, very much in the spirit of the grainy low-budget genre films I grew up watching and loving.
Lilja:
Personally, I really liked
The Mist
. In fact, I think it’s the best adaptation of a King story to date. What reaction have you gotten on the film? Does everybody like it as much as I do?
Frank Darabont:
Thanks, I’m so glad you like it!
Overall, reactions have been very gratifying. A lot of people love it and have blessed us with lavish praise…one critic said it’s the best movie of the year and one of the best horror movies ever. I don’t know if that’s true—time is the only real judge of these things—but I appreciate the opinion. The people who have embraced the movie love it for the raw quality, the intensity and the uncompromising ending.
Of course, there are some people who hate it too, and I think for those very same reasons. It’s real and harsh in a way they don’t expect. I think they went in expecting a “popcorn” monster movie with some thrills and a typical ending—a date-night movie, basically—but that’s not what they got. They got a bleak, nasty movie that kicked them in the stomach and said some deeply negative things about humanity they weren’t prepared to hear. That’s not the sort of thing they expect from “just a horror movie,” so it pisses them off.
That’s OK, you’re allowed to hate my movie as much as you’re allowed to love it. I always say there’s never been a movie that was loved by everybody. (I can read you a few scathingly bad reviews I got for
Shawshank
when it first came out.) But with
The Mist
, I set out to make a horror movie, which by my definition is intended to horrify and disturb you. If the movie did that, I succeeded. Some people love those sensations and admire the result. Some people don’t; they’d rather go through the motions of a scary movie, but not get kicked in the stomach. They prefer horror that doesn’t get too real, and
The Mist
got too real for some people, especially at the end. And that’s fair too. Like I said, there’s never been a movie that pleases everybody.