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As in... "..when will Stephen be finishing The Plant?"
Marsha and Hedda will understand.
Anthony Breznican gets the Duffers to talk about The Talisman for Vanity Fair.
I understand you are working on the adaptation of The Talisman, a book he co-wrote with Peter Straub. Is that still happening? What's the status?
Ross Duffer: We're starting to branch out a little bit into producing stuff that we're not necessarily showrunning, just because there are properties or writers or directors that we really admire and want to work with. The Talisman being one example. That's a big property that they've been trying to get going for 30 years, so if we can help get that going, that would be incredible. We've been so entrenched in Stranger Things world, it's nice to start to step out.
Matt Duffer: I think it's one of the last ‘80s Stephen King books that has not been adapted in any form. And the only reason is because Steven Spielberg grabbed onto the rights. He grabbed the rights and he's held onto it for 30 years. You look at that book, and it's 800-plus pages. It's too big for a movie. At the time, TV was not equipped to do what you need to do with that book. It's huge, it's got tons of spectacle, it's massive. Now, when you can basically do these eight-hour movies, finally I think the time is right to make The Talisman. I'm optimistic it's going to happen because the hurdles that stood in the way are now gone.
I’ve interviewed both King and Spielberg about this, and you’re right. Spielberg didn’t option it—he bought it outright and owns the rights in perpetuity.
Ross Duffer: Exactly.
Matt Duffer: That's why no one's made it. The option has never lapsed. Our friend Curtis Gwinn is heading that show, and he's one of the writers from Stranger Things. He called us and he was like, "Would you be interested in being involved in any way?" And we're like, "Are you kidding?" It's Stephen King and Steven Spielberg, and it's about a boy who crosses into another dimension not to save his friend, but save his mother. There's so many parallels to Stranger Things. It's very different tonally than Stranger Things, so it's not going to feel like Stranger Things: Part Two, but…
Ross Duffer: … It does share some DNA.
Matt Duffer: Yeah, it definitely shares a lot. Originally, that's how we pitched Stranger Things, like it was an undiscovered Stephen King book that Spielberg directed. That was the pitch, so the fact that [The Talisman] is a Stephen King-Spielberg collaboration, to be any tiny part in it is awesome.
So Curtis Gwinn is writing it, but you're producing it. Have you had any conversations with either of the Steves about it?
Ross Duffer: Not with Stephen King. With Spielberg, we have, yeah.
What did he tell you about why he was so passionate about it?
Ross Duffer: You can just see the joy he has for this story. It really comes down to the relationship with the kid and his mom. That's the emotional through-line of that story, and that's what we're trying to capture. But of course, there's an incredible werewolf character, which I think is at least a top-10 Stephen King character. Wolf is right up there. I think we're all excited about bringing that to life.
Matt Duffer: There's a 100-page section of the book that is like Shawshank Redemption with teenagers and a werewolf, and I'm just like...
Oh yeah, in that crazy religious orphanage. Sunlight Home. It's incredible.
Matt Duffer: If this is executed as well as the writing deserves, that's a slam dunk. Anyway, I'm excited about it. I know it's probably pretty far off. To me, just to get to the part where we're casting Wolf, that's the goal. That's the make it or break it, the casting of Wolf. You find the right actor for that role…
They own the rights, and they haven’t allowed any version to get made up to hopefully now. It’s a huge book, it’s really long and I don’t think it would ever have really worked effectively as a movie. Until recently, I don’t think it would have worked as television. It’s like we’re in this new era now where there’s a kind of a merging of television shows that feel and look like movies because they’re getting these pretty big budgets behind them.
So, something like Talisman that even five years ago was not doable, is very doable now. It involves a lot of things that are very similar to Stranger Things. It’s about a kid who’s trying to save his dying mother and he travels into another dimension in order to do so. I mean, it’s much more fantasy. It has sci-fi. It has horror elements. It has a lot of heart. It has everything that we love. And it’s got the best werewolf character I think, ever.
MATT DUFFER: The original pitch for Stranger Things was, what if Stephen Spielberg is filming a long lost Stephen King book you’ve never read? So, how could we turn down a chance where there actually are those two guys working together?
ROSS DUFFER: It’s definitely a dream project. In terms of when it’s going to get made. I don’t know. We just had a meeting about it, but it’s just an outline for the first episode. It’s a ways off but we’re really excited about it.