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“But the best part of all is John Cusack’s performance as Mike. He’s the only one on screen for most of the movie, and he carries the movie like the pro he is. You really feel for him and sympathize with him as he goes from skeptical about the supernatural to completely freaking out when it looks like he’s not going to survive his night in the Dolphin Hotel. Samuel L. Jackson is very good too in his scenes as the hotel’s manager—and I don’t think he raises his voice once!”
Check out Fango #264, on sale this month, for an exclusive interview with director Mikael Hafstrom.
1408 will not go up against the Steve Carell comedy Evan Almighty, Captivity and the limited release of Black Sheep. Wait a second… They have moved the film’s original release away from a huge family fantasy adaptation to go head to head with two other horror based films? I’m not quite sure this is a good idea after all.
1408 follows Mike Enslin, an author of two hit books focusing on supernatural phenomena. As research for his latest book, Enslin is determined to check out the notorious room 1408 in a New York City hotel by personally staying as a guest in the fabled room. With the intention that 1408 is just a myth perpetuated by stories and rumor that Enslin has collected for his past works. However, hotel manager Mr. Olin has strong objections to Enslin’s stay and only warns him of possible danger to come. But Enslin is determined to go through and convinced that the horrific past of 1408 is just mere coincidence and a myth. But what Mike Enslin is about to experience is no myth, as 1408 truly is a room where the guests don’t check out by noon. Directed by Mikael Håfström (Derailed, Evil), the film stars John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, and Mary McCormack.
>> Source
Samuel L. Jackson finished work on 1408, based on the short story by Stephen King, last summer. “I saw the trailer for it and it looks pretty good.
"I'm just the hotel manager who's trying to prevent this guy from staying in that room because he doesn't believe in paranormal experiences even though he writes about them. He's never actually seen a ghost in that room. He's purely evil, but he has to go into that to find that out. So that, and trying to prevent him from doing that, it's not a big role. It's just sort of expository talking about all the deaths that have happened in the room and why he shouldn't stay in it."
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The haunted hotel thriller (which stars John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, a cool duo if ever there was one) hits theaters later this month, but Mr. Hafstrom informed Bloody-Disgusting.com that Stephen King really likes the movie: "King was very pleased with the film, I'm happy to say. When you are adapting an author, especially one who has been around like he has, it's very important that he approves. Even though the film contains more story, we are true to heart and soul of the short story." The author also doled out some specific praise for Cusack's performance.
Someone could write a really amusing book about the films made from the books and short stories of Stephen King. On one end of the scale you'd have The Shawshank Redemption, The Dead Zone and Carrie, but on the other end ... yikes. Stuff like The Mangler, Maximum Overdrive (which King directed himself!) and The Lawnmower Man. (Plus, what the hell was up with Dreamcatcher??) And out of respect for the author, I won't even get in to all the Children of the Corn sequels.
This collection of fourteen boundary-pushing fiction masterworks from the master of the macabre includes the short story "1408," now a Dimension Films motion picture starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson -- in theaters June 22nd!
Twenty winners will receive a copy of the movie tie-in edition of Everything's Eventual, plus a CD audiobook of Blood and Smoke -- three classic King tales read by the author himself!
''Hotel rooms are great arenas for drama,'' says director Mikael Hâfström (Derailed). ''When we walk into one, we wonder: Did somebody go insane in this room? Did somebody die in this room?'' There was another basic question plaguing the filmmakers as well: ''It was like, wait a minute, can we do this?'' says Cusack. ''It's just me and a room. How do you make this exciting?'' Easy: Just add water. And molten lava. And a blizzard. Hâfström says the effects sequences required them to build at least seven versions of room 1408, including a particularly elaborate one that ''turns into an old, sinking ship.'' And while the director says he relished the challenge of filming a movie within four walls, he also acknowledges that his next project might have to be a little more expansive: ''An epic Western would be absolutely fantastic right now.''
Horror fans turned out in Westwood LA yesterday for the world premiere of supernatural thriller 1408, and speaking on the red carpet, leading man John Cusack confessed he'd only taken up the role because of his "big ego".
The film, which is based on a short Stephen King story of the same name, centres on a supernatural writer who, as research for his latest book, is determined to spend the night in the notoriously scary room 1408 of a New York City hotel.
The plot involved a heavy acting role with John working mostly on his own: "It was pretty tough but that was part of what was challenging about it, I think most actors are very sensitive and we have big egos."
"Your ego says 'yeah, I can do that, an hour alone - I'll hold the camera and I'll do it!', then you get in there and you think 'oh my god, how am I going to do this?!' but it was fun, it was a nice challenge."
Samuel L Jackson plays the hotel's manager who warns John's character of the possible danger to come. John told journalists Sam's a man who doesn't scare easily: "[He] doesn't strike me as a guy who's afraid of too much stuff, the only thing Sam looks like he's afraid of is he doesn't want to stop working, that guy loves to work."
This one creeps you out so later on at night you wake up and you think about it, or it gets to you or gets inside you in a way. When I was a kid, I saw "The Shining," and I remember I snuck into a 6 o'clock show. When I came out, it was night and I had to walk home by myself. And I remember that being one of the scariest 25 minutes of my young life. I was freaked out.
Put John Cusack in a haunted hotel room courtesy of Stephen King's twisted mind, and what do you get? If Cusack and his co-stars Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, and Jasmine Jessica Anthony have their way, they'll get a huge summer box office hit with "1408."
The Mikael Hafstrom-helmed flick premiered on Tuesday night at the National Theater in Westwood, where the sunny red carpet belied the scares that were awaiting the full house inside. It's an experience similar to one Cusack had back when he was just a kid.
"I saw 'The Shining' when I was about 12 years old and that freaked me out. I went alone. I snuck in alone and then I had to walk home for like twenty minutes by myself. That was a bad, bad, bad, bad walk. I thought I heard Jack Nicholson around the corner of every bush," Cusack reminisced at an earlier press conference for the film.
"Then I saw 'Carrie' as I got older and read 'The Stand' in about one sitting over a whole night because I can't put it down. I think Stephen King is very underrated as a writer. Also his sense of character I think is very underrated. He writes terrific characters."
In fact, Cusack is practically the only character in "1408," playing a man that has lost his young daughter to illness and assuages his loss by debunking tales of haunted places. But when he checks into Room 1408 of New York City's Dolphin Hotel, that haunted space takes over and tries to kill him. So much of the flick is just him on screen, battling the evil forces in the room, man against the supernatural. It was quite a test of anyone's acting skills, and one that the 41-year-old actor is thrilled he agreed to attempt.
"You sort of say, 'My, God, this is really ambitious. These guys want me to be onscreen for ninety minutes by myself. How do you do that?' Then you think, 'Well, I better have another espresso and think about this.' Then you realize that you like the challenge of it," he said.
Lots of his Hollywood colleagues thought he had gone out on a limb, so the film's premiere red carpet filled with familiar faces eager to see if he succeeded. Haylie and Hilary Duff came to check him out, as did Sophia Bush, Tony Shaloub, Tyrese Gibson, Harry Dean Stanton, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Kevin Dobson.
But John Cusack wasn't worried; he knew ahead of time that "1408" really delivers.
"I think it's right in the same ballpark as 'The Shining,'" he said proudly. "The cool thing about this movie is the [horror film] thing where you say 'Don't go in the room!'; that happens at about minute sixteen. And then we go for another hour!"
Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura agreed the horror market got saturated. "There wasn't enough differentiation within the genre," he said, but argued that his pic "went for character and emotion to be the driving force behind why you get scared."
(As for the pic's scare level, one guest had the nicely descriptive line: "A good little jab of fright.")
The Weinstein Co.'s Weinstein the Elder deferred all questions to Weinstein the Younger ("It's Bob's night. It's Bob's night") but Harvey did fill in on his support of Hillary Clinton: "She's going to win. You see the polls in New Hampshire? She's cleaning all their clocks."
Dimension topper Bob Weinstein was seated on a couch at the W after-party where he seemed confident about "1408's" difference-maker: "Stephen King's brand of horror is unique. It's character and thought driven."
And then there was the key detail that took the fright out of making the film.
"It cost $25 million," he said. "Anything over $30 million and we make a profit."
Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack, stars of the upcoming supernatural horror film 1408, told SCI FI Wire that they believe in spooks similar to those that haunt the movie's title hotel room.
"I think there's definitely stuff going on beyond our senses," Cusack said in an interview. He plays a ghost debunker who winds up having close encounters with the real deal. "I probably start where he ends up, so I don't relate to it that way. I definitely think there's much more than meets the eye here."
Jackson plays a hotel clerk who tries to warn Cusack's character about the dangers in room 1408 of the fictional New York Dolphin Hotel. He said his upbringing in rural Tennessee exposed him to all sorts of psychic phenomena. "I was told ghost stories at night by my grandfather and his brothers," he said. "There were people who died in our neighborhood that we saw long after they were dead. If you were out at night and looking around the wrong place, doing something wrong, and you'd look up, and there would be that lady who used to call your house and tell your mother you were doing something wrong, even though she's dead and she's not supposed to be here, but there she is."
Cusack said his character Mike Eslin "is this very terrifically cynical character that is basically daring the gods or the devils to come and show themselves. ... He's just screaming: 'Show me there's something out there in the universe.' Because he suffered the loss of his daughter. So to go from a very worldly, cynical, bring-it-on kind of a guy and to totally break him down and have him be a true believer by the end is a pretty fun journey."
Jackson said his experience with the paranormal doesn't make him any less scared. "Fearless? No. No," he said. "I'm quite the opposite of fearless. Well, yeah, I'm the guy that sits in the horror movie and says 'Don't go in the dark room. You're safe in this particular place right here, stay there until it gets light and call somebody or do something, but don't go in the dark room.'"
Jackson added: "Even in my house, if I'm at home by myself in my house here in Beverly Hills, my house is big enough that if I hear something down the hall, I'll just stay in my room. ... I'm not going to go down the hall to see if something's not right. I'm not that interested." 1408, based on a Stephen King short story, opens June 22. —Mike Szymanski
BY CINDY PEARLMAN
LOS ANGELES -- Samuel L. Jackson is happy to check in when it comes to hotel horror stories. "Last year, I went to South Africa, and when I checked in the guy didn't ask for a credit card. He asked me to sign a release. I said, 'Why, man?' He said, 'Well, a hotel guest was eaten by wild animals walking from dinner back to his room. Anything could happen.' I said, 'That's very bad!' "
As it turns out, John Cusack has a similar story.
"I was also at a game reserve in South Africa. They said, 'Mr. Cusack, we have to make sure you go to your room with a guard. Some woman went to change her heels the other night and got eaten. The animals live around the hotel.' I guess the moral is: It's pretty dangerous to change your shoes."
Cusack and Jackson also share a hotel-hell experience in their latest film, "1408," which is based on a short story by Stephen King. Cusack plays a man who writes books about haunted places. He's skeptical about most of them, but a postcard intrigues him and he sets off to check into Room 1408 at New York's Dolphin Hotel.
>>> The rest of the story
"Any film that uses the Carpenters' pop hit "We've Only Just Begun" for scares instead of sentimentality must be credited with a quirky sense of humor. "