00:00 - That was all real.
00:01 So it's like she came in and did the scene
00:03 and then somebody else came in and just had their arms out.
00:06 But I actually was off camera on the reverse for that.
00:08 I watched it happen.
00:10 It was wild.
00:10 It was really cool.
00:11 It was scary though,
00:12 'cause she had to like pull it off.
00:13 She just had to pull the jacket off at the end.
00:15 And one time her hair got on fire.
00:17 - I don't want to hurt anyone,
00:19 but it feels kind of good.
00:20 (dramatic music)
00:28 - This is the second time that we've seen an adaptation
00:30 after the 1984 film,
00:32 which is a very faithful adaptation of the book.
00:35 And I'm curious if that was something that you had in mind
00:37 and you think maybe gave you actually some license
00:40 to change some things
00:41 just because you already had that version of a movie.
00:44 - Yeah, and that's definitely something
00:45 that anytime it's come up or talked about,
00:47 that's kind of exactly what I say is,
00:50 we've got the book and the book is that,
00:54 that text from which everything is drawn from.
00:57 And we have that 1984 version, which is right,
01:00 beat for beat, very similar to the way
01:03 that the story unfolds.
01:04 And there's a great Blu-ray of it out there.
01:06 And you can watch it anytime and it exists.
01:09 So yes, it did give us some liberty to say,
01:12 okay, that did an excellent job of telling the story.
01:16 Maybe we can do something a little bit different
01:19 in terms of getting to some of the themes
01:21 that are in the book that I don't think
01:24 were as fully explored in that original version.
01:26 So yes, it was liberating to be able to say,
01:29 okay, I'm gonna give you something a little bit different.
01:31 It's a remix, right?
01:33 It's a different take on this for now versus that one.
01:38 But I like that they both exist.
01:40 - I had seen the original "Firestarter" long time ago.
01:44 And I think the iconic image of Drew Barrymore
01:47 stuck with me.
01:48 And other than that,
01:49 I didn't dive back into the old material too much.
01:52 I think that I knew that there was a wonderful,
01:55 wonderful arc in that this family is trying to sort of
01:58 protect their daughter who has these pyrokinetic abilities
02:01 and sort of keep her from these government forces
02:05 that might wanna utilize her for,
02:07 turn her into a weapon of some sort.
02:09 And that world that Stephen King created
02:12 is so brilliant and fascinating.
02:14 It really, really drew me in.
02:16 And that was the exciting part, was that world.
02:19 - Yeah.
02:20 - Charlie?
02:21 - If they catch her, they're gonna put her in a cage.
02:24 - Charlie?
02:25 (explosion)
02:27 - Talk a bit about the effects.
02:28 I mean, for starters, with you, Ryan,
02:30 obviously there are so many fire effects,
02:32 but one specific that I wanted to talk about
02:34 is the scene where your arms are literally set on fire.
02:37 For starters, is that practical?
02:38 Is that real?
02:39 - That was not me.
02:41 - That was not, okay.
02:42 - It wasn't me.
02:44 Honestly, that would be very cool, but it wasn't me.
02:46 I had actually seen a stunt beforehand.
02:50 The stunt people put their arm in this gel
02:54 and then they could actually light it on fire.
02:55 So I'm not a hundred percent sure
02:57 if they did something very similar to that,
02:58 but I know that was used in a little bit of the movie.
03:02 - That was all real.
03:03 So it's like she came in and did the scene
03:05 and then somebody else came in and just had their arms out.
03:07 But I actually was off camera on the reverse for that.
03:10 I watched it.
03:11 - Oh, so I too.
03:12 - It was wild.
03:13 It was really cool.
03:13 It was scary though, 'cause she had to pull it off.
03:15 She just had to pull the jacket off at the end.
03:17 And one time her hair got on fire.
03:18 It was crazy.
03:19 - Well, I mean, I did want to ask
03:20 because I mean, fire is unpredictable and very dangerous.
03:24 Like what was it like?
03:25 What was kind of the atmosphere on set
03:26 when you were doing quote unquote fire days?
03:29 - Progressively through the shoot,
03:30 more and more firemen started hanging out on set.
03:33 And eventually we just had fire trucks in the stage with us.
03:37 But yeah, we got to know the fire department really well.
03:40 - Nice.
03:40 - There's a lot of fire.
03:42 - It did feel very safe on set.
03:44 And I think everyone did an amazing job
03:46 of doing that for us.
03:47 - I'm not special.
03:48 I'm a monster.
03:49 (screaming)
03:50 - Tyler!
03:51 (explosion)
03:52 Tyler!
03:52 (explosion)
03:53 - Vicky has a much more prominent presence
03:56 in this version of it.
03:57 But also, I mean, there are things like
03:59 her powers are different
04:00 and they also have some psychic abilities
04:02 even before the Lot 6 experiment.
04:04 Can you talk about that evolution?
04:06 - Yeah, some of that stuff.
04:07 So it was in the script when I first read it.
04:11 And some of that stuff we explored even more
04:14 and kind of built up.
04:15 There are hints in the novel
04:17 that the Lot 6 experiment is actually unlocking
04:20 what previously exists.
04:22 And there were definitely,
04:24 I wanted to obviously show with Andy
04:29 how the push works and what it does.
04:31 And then with Vicky,
04:32 because they have different arguments
04:34 on how they're raising Charlie,
04:36 for her it was much more,
04:38 how does she handle this ability without using it?
04:40 Like, how do you not use it and live a normal life?
04:44 Whereas Andy's relying on it for most of it.
04:48 And so their abilities,
04:50 I was hoping for something subtle and believable.
04:54 Once you get into the psychic powers,
04:57 once you can do telekinetic stuff,
04:59 or you can do pyrokinetics,
05:00 or you can push people,
05:02 it could easily go into superhero world.
05:06 Which we've seen,
05:07 and which I think a lot of superhero comics in particular
05:10 have borrowed a lot from "Firestarter"
05:12 through the '80s and '90s.
05:14 And we've seen that, we've seen all those.
05:15 So for me, it was about how do you ground this stuff
05:18 in a way that feels more believable
05:21 in a kind of scientific way,
05:23 but also in an emotional way,
05:25 like have ramifications for using abilities.
05:28 - I love the John Carpenter score in this.
05:29 I think it is just phenomenal.
05:31 And it's also just a great Easter egg
05:33 for those who know that John Carpenter
05:35 was originally going to direct an adaptation
05:38 of "Firestarter."
05:39 I'm curious just how much you had the chance
05:41 to talk with him about his original vision
05:44 and your vision.
05:45 - You know, it was an interesting,
05:47 when the conversation began
05:50 and when it seemed clear that Carpenter would come on,
05:54 I had spoken a lot with my director of photography, Karim,
05:57 about, you know,
05:58 should we bring up the "Firestarter" thing?
06:00 Like, 'cause I was wondering, honestly,
06:03 is it possible that he had score that he had planned?
06:06 But once we got into conversation, it never came up.
06:09 We never brought it up
06:11 because, you know,
06:12 John's all about getting down to business.
06:14 He's a straight shooter, like, let's do this.
06:16 And he was excited enough about diving in
06:19 and doing something that he felt, you know,
06:23 that he hasn't really done before in that, you know,
06:26 almost all the scores he's done are either for his movies
06:28 or related to his movies.
06:30 So this was something new and different.
06:31 And it was a kind of a breath of fresh air in a way
06:34 in that John was like, I'm divorced from this.
06:37 I'm just doing it.
06:38 But the experience itself was, you know,
06:40 it was a dream come true really,
06:42 because if you had told me 10 years ago
06:44 that I'd be on Zoom calls with John and Cody and Daniel,
06:48 watching them watch my movie
06:50 and then having John turn around in his chair
06:52 and look at me and be like, "Keith, what do you think?"
06:54 What am I, you know,
06:55 it was like, I felt like I was gonna catch fire
06:58 just having those conversations.
07:00 - And Ryan,
07:01 this is actually your second Stephen King adaptation.
07:03 You previously had quite a fascinating showdown
07:06 with Pennywise in "It Chapter Two."
07:08 If Charlie were to face off against Pennywise,
07:11 who would win in your opinion?
07:13 - Oh, oh, that's a cool question.
07:15 Okay, I love that.
07:17 Who, okay, let's see.
07:19 - I think Charlie.
07:19 - I feel like Charlie maybe.
07:21 Yeah, I think Charlie definitely.
07:22 Charlie would be like, okay, right away,
07:24 she would send something, something's off.
07:27 She's lying about something,
07:28 maybe not about a birthmark on the cheek.
07:30 But yeah, I think Charlie would win.
07:33 - She would just look at me.
07:35 (laughing)
07:37 - I don't think Pennywise.
07:38 - Pennywise is worse than me.
07:39 (laughing)
07:41 (upbeat music)
