King Told Vaughan To Take The Dome Where He Couldn't



Check  out the Huffington Posts interview with Under The Dome's producer Brian K. Vaughan.

The whole interview is great.  This in particular stood out to me:
I was lucky enough to get to talk with Stephen early in the process. He said, to quote Elvis, "It's your baby, you rock it now." The big thing he encouraged us [to think about] is, when he came up with the concept, he first thought about, "What if these people were trapped under this dome for potentially years, how might society change?" [When writing the book], he was on page 1,200 and thought, "Oh my God, they've only been trapped under here for a few days. I better wrap things up." He said, "Use television to go to the places that I couldn't." 
That gives an interesting insight into the writing of the novel.  So King originally imagined entire society changing. . . but ran out of space.  Of course, in The Stand, he had things pretty torn up by page 300.  Still, a new society never fully developed there, either.  I was always interested in what was going to happen with the Free Zone.

Vaughan also talks about the impact Lost had on Stephen King.  He says, "I will always be happy and honored to have been a part of that world."

When asked what the fun part  of the project was,  Vaughan recalled sitting across from Steven Spielberg with King on speaker phone as they tossed ideas  out.  He called it "geek fantasy camp."  I don't know if I could sit across from Spielberg and not just bug the snot out of him about the Lincoln film.  I know everyone wants to talk Dome and ET -- but I was mesmerized by Lincoln.

Vaughan also said that he hopes the political themes don't feel "heavy handed."  I hope so, too.  I think they did feel exactly that way in the novel.  Of course, the same themes are still on the front page as when Under The Dome was written.

The full interview is great.  Check it out at www.huffingtonpost.com

1 comment:

  1. Well, technically, we DID get to see what happens to the Free Zone and the world of the Stand.

    It all became Mid-World in the end; talk about a total societal shift. And before saying that change is too illogical, a little thought reveals that society in the tower books has degenerated into an American Westernized version of Roman Barbarism in a way, a civilization crumbling while a few still try to hold onto it.

    Anyway, it is interesting to hear about changes to the show, some of what I've read makes me wonder, are they gonna make Dale Barbara the ultimate villain of the series and Rennie the ultimate hero?

    I'm not sure how I'd feel about that, and maybe I'm overreacting, but that was the thought I had at one point.

    Bear in mind at least, there isn't much room for one isolated small town to do except slowly die out when you think about it.

    ChrisC

    ReplyDelete