Earlier this month I started The King Beat with a cool story about William Sadler’s improvisation in the creation of The Convictsand last week’s column with details from the actor about his experiences producing Gary Dauberman’s Salem’s Lot. However, I’m not done sharing cool insights from Sadler’s time directing great Stephen King films, and this time my main headline is his reflections on his reunion with writer-director Frank Darabont in the making of 1999’s The Green Mile.
This week, this story is joined not only by a new recommendation of the week, but also by a cool revelation from screenwriter Glen Mazzara: the script for his The Dark Tower Pilot that was shot but never aired. Let’s get started!
William Sadler of “The Green Mile” recalls his difficult experiences filming Stephen King’s movie
When I spoke to William Sadler late last month about his impressive career as an actor in Stephen King adaptations, I got the feeling that he loved his time as an actor. The Convicts – he enjoyed the camaraderie among his colleagues during production, playing a funny, dark character in Heywood and its impressive legacy in modern cinema.
His experience with The Green Mile was, however, quite different.
The film brought Sadler and Frank Darabont together again, just a few years after their collaboration on The Convicts and the role he played was considerably smaller, but ultimately it was a grueling experience both emotionally and physically. As the actor explained, there was a particular parallel between the material and his personal life that he couldn’t ignore. Sadler said:
(Frank Darabont) wanted me to do it, and I understand why, but it ended up being one of the… it’s not a very big role, but our daughter was about the same size as the two little girls who are dead.
In The Green MileWilliam Sadler plays Klaus Detterick – the father of two young girls who are kidnapped and killed before their bodies are found in the arms of gentle giant John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan). It’s a role that not only required the actor to perform extreme emotions; he also faced some real fear. Sadler continued:
As an actor, I kind of had to go there. I had to imagine, “How would you feel if you walked out onto the porch and there was blood and the screen was cut and the kids were gone?” To me, that’s the most terrifying thing a human being can imagine… You can show me all the creatures and predators and sharks you want, but the idea of losing a child and then, you know, there’s blood and the screen is broken and they’re gone, just at that moment when that terrible panic sets in.
Getting into that very scary state of mind was a challenge…but the challenges didn’t end there. Not only does the audience witness high intensity emotions, but they also see Klaus desperately searching for his kidnapped children, and that meant a tough workout every time Frank Darabont called “action.” William Sadler explained that the terrain and his costumes didn’t do him any favors:
He goes hunting, and the hunting was hard. (laughs) The end of the hunting was the hardest because I’m not a runner. I don’t have long legs, I’m old, and I wear these work boots and so on. And Frank sets out a track about a hundred yards long, and I start running, with the shotgun, and I drop the shotgun, climb up the hill, and start hitting (John Coffey, Michael Clarke Duncan). But the day or two we spent filming was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life.
The physical pain associated with William Sadler’s performance in The Green Mile remains in his memory, but he said it was the emotional weight of the role that “cost” him the most. As a professional actor, he felt an obligation to approach the role with full commitment and honesty, but looking back, the recognition and paycheck were not full compensation for his experience. Sadler added:
Being in that area alone… It was a combination. The physical was difficult, but the emotional was… I felt after the whole experience that they weren’t paying me enough to go to that place and feel that. It costs too much to stand there and imagine my child dying, you know? And I felt like I had to do that. I had to do that for the camera, because that’s not something you can just fake and fool around with the crew.
It’s a relatively small role in the film, but William Sadler delivers an exceptional performance – and the next time you see The Green Mile and in the scene where Klaus Detterick meets John Coffey for the first time, you can fully see how powerful and real the pain in the actor’s eyes is.
The Green Mile is available for digital rental and purchase on Amazon Prime Video, and the same service is currently hosting William Sadler’s latest film: A stage of twilightWritten and directed by Sarah T. Schwab, co-starring Karen Allen.
While Mike Flanagan’s The Dark Tower is in development, Glen Mazzara has released the script for his never-released Amazon pilot
While at the same time working on his contribution to The Exorcist Franchise, Mike Flanagan has been passionate about making his dream project a reality: a truly faithful adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark TowerHe announced the acquisition of the rights to the original in late 2022 and spoke of his vision of a series that will run for “at least five seasons.” There is great hope that this will actually happen – but at the same time, it is difficult for a King fan not to think that this will not be the first time that an attempt has been made to create a The Dark Tower television show.
In the wake of the terrible The Dark Tower Film that was released in 2017, The Walking Dead The executive producer/showrunner was hired to develop a streaming series for Amazon based on Stephen King’s epic novels. Although the pilot episode was written, the cast set, and filming completed, the project was canceled. The finished work was never released, but Constant Readers around the world can now at least imagine what the series would have looked like, as Mazzara has publicly released his script online.
Seemingly for no particular reason, Glen Mazzara posted a link to the website “The Stunt List” on his personal Twitter account this week with the caption “This was a lot of fun to write.”
This was a lot of fun to write. https://t.co/PjDwfVS2ok pic.twitter.com/CROcTVgQMt19 August 2024
The The Dark Tower The script is available to download as a PDF on the website. While there’s no indication that it will only be online for a limited time, it’s probably best to save it now just in case.
The pilot script is 61 pages long and what makes it special is the fact that it is not a strict adaptation of The Gunslinger also known as the first novel in the The Dark Tower series. Although there are elements of this groundbreaking book in the script, it is primarily an adaptation of the great flashback in Magician and Glass – the fourth volume. It is about a young Roland Deschain (played by Outer area‘s Sam Strike) while hunting the evil wizard Marten Broadcloak (Jasper Pääkkönen) and meeting the love of his life, Susan Delgado (Joana Ribeiro), in the city of Mejis.
After reading the script, I have mixed feelings about the adaptation. First of all, I can understand the decision to The Dark Tower Pilot to The Gunslingerwhich is by far the weakest book in an otherwise phenomenal series. At the same time, though, I can’t help but disapprove of the long-term approach. If the series focused solely on the story of young Roland Deschain, that would have meant it would have taken a long time to get to the real heart of the matter – namely, the relationships Roland ultimately builds with Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, and Oy as they head to the tower together.
Glen Mazzara’s script clearly shows a great love for Stephen King’s books (I particularly liked the appearances of a bird-headed Taheen and a Billybumbler), and it is a faithful adaptation Magician and GlassBut as someone who wants to one day see the full extent of The Dark Tower on the screen, I can’t say it’s my favorite version, and I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that Mike Flanagan’s vision will be the adaptation that loyal readers have been waiting for.
Recommendation of the week: “The fifth step”
Over the past few months, I’ve used this space primarily to highlight the dozens of titles in Stephen King’s latest collection. You like it darkerand I’m ending this special series this week with “The Fifth Step” – which was first published in the March 2020 issue of Harper’s Magazine before being included in the new collection. It’s the second horror story in the 2024 book, after “Two Talented Bastids,” and it tackles one of the major themes in King’s bibliography: addiction.
The protagonist, Harold Jamieson, is a retiree who is reading the newspaper in Central Park one day when he is approached by a shaky stranger who introduces himself as Jack. In a trembling voice, Jack explains that he is participating in an Alcoholics Anonymous program and has reached the fifth of the twelve steps – which requires him to confess the nature of his “misdeeds” to another person. Harold reluctantly agrees to listen to the man’s story, but slowly comes to understand that there is a dark side to the man that goes beyond his drinking.
This concludes the one-year anniversary edition of The King Beat (my first column covered the week of August 18-24, 2023), but I’ll be back here on CinemaBlend next Thursday with a brand new feature full of news from the world of Stephen King.
