Rose Red news -- casting, etc.
Bev Vincent
Mates") leads the cast of "Stephen King's Rose Red," an original six-hour
miniseries for ABC from the horror master, which is expected to air during
the February 2002 sweep.
Travis is joined by two-time Tony Award winner Judith Ivey ("The Devil's
Advocate," "Hurlyburly"), Kimberly Brown ("Tumbleweeds"), Julian Sands
("Leaving Las Vegas," "A Room With a View") and Matt Keeslar ("The Last Days
of Disco," CBS' "Durango") in the miniseries, which King wrote after a June
1999 accident in which he was hit by a van while walking near his Lewiston,
Maine, home (HR 5/8).
The three-part miniseries tells the story of Rose Red, a dormant haunted
mansion built in 1907 by a Seattle oil magnate. An obsessed psychology
professor, Joyce Reardon (Travis), commissions a team of psychics and a
gifted 15-year-old autistic girl (Brown) to wake the ghosts. Their attempts
unleash myriad spirits and bring to light the horrifying secrets of the
generations that have lived and died there.
The ensemble cast also includes Kevin Tighe ("Murder One"), Emily Deschanel
("It Could Happen to You"), Yvonne Scio ("Milonga"), Matt Ross ("The Last
Days of Disco") and Tsidii LeLoca (Broadway's "The Lion King").
"We're delighted to have Stephen King back at ABC," the network's executive
vp movies and miniseries Susan Lyne said. "The script is superb -- vintage
King. I can't wait to see these characters brought to life."
Lyne declined comment on the project's price tag but said that elaborate
special effects will probably push the budget beyond the $30 million spent
on King's "Storm of the Century," his previous original miniseries for ABC.
The producing team of "Storm" is in place for "Rose Red." King and Mark
Carliner (TNT's "George Wallace," ABC's "Stephen King's The Shining") have
reteamed as executive producers joined by producer Thomas Brodek. "Storm"
director Craig Baxley rolled the camera Tuesday,Aug. 22 when "Rose Red"
began production in and around Seattle.
The miniseries is produced by Greengrass Prods. in association with Victor
Television Prods. and Mark Carliner Prods.
Last year, Travis starred in CBS' short-lived comedy series "Work With Me."
She also starred in another CBS sitcom, "Almost Perfect." Her feature
credits include "Three Men and a Baby," "Internal Affairs" and "So I Married
an Axe Murderer." She is repped by Endeavor.
Robert Whelan
Again, thanks, Bev.
On Wed, 23 Aug 2000, Bev Vincent wrote:
> LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Nancy Travis (TNT's "Running
> Mates") leads the cast of "Stephen King's Rose Red," an original six-hour
> miniseries for ABC from the horror master, which is expected to air during
> the February 2002 sweep.
>
> Travis is joined by two-time Tony Award winner Judith Ivey ("The Devil's
> Advocate," "Hurlyburly"), Kimberly Brown ("Tumbleweeds"), Julian Sands
> ("Leaving Las Vegas," "A Room With a View") and Matt Keeslar ("The Last Days
> of Disco," CBS' "Durango") in the miniseries, which King wrote after a June
> 1999 accident in which he was hit by a van while walking near his Lewiston,
> Maine, home (HR 5/8).
He wrote "Riding the Bullet" after his accident too. I can't wait to see
the superb quality of this "Rose Red" miniseries. Since King was on heavy
painkillers, it's likely to be even worse, and more padded out than
Storm of the Century was.
> The three-part miniseries tells the story of Rose Red, a dormant haunted
> mansion built in 1907 by a Seattle oil magnate. An obsessed psychology
> professor, Joyce Reardon (Travis), commissions a team of psychics and a
> gifted 15-year-old autistic girl (Brown) to wake the ghosts. Their attempts
> unleash myriad spirits and bring to light the horrifying secrets of the
> generations that have lived and died there.
It's the setting of "The Shining", with the autistic girl in the place
of Danny Torrance. Remember the spare glimpses of ghostly depravity in
"The Shining"? I expect this will be a long, tedious catalogue of ghostly
depravity. The ABC censors will hopefully tone down most of King's
racism, homophobia, and misogyny.
> The ensemble cast also includes Kevin Tighe ("Murder One"), Emily Deschanel
> ("It Could Happen to You"), Yvonne Scio ("Milonga"), Matt Ross ("The Last
> Days of Disco") and Tsidii LeLoca (Broadway's "The Lion King").
>
> "We're delighted to have Stephen King back at ABC," the network's executive
> vp movies and miniseries Susan Lyne said. "The script is superb -- vintage
> King. I can't wait to see these characters brought to life."
They can't wait for King's rabid fan base to watch it, so they can sell
advertising time.
> Lyne declined comment on the project's price tag but said that elaborate
> special effects will probably push the budget beyond the $30 million spent
> on King's "Storm of the Century," his previous original miniseries for ABC.
But without hiring a team of writers to rewrite the script, likely.
Robert Whelan
On Thu, 24 Aug 2000, Baden Kirgan wrote:
> I love this part of Robert's obsession:
>
> > He wrote "Riding the Bullet" after his accident too. I can't wait to see
> > the superb quality of this "Rose Red" miniseries. Since King was on heavy
> > painkillers, it's likely to be even worse, and more padded out than
> > Storm of the Century was.
>
> Does anyone else remember his continual harking back to King's good old days
> of the seventies and early eighties?
>
> Does anyone else find it funny that Robert puts this period on a pedestal
> when during this period King was, by his own admission, taking a lot more
> than simple pain killers?
No, he was drinking, mainly during the editing phase of the writing.
It was a way of controlling anger, so he could actually focus, apparently.
But it seems that after Cujo (which he says he can't remember) it
worsened dramatically. You can see the huge drop in quality in the
massive output of the IT, DT III, TALISMAN, Dolores Claiborne/Gerald's
Game period, when he was apparently working on all these at once.
What was behind the massive output at this time? Can you say "cocaine"
boys and girls? Why did he turn to Cocaine? Probably because he was
getting sick of writing spook novels, but couldn't turn down the
money. The cocaine was his way of jumpstarting himself into working
on something that he could no longer summon up enthusiasm naturally.
Remember, he was talking about being "retired" from writing with
THE STAND.
There is a chemical produced when one uses alcohol and cocaine together,
which produces a greater sense of euphoria than either drug by themselves.
King probably became addicted to this.
TOMMYKNOCKERS seems to be the end of this alcohol and cocaine binging,
and is about the time that King claims to have cleaned up his act.
There are long term effects of cocaine use..the brain doesn't recover
immediately.
> When it suits Robert's theories, King writes worse under the influence, and
> when it doesn't suit Robert ignores the fact.
Nope. King drank like a fish, but still managed to put out decent novels
for a while. After a while, the damage caused by the drinking, and the
additional damage caused by the cocaine use, probably became irreversible.
The "cleaned up" King was probably not the same man who began writing
THE LONG WALK just after high school. Years of sobriety aren't going
to change brain damage due to substance abuse. And if King drank to
control anger, (and it's raw unexamined bile that poisons his work
now), it may be that it is impossible for a decent novel to come
out of King anymore, partly because he's brain damaged from years
of drinking and has less inhibitions because of this, and because
he is sober and has no medication to deal with his anger. He's
repeatedly asserted he uses his novels as an escape valve to prevent
himself from going crazy.
> Stop the irrelevant sniping Robert. Can't you at least wait until the show
> has been on before you start criticising?
What are the chances it will be good? Storm of the Century was written
before King's accident. It was horrible. Riding the Bullet, written
after his accident, was horrible. Rose Red, written at the same time,
will be horrible.
Mind, the director isn't bad. He did his best with the stupid
insubstantial material he was given in SOTC, and we did see
changes to one or two stupid elements in the script, but the
script was still largely untouched....
Baden Kirgan
> He wrote "Riding the Bullet" after his accident too. I can't wait to see
> the superb quality of this "Rose Red" miniseries. Since King was on heavy
> painkillers, it's likely to be even worse, and more padded out than
> Storm of the Century was.
Does anyone else remember his continual harking back to King's good old days
of the seventies and early eighties?
Does anyone else find it funny that Robert puts this period on a pedestal
when during this period King was, by his own admission, taking a lot more
than simple pain killers?
When it suits Robert's theories, King writes worse under the influence, and
when it doesn't suit Robert ignores the fact.
Stop the irrelevant sniping Robert. Can't you at least wait until the show
shark...@home.com
<MaxD...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Nancy Travis (TNT's "Running
>Mates") leads the cast of "Stephen King's Rose Red," an original six-hour
>miniseries for ABC from the horror master, which is expected to air during
>the February 2002 sweep.
>
>Travis is joined by two-time Tony Award winner Judith Ivey ("The Devil's
>Advocate," "Hurlyburly"), Kimberly Brown ("Tumbleweeds"), Julian Sands
>("Leaving Las Vegas," "A Room With a View") and Matt Keeslar ("The Last Days
>of Disco," CBS' "Durango") in the miniseries, which King wrote after a June
>1999 accident in which he was hit by a van while walking near his Lewiston,
>Maine, home (HR 5/8).
After the accident? I remember reading about the "Rose Red" script
many years ago, I believe I even posted about it here at that time....
Thanks for the news, Bev -- I'm really looking forward to this one!
Victor & Rosandra Montequin
so Spielberg opted out and King kept working on it...
Rosandra
http://members.tripod.com/montequi/kingstuff
<shark...@home.com> wrote in message news:39a80b35.3147674@news...
> On Wed, 23 Aug 2000 07:41:24 -0500, "Bev Vincent"
> <MaxD...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >... in the miniseries, which King wrote after a June