"Firestarter” stars Zac Efron, Ryan Kiera Armstrong and director Keith Thomas discuss their new adaptation of Stephen King’s classic novel in this interview with CinemaBlend’s Eric Eisenberg. They discuss moving away from the original 1984 adaptation, working with practical fire effects, the legend John Carpenter and his original score for the film, and more.
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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)