Stephen King and Peter Straub’s coming of age fantasy novel The Talisman tells the story of a twelve years old kid who must go on a fantastic quest in search of the Talisman, in order to save his dying mother. Apparently Steven Spielberg purchased the rights to a movie adaptation shortly after the book was published in 1984. The project went through many incarnations, but never went into production. Most recently, Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy announced plans to produce a six-part mini-series based on the book for TNT. The project fell back into development hell due to budgetary concerns.
A young Canadian director named Mathieu Ratthe directed a short demo scene he adapted from the opening chapter of the book, in hopes of getting Spielberg’s attention. Ratthe writes “My main objective for creating this piece is to demonstrate my directing ability and my vision to the producers who own the rights to the story”. And I’m very impressed by the resulting six and a half minute short film that Mathieu has produced. Watch it now below. Hopefully someone in Hollywood is paying attention and gives this guy a call. If not about The Talisman, then about something else.
Thanks to /Film reader Timothy C for the tip.
source: The Wordslinger
July 16th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
That was pretty cool, I actually enjoyed that. I really dont like that kid as an actor though, he didnt convince me at all. He seemed like he wasnt even trying, reminds me of a poorly acting 6th grader.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
looks kool
July 16th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
That was really very cool. I hope that this series gets the go ahead. And I’m sure this demo footage will at the very least get the director some recognition.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
i hate to nitpick but the acting was bad. the tone of the demo had good intensity and i agree, hollywood, give peter straub a job!
July 16th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I really enjoyed that. Never heard about this book but what I saw impressed me.
This reel was made a couple months ago. Any new info on the adaptions process or if King has acknowledged this?
July 16th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
I have been waiting for years for someone to adapt this book into a film/mini series, I hope it gets made. I agree with Allan Geiss about the kids acting, it was really bad, but for being a low budget sample of what the Director can do it was really good.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
same here-acting not that great but everything else he did in setting the mood was really well done…its nice to see people really showing talent out of hollywood (i don’t get out to see many indies although i’d like to)
July 17th, 2008 at 12:23 am
HOLY SHIT
July 17th, 2008 at 12:37 am
that was nize n cool^^
but indeed the acting of that child was kinda flat..
(damn, the crow shock’d me twice)
July 17th, 2008 at 12:48 am
and to think all this time i thought they was still making this into a movie.kinda made me upset when i saw it went back into development.i enjoyed the book as well. i hurd they was supose to make The Dark Tower into a mini series and that they wanted j.j. abrams to do it (who would have a been a perfect choice) but come to think of it..havent hurd anything new about that either.if they decided NOT to do either of them…maaan that would suck!!it upsets me when they DO adapt his books into movies but make them crapy like they did with The Mist.
July 17th, 2008 at 5:08 am
cool clip! got kind of pissed off at the “mom, mom? mom? mom? mom? mom? mom?”
July 17th, 2008 at 5:25 am
Nice flow. Cameron Bright wasn’t convincing.His acting was dead.
July 17th, 2008 at 6:10 am
“Pretty Impressive”… Along with the MIST, this was one of my favs that I always hoped would make it onto film. Ahhhh..the bitter juice. Hopefully someday, WEAVEWORLD by Clive Barker will get some treatment too.
July 17th, 2008 at 6:30 am
Mom?
MOM!
Mom! MOM MOM MOM MOM MOM!
Mom?
Is that you”
Mom? Hey Mom!
mom?
MOM!!!!!!
July 17th, 2008 at 7:00 am
It’s Leech from X-Men: The Last Stand! That was terrible. Not only the acting but the pace. It was quite boring and it wasn’t even 4 minutes long. Not impressed.
July 17th, 2008 at 8:46 am
Could have done with a lot less Mom’s but pretty cool. Was that the kid from Birth?
July 17th, 2008 at 9:11 am
The ‘Mom’ thing was truly tiresome but it was still cool as hell. I loved that book.
July 17th, 2008 at 9:17 am
I wasn’t that bugged by the acting…
July 17th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Mathieu Ratthe should get a call.
I’d be interested to know how much this DEMO cost and the time it took Mathieu to shoot. Knowing that would determine how good this DEMO really is.
July 17th, 2008 at 10:19 am
This was one of the first books I read growing up. Scared the shit out of me. The crow was nice timing at the end. So was the cracking into the dark world. Its unfortunate, I can’t remember the story at all anymore. All I remember is King/Straub called Mc’Donald’s the ‘great tits of America.’
That always stuck with me.
Isnt that the kid from About a Boy? And yeah. He sucks at suspense. (the acting, not the set up/directing)
July 17th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
I know directing involves a lot of preparing the actors to “act” well, but I could care less about the acting here and really enjoyed the scene and how it moved and all the shots and cuts were well done.
July 17th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
oh man i wish him the best
it didn’t feel amateurish at all
really was good
keep spreading the word i say
maybe it will happen
July 24th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Eh, it was okay for me. It didn’t look amateurish, but it did look more like a TV show than a movie. Seems the guy had problems directing people. Their acting wasn’t very realistic. And the camera movements didn’t show me that this guy is any different than any other director out there. Nothing unique.