Keith Thomas promises his adaptation of Stephen King’s novel will be “different” from the 1984 movie.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Have you ever sat vigil yourself?
KEITH THOMAS:I’ve never been a shomer.
Courtesy of IFC Midnight. An IFC Midnight Release.
I know a lot of people who have, both family members and friends.
It’s something that I was familiar with.
To me, it seems like a terrifying thing to do even if nothing happens.
Courtesy of IFC Midnight. An IFC Midnight Release.
They’re not there that long.
I’m slightly amazed this isn’t the 100th horror film made about this subject.
Isn’t that strange?
It could have been like when there two competing volcano movies or two asteroid movies.
Or, when was like three or four trapped-in-the-deep-sea-with-monsters movies.
You’d be talking aboutDeepStar Six,The Abyss…
AndLeviathan!
[Laughs]
How did you cast Dave Davis in the lead role?
He’s a character actor who’s been in a lot of stuff.
He’s inLoganandThe Walking DeadandTrue Detectiveand all these different things where he’s kind of very chameleon-like.
It was a gut thing in terms of casting Dave.
I could just see it on his face and in his performances and then talking to him.
He threw himself into this.
It’s not just Yiddish, it’s a very particular dialect inside that community.
So, he was incredible, he was amazing to work with, he really gave it his all.
He was exhausted by the end of the shoot, as you could imagine.
The film costars Lynn Cohen, whopassed awaylast year.
Yes, we lost Lynn Cohen and she was quite incredible.
Lynn really threw herself into the role.
You mentioned you had an earlier career, how did you get into filmmaking?
Just weirdly stumbling along.
I suppose the creative drive won out.
You’re currently prepping anew adaptation of the Stephen King novelFirestarter.
What can you tell us about that?
We are gearing up to shoot and I’m really happy with the cast we’ve got.
The Vigilopens Friday in select theaters, digital, and VOD.
Watch the film’s trailer below.
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