Great Scott

After quite some time spent in creative hiatus, two years ago horror-meister Stephen King once again hit form with the publication of Hearts In Atlantis, a collection of four interlinking stories. Unsuprisingly, given that many of the novelist’s weaker efforts have somehow made their way to the big screen (Maximum Overdrive, anyone?), Hearts has now been adapted for cinema following prior King outings Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

Based on two of the stories within the original novel – Low Men In Yellow Coats and Heavenly Shades Of Night Are Falling – the film focuses on the book’s coming-of-age aspects, to tell the story of 11-year-old Bobby Garfield (Along Came A Spider’s Anton Yelchin) and the formative few weeks he spends with his widowed mother’s new lodger, Ted (Anthony Hopkins). Bobby finds himself reading for Ted on account of his failing eyesight, and also watching out for the sinister Low-Men who Ted believes are chasing him.

Directorial duties for Hearts In Atlantis have fallen to the Aussie based director Scott Hicks. Though a respected documentarian for many years thanks to his work for Discovery Channel, Hicks came to prominence in 1996 upon the release of Shine – a film which the East African born director took ten years to finally get made. Last year, his first major Hollywood outing Snow Falling On Cedars, met with a considerably more tepid response than Hicks’ breakthrough feature – proving that slow-burning literary drama does not necessarily make for enthralling cinema.

Rather surprisingly then, he has chosen to continue in a similar vein with the Hearts In Atlantis adaptation less than a year later.

Moviehouse caught up with the director recently to discuss his latest movie and his new Hollywood based career.

Moviehouse: Be it Howard’s End or Hannibal, Anthony Hopkins’ screen persona has never seemed all that kiddie compatible. How did the relationship between him and Anton Yelchin work?

Scott Hicks: “Anton was very respectful to Tony. To me it was down to his cultural heritage in a way. He’s Russian, his parents were figure skaters, very cultivated and very artistic who had brought him up to be aware of the priviledge of being an artist.

On one occasion I could hear them exchanging quotes from Hamlet with each other which I thought was remarkable. This is an 11-year-old sparring with Anthony Hopkins over a Shakespeare play. I thought, well, that’s really something. So the idea of being with one of the world’s greatest actors was a matter of immense respect for Anton. But he never let it intrude into his performance. Tony meanwhile is a call-me-Tony kind of guy, none of this Sir Anthony stuff. The other kids in the movie were high fiving him in the corridors.”

MH: As an Australian, how do you find working in the US?

SH: “Culturally, it’s really interesting. It really is two nations divided by the same language. Almost everything you say over there you mentally have to be translating how to express yourself. It’s very easy to confuse people with what you mean. And humour is a very dangerous thing, because what might be a really funny joke here or in Australia can be very offensive to the Americans and you just don’t realise you’ve touched a raw nerve there until it’s too late.

So it’s just about being responsive to a different way of seeing the world. The language is a delusion. You think you’re on the same wavelength, but you’re not.”

MH: Were you not burned out making another film so soon after Snow Falling On Cedars?

SH: “Yeah. When I took this on I thought – Great! I can call up all the friends I’d made on that film and work with them again. But everyone else was already working on other movies. Hearts In Atlantis happened really fast, so my Director of Photography was booked, my designer was booked, everyone I’d got to know and become good friends with was all tied up. So I had to start all over again. It was an entirely new set of relationships on

this film which can be quite a strenuous thing.”

MH: So did that make for a tough shoot?

SH: “Yeah but I was prepared for it in a way. What hits you first on an American studio movie is the scale of the enterprise, it’s so vast. It is just such a huge machine, so that I already knew all about that side of it was very helpful.

And I was really lucky in having a supportive studio behind me. Castle Rock are renowned for being film-maker friendly people so nobody came to the set. I even took the whole movie to Adelaide and edited it for months and they just said ‘See you again. Is that ok?’ Literally, it was like that. It was like making an independent film, but with studio backing”.

MH: It’s your second adaptation of a popular book. What made you want to go back for more?

SH: “Well, I learned a lot first time out. I learned not to worry about the readers so much. On Snow Falling On Cedars I was obsessed with the idea of keeping faith with the readers, because they would be my logical first audience so I dare not alienate them. But they never went to see it! Now that the movie is out on DVD I’ve had numerous people come up to me and say that they didn’t go see it at the cinema because they thought I would only ruin it but they had gotten around to seeing it at home and thought it was fantastic. So this time I was not worried about the readers or the author because I was making a movie that should stand in its own right”.

MH: Hence the changes in the story then – the shape-shifting aliens are gone, for one thing...

SH: “Yeah, I took out some of the supernatural stuff and even horror elements. I rooted it in a human domain as a story, changed the ending and did all sorts of things like that. I couldn’t worry about the whole Stephen King oeuvre – his vast readership. They’ll just have to hope for the best”.