The good Stephen King or the bad?
We’re happy to report the former with TNT’s Nightmares and Dreamscapes, which blends the creepy with fine storytelling in the eight-part miniseries.
By JAY CRIDLIN
Published July 10, 2006
Quick — what’s the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the words “Stephen King adaptation?”
“Well, track record is the first thing,” actor Ron Livingston said by phone recently. “There’s been so many great Stephen King adaptations into films.”
There have been some bad ones, too. For every Shawshank Redemption and Misery, there’s a Thinner and The Lawnmower Man.
The same goes for King’s many television miniseries: For every well-received project like It or The Stand, there’s a dud like Desperation or The Langoliers. So there’s good reason for a healthy dose of skepticism whenever a new King project hits the small screen.
Why, then, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, an eight-part anthology based on King’s short stories, premiering tonight on TNT, worth watching?
For starters, there’s the cast, including Livingston, William H. Macy, Tom Berenger, Samantha Mathis and William Hurt, who stars in tonight’s commercial-free first chapter, “Battleground,” about a hitman locked in battle with a contingent of tiny green Army men.
Nightmares & Dreamscapes also employs more innovative filmmaking techniques than some of King’s other made-for-TV adaptations.
“Battleground,” for example, is laden with special effects and virtually free of dialogue — neither Hurt nor his creepy little foes says a word during the entire hour. The result is weird and at times tedious, but still genuinely fascinating.
Livingston’s chapter, “The End of the Whole Mess,” airing July 19, uses quirky music and swift visual cuts to tell the story of a filmmaker (Livingston) documenting his whiz-kid brother’s (Henry Thomas) attempt to cure the human race of violence — and the horrific, unanticipated results.
“They’re imaginative stories to begin with, and then they’re shot in some very imaginative ways,” said Livingston, the star of Office Space and HBO’s Band of Brothers. “There’s different things you can do with television now. It used to be, just put the story up and shoot it, and you’d do great things. But I think this project has a real cinematic sweep to it.”
And unlike most of Stephen King’s work, it’s not always about the supernatural. “The Fifth Quarter,” premiering July 26, is a more human tale of a man (Six Feet Under’s Jeremy Sisto) who, following his release from prison and the death of a close friend, hunts down a treasure map leading to several million dollars.
“He’s just this flawed guy who’s trying to make it, trying to get back into the world,” Sisto said during a recent phone interview. “It’s not supernatural, but it takes a Stephen Kingy turn. . . . It really goes someplace that you don’t think it’s going to go.”
Thankfully, the same is true of Nightmares & Dreamscapes. Another dull King adaptation like The Tommyknockers would be a twist no one wants to see.
Jay Cridlin can be reached at (727) 893-8336 or cridlin@sptimes.com.
PREVIEW
TNT’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes, an eight-part miniseries based on Stephen King’s short stories, premieres tonight at 9 with the commercial-free “Battleground,” starring William Hurt, and “Crouch End,” starring Eion Bailey and Claire Forlani at 10 p.m. Two new chapters will air back-to-back at 9 p.m. each Wednesday through Aug. 2.