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Mike Flanaganjuggles a lot of tasks.
All of those elements are coming together again in Flanaganssecond Stephen Kingadaptation,theShiningsequel,Doctor Sleep.
(As of publishing time, his career Fresh scoreremains in tact.)
Sooner or later, Im not going to be able to say anything anymore.
Thank you so much.
I mean, thats just Wile E. Coyote running off the cliff sooner or later, you know?
That freaks me out even talking about it.
I dont feel undefeated.
So, if this had gone another way, the story would absolutely be, Oh, yeah.
I was delusional, and no other detail would change.
Those questions werent like, I admire your persistence!
It was, Youre crazy!
For the first time in my life Im starting to relax.
Thats only just now happening, and its happening, I think, just because Im getting older.
I have three kids.
Im only now starting to think,Maybe this wont go away.
But if it does, I got to make a pile of movies!
Maybe it wouldnt be the end of the world if it stopped.
You wrote and directedDoctor Sleepand you also edited it.
Taking on several roles on your projects is pretty normal for you.
Does that stem from a control compulsion?
Convenience?I used to be very philosophical about that, but its totally a control compulsion Ive learned.
So, for working on [The Haunting of]Bly Manor, Im not directing every episode.
Which you did do for the preceding season,The Haunting of Hill House.Yes.
But, no, that was totally a control compulsion.
Its all, for better or worse, going to be on me.
I think its anxiety.
Did doing long form withHill Houseinform your feature filmmaking?Absolutely.
You know, I read the book and I was like, This is a five-act story.
From a structural point of view Id never come across something like that.
It was really fun, but I was like, Its going to be long.
The story is demanding of that… People think like,Oh, its indulgent.
Its like, no, all I want is to make a short movie!
I want the most time that I can possibly have to focus on each scene in a given day.
The longer the script is, the tighter my days are.
Family trauma is a thread throughout the work youve done.
King waited decades to come back to that character.
He got it under control, and that fascinated me.
That made me start to think of this movie less as a sequel than as a descendant.
That really opened things up, because if were a descendant ofThe Shining, then we have two parents.
But we have to find her own identity.
Like any kid, were never going to be our parents.
You know, thats been on my mind forever.
I knowexactlywhat this is about.
I knowwhothis is about.Hill Housewas big for me that way.
On its face, I knew I was wading through my issues, my family.
I was very aware of that.
You know, these movies, they dont belong to me when Im done.
The things that other people extract from them, they can see the correlations very clearly.
Then I go back and look at it and Im like, Yes.
And I dont see it until you guys see it and point it out.
Something youve really built your career on is an attentiveness to your heroines.
Theyre way more interesting than I am, and I recognize that right away.
I have great role models in that respect.
I have a daughter now, though, and that changes a lot for me.
I love my parents to death.
So, it was kind of a no brainer for me growing up.
I was just very fortunate to have that.
Visually, your movies remind me ofghost storiesfrom Latin directors, likeDevils BackboneorDown a Dark Hall.
Theres a very storybook quality to them, aesthetically.
People are like, doing surgery in here!
Like, thats ridiculous!
I was like, Okay, I get it.
Its a horror show.
Thats what scares me.
My DP, Mike Fimognari, weve been together now for forever.
That, to me, felt cool.
That works extremely well in the scene with [actors name redacted to avoid any spoilers] inDoctor Sleep.
It really fucked me up.Yeah.
It fucked me up, too.
It fucked all of us up from set because [redacted] is just that good.
I thought I was being all clever.
People wont see anything.
And [redacted] made it so much worse, just because [redacted] is so good.
Its not just plug and play.
I think thats because in my home as a kid, that didnt happen.
So thats an idea thats very alien to me and very frightening.
He always says, I want to feel at home here.
I want to relax into this space so that you might tell me why I shouldnt.
And its like, yes, thats awesome!
Thats a profound thing.
I think thats whats amazing about the genre.
