“It taught me how to write and to write quickly.”Ī spec sent to New Line Cinema impressed them enough to bring him onto a horror roundtable, and a fruitful relationship was born. “It was like my Roger Corman years,” he says. He cut his teeth on two 2007 films for SyFy, “In the Spider’s Web” and “Blood Monkey,” which he refers to as a great film school. “I didn’t even tell her I wanted to be a writer at first.” When he finally did show her a script, she was impressed, and became a mentor to him. “I was waiting tables when I saw a posting on Craigslist from her, looking for an intern,” he reveals. “His scripts are lyrical and he is so detailed.”Īfter graduating from Temple University, Dauberman moved to Los Angeles and found an early supporter in Cathryn Jaymes, a manager who once worked with Quentin Tarantino. He also adapted the DC comic “Swamp Thing” for a 10-episode series on DC Universe this year. Things actually worked out in comics - Dauberman penned an entry for the DC Comics anthology “Cursed Comics Calvacade,” and has just released the first issue of “The Mall,” a four-part graphic novel he penned with Michael Moreci for Vault Comics. “So I put all my eggs in the writing basket,” he says. The only problem, he notes, is that he wasn’t a great artist. Originally, he wanted to write and draw comics or be a Disney animator. “I remember seeing him in interviews and thinking, ‘Oh, he seems so normal.’ He was a great ambassador for horror because he seemed like a regular guy, not someone holding rituals in his basement of the middle of the night,” Dauberman says.ĭauberman says he really learned to write through reading. “I’d rush to Waldenbooks and there was a big display with these great covers and I can remember buying them and cracking open that binding.”īut it wasn’t just King’s writing it was the man himself. “It was an event when King would release something,” he notes. And then there were the books authors like Lois Duncan, Christopher Pike and R.L. Movies like “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday the 13th” were staples, but he was also influenced by “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (the face-melting scene in particular) and “The Lost Boys” (look for that film’s poster in “ It: Chapter Two”). He has vivid memories of seeing “Poltergeist” at a sleepover at the age of 7. “When Halloween would roll around, it felt like a Ray Bradbury story come to life and I loved it,” Dauberman recalls. “And I know that it’s hard to catch lightning in a bottle twice - but they did it.”ĭauberman grew up outside Philadelphia in a town called Glen Mills, which could almost pass for one of those idyllic towns featured in so many genre films, with its trees changing color and wrought iron and brick structures. “There’s a lot to live up to with the first one because everyone just killed it,” he says. Seated in a coffee shop he refers to as his office, Dauberman expresses more excitement than nerves. If the writer is feeling the pressure, it’s not showing. Everything is bigger: the stars (Jessica Chastain and Bill Hader join the cast), the scares, the emotion, not to mention the real-life stakes - the first film is one of the most profitable and heralded horror films of all time. The sequel finds the ensemble brought back to finish the job, weaving in flashbacks and new scenes with the young actors who originated the roles. The first movie followed seven young friends batting a demonic force that frequently appeared to them in the form of a grinning, drooling clown named Pennywise. This week sees the release of “ It: Chapter Two,” set 27 years after the first film and again helmed by Muschietti. The first installment of the film, directed by Andy Muschietti, was a critical and box office smash, grossing over $700 million worldwide off a $35 million budget. Then Dauberman took on one of the most enviable but also intimidating tasks for any fan of horror: adapting Stephen King’s massive novel “It” for the big screen. 'It: Chapter Two' Reviews: What the Critics Are Saying Box Office: Can 'It: Chapter Two' Deliver the Hit Warner Bros.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |