Secret Window began its voyage to the screen when Columbia Pictures’ executives became intrigued by Stephen King’s suspense stunner Secret Window, Secret Garden part of the Four Past Midnight collection, which prompted one reviewer to write: “Four spell-binding tales of evil. These are can’t-tear-your-eyes away stories that burn your imagination.”
The studio approached writer / director David Koepp to adapt the novella to the screen, according to the film’s producer Gavin Polone. Columbia Pictures has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Koepp that included his masterful screenplays for the recent hit films Spider-Man and Panic Room.
“King’s novella was reminiscent of Stir of Echoes (one of Koepp’s previous writing/directing efforts) because it’s about a guy who seems to lose touch with reality,” Polone says. “There were also similarities to the claustrophobic atmosphere of Panic Room, a thriller that essentially played out in one tiny room.”
“I like ‘guy-in-a-house-going-crazy’ movies,” laughs Koepp. “I enjoy the challenge of working out a story that takes place in a confined space. Even though there are some outdoor scenes, the story is really about Mort Rainey’s (Johnny Depp) living space.
It’s about somebody who’s in a really bad place in his life where he is just spending way too much time alone at home. I wanted to explore the confinement and paranoia themes, which have always interested me. Confinement can be really scary, and having bad things happen in your living space can be truly unsettling.”
King’s tautly written novella also investigated the twin disasters of a prolific author undergoing a painful divorce and suffering from writer’s block. Koepp, a successful, well-respected screenwriter, was able to bring an insider’s perspective to the sometimes torturous process of writing. “I identify with Mort on some level because I’m familiar with his lifestyle,” says Koepp. “Like many writers, he has a vivid internal life that he often has trouble expressing outwardly.
For instance, when I write, I’m usually in a room by myself, so I’m not used to interacting with many people. It can be difficult to make that change when you’re so accustomed to living inside your own head. Then, John Shooter (John Turturro) shows up and Mort has somebody literally bursting through the door and that can be tough, especially because he is at a real emotional low point in his life.”
Mort’s affliction with writer’s block only adds to his misery. “The process of writing is completely self-motivated,” Koepp continues. “So if you’re depressed, it’s very hard to get up and work. The couch always looks so inviting.
We were careful to cast just the right couch for Mort. I tested all of them and personally napped on the one we ended up using because I don’t know any writer who doesn’t have a good nap couch.”
Having input from a real writer, who was also the director, was a boon for Depp, who plays the tormented Mort. “David was very inspirational,” Depp notes, adding that, from the start, he felt a kinship with Koepp, with whom he coincidentally shares the same birthday. Depp was further impressed that Koepp traveled all the way to the Caribbean – where Depp was playing the memorable rogue Captain Jack in The Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl – in order to woo him for the role of Mort Rainey. What sold Depp on the part, however, was the quality of Koepp’s writing.
“What I remember most was reading the screenplay, getting 10-15 pages into it and thinking, wow, this is incredibly well-written. The dialogue is real and not forced, with an interesting train-of-thought quality to it. The situations felt true. As I kept reading, I got to the point where I was totally invested emotionally in Mort and his dilemma. And then, when I got to the ingenious plot twist, I was completely shocked. I really didn’t see it coming, which is very satisfying for a reader and I knew it would be for audiences as well.”
Depp says he has an affinity for writers. He befriended legendary journalist and raconteur Hunter S. Thompson while preparing to play him in Terry Gilliam’s adaptation of Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
“I think for anyone in the creative arts, but especially for a writer, your imagination is your best friend. It can also be your worst enemy if you are plagued by too much thought, an overload of information in your head. That’s Morty’s problem. He’s definitely a recluse. He’s uncomfortable around people and just wants to be left alone. Unfortunately, he can’t leave himself alone.”
Koepp sensed that an actor like Depp would innately understand the character and wrote it specifically with him in mind. Before voyaging to the Caribbean, Koepp sat down and composed a letter to Depp. “I wrote that I was hoping to cast him in Secret Window, that he was the guy I thought about when creating this character. He’s one of our great actors, so inventive and so different every time. I’ve found him totally accessible as an actor throughout his career.
There is an old saying that if you aim for the general, you hit nothing, but if you aim for the specific, you might hit the universal. That sums up the body of Johnny’s work. He is very meticulous and he draws us in by finding little moments of truth and behavior that people recognize and identify with. Therefore, they ultimately identify with the character. His choices are spontaneous and often unconventional, but they always work.
He is also a completely fearless actor. In terms of this character in particular, it’s rare to find a movie star who is as unafraid as Johnny is to play fear. Needless to say, I was thrilled when he agreed to take the part.”
Koepp’s good fortune continued throughout the casting process, he contends. “I feel incredibly lucky. We got everyone we wanted, and that rarely happens. Once all the actors had fallen into place, it was a great relief. It was like having a great car and all I had to do was drive it and try not to crash it into a tree.”
Prominent among his casting coups was snaring John Turturro for the role of the insidious John Shooter. “I really wanted John because he’s one of those actors who really becomes the part, who creates a fully realized, credible person. And that was especially important in the case of Shooter. Because John is such a chameleon, audiences can’t always quite put their finger on him, which is great for Shooter – a man who shows up out of nowhere and has an intangible, mysterious quality about him,” Koepp says.
Koepp harbors a kind of guilty admiration for Turturro’s character, someone with an apparent penchant for violence that comes from an untainted – if twisted – artistic conviction.
“I like to think of Shooter as an expression of pure art. There is no compromise about him. He writes for himself because he enjoys writing, not for any reward. He doesn’t care if it’s published or not and I think that’s a manifestation of true art.
Conversely, Mort is a commercially minded writer who hopes other people will like his work. That creates a wonderful conflict between the two of them. Shooter comes from a very different place – literally and figuratively. He is a dairy farmer from Mississippi who feels he has been wronged, and the movie tries, in part, to find out whether Mort plagiarized Shooter or not.
We never know exactly who is telling the truth, though we tend to believe Mort because Shooter is such a wacko and does scary things. But there is always that element of doubt.”
Interestingly, Koepp notes, there is a certain creative kinship between the original story’s author Stephen King and the character of Shooter. “When I was in the process of adapting the novella, I attended an event where Stephen King was speaking. He talked about retiring from writing and someone in the audience asked, ‘You mean, you won’t write at all?’
And he said, ‘Oh, no, I’ll write every day, I just won’t publish it.’ I think that’s what a real artist does. He works and if there is a venue for it, great, but if not, he’ll continue writing regardless.”
While Turturro was familiar with King’s work, the biggest Stephen King advocate in Turturro’s family was his son, who was thrilled that his father would be in a movie based on one of the author’s tales. “I’ve read a few of (King’s) books and liked several (movie) adaptations, but my 13-year-old is his biggest fan,” says Turturro. “My son is also the resident brain in our family and he reads all my scripts and he told me I definitely had to do this one.
Secret Window (2004)
Directed by: David Koepp
Starring: Johnny Depp, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton, Charles S. Dutton, John Turturro, Vlasta Vrana, Len Cariou, Elizabeth Marleau, Kyle Allatt, Richard Jutras
Screenplay by: David Koepp
Production Design by: Howard Cummings
Cinematography by: Fred Murphy
Film Editing by: Jill Savitt
Costume Design by: Odette Gadoury
Set Decoration by: Francine Danis
Music by: Philip Glass, Geoff Zanelli
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence / terror, sexual content and language.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: March 12, 2004
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