Ian McKellen said that one of the things that convinced Bryan Singer to cast him as Dussander
despite him being British, and considerably younger than the character,
was when Singer raved to McKellen about about a performance by an actor he had recently seen
in Cold Comfort Farm, and McKellen informed him that he was the same actor he was talking about.
читать дальшеWhen Stephen King learned that Bryan Singer was to direct, he sold the film rights for just $1.
One of the pictures of Dussander as during in the years of World War II
was actually Heinrich Himmler but was digitally replaced with Ian McKellen's face.
Ian McKellen admitted he was surprised to be asked to play 75-year-old Kurt Dussander,
since he was only 57 at the time of filming.
There had been talk of a film version in 1984. James Mason agreed to play Kurt,
but died from a heart attack before filming could begin. Richard Burton was considered as his
replacement, but died from a cerebral hemorrhage before he could accept the part.
The first attempt to film this story, in 1987, ran over budget and was stopped after six weeks
of shooting while it remains only ten days of filming. According to Stephen King,
who saw a rough cut of 3/4 of the movie, "it was really good".
It starred Ricky Schroder and Nicol Williamson, and was directed by Alan Bridges.
The movie ending and the novella ending are drastically different.
In the novella's ending, after Dussander's death, Todd murders Mr. French and then goes up on an
overpass and begins to snipe people in cars going by, until the police kill him.
In the movie he essentially gets away with everything, without having to kill Mr. French.