Di Bonaventura explains…
Post-Cabin Fever, director Eli Roth set up a number of projects, laying a groundwork of opportunities. Before ultimately moving on to Hostel, he flirted with the Stephen King property 1408, a short story culled from the “Everything’s Eventual” collection and now turned into a feature film directed by Mikael HÃ¥fström.
So, whatever happened to Roth’s involvement? Shock poses that question to 1408 producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura who tells us, “Eli was attracted to it right away, but we couldn’t set up his take anywhere.” As it turns out, many were turned off by Roth’s grue-filled approach, “so Eli fell out and it was a little while later that Dimension Films bought the rights to the short story. [Writer] Matt Greenberg came in and Scott [Alexander] and Larry [Karaszewski] came in with Mikael.” And what was Roth’s take, exactly? “It was too bloody to say out loud,” Di Bonaventura laughs. “It was madness and an entirely different movie. He has such a love of the bloody parts of the genre I think it scared everybody.”
Di Bonaventura is pleased now with the film’s final approach which forgoes the gore. “Some of the most interesting aspects of the story – the mental disintegration as opposed to the physical degradation that’s going on – that’s something that Mikael and the writers could bring to the table.”
Roth, coincidentally, is now working with writers Alexander and Karaszewski on an adaptation of Stephen King’s “Cell.”
Source: Ryan Rotten
