The Dead Zone
Short description
The Dead Zone is a horror and science fiction thriller about Johnny Smith, a schoolteacher whose life is derailed when a car crash puts him in a coma for five years. He wakes to find that his fiancée has moved on and that physical contact with another person now triggers visions of that person's past, present and future. As word of his ability spreads, he is drawn into police work and the glare of publicity, and he eventually encounters a powerful politician, Greg Stillson, whose future he sees with frightening clarity.
Adapted from Stephen King's novel, the film was directed by David Cronenberg as his seventh feature, following Videodrome and preceding The Fly. Jeffrey Boam wrote the screenplay, and Debra Hill produced. Christopher Walken plays Johnny, with Brooke Adams as Sarah Bracknell, Tom Skerritt as Sheriff Bannerman, Herbert Lom as Dr. Sam Weizak, Anthony Zerbe as Roger Stuart and Colleen Dewhurst as Henrietta Dodd.
Released on 21 October 1983, the film runs 103 minutes. Made for about 10 million dollars, it returned roughly twice that amount worldwide. It holds a 7.9/10 critics' rating, while audiences give it 7.2/10 on IMDb and 7/10 on TMDB, a fairly narrow spread suggesting steady regard across both groups.
What's left behind the scenes
- In the episode depicting a vision of the beginning of a nuclear war, President Greg Stillson, in his country residence at Camp David, threatens his military advisor that if he does not place his hand on the launch control screen, Stillson will cut it off and place it there himself. An earlier version of the script featured a more violent episode: Stillson shot the advisor and placed his dead hand on the screen.
- In the episode of Johnny Smith's first vision, among the toys on the shelf in the girl's room, a doll depicting the famous little Alien from Steven Spielberg's iconic film 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' (1982) accidentally appeared. The filmmakers did not have the rights to use the image of the Alien, and Universal Pictures threatened them with a lawsuit. As a result, the episode had to be completely reshot.
- In the final episode, as Sarah cries while embracing the dying Johnny, we hear her briefly stop crying to tell Johnny, “I love you.” But we don’t see her mouth as she says these words—this is because the original script didn't include these lines from Sarah, and her voice was dubbed in during post-production. This was done to make the film's finale more impactful.
- David Cronenberg initially chose Hal Holbrook for the role of Sheriff George Bannerman. However, producer Dino De Laurentiis rejected his candidacy because he had never heard of the actor.
- The poem that Johnny Smith reads at the very beginning of the film is the finale of Edgar Allan Poe's legendary poem "The Raven".
- To make Johnny Smith's shudders during the visions appear natural, that is, sudden, director David Cronenberg, standing next to the camera, fired a "Magnum-357" loaded with blanks at the appropriate moments. This was an original idea by actor Christopher Walken.
- The shot in which Johnny Smith sees himself lying in a burning bedroom was filmed without the use of composite shots: actor Christopher Walken was actually in the middle of a real fire.
- The "sweat" on Johnny Smith's face in the flaming bedroom episode was actually a special fire-retardant chemical that pyrotechnicians sprayed on actor Christopher Walken to protect him during filming. No one expected the chemical to create such an excellent sweat effect, which significantly enhanced the drama of the episode.
- Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) assigns his students to read Washington Irving's novel "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Much later, Christopher Walken played the Hessian Horseman in Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" (1999) – a loose film adaptation of Washington Irving's novel.
- Sheriff George Bannerman (Tom Skerritt) is also a character in Stephen King's novel "Cujo," a film adaptation of which was released in 1983.
- A stuntman was seriously injured during the filming of the flashback episode of World War II when a firecracker exploded at his feet.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
