We spoke to filmmaker Mikael Håfström leading up to the release of his new film Slingshot, a sci-fi thriller starring Academy Award winner Casey Affleck and Laurence Fishburne. The story mostly takes place aboard a contained, almost claustrophobic space shuttle that turns eerily psychological, an effect director Håfström also achieved with his hit 2007 film 1408. The Stephen King adaptation was a critical and commercial success — and most importantly, as Håfström confirmed to us, King himself was a fan.
“I talked to Stephen while we were shooting, before we were starting to shoot, and he was great. He was very respectful,” Håfström told MovieWeb. “He read the script that, you know, obviously, we build out from the short story. And then, he didn’t want to have any involvement in the film at all. And then after it was done, we shipped it to Maine, where he lives, and he set it up in his local cinema, and he saw it, and he was really happy about it. And I was very relieved. Obviously, that was the first, the toughest audience, and he’s been really nice about the film throughout the years, when he talks about his films and films that have been made from his stuff. And he always talks very fondly of 1408, just good things to say by Stephen King.”
Håfström also weighed in on his favorite films that have been adapted from King’s novels:
“You can’t get around
The Shining
, whatever Stephen King thinks about it… It’s also about a writer who goes insane, just like Cusack does in 1408, but a different canvas there. I mean, one of the films that I remember strongly when I saw it the first time and really made an impression of me is — I think it’s the first film based on his books — is Brian De Palma’s
Carrie
from 1976 with Sissy Spacek… I was a teenager then, and I saw that. It made a big impression on me, and I became a big De Palma fan after that…
Misery
is a good one. It’s kind of a different genre, but it’s a very entertaining movie.”
‘We Wanted This to Be Slick’
Despite the sort of contained, small-scale nature of Slingshot, there’s no denying the power of sci-fi cinema you feel as you watch big names like Affleck and Fishburne breeze through the sleek setting of Slingshot. “[With 1408] we had the same shell and even bigger challenge there because 80% of that film takes place in a hotel suite,” said Håfström.
“I made another movie called
Escape Plan
with Schwarzenegger and Stallone and worked with a production designer, Barry Chusid. Barry is a great production designer. He makes a lot of big movies, like
The Day After Tomorrow
, these kinds of $100 million movies.”
He continued, discussing the design of the spaceship and what they wanted from the film, “But when we got this film going, Slingshot, I called up Barry and said — he was busy in LA shooting some big films for Netflix — but I said, ‘Can you please take a look at this? Can you please help me design this spaceship?’ Because I really needed someone who understood, you know, what this was about. So he said yes to that and did it sort of while he was doing this other film, and it worked out great.”
Håfström went on to detail the influences and certain inspirations behind the sleek look of Slingshot:
“I didn’t want it to be like cyberpunk and sort of chains hanging… That’s more like
Alien
‘s kind of world. We wanted this to be slick and as little things as possible, you know, not a lot of wires everywhere and s*** but, you know, clean. And so to make it an interesting stage for these actors to play out their anxieties and what have you, and also an area where we could, you know, find new angles that will be constantly surprising so it doesn’t get boring, either to shoot or to watch, you know?
He continued, “And so that was the general attitude towards this spaceship. Obviously, we looked at a lot of what space design looks like today, you know? But also, this is not a documentary, but we obviously took lessons from what’s going on in our time.” From Bleecker Street, Slingshot is now playing in theaters.
