‘Stranger Things’ basks in ’80s nostalgia
Writing and directing duo Matt and Ross Duffer say their ‘eight-hour movie’ is a homage to film greats from their childhood
When writing and directing twins Matt and Ross Duffer first had their next big idea, they wrote an episode and went to Netflix. The streaming company immediately bought it and set the ball rolling for an ‘eight-hour movie’ called Stranger
Things, that premieres globally today. Set in 1983 in the small town of Hawkins in Indiana, the supernatural thriller begins with the mysterious disappearance of a 12-year-old boy. His three friends take matters into their own hands as they set out in search of him, and experience a few supernatural encounters along the way. Winona Ryder plays Joyce, the boy’s frantic mother.
The timeline is a homage to the movies and books the 32-year-olds grew up on and their makers, from Steven Spielberg to John Carpenter and Stephen King. “What made their stories so great were the storylines — where the ordinary meets the extraordinary,” Ross, who, along with his brother have written episodes of the thriller Wayward Pines and directed the 2015 thriller Hidden, tells tabloid!. “We wanted to bring that style of storytelling to a whole new generation.”
Here are excerpts from the interview…
Where did the idea for Stranger Things come from?
Ross: We were talking about how, if we did any show, what it would be like. We wanted to do something in the vein of the classic films we watched growing up… the Spielberg stuff, the Stephen King stuff, the John Carpenter stuff. We had pretty normal childhoods growing up in suburbia but after we watched those movies, we knew that whenever we stepped out of our doors into the woods, what lay ahead could be this great adventure.
What is it about the ’80s that’s so appealing as a backdrop?
Matt: There were a couple of reasons. We liked setting it in the Cold War, during a time of shady government experiments like P MKUltra [the CIA’s mind contr gramme] where they were exp the boundaries of human abilit And it’s fun because we get to homage to the films that we g loving and watching. Even thou were really young, we were still living off ’80s VHS and these w the films of our childhood.
Ross: The ’80s were also the when you could just get on you and set off. You don’t have a ce phone and you could just get lo the world. Now your mum just you and says, ‘It’s time for dinn was the ultimate time for a kid on an adventure. And that was last time that things like this c really happen in all its full glory
Was it logistically difficult to get the setting right with the retro theme?
Matt: We shot in Atlanta an a fair number of sets. But logis the most difficult thing was th wanted the whole thing to fee eight-hour movie. We were try make each episode feel as cine
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Speaking of an eight-hour movie, did it make a difference when you were making it, knowing people might watch the whole thing in one go?
Ross: We love binge-watching. We are film guys, we are not TV guys. It was just not our passion those days to watch TV. I remember when we rented the first season of Sopranos on DVD and we binge-watched it. That was when I started realising what the potential was of television to tell a story that way. I think it adds a much more film experience to the story to be able to watch it all at once. We wanted it to feel like one of those big fat Stephen King’s books. Those books you can read and put down whenever you want or just fly through to it. It’s a fast-paced show.
Was Winona Ryder always your first choice?
Matt: When the idea for the show first came up, our casting director brought it up and we were very excited about it and crossed our fingers. We had one meeting with her and she responded to the materials. She’s like a lot of actors that feels that TV is the place to be if you’re interested in playing a great character. There’s not a lot of great character opportunity in film right now. But when we cast Winona and the kids, we only had one script written. So the rest of the show was written with her in mind.
Has season two been discussed already?
Ross: If people respond well, we would love to do season two. We resolve the main issue in this but we left some questions answered and some doors open. If there is a season two, we would love to treat it as a sequel. We are excited to see how people will react.
Are platforms such as Netflix the future?
Ross: What’s exciting to me and what it feels like it’s going to be is when someone comes up with story, we can now decide what’s the best length of time to tell the story. So far, you had to fit it into 150 minutes or a 33-episode box. If you write a novel, you wouldn’t want to be limited by the number of pages. You’re just telling what’s right for the story.
Matt: It feels like feature films are heading towards what’s focused on spectacles. TV is becoming more film-like and film is becoming more like TV with their cinematic universes and what not. It’s going to become just like the Marvel channel. If you want to be telling original stories, now there are tools to do it cinematically and the best place is on TV — I don’t even know if you want to call it that anymore.
Will you guys always work together?
Matt: We started doing stuff together and have been making movies since third grade. So it will be pretty difficult to do things separately without causing some serious psychological damage. So I think the answer is, ‘This is the only way we know how to work together’. At least for the foreseeable future.
You’ve written for Wayward Pines and directed the thriller drama
Hidden. What’s your obsession with the supernatural genre?
Ross: I love the idea of telling intimate stories, character-driven stories that have genre elements in them. It’s not about monsters but it’s the characters. I’d love to do sci-fi. Stranger Things has elements of sci-fi but I’d love to do something a bit more hard sci-fi.