Scott Derrickson and co-screenwriter Robert Cargill drew on true experiences from the '70s in adapting Joe Hill's 10-page short story into 'The Black Phone.'
, which was published in 2004, for its compassion and distinctiveness. “From the first time I read it, something that I thought was deceptive about the story is that it combined a serial killer story with a ghost story,” he said. “I hadn’t seen that done before and certainly not in any kind of an effective way. And Joe did it seemingly effortlessly. There’s so much empathy toward Finney and it was all told with a point of view of love and felt very hopeful and even inspiring.
“What we’ve changed is additive rather than subtractive,” he continued. “Because every element of that short story was perfect for a film.” “All of the ghost kids are like real kids that I knew,” said Derrickson. “The Robin Arellano character Other changes, like switching The Grabber’s occupation from clown to magician, came directly from Hill himself. With his father’s classic “It” back in the forefront of pop culture with the recent blockbuster two-part movie adaptation, Hill felt the clown look, originally inspired by the serial killer John Wayne Gacy, would now be viewed as a rip-off. “
Hawke was an immediate shoe-in for the role due to “his voice, for starters,” said Derrickson. “Because I knew that I had a character who was going to be behind a mask the whole time, I started with that. I feel like his voice is so underutilized. It’s got so much range: sometimes it’s very high and lofty and sometimes really dark and gravelly and super menacing. Sometimes it’s got a kind of quiet, weak state and sometimes it’s very flamboyant.
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