How ‘Presence’ writer David Koepp reinvented the Haunted House movie from the ghost’s perspective

In 1989, both Steven Soderbergh and “Presence” screenwriter David Koepp had films at the Sundance Film Festival. Although the two didn’t meet that year — Koepp wasn’t around for his “Bad Influence,” the low-key thriller by future “LA Confidential” filmmaker Curtis Hanson — when Soderbergh took his “Sex, Lies and Videotape” into the history books of American independent cinema (and to Cannes, where it won the Palme d’Or) – their professional lives would continue to intersect.

Koepp at one point tried to get Soderbergh to direct “Death Becomes Her,” a project Soderbergh said would be “too difficult.” Then, after Koepp went on to become one of the most prolific and profitable screenwriters in Hollywood history with “Jurassic Park,” “Mission: Impossible” and more, the pair met for a drink.

Koepp presented an idea he had about an agoraphobic young woman whose job is to listen to recordings and one day – surprise! – she hears a murder. Soderbergh encouraged Koepp to write it, and every six months or so he would ask Koepp, “Did you write that thing?”

“It was the first one we did together,” Koepp said of the script that became the 2022 film “Kimi,” a terrific thriller and one of the very best pieces of pandemic media; it starred Zoë Kravitz and was released on what was then known as HBO Max.

This week, Soderbergh and Koepp’s second collaboration, “Presence,” opens in theaters. And on March 14, their third collaboration opens, a spy film called “Black Bag”. Now Koepp is “late” in getting his fourth film script for Soderbergh in. They are clearly on the move.

After “Kimi”, Koepp sent Soderbergh three ideas. The director did not respond to any of them, although one later became “Black Bag.” Instead, he told Koepp he wanted to do a ghost story from the ghost’s perspective.

“It was immediately all the things I like. It was a genre I love. It was set in a confined space. I love confinement of any kind – duration, space. And it was about a family. I’m going to write a family drama in one location and smuggle it in under the guise of a ghost story. I’m in,” Koepp said. There was also what he called the “aesthetic challenge” of everything being told from that specific point of view. “It was huge,” Koepp said.

By the time they worked on “Presence,” Koepp and Soderbergh had developed their style — they talk about an idea, Koepp writes 10 or 20 pages of notes (“This is what a story might look like, beginning to end”). . Soderbergh gives his notes. “And then I go and write it,” Koepp said.

The resulting film follows a family (led by Lucy Liu and Chris Sullivan, who had worked on Soderbergh’s brilliant short-lived Cinemax series “The Knick”) who begin to feel an otherworldly force invade their new home. The unknown presence begins to take a special interest in their teenage daughter (Callina Liang). But what does it do lack?

Koepp describes Soderbergh as a great filmmaker (“And they’re very hard to find”). “The other thing is that I really appreciate that he really lets me do my job, instead of trying to do it for me. And I know he could do my job because he’s a skilled writer ,” Koepp said.Instead, Soderbergh is focused on all the other hats he wears on a set, as the filmmaker at this point also shoots and edits all his films, among other tasks.

“The only problem I’ve had is keeping up with the speed at which he’s making the movies,” Koepp admitted.

“Presence” was a unique experience in that, in Koepp’s words, it “started on spec and stayed on spec because he paid for it.” Koepp, who is also probably best known for “Spider-Man,” “War of the Worlds” and the latest “Indiana Jones” outings, appreciates working this way, far from studio pressure and corporate mandates. “You can do several drafts of a script before you even go looking for money. And when you go to look for money, the script is solid. The director is him, and in some cases you have the cast,” Koepp said. “There’s a lot that gets done, and it’s done without too much input. It just keeps getting better.”

Of course, he doesn’t take home a huge paycheck from any of his Soderbergh collaborators unless they do really well, but there’s more to make up for it in return. “You write what you think it should be, and no one says to you, ‘Oh, can you try not to offend China?'” Koepp said. He thought of a typical study note – “Doesn’t this make her unlikable?” – that would probably have greeted Liu’s character in “Presence”. “Yes, she launders money. Of course she’s unsympathetic. You don’t get any of that,” Koepp said.

Koepp was pretty confident that “Presence” would follow through on his creative venture, given how the script had come about and Soderbergh’s talent. “What I didn’t expect was how much power the voyeuristic nature of the concept gives you. It just makes everything feel so much more real because you’re intruding and looking at this family, and it just made the whole thing feels so much more real, beyond the very good performances,” said Koepp.

At first, the author had seen the aesthetic “as a difficulty to overcome when I was writing, and now I suddenly saw it as a great opportunity and asset.” (Yes, we asked if in the script the ghost walks through the wall; he said he had it in an early draft, and Soderbergh told him, “I can’t afford that.” Instead, they used fades to black.)

He was further encouraged by the film’s surprise premiere at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. It was held in a library and the air conditioning was off. It was not the most comfortable environment to watch a movie. “But the audience was excited. It was quiet and there were like no walkouts. At film festivals, you get walkouts,” Koepp said. There was actually one walkout. And when someone asked the person why, they said, “I can’t take this form too stressed at this point,” Koepp recalled. “Then I thought, Oh, this works.”

While Koepp had written ghost stories before—1999’s “Stir of Echoes,” based on a Richard Matheson story; and 2008’s “Ghost Town” (co-written with Koepp’s partner John Kamps), a comedy about a dentist who can see ghosts — the writer determined to add something to the mythology each time. For “presence,” Koepp wondered, Why are there ghosts? And also, Why can we perceive them?

In “Stir of Echoes”, Kevin Bacon’s character can see spirits after being hypnotized. In “Ghost Town,” it’s “the idea of ​​a colonoscopy gone bad.” “I’ve noticed that during periods of my life when I’m experiencing something that’s traumatic, I’m much more open to other people and sensitive to their pain,” Koepp said. “If you go through something of your own, you become better at picking it up in others and stopping and maybe asking them how it feels for them, or just expressing sympathy that you really mean.” He pointed to a line in the script where a psychic visiting the house tells a character, “I’m sorry you’re suffering.”

“I thought, hey, what if during periods of trauma we become not only more attuned to those around us, but to, you know, other kinds of perception that we might not otherwise be aware of,” Koepp said. “That was my idea – if you suffer hard enough, you can be open to another presence around you.”

The collaboration between Soderbergh and Koepp is especially harmonious because Koepp’s more commercial sensibilities nicely complement Soderbergh’s sometimes more outlandish ideas (this is, after all, a man who shot more than one movie on an iPhone). “It seems like a good balance. I’m constantly pushing, hey, why don’t we add this loop? And he said, ‘I’m not handing out leaflets in the theater to explain anything. I just want to understand,'” Koepp said.

The screenwriter’s only regret from “Kimi” was not being able to see it with more audiences. He got to go to a few festivals, but “it played great with an audience because it was supposed to be a mainstream thriller.” He’s looking forward to “Presence” (via Neon) and “Black Bag” (via Focus Features) actually playing in front of audiences.

So has Koepp ever tried to get Soderbergh to make one of those high-concept studio films that he’s so good at writing? The screenwriter said it never came up. “I know what he likes and what kind of day at work he enjoys. I don’t think that includes enormous studio pressure and a team of VFX artists telling him, ‘You can’t do that. You should this.’ I don’t think it has value to him,” Koepp said.

Around the time Koepp spoke with TheWrap, Soderbergh had revealed his annual list of things he’d seen, and there was an odd amount of “Star Wars” material in there. It was enough to wonder if he was working on a secret project for Lucasfilm — and it was enough to assume that if he was going to be working on a big-budget, commercial project, that Koepp wrote it.

Koepp said he was not working on a “Star Wars” project with Soderbergh.

“It’s hard to imagine he would do that, but who knows? He’s full of surprises. I love that about him. He told me once years ago that he was doing something, I can’t remember what, and I said, ‘Oh, it sure is different for you.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got to throw them off the scent’.”

As for whether Koepp will direct again or if his collaborations with Soderbergh scratch that particular creative itch, the writer said he really wants to direct more.

“There’s a story I have in mind that I’m actually working on with a friend now, it’s a drama. I’ve never done a straight drama where I don’t have any genre conventions to fall back on. I can’t have a chase or a gunfight or the final conflict with the guy in the house,” Koepp said. “And finding the characters and the crescendos and the emotional climax is hard like to have out off.”

At least he’s found something even more difficult than a big-budget franchise or a ghost story told from the ghost’s point of view—a real-too-real drama. They don’t make that much anymore. Talk about terrifying.

“Presence” is in cinemas on Friday.

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