After the ?Mist? press conference earlier this week, we posted a bunch of the event?s highlights?including these photos, King?s feelings on spoilers and King and Darabont?s response when we asked them to name their greatest fears. The Mist marks King and Darabont?s fourth collaboration, but they said they?re not ready to stop, and are looking forward to working together on at least four more film adaptations. Darabont specifically mentioned his interest in adapting King?s tale ?The Long Walk?. Eventually they even got round to talking about The Mist?which hits theaters next week!

Here now for the enjoyment of FEARboys and FEARgirls everywhere is a transcript of the twin titans? talk. Get out your carving knives, kids, this chat?s meaty!

Can you talk about the origins of The Mist?

KING: A friend of mine, Kirby McCauley, was putting together an anthology, called Dark Forces, and wanted all of these original stories from people who wrote in the genre. I said, ?You know, I don?t think I can do that, because I?m blocked.? I hadn?t been writing anything since the three books Carrie, Salem?s Lot, and Night Shift, and I was kind of stuck.

I happened to be in the town market and people were really calmly shopping. I happened to look at the front windows, and I thought, ?You know, if something bad happened those windows would all break,? because that?s the way I think. It?s not necessarily a good thing but it?s been a profitable thing over the years. [Laughs.] I thought about it and mauled it over, and this story came out of it. I?ve always been grateful to ?The Mist? because this story sort of broke me out of a place where I couldn?t seem to do anything. This story came very naturally. In terms of Vietnam or any other conflict, if you?re writing seriously, I mean trying as hard as you can, the issues in your mind that he things that you?ve been through are always going to play a part.

Was the fundamentalism, as the movie seems to talk about, there back then?

KING: Mrs. Carmody was there back then. And Mrs. Carmody was very much the Mrs. Carmody in the movie. I don?t want to go and make political statements. I?m a storyteller and Frank?s a storyteller and that?s what we do. I said it before and I?ll say it again?if you?re trying to do your best work these things are going to come up and become part of the story and people will ask these questions.

Is ?The Mist? a political story? Is ?The Mist? a story that has to do with the dangers of entrenched religion fundamentalism? Is ?The Mist? a story about red and blue? I?m not going to answer any of those questions. Go see the movie and those questions will come up and serve as a springboard.

Fear has played such a major role in your work. How has the notion of fear evolved in your mind and how do you apply that in your work? What is the function of it?

KING: Fear is a survival function. If you are afraid of certain things?walking down the side of a highway at night in hunting season in Maine and you?re not dressed in red or orange, you?re afraid that you might get shot. Fear is a survival function. In the stories that I write, the only thing I try to do is provide people with nightmares which are really safe places to put those fears for a while because you can say afterward that it was all just make-believe and you just took your emotions for a walk. This is a negative emotion. It?s kind of a pit-bull in the human mind and it needs to have a place to walk and needs to be petted every now and then too. That?s what these stories try to do. A lot of you have seen the movie, maybe all of you, and you know that these people are trapped in the supermarket and these things happen to them that are inexplicable or non-normal. But sooner or later, every one of us faces those things in our own lives. You might call it cancer instead of the things in the mist, but we are all afraid of those things. It seems up to me to exploit them. I?m glad I do what I do. It?s allows me to vent a lot of this stuff and get paid for it; whereas people, like I said, go to shrinks and pay them. This is a win-win for me.

Your story is more supernatural than the film, which is more science fiction. Could you both talk about this and, Stephen, why you didn?t choose to be a part of the production for this film?

King: I was writing a book. That?s the short answer to that. In terms of science fiction, I?ve written a lot of stories that I think of as sort of science fiction. I was a C chemistry student and a B- physics student. I was never a geek, and never had a lot of those skills or that knowledge base. On the other hand I saw a lot of movies in the ?50s like The Thing and Them and I know that radiation causes monsters, and most important of all I know that if we mess around too much with the unknown, something awful will happen.

DARABONT: That?s the first law of physics! [Laughs.] Radiation makes monsters, big ants! My answer to that question is, I love this stuff too. We have a common genetic predisposition towards loving these sorts of things. This is what brought me to this master?s work in the first place, because I love his stuff. It?s the fun part. Is it a little science fiction? Is it a little horror? Yeah, it?s a lot horror, but ultimately what makes him such a muscular, master storyteller, is it never just devolves into the trappings. It?s always about that journey of the human condition within his storytelling. That?s what makes it particularly valid and particularly relevant. How does fear relate? It?s an examination of fear. That?s why I always loved this story. It wasn?t so much about the mist outside the windows with the groovy critters in it. It?s about what the people are going through inside the supermarket. It winds up being pretty real and pretty disturbing because there?s nothing scarier than the human nature and human behavior. That?s why I thought it had some muscle. It?s about fear and fear itself and what it does to people. How does it wig them out? How does it compel us? Does it bring us together? Does it tear us apart? Does it make us make mistakes? This is pretty meaty stuff as a filmmaker and [to King] I can?t thank you enough for letting me make the movie.

KING: Aww.

A lot of writers get very disenfranchised when Hollywood comes in and tries to make their books into a movie. What has Darabont reached that makes you feel so comfortable in turning over your projects to him?

DARABONT: Tell him about your big Wang.

KING: I used to have a big Wang, but of course I was younger then. [Laughs.] It was a Wang Word Processor. Get your minds out of the gutter! I loved to work with Frank. I worked with Frank?well basically I don?t work with Frank I just stand aside and let him do his thing. The thing about Frank that I?ve always liked is he still has a child?s imagination coupled with an adult?s ability to see the core of the material and execute his vision. You got a couple things going on there that you don?t see in a lot of filmmakers. You do see it in some and Frank has always done good work. I feel very comfortable that I?m going to get something from Frank that?s going to be usually extraordinary. In my case he?s done The Woman In The Room, Shawshank, The Green Mile, and he?s done The Mist. It isn?t just me?I hear from other people all the time that they just loved those movies.

I have to tell this story. We live half the year down in Sarasota, and my wife and I worked out an agreement where she?ll do the heavy shopping once a week, but then she?ll send me for the crap that she forgets. So I?m there in the supermarket one day, and I got my cart and there?s this woman there as I come around the corner. I?m going to say she?s about ninety-five, and she said, ?I know who you are. You write those stories, those awful horror stories. I don?t respect that and I don?t like that. I like uplifting movies like that Shawshank Redemption.? And I said, ?I wrote that,? and she said, ?No, you didn?t.? That was it, she went on. Talk about feeling surreal. I?m thinking, ?Geez, maybe I didn?t write that. It?s not very much like my other stuff, maybe I didn?t!? But Frank does good work.

What is your procedure for writing?

KING: In terms of the writing schedule, keyboards and all of that? It doesn?t really matter to me if I have access to writing materials. It doesn?t matter much what the writing materials are. I have a regular schedule for writing, it?s in the morning, and I?ve done it enough years so that those things turn on. The real trick is it?s nice to have two or three ideas that are worth working on. But that?s not something you can always depend on having. Usually I?ve had a lot of interesting ideas.

Has there been frustration for you from other filmmakers who have adapted your work?

KING: No there?s never been any frustration. Either they?re good or they?re bad. If they?re bad I just kind of laugh. There?s a story of the college news reporter who came to see James M. Cain towards the end of his life. The young reporter was demoting what Hollywood had done to his works and Cain flipped right around in his chair and pointed to his shelf and said, ?They haven?t done a damn thing, son, they?re all right there.? That?s the case. I?m always interested to see what happens when you beat the pi?ata. It?s always a little bit different. Sometimes its good, sometimes its?Children of the Corn. Those things happen. I?m always interested to see.

What book were you working on that prevented you from working on this film with Frank?

KING: It?s called Duma Key and its going to be out in January and they make wonderful presents. [Laughs.]

What are your biggest fears?

DARABONT: Ohhh?people, the twenty-first century so far?I?m afraid it?s going to make the twentieth look like a romper room. There?s nothing that scares me more than what people are capable of. This is actually what this movie is about. One gentleman said that it seems like a very timely and relevant thing, but to me it?s a rather timeless thing. It goes back to Greek tragedy. What are people capable of when they are influenced by lack of reason and fear? That?s what scares me.

KING: I?m afraid of everything. It shows in my work?elevators, cars. The thing that started the new book was basically a combination of an accident that I had and a truck that was backing up. I?m with Frank on this, that?s one of the reasons why I love this movie. Every night when I go to bed and nobody popped a rogue nuke somewhere in the world, I feel this sort of combination of ?I don?t believe we escaped that for another day? and gratitude because we did escape for another day. There is so much of that stuff out there. A lot of people that are afraid are angry, because fear and anger go hand in hand. They are the original version of the Bobbsey Twins. When they do, there?s always someone to say, ?We have the answer?we have the only answer,? whatever the religion might happen to be. They say, ?We have the only answer, so let?s get down on our knees and pray about it, or we?ll kick your ass because our god is bigger than your god.? I?m not saying that The Mist is about those things, because that?s for you to decide, but I?m not saying that it?s not. To a degree, it?s about big bugs too. We don?t want to forget that.

Are there any stories that you?d like to see made into film or TV?

KING: First of all, I think it?s good to see my movies back again. They were in rehab for a while but they?re better now. Whenever anybody talks to me, whether it?s a musical version of Carrie (There have actually been two play versions of Carrie?one that was good and one that was so weirdly bad [it was good].) Whatever anyone wants to try, I?m up for that, as long as it makes a minimal amount of sense. I?m hoping me and Frank can work together again at least four more times.

DARABONT: Yeah! I?m waiting for the next prison story!

KING: I thought The Mist was sort of a prison story.

DARABONT: Well, it is. Of course it winds up being a prison story.

What was your first reaction when you first read that ending?

KING: I loved it. It puts a button on it. I thought about this when I wrote the story. If you guys have got it you?ll see that Frank has been very faithful to the story. When Frank and I talked about The Mist, he would always say to me, ?It?s got to have a strong ending.?

DARABONT: And you would say it to me from time to time.

KING: That?s right, and what we were trying to say to each other was the story has?I wouldn?t say a weak ending, but the kind of ending my late mother wouldn?t respect, because it was one of those Alfred Hitchcock endings where you were left to make up your own mind. She had nothing but contempt for that. Frank wrote a new ending that I loved. It is the most shocking ending ever, and there should be a law passed stating that anybody who reveals the last five minutes of this film should be hung from their neck until dead. That?s the one thing that I hate about the internet age is all of the stuff that is out

DARABONT: Me too, me too.

How do you feel about this adaptation compared to his other films?

KING: I love it. Frank does good work. This thing has a different look it has almost a?I don?t want to sound like a critic, but it has a wonderful documentary sort of feel. It?s separated from the other horror suspense movies of the past couple years because it has that documentary feel and a sense of the Twilight Zones which I loved as a kid, the Outer Limits episodes that I loved as a kid. Here?s a movie that was made by an adult. I?m not going to name any names, but it isn?t part of the ?Splat Pack? of young guys who haven?t quite come to a realization yet that this is as serious as any other genre. You?ve got a picture that asks some serious questions if people want to ask them, or if they want to have a good time it?s there too. It has a wonderful realistic look that I was just crazy about.

Do you have an affection for films that are based on sort of an economy or getting how much you can out of a small amount of money?

DARABONT: Yeah, absolutely. Some of my favorite movies came out of limited budgets. Some of the most muscular, like Night of the Living Dead for example, came out of very limited resources.

KING: Night of the Living Dead, Yeah. Blair Witch Project, really disturbing

DARABONT: There?s some muscularity to that.

KING: Texas Chainsaw

DARABONT: Yes, absolutely. I really wanted to embrace that because I felt like this had a real ballsy muscularity. I would have to say that Shawshank is not a different kind of movie for you. The commonality is Stephen King never lets you down on a muscular story. This guy single-handedly took horror our of the ghetto of literature and brought it to the mainstream. You never saw grandmas in the airport reading a horror novel until Stephen King came along, and brought the storytelling values of a writer to the genre and elevated it.

KING: I try to put real people in stories. I like to be able to do that, to put real people who are not clichés and who are deep. I like some texture in my stories, and Frank has always respected that. This is a movie. You can characterize it as a horror movie but I never tell anybody what to do about that. Call it what you want to but there are real people in that. It?s not Friday the 13th Part VI. It?s got more texture than that.

How would you say your writing has evolved over the years?

KING: The first thing that crossed my mind when you said how has my writing evolved is that I probably know two or three thousand more words than I did when I was twenty-four or so. My vocabulary?s improved a lot. I?m not as angry anymore because I?m not twenty-five anymore. That will kick your ass every time. There?s an Elvis Costello song called ?I?m Not Angry, I?m Just Amused.? I?m not amused, but there?s a little more despair. In that sense The Mist is actually a more mature work in the sense that it?s darker than some of the other stuff. I?m still just trying to tell good stories and find a way to do that and not repeat myself or fall into a rut.

DARABONT: Well, he?s getting less angry and I?m getting more pissed off. There is still the sunny optimist in me, he?s just getting a little beat up lately. When I was younger I always had this notion that we can pretty much work anything out but as I get older I realize that that takes some good will on the part to the people who are doing the talking. I don?t think there?s anything we can?t work out, but we seem to be determined not to. In a way that sort of goes back into the Mist's story. I?m stuck in the middle of that argument that Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman have at the mess hall table--is hoping a good thing or is it just stupid? I?m right in the middle of that equation. The pleasure of doing what we do is we can work stuff out and tell stories or call out a great story to express those things.

What is the next Stephen King story that you have you not done already but would like to do?

DARABONT: Probably one of the weirdest stories Stephen ever wrote, or your pal Mr. Bachman wrote. It?s called ?The Long Walk?. That, I?ve been meaning to ask you, didn?t you start writing that when you were in high school?

KING: In College.

DARABONT: This is amazingly mature work for a kid who was in college. That I do believe was in the shadow of Vietnam right?

KING: Yes, very much. That was started in, I believe, ?67.

DARABONT: It?s pretty amazing stuff.

Would you be interested in ever directing another film yourself?

KING: Never say never. I think it would be great one time to direct something when I?m not coked out or drunk and see what comes out. What I really regret is Frank asked me if I would act in The Mist, and for one reason or another I wasn?t able to do it. But I could kick myself.

DARABONT: I wanted him to play the biker with that shaggy Stephen King look.

KING: ?I got a shotgun in my truck. I can try for it if you want me to.? I was ready, I was ready!

DARABONT: For the role that Brian Libby played. Brian was in Shawshank and The Green Mile, so though I missed you and would have loved having you on?

KING: He?s a professional.

DARABONT: But you would have kicked ass.