It’s important to control your emotions instead of being controlled by your emotions, but tell that to the hothead teenager in “Firestarter.” Tempers are flaring in this Stephen King remake. It stars Zac Efron, who’s looking pretty steamy himself.
Sydney Lemmon (as Vicky McGee): “She’s not a robot, Andy. She’s a little girl with little girl emotions which are wildly unpredictable.”
Things are heating up in “Firestarter.”
Charlie has way more than growing pains to deal with. Every time this tween gets upset, she starts a fire with her mind.
Zac Efron stars as Charlie’s dad, Andy. The flick is based on a Stephen King novel.
Zac Efron: “The world that Stephen created in this novel is just fun, exciting. It really keeps you on the edge of your seat, and it’s kind of the genesis of a superhero, or maybe supervillain. We don’t really know.”
Shannon McDonough (as Mrs. Livesy): “I can help you!”
Ryan Kiera Armstrong (as Charlie McGee): “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”
Ryan Kiera Armstrong plays the fired up kid. Thanks to director Keith Thomas, she was able to channel her inner flame.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong: “There’s so many scenes where I was kind of nervous about doing, because I have to embody this kind of beast unlocked inside of me, and Keith was there for me, and he really told me, like, ‘Whatever it comes out as, like, that’s what it’s going to be.’ It was definitely a challenge but amazing.”
Ryan Kiera Armstrong (as Charlie McGee): “I’m a monster!”
Sydney Lemmon (as Vicky McGee): “Charlie! Charlie!”
The movie’s a remake of the hit ’80’s movie starring Drew Barrymore. According to the director, it’s a modern take, but they didn’t use technology for all those hot scenes.
Keith Thomas: “For this film, more than 95% of those fire effects are real, in-camera, from flame-throwers to lighting our actors on fire, which is always, you know, always a challenge.”
You know how the saying goes: great balls of fire!
Zac Efron: “As we got further throughout the shoot, there was more and more and more fire, and it kind of culminated in the final day, when we burned down the whole set in, like, an inferno fireball.”
Ryan Kiera Armstrong (as Charlie McGee): “I don’t want to hurt anyone, but it feels kind of good.”
“Firestarter” ignites in theaters on Friday. Here’s a cool bit of movie trivia: horror director John Carpenter and his son Cody composed all the music for the film.
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