Benjamin Cavell and Jack Bender are keeping their track record of Stephen King adaptations alive and in thrilling fashion with MGM+‘sThe Institute. Cavell, who serves as developer and showrunner of the series, first broke out with his work onJustifiedand as creator of CBS/Paramount+‘sSEAL Teambefore eventually co-developing and showrunning Paramount+’s adaptation ofThe Standin 2020. Bender, who has directed everything fromChild’s Play 3to over a third ofLost, first adapted King’s works withCBS’Under the Domeand later directed/executive producedMr. Mercedesand executive produced the pilot of HBO’sThe Outsider.
Adapted from the 2019 novel of the same name,The Instituteis set in the titular Maine facility, which is home to a group of teenagers possessing telepathic and telekinetic abilities. Run by the manipulative Mrs. Sigsby, the series follows newcomer Luke Ellis as he works to determine the goal of Sigsby and the organization behind her, as well as a way for him and the others living there to escape. Meanwhile, a neighboring town sees the arrival of Tim Jamieson, a former police officer wandering the nation after an emotional incident lost him his job, only to become entrenched in the mystery surrounding The Institute.
Prior to the show’s premiere,ScreenRantinterviewed Benjamin Cavell and Jack Bender to discussThe Institute. The creator and director discussed the two biggest changes in the show from Stephen King’s novel, and how they generally suited their overall goal with translating the novel to the screen, as well as the challenges of adapting King’s writing for the series and why they feel the author’s work continues to resonate with viewers and readers.
The Duo Wanted To Ensure The Institute Didn’t “Feel Sadistic” To Its Characters
This Led To A Couple Of Key Changes From King’s Novel
Throughout the history of King adaptations, creatives have taken a variety of approaches to bringing the author’s material to life on screen, some aiming for a direct approach, while others have infamously taken drastic deviations, most notably Stanley Kubrick’sThe ShiningandThe Dark Towermovie. When it came toThe Institute, Cavell and Bender wanted to ensure they took a faithful approach to the series,but also had the goal of making sure the series didn’t “feel sadistic” given it centered on younger characters.
This, in turn, led to one of the show’s biggest changes, in which many ofThe Institute’s characters are aged up, now being teenagers instead of children, apart from Viggo Hanvelt’s Avery. The creative duo found that teenagers “are a little more able to navigate” such a situation as being experimented on by malevolent scientists than kids, and that audiences “don’t want to see kids treated in this way or brutalized in this way”. Cavell even found itbrought the tone closer to such classic World War II POV movies asThe Great Escape, in which audiences feel “it’s going to be so great when they turn the tables”.
…we were very fortunate to find the actors we found, who are a terrific group that, I think, young people and older people are going to relate to enough, and want to hang out with, if you’ve got to be in some horrific place like that.
Bender and Cavell also revealed that one of the big reasons for changing the age of the show’s main characters was theircasting of Joe Freeman to play Luke, feeling he was “so undeniable as our central character” that it made sense to age up the rest of the roster to match him. “I think casting is kismet, and staring with Joe, and Ben Barnes, and Mary-Louise Parker, oh my God, they’re all so brilliant,” Bender expressed. “And yet, you ride the wave and see what presents itself”.
Cavell also recalled a reflection Bender had throughout the production fromhis time onLost, in which the director/executive producer felt “nobody wants to be in a plane crash and marooned on an island”, but if audiences are to do so,“you’d want to be marooned on this island with these people”. This led to a similar approach with all of their casting forThe Institute, as “you’d want to be in this place with this group” if someone were to find themselves “kidnapped in the middle of the night and taken to this terrible place”.
Another major changeThe Institutemade from King’s novel was offering a more inclusive plotline for Ben Barnes’ Tim Jamieson, who is only in the beginning and end of the book,but is instead a main presence throughout the show. Cavell admits expanding that story was one of the biggest challenges with the show, as the creative team “needed to figure out a story for him”. “In the book, he’s a thousand miles away from The Institute, and doesn’t even have any notion that it exists until Luke comes to him, which completely works on the page,” Cavell explained.
The biggest lesson Cavell and Bender learned in expanding Tim’s story was that, even with there being “several episodes” before he and Luke cross paths, they had to do so “without him stepping on the fact that was always important”,in which “the kids save themselves”. “There’s not an action hero riding to the rescue as he sort of hears, ‘Oh, kids are being mistreated,’ and now he’s going to go in and take them out of this situation,” Cavell shared.
Bender further praised Cavell and his writing team for the angle they came up with in expanding King’s work by diving deeper into Tim’s nature of “suffering a loss as a cop” and being someone who’s “wounded”. As the director detailed, audiences will find Tim “taking a step off the merry-go-round of life” and reflecting on the feeling “I just need time” and recognizing that “Fate has put me into this little town”. Through his work as a nightknocker, and relationship with Mary Walsh’s Annie, Tim’s arc subsequently begins “banging against the plot of the show” and helps “the tension build” as he struggles to determine what he can believe.
There Was 1 Big Challenge To Adapting King’s Pages To The Screen
“…It Takes A Lot Of Brilliant Writing To Not Lose All Of That…”
Beyond just finding the best approach to making changes to the source material, Bender and Cavell also point to one of the biggest challenges in adapting King’s work to the screen is the facthe “writes so many inner monologues” for his characters, something that doesn’t always cleanly translate. As the director notes, this form of writing is generally “the cheap thing you throw out immediately” when tackling an adaptation, joking that it’s “the worst” thing for a creative team to come across.
And you think of that one moment, and you say, “There, but for the grace of God, we’re not doing that.” And yet, adapting it into a very cinematic and a dramatic piece, it takes a lot of brilliant writing to not lose all of that inner life that Stephen has on the page.
King’s Continued Popularity Is Because He’s “One Of Our Great Story Writers”
“…He’s A Masterful Storyteller, And Across Genres In A Way That Almost Nobody Can Do.”
WithThe Institutemarking the latest King adaptation for both Bender and Cavell aftertheir work onThe StandandMr. Mercedes, the show continues to prove the everlasting relevancy and popularity of King’s works. In reflecting on why they feel the author’s voice is still so prominent, Bender beams that he continues to be “one of [humanity’s] great story writers”, praising his ability to “write in a world that’s filled with fear”,while also making sure “he relates it to real human characters”, thus creating grounded stories for readers and viewers alike.
“In fact, Bennett said, and we shared the fact, that we always loved Stephen King’s work the most when he’s writing about monsters inside the people, not just monsters outside the people,” Bender shared. “And that was true of my experience onMr. Mercedes, too, his first detective genre. So, I think that connects people to Stephen King in a massive way.”
Cavell echoed many of Bender’s sentiments, calling King “a masterful storyteller”, particularly givenit’s “across genres in a way that almost nobody can do”, pointing out how it’s “pretty remarkable” that the author has done everything fromThe Body, which was adapted intoStand by Me, toSalem’s LotandIT. The showrunner went on to praise how King is “such a wonderful sentence-to-sentence writer” and can “write such incredible characters and relationships”.
That just sort of pulls you along through 1200 pages of The Stand, or of a lot of things that he’s written. [Chuckles] But yeah, no, I am with you. He’s a master.
Check out our otherInstituteinterviews with:
The first two episodes ofThe Institutebegin streaming on MGM+ on July 13, followed by new episodes weekly on Sundays.
The Institute
Cast
A kidnapped prodigy with special abilities, Luke, ends up at The Institute, while Tim, a former cop, seeks a new life in a nearby town. Their fates are inevitably linked.
