Description
Rose Red is an original TV screenplay that is an expansion of a previously written, but unpublished, work. It is a 3 part, 6 hour miniseries for ABC, and aired during 3 consecutive nights in February 2002. The story is about Rose Red, a haunted mansion built by an Oil magnate in the early 1900's. Joyce Reardon, a psychology professor, employs an autistic girl to wake the ghosts of the people that have died there in the past.The cast includes Nancy Travis, Kimberly Brown, and other names such as Judith Ivey, Julian Sands, Matt Keeslar, Kevin Tighe, Emily Deschanel, Yvonne Scio, Matt Ross, and Tsidii LeLoca. King is returning as an executive producer along with Mark Carliner, and the series is to be directed by Craig Baxley, and produced by Thomas Brodek.
Hyperion has also put out a tie-in book in January 2002 called The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red, which is a journal kept by one of the miniseries' key characters. It's edited by Joyce Reardon, Ph.D.
Here's SK's description of the evolution/devolution of Rose Red: "It went into turnaround. Steven Spielberg and I have tried to work together on a couple of occasions, starting with "Poltergeist," and we've never been able to do it. I think it just wasn't meant to happen. I don't have anything for him except the best feelings in the world. What happened with "Rose Red" was that he stayed in touch and asked if I still wanted to a haunted house story. So I did this screenplay and Steven said, "Yeah, this is great. This is going to be fantastic and I have a couple of ideas." The thing is, if you stand too close to that guy you get flash burns, that's how bright he is. And he will wear you out. So I incorporated the ideas he had -- because they were fabulous ideas. And he looked at the screenplay and said, "Well, OK, but this isn't motivated, and by the way I have a couple of other ideas." So I did a third draft. And by then it had gotten a pretty good distance away from where I started and Steven knew that. Steven also wanted a bigger, more positive kind of feeling than I wanted to go for. He wanted the WHOOOOOSH thing and I wanted to scare the sh*t out of people. We finally got to a point where it seemed like the best thing for me was to step away."
Published
2002 ABCPeople
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Asbury, Pam | Mentioned |
| Bollinger, Kevin | Mentioned |
| Hardaway, Nick | One of the group that entered Rose Red |
| Kandinsky, Victor | One of the group that entered Rose Red |
| Kramer, Cathy | One of the group that entered Rose Red |
| Miller, ? | Professor |
| Petrie, Deanna | ? |
| Pizza Delivery Man | This small part was played by Stephen King in the miniseries, so seems worth a mention |
| Reardon, Joyce | Doctor who is interested in Rose Red, and takes a group of psychics there on a field trip, with deadly consequences |
| Rimbauer, Ellen | Her husband built Rose Red as a wedding present for her. She gave birth to 2 children, and disappeared in a corridor of Rose Red. It was her insistence on constant additions that started the additions to Rose Red. She murdered her husband with the help of Sukeena |
| Rimbauer, Steve | One of the group that entered Rose Red, and only living descendant of Ellen Rimbauer. he was knocking down Rose Red to build an apartment complex due to financial problems |
| Steven, Young | ? |
| Sukeena | Friend of Ellen Rimbauer since they met during Ellen''s honeymoon. She was accused of the disappearance of Ellen''s daughter, but was later released |
| Waterman, Emery | One of the group that entered Rose Red. An annoying young man who''s life seems run by his mother. He looses some fingers on his left hand in the doors while trying to escape from Rose Red |
| Waterman, Kay | Mother of Emery |
| Wheaton, Annie | Little retarded girl that is both psychic and telekinetic who helps wake Rose Red and trap the team in there |
| Wheaton, George | Father of Annie and Rachel Wheaton. He argues with Rachel, and seems to dislike Annie |
| Wheaton, Mrs | Mother of Annie and Rachel Wheaton |
| Wheaton, Rachel (Sister) | The older sister of Annie Wheaton. She takes Annie to Rose Red. Helps her parents ''control'' Annie, as she knows Annie deals with love by returning love |
