(Courtesy of Marky Jahjali)Horror master Stephen King’s story The Woman in the Room will get a new adaptation — by promising Indonesian filmmaker Marky Jahjali.

“The adaptation will be titled Wanita Itu. It will incorporate Indonesian social culture as its background while still retaining the essence of the actual story,” said Marky.

Wanita Itu is produced by Skylar Pictures, the company that made last year’s emotional drama Surat Kecil Untuk Tuhan (A Little Letter for God). Surat Kecil garnered the largest film audience in the country last year, drawing more than 740,000 viewers.

Marky said that preparations for the production are currently under way, with seasoned actor Slamet Rahardjo agreeing to play the lead character. Marky hopes veteran actress Christine Hakim will join in to complete the strong cast.

The Woman in the Room tells about the story of a man who is watching his mother slowly die in great pain due to cancer. He must make a decision whether to allow her to continue to suffer or to help release her from her pain forever. It is said this story is based on King’s personal experience with his mother.

The Woman in the Room was previously adapted by Frank Darabont, who also made The Shawshank Redemption, which was adapted from King’s novella.

King, one of the most popular American authors, is known for his contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy stories. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books.

Marky Jahjali, who is a graduate of the Bandung Institute of Technology’s school of fine arts and design, said that King’s drama touched on relationship between a mother, who suffers from terminal cancer, and her son.

“This is exactly the same as my personal experience — something that has stuck tightly in my memory,” he says.

For three years Marky had also suffered, emotionally and physically, when his mother was suffering from terminal breast cancer. His mother passed away five years ago but the painful memories remain.

Success did not come easy for Marky, the grandson of Titin Sumarni, a well known actress in the 1950s.

His early works were often turned down, as it was difficult to get funding for producing independent films that are in between fine art and pop.

Marky says he has felt a strong affinity for visual art, such as drawing or sculpting, since his childhood. He wrote a complete story with illustrations at the age of 8 for his father’s birthday.

“I try to find a balanced meeting point between value and popular appeal,” said the Bandung native, whose work, Kursinya (The Chair) was nominated for best script at the Jakarta International Film Festival in 2008 and made it to the South Africa International Film Festival’s top 10 a year later.

 “My visual artistic academic background, especially sculpture, has proven to be very helpful in my work, because in making sculptures we are expected to look at a problem from a three dimensional point of view.”

That background has helped him develop a deeper and sharper sense of cause and effect, something that is more difficult than facing a problem from an illustrator’s two-dimensional point of views.

Marky said that he actually enjoys all film genres and wishes to explore directors from all genres, like Stanley Kubrick or M. Night Shyamalan.

“I admit that horror has a special place in me, although there are only a limited horror films that I like. I think that Stephen King has brought the horror genre to the surface with a noble quality in approach and handling,” he says.

Marky said that he has also been offered a chance to direct one of the adaptations of Clive Barker’s works by the author himself.

He said that Barker also promised to make Marky one of the characters in Abarat, the last book in his fantasy
quintology.

The book will be illustrated by Barker’s own colorful paintings and Marky said that Barker personally asked to use him as model for a vampire character.

Personally, for Marky, value is the most important thing in any film genre and horror is one of the cultural approaches that are made and enjoyed to free the real fright in life itself.

“In my opinion, our public’s obsession towards horror might be caused by the presence of so much anxiety and
uncertainty.”

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