By DAVE HAGAN

Looking up at the clock, I see that it is just five minutes away from the time that I am scheduled to have a phone interview with one of the legendary writers of film, television, and novels, Richard Matheson.

Now, if this were one of his many famous teleplays for the original The Twilight Zone, I would be expecting something a bit out of the ordinary to happen. As I look around my office, I see just how much of an influence Mr. Matheson has been on me since childhood.

A red plastic winking devil head grins at me from atop a Swami Fortune Telling Napkin Holder, similar to the one that was used as the prop for the "Nick Of Time," the Twilight Zone episode where a young William Shatner and his wife become mesmerized by the uncanny ability of a diner’s fortune telling machine to accurately predict the future.

My video shelves are filled with both videotape and now DVDs of many of Matheson’s films and teleplays. The bookshelf to my right is crammed with many of Matheson’s novels, many of which have been recently reprinted by both Gauntlet Press and Tor books. As a writer, three men have influenced me more than anyone and Richard Matheson is at the top of that list, along with Robert Bloch and Charles Beaumont. For me, this isn’t just another interview; this is an opportunity to speak with someone that I have admired for quite some time.

Finally, the clock ticks by without any unusual occurrences. When I dial the phone, I’m half expecting that the voice on the other line will be someone or something other than Richard Matheson. The Twilight Zone episode "Night Call" immediately comes to mind (the story of a woman who receives calls that are traced to a downed phone line at her husband’s gravesite). I breathe a sigh of relief when the pleasant voice of Mr. Matheson greets me.

I introduce myself to him and explain that I will be recording the conversation with him over my speakerphone. That, of course, is when the trouble sets in. For whatever reason, he cannot hear me clearly over the speakerphone, the same speakerphone that I have used for numerous other interviews. I listen intently for The Twilight Zone theme to start sounding in the background and I check the corners of the room, waiting for Rod Serling to step out and explain to the audience how I am about to enter another dimension.

Fortunately, that does not happen (at least, I don’t think that it did). Now we are on to Plan B. Problem is, I don’t have a Plan B. My dictation skills rank right up there with my ability to take shorthand or to spin plain thread into gold.

Still, I cannot let this opportunity slip away so I manage to conduct the interview by trying to speak with Mr. Matheson while I share the earpiece of my phone with the built-in microphone of the tape recorder. If you’ve ever shared a phone with someone while still trying to hold a conversation with the person on the other end, you can certainly understand these less than perfect conditions.

I begin the interview by congratulating him on the recent release of a book that he had written more than forty years before its publication. Abu And The Seven Marvels is a wonderful children’s book, illustrated by William Stout. This book was published by Gauntlet Press and has been placed on the Fall Children’s Book Sense 76 list, which is quite an honor in the field of children’s books. I then proceeded with the interview.

HORROR-WOOD: With the recent publication of several of your Twilight Zone scripts by Gauntlet Press will there be any publication of your other famous screenplays or teleplays.

RICHARD MATHESON: There were plans to eventually release The Night Stalker, The Night Strangler, which was the second one I wrote, and a third one that Bill Nolan and I wrote that was never made called The Night Killers but no one can locate a copy of The Night Strangler. I don’t have a copy and Dan Curtis’ office can’t find it and The Writer’s Guild doesn’t have a copy of it either. It’s like it vanished into thin air. If we can find it, and Barry Hopkins insists that he will not give up until he does, we will publish all three scripts.

There are also three other scripts that I wrote that were never filmed that can be combined into one book that I am suggesting he call Unrealized Dreams. The first one would be the sequel to The Incredible Shrinking Man.

H-W: Having adapted a number of famous stories and novels by other authors into screenplays such as the Edgar Allan Poe Roger Corman films (The Raven, Pit And The Pendulum, The Fall Of The House Of Usher) as well as the Dan Curtis production of Dracula starring Jack Palance and also the original TV film of The Night Stalker, how does adapting someone else’s work differ from working with your own material? How important is it for you to stick strictly to the original version or do you prefer to take liberties with the screenplay that you are adapting?

RM: Well, if I like the book and I think it’s good, I stick to it religiously. Very often, however, that isn’t what they want. I just feel that if everything fits within the story, there is no reason to change it. One instance where one of my novels was adapted was Stir Of Echoes. David Koepp did the screenplay for that film based upon my novel. He updated it and changed the location but he followed my story so closely that I was delighted with the film. There are some things that are inevitable that you have to change when adapting someone’s work to a screenplay but hopefully not too many, especially in a novel.

Sometimes if a novel is particularly long, it is best to do it as a mini-series. One novel that would have done better as a miniseries is Peter Straub’s Ghost Story. They took just one small part of the entire novel and made that into a film. The entire novel should have been done and it should have been done as a mini-series, perhaps six or eight hours on network television or cable and really done well.

H-W: There has been talk for a number of years that Hollywood was going to do yet another version of your classic novel I Am Legend. Most recently I’ve heard Will Smith’s name attached to the project. What was your opinion of the first two versions with Vincent Price and Charleton Heston (The Last Man On Earth, The Omega Man)? What happened to the proposed Hammer (The Devil Rides Out, Die! Die! My Darling) version of the film that was supposed to use your screenplay?

RM: Well, there is a script; they have sent me a script. It’s not bad. They are talking about making into a comedy. I don’t think they’ll ever do my book as it is written. Dan Curtis wanted to do it, Michael Carerras wanted to do it but they just never get the chance. They are planning to remake The Incredible Shrinking Man now as a comedy (Keenan Ivory Wayans is currently listed as director). I don’t care if they make it into a comedy as long as it is a good comedy.

The Last Man On Earth was a little closer to the book than The Omega Man but I thought Vincent Price was miscast in the lead role. I thought Vincent Price was wonderful in the films that I wrote for him but I just felt that he was miscast as Robert Morgan.

H-W: Gauntlet Press will also be publishing a very unique book later this year called Pride, which you have written with your son Richard Christian Matheson. Tell us what makes this book so unique.

RM: Gauntlet Press is publishing the book in a very unique format. Both my son and I came up with an idea and we each agreed to go to work on our own short story. For this publication, Gauntlet is publishing the rough drafts that each of us has done. I, of course, still do mine in longhand while my son prefers the computer. The entire handwritten story appears in the book. Gauntlet publisher Barry Hoffman then suggested we combine each of our stories into a teleplay, which we have done.

H-W: I read that your teleplay for the TV movie Duel was based on something that actually happened to you. Is that true?

RM: Well, I had been playing golf with Jerry Sohl and we learned that JFK had been assassinated. We quite playing and decided to go home. As we were going through a mountain pass, a truck started tailgating us. This continued through the entire canyon. I used that experience and turned it into first a novelette and then a television movie screenplay.

H-W: I see that this September there will be a third edition of The Twilight Zone on TV, this time hosted by Forrest Whitaker. What are your thoughts about a new Twilight Zone television series? If approached, would you consider doing a story for this series?

RM: No, not at all. The original series worked well for so many reasons but also because Rod Serling was involved in the program. The second edition of the series that was on television a few years ago had some good shows but they weren’t really Twilight Zone type shows. The original Twilight Zone is still on television daily.

H-W: One of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes was "Nick Of Time" with William Shatner. I recently purchased one of the Swami Fortune Telling machines that they used for the prop in the show. They’re quite collectible now specifically because of that episode.

RM: Yes, I was given one of them by Charles Beaumont’s son. I have it in my office. I don’t have the devil’s head though.

H-W: Actually I found someone who sells them. They were originally on the end of clear plastic tubes of candy corn that they sold around Halloween back in the sixties. I have an extra one; I’ll mail it out to you. They come on a spring attached to a suction cup so you can put it on top of the fortune-telling machine, just like in the episode. I found your novel Hell House (filmed as The Legend Of Hell House) to be very frightening. Was that based on a true story of any kind?

RM: I used the Hearst Castle as the setting for the film. I researched books on what the mansion looked like and put that in the novel. I had admired Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting Of Hill House (filmed as The Haunting) and I wanted to write a good haunted house novel so I came up with that."

H-W: What does the immediate future hold for you?

RM: Next year I am planning on going to London for the theatrical debut of Now You See It. It is scheduled to debut next year in London. We’ve approached Richard Chamberlain among some others to perform in it. The play took so long to come about that I decided to turn it into the novel that was released in 1993 but it was always meant to have been a play. I’m hoping to be involved in the theatre for the next decade or so. I’ve also written a musical stage version of Bid Time Return.

After the interview, Mr. Matheson was kind enough to agree to sign my copy of Hell House for myself, I Am Legend for my oldest son who obviously knows a great book when he reads it, and also Abu And The Seven Marvels for my infant grandson. I looked around the room and could not find hide or hair of Rod Serling or any other unusual occurrence.

Now if I could only get that Zuni Fetish Doll out from under the bed . . .

(Dave Hagan is the author of HORROR-WOOD's monthly monster memorabilia column, The Collector's Crypt.)