Interview: Cormac McCarthy's The Road Director John Hillcoat

November 24, 2009
by Alex Billington

Hitting theaters everywhere tomorrow is The Road, adapted from Cormac McCarthy's novel and directed by Australian filmmaker John Hillcoat, of The Proposition previously. I first saw this wonderfully haunting film at the Telluride Film Festival (read my review) and thought it was an impressive and beautifully bleak adaptation. After the screening I caught up with director John Hillcoat to talk with him for a few minutes about the film. We cover topics regarding how tough it was to adapt a novel this bleak, preventing the story from including an explanation, and casting the two roles. This is one of the best interviews I've ever done!

Watch my interview with The Road director John Hillcoat:

This was recorded in a hotel lobby in Telluride, CO (hence the random kid running around). Hillcoat is very soft-spoken, so I tried to amplify the audio a bit so that you could actually hear him. He was wonderful to talk to and I really did wish I had more time to chat with him, as we could've talked about so much more. If you've read the book, I'm sure you're already planning to see this. But if not, I suggest you take some time in these next few weeks to see The Road, as it's not only a fine achievement in filmmaking, but a great story as well. Despite being soft-spoken, Hillcoat is a great director who knows how to use imagery to tell a story.

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