Greg Nicotero Talks Survivior Type & Gray Matter
Posted: July 23, 2019, 09:12
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How many episodes did you direct, then?
Greg Nicotero: I directed two of them. I directed “Gray Matter,” which is the Stephen King story. Steve was the first call I made when this got going. I just said, "Listen, it's not Creepshow without a story from you. What do you think?" And he said, "I have the perfect story for you." He sent me "Survivor Type," which is this unbelievable story about a guy who's stranded on a desert island and ends up cutting off parts of his body and eating them as he goes. And I'm like, "Well, listen, if Stephen King says this is the story, this is the story." So I wrote the script for it, and when we started working out just how we were going to shoot the show, because we were super ambitious, I realized I didn’t know how we're gonna do that story without a lot of visual effects. Plus, we would actually have to fly to an island and shoot it.
So I asked him for another story, and that’s when I remembered “Gray Matter.” And in terms of our show, it's much more of a personal story, and he went, "Yeah, okay, you can take that one." So, I directed that one. There was another story that was the first story that I read when we were looking for material, by David J. Schow, who's a really good friend of mine. It's called “The Finger.” It's about this dude who's walking along and he finds a finger on the ground and he picks it up and he brings it in his house. The next day it's an arm. And then the next day, it becomes this creature and it becomes like his little buddy. It’s a really great story, too.