Inside ‘The Institute’: Stephen King’s dark tale gets a gripping MGM+ adaptation

The Institute
The Institute drops in July on MGM+.
MGM+

Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, ‘The Institute’ brings together a unique group of kids through unsavory circumstances, and the clan of young talents need to figure out how to survive on their own.

To chat more about the story, the premise and the adaptation process, executive producers, writer and directors Jack Bender (‘FROM’) and Benjamin Cavell (‘Godfather of Harlem’) sat down with Metro to dive deeper into this twisted thriller.

The Institute
MGM+

What drew you in to this project? Why sign on? 

Bender: Stephen [King] sent me the galleys before the book was published about seven years ago. We had done ‘Mr. Mercedes‘ together and he said, do you like working with kids? I said, I do. It’s hard because you’ve got to find the right kids and make them feel very real and not actory and all that stuff. But I love it. I read the book and I loved that too… but then there was also the tragedy of the Parkland High School shooting. I watched the kids who survived coalesce into this strong political group, and they’re still out there today and God knows we need ’em.

But they stood up against adults and politicians and the NRA and said, you know what? You all screwed up. This is our life. This is our world. Get out of our way, we’re going to fix it. It’s still going on today, and I thought when I read that, that’s very much the heart of this story. I got lucky enough to have Ben join me as my partner in this, and we talked about how the “meek shall inherit the earth.” And in this case, children shall inherit the earth, but first they have to save themselves. That to me became a real touchstone and an inspiration for the show that was carried throughout.

Cavell: For me, I love Stephen King and I loved the previous adaptation of his work I did, and he was very happy about it. He wrote our finale, so obviously I was excited to work on another Stephen King project. I love that not only are the kids central, but the kids have to rescue themselves [in this.] It’s not about kids being victimized and some action hero hearing about it and riding to the rescue. The kids are in this terrible situation and they need to use what skills they have to get themselves out of it.

The thing that I say to Jack all the time about children shall inherit the Earth—I’m very struck by how politicians on every side of just about every issue, always claim to be doing what they’re doing for the kids. It’s all about protecting the kids, but none of them ever ask the kids what do they want and what do they need? Having the kids be the hub of this story and preserving the kids engaging in their own sort of escape movie. That’s what really drew me to it.

What were you looking for in casting, and why age the kids up in the show?

Bender: In the process of casting, finding Joe Freeman, first and foremost, who’s our central character, he’s brilliant. He played a little older than the book. Stephen’s kids were all a chapter below, except for Avery (Viggo Hanvelt), who we maintain at 10 years old, which is essential. Casting a little bit older did two things: It allowed us to avoid making something none of us wanted to make—which was a sadistic show where we just see kids being tortured. I mean, we’re not interested in that.

And I think it invites and opens the door for teenagers to be drawn to our show and relate to these kids. Like all audiences ideally say, what if that was me? I think that’s a key component for everything I’ve done that’s a thriller or horror. Any place, any world that you create that has that kind of obstacle course to survive, you’ve got to care about the people and go, oh my God, what would I do? And I think teenagers will relate to this as well as adults for all those reasons.

The Institute
MGM+

What does the adaptation process look like? Is it exciting to have all of this source work, but is there also pressure with so many fans of the book?

Cavell: We both feel a real responsibility to Stephen, both because he’s a master storyteller and one of the great authors in the English language, and also because he’s really become a friend to both of us. There are challenges to adapting Stephen King. One of them is that he’s such an internal writer. He gives you so much access to the deepest inner, most darkest, most secret thoughts of his characters. It’s an inherent challenge to figure out how to make those things external and cinematic in a way that will play on screen in terms of the King fandom.

You certainly want to make things that are going to appeal to the people who have read and love the book, but also, you need the adaptation to be accessible to people who have no knowledge of the book. You also can’t be just trapped in agonizing about, well, how are the constant readers going to react to this? You have to just have faith that if you do it in a way that fits your taste and your aesthetic and you do it as well as you can, that it’s going to resonate with the people you want it to resonate with.

Horror and thriller shows act as vehicles for themes—what will audiences get out of ‘The Institute’?

Cavell: I think that maybe the goal of all art is to create something that’s entertaining enough that it carries you along just based on your attachment to the story and the characters and the themes of it and the questions that you’re exploring. One is that the bad guys in the world—and we’ve tried to make this true in our show, certainly with Mary Louise (Parker), who is just brilliant as our big villain— but the bad guys in the world that we all inhabit are not usually sort of mustache twirling, very arch people who think of themselves as the bad guy.

I think the terrifying thing that I see is how many people who are doing real evil in the world think of themselves as the good guy and have these justifications for what they’re doing. I hope that audiences will see that and have that piece resonate.

Bender: Rooting for these kids to survive, I think it really will speak to people. ‘The Institute’ is essentially the world we’re in now and we’re all fighting forces and obstacle courses. How can we live the best life and how can we survive? We watch this group of kids who are essentially misfits, but not because they’re lacking things, but almost because they’re a little extraordinary in different ways. Our show is the weirdest high school show ever, but there’s only five extraordinary kids in there. No lockers, notebooks, no dates, no nothing. It’s like, okay, how do we live through this?

The Institute
MGM+

‘The Institute’ premieres with two episodes on MGM+ on Sunday, July 13 at 9 p.m. ET/PT