Writer turns director for 'Stir'

In "Stir of Echoes," Kevin Bacon is a regular guy from a Chicago suburb, who submits to a hypnosis session, only to learn he's part of an estimated 8 percent of the population whose subconsciousness is easily triggered by hypnotic suggestion.

Writer-director David Koepp spoke of his personal satisfaction in directing this movie, his second directorial effort after 1996's "The Trigger Effect."

Research was fun, too. Koepp found the idea of hypnosis so fascinating, he says, he decided to undergo a session himself.

"It was kind of intense," Koepp said. "It's like a heightened state of concentration. Unless you're part of the eight percent, you don't black out.

Courtesy of Artisan Entertainment David Koepp directs on the set of "Stir of Echoes."

"It's not like you don't remember. You're always there and you're always in control, unless you're one of those whose subconsciousness leaps right out. I'm from the Midwest. My subconscious is waaaay down in the basement. Packed away."

This experience was not a cinematic experience, he confessed.

So he had to "fudge the scene for entertainment pleasure" by literally conveying Bacon's state of mind.

"I want you to pretend you're in a theater," said Illeana Douglas (who plays the hypnotist) in the movie to Kevin Bacon.

As Bacon imagines, Koepp shows us a movie screen with audience heads in the foreground.

Instead of showing the actor pretending to be in a trance, said Koepp, we see what Bacon sees. And we feel as if we're being hypnotized too.

Koepp is better known in Hollywood as a scriptwriter whose credits include "Apartment Zero," "Bad Influence," both "Jurassic Park" movies, "Carlito's Way," "Snake Eyes" and "Mission: Impossible."

As the director on "Stir of Echoes," he enjoyed a luxury rarely experienced by writers in Hollywood: control.

"Screenwriting is half an art form," explained Koepp, a bearded 36-year-old with an easy, witty manner.

"You write it, then someone else always directs it.

And no matter whether the movie ends up worse or better than what you wrote, it's always different" from the scriptwriter's original vision.

Even when you're included in discussions about the movie, Koepp continued, "you lose the arguments" with the big stars, the producers and the directors.

"After a certain point, you see the director's eyes glaze over.

"No matter what you say, he's going to do it (his way) anyway and you can type what he wants or he can have someone else type it. ...

"The only way to be completely happy," said Koepp, semi-facetiously, "is to give up your soul."

But this time, Koepp not only typed, he won the arguments - uh, in consultation with Bacon, who was a producer.

With his soul intact, he confessed, "I was very happy on this movie."

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