Stephen King sits down to talk with the creators of "Lost"

I stumbled across an Entertainment Weekly article that featured an interview where Stephen King sat down to talk with J.J. Abrams, Carlton Cuse, and Damon Lindelof, the three minds behind ABC's hit show, LOST.  The article itself is a couple of years old.  They said that the third season was gearing up so it's not exactly breaking, however it is Stephen King and seeing as I finally got around to watching the show (I've been tearing through it via Netflix's instant watch; I'm already on Season 5), I thought it would be appropriate.

The mutual mancrushing is kept to a minimum.  There's a degree of "You guys are awesome" "No, you're the one that's awesome"  "No, no, you're awesome" but mostly it's just writers talking about writing.  

The author, Jeff Jensen, expressed surprise that King didn't ask the usual questions like "What is the monster?" or "Do you guys know what you're doing?" (although the latter is sort of addressed), rather King wanted to know the extent of their creative control ie. can they end it on their terms?  I'm not really surprised, even if King did ask what the monster was, I doubt they'd actually give up the answer, even if he is one of their heroes.  

The LOST team discusses the influence King had on their work and how they used The Stand as a model for their show.  Namely in the character archetypes that the show shares with the epic novel. 

The various aspects of the mythology do come up during the course of the conversation.  The writers point out how the numbers have eclipsed the monster in terms of curiosity (not for me though, I'm curious about the numbers, of course, but I'm more curious about what the frick that thing is.)  

The popular "island is purgatory" idea also comes up.  It was a solid theory for a while, but at this point, I think we can safely dismiss it. I did like the fact that the writers toyed with the idea when the wreckage was discovered, but clearly this is something else entirely. 

They offer King a job, but he passes, saying he wouldn't do it justice.  I disagree, but it is his call.  It would be pretty cool if they got him to make a cameo at some point though.  Why not? I mean Billy Dee Williams made a quick appearance (how awesome was that?)  It would be fitting, and rather cool, to get a King cameo on the show.

The article isn't current, but it's still an interesting read if you're into LOST.  So yeah, go check it out.