Creative Artists Agency met with Garris about him writing the pilot script for a possible horror television series directed by
John McTiernan and produced by his wife, Donna Dubrow. The agency suggested multiple ghost stories and
urban legends to write about, but Garris had another idea. The series would follow a mysterious character who describes himself as "only a storyteller" but is actually much more than that. Each episode would be set in a different location, with the same actors playing different characters. Just after
Brandon Tartikoff signed on as producer, Garris pitched the idea to staff at the
American Broadcasting Company; the heads of the network weren't interested as they didn't want any horror material in their broadcast schedule, but a couple of the network's executives like
Greer Shephard got on board. After writing a pilot script based on
Stephen King's short story "
Chattery Teeth," Garris pitched the series to
Fox. However, Fox wanted a two-hour television film. He wrote a screenplay of
Clive Barker's "
The Body Politic" to serve as the film's second part after "Chattery Teeth." Casting director Lynn Kressel, who previously worked with Garris on
The Stand (1994) and
The Shining (1997), came up with the idea of
Christopher Lloyd as Quicksilver; while the network loved the decision, Garris was a bit skeptical, reasoning that he want a "little more seductive" actor to play the part. In the end, however, Garris loved the decision. The moment Fox began developing the project, McTiernan left the director's seat on the project, leaving Garris to have to direct the screenplay himself. "The Body Politic" was filmed at the
Santa Monica Pier, while "Chattery Teeth" was filmed in
Lancaster, California. When playing Dr. Charles George,
Matt Frewer had a tough time making the hand move as if it had a separate mind; it took around three days for him to master the trick, and by the third day was having "hand nightmares" while resting between shoots.
Steve Johnson handled the chattery teeth effects, while
Flash Film Works and Bill Mesa was responsible for the moving hands. Around 90% of the hands were digitally animated with
LightWave 3D and composed in the shots with the
Chyron program Liberty. The more practical hand effects, such as George's left hand, were performed by
Christopher Hart, whose work as a magician got him hand-only characters in projects such as three
Addams Family films. The same trick for composing Hart's hand into the shots of
The Addams Family films was used in
Quicksilver Highway; Hart wore a rubber prosthetic on the top of his hand and a green sleeve, and by using
green screening and footage that matched the background of the shots of Hart's hand, his arm was removed. Four days were spent shooting Hart's hand. == Home media ==