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Stephen King Adaptations

Luckylyn

By Luckylyn
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Jediknight
Jediknight

That slide machine part, that's perfectly fine I didn't need to sleep ever again.

Spartan Girl
Spartan Girl

I. Hate. Clowns.

FozzyBear
FozzyBear

I watched Carrie (the OG 1970s one) again last night as part of my Halloween viewing schedule. I'm always struck by what a warm open hearted movie that is. No! I'm seriouse! Stay with me! Sue and Tomm

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millennium

millennium

As a novel, CELL was pure dreck.   But the concept was visionary for the time: people turned into mindless zombies by their cell phones.  And this was way before apps, texting and all the other shit that has, in some ways, brought King's cautionary tale to fruition.

I don't have high hopes for the movie, mostly because King is involved with the writing.    He is an inept screen writer and somebody should really find the courage to tell him.   The best films made from his work were adapted by other people.

The Mist as a series?   Sounds like The Walking Dead with bugs instead of zombies.   Come to think of it, the trailer for CELL looked a lot like The Walking Dead, too.    Hmm, think there's any possibility the makers of these projects are trying to cash in on The Walking Dead's popularity?

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King of Birds

King of Birds

On 2/29/2016 at 10:38 AM, King of Birds said:

So all these changes that don't feel right- maybe they're not gonna make the movies a literal translation, and maybe that's better.  I don't know. All this news makes me think I need to not pay attention to what they're doing and just watch the movie next year.

I did NOT heed my own suggestion, and read this article tonight. Must be considered MAJOR SPOILER for the movie.

Spoiler

Could it be The Dark Tower movie is NOT an adaptation, but the next part of Roland's journey?  And what does this SK tweet mean? And why reveal this now?  Is King just messing with us?

BooksRule

BooksRule

I just finished watching the 1979 two-part adaptation of 'Salem's Lot' that was aired a couple of days ago on IFC.  I probably haven't seen since it originally aired and I was happy to see that I found it to still be a creepy movie. Some of the effects now look a little cheesy, but the scene with Danny scratching at Mark's window is still scary as is the one with Geoffrey Lewis sitting in the rocking chair in the upstairs bedroom of the teacher's house.  When he stops rocking, looks up, his eyes have that little glow and then he gives that soft little hiss--definitely creepy!  James Mason was good as well.  I had forgotten how well he played the character, even in little ways.  For example, he was always so well-dressed and fastidious.  There was even a scene showing him carefully brushing off an invisible bit of lint from his jacket sleeve.  But when we see the inside of the house where he is living it is totally trashed-looking and filthy.  Such a contrast!  (This movie also reminded me of the crush I had on David Soul, which had carried over from his 'Starsky and Hutch' days!)

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MarkHB

MarkHB

On 5/20/2016 at 3:12 AM, King of Birds said:

I did NOT heed my own suggestion, and read this article tonight. Must be considered MAJOR SPOILER for the movie.

  Reveal hidden contents

Could it be The Dark Tower movie is NOT an adaptation, but the next part of Roland's journey?  And what does this SK tweet mean? And why reveal this now?  Is King just messing with us?

I just saw this. From the heading off the linked article:

Quote

If you prefer to avoid spoilers, go then, there are other stories than these.

Obviously the writer is a DT fan, or else he knows our watch words. I'd set my watch and warrant on it. ?

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millennium

millennium

Hmm, I always thought the Dark Tower sucked.   I stopped reading at some point, I forget where, maybe three or four books in.   To me, the only fully fleshed-out character was the Gunslinger, obviously a doppleganger for Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name."    That was the image I had in mind reading the books, an image later validated  by comments made by King himself.

Idris Elba does not fit that image.   I know some people have been following the Dark Tower for almost 40 years and take the series as seriously as others take Star Wars, so if they're pissed by the casting choice I don't blame them.   It's a cheat.  

Then for the director to tell these fans they can all go to hell, and to have Stephen King back him, just adds insult to injury. 

King says now, "The color of the gunslinger doesn't matter," yet he made it matter in the course of the work when he created racial conflicts between the white gunslinger and a black character. 

That said, I'm sure Idris Elba will do a fine job.   He's a good actor, I enjoyed him in The Wire.   To the general public that doesn't live or die by King's works or who have never heard of The Dark Tower, the fact that the movie Gunslinger is black won't make an ounce of difference, nor should it.

In the novella "The Breathing Method," King introduced a motto: "It is the tale, not he who tells it."

Maybe it needs to be tweaked a little: "It is the tale, not he who stars in it." 

Then again, in the end, the casting may not make any difference.   IMO, the tale is incoherent, derivative nonsense, thankee very much.    For crying out loud, King wrote HIMSELF into the later books (when I read about that, I patted myself on the back for giving up on the series long before ever reaching that bit of meta-narcissism).

I'll probably see the movie when it hits Netflix or DVD because I like McConnaughey and Elba.   Hopefully it will be one of those rare instances where the movie rises above the original and becomes something special unto itself.

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King of Birds

King of Birds

(edited)

The Dark Tower - even though he's not directing it, it is still coming from Ron Howard- it's an Imagine Films production. He and Brian Grazer are interviewed by Deadline about Imagine's 30 years, their new movie Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years ... and also talk up DT.   (some spoilerish stuff discussed)

Edited by King of Birds
cmahorror

cmahorror

Just finished the Bill Hodges trilogy and it is some of King's best writing - mature, complex but not overlong. Each book has their own story arc but there is another arc that connects all three books together. I would really love to see a three film adaptation or even a limited series. Since there is very little of the supernatural in the stories, they are more like detective novels with a few bits of the fantastic in the final novel, it could be easy to adapt to the visual form.

Any word on when Cell will come out? It has been in production since early 2016 and I haven't seen anything about it in a long time.

Luckylyn

Luckylyn

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4 hours ago, cmahorror said:

Just finished the Bill Hodges trilogy and it is some of King's best writing - mature, complex but not overlong. Each book has their own story arc but there is another arc that connects all three books together. I would really love to see a three film adaptation or even a limited series. Since there is very little of the supernatural in the stories, they are more like detective novels with a few bits of the fantastic in the final novel, it could be easy to adapt to the visual form.

Any word on when Cell will come out? It has been in production since early 2016 and I haven't seen anything about it in a long time.

The trailer was released a while ago, but it wasn't promoted well.  I don't think I saw a single commercial but only saw the trailer because I had been looking for it.   According to Rotten Tomatoes, Cell was in theaters July 2016.   It came and went in theaters without garnering any attention.  It is now available on dvd.  I waited so long to see an adaption and missed it when it finally came out.   The 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie's lack of promotion, and the fact it took so long for the movie to get released seem clear signs that the final product was probably severely flawed.  I suppose I will catch it on cable some day, but it probably will turn out to be disappointing.

cmahorror

cmahorror

Thanks Luckylyn - I really had no idea that the movie had come out at all. I don't go to the video store - I usually just wait for things to come out on Prime, Hulu or Netflix - so thank you for letting me know.

Guess I will just have to wait for IT to see a Stephen King movie in the theater. I have no interest in the Gunslinger anthology, I really couldn't get into the books.

paramitch

paramitch

(edited)
On 7/23/2016 at 8:35 PM, millennium said:

Hmm, I always thought the Dark Tower sucked.   I stopped reading at some point, I forget where, maybe three or four books in.   To me, the only fully fleshed-out character was the Gunslinger, obviously a doppleganger for Clint Eastwood's "Man With No Name."    That was the image I had in mind reading the books, an image later validated  by comments made by King himself.

Idris Elba does not fit that image.   I know some people have been following the Dark Tower for almost 40 years and take the series as seriously as others take Star Wars, so if they're pissed by the casting choice I don't blame them.   It's a cheat.  

Then for the director to tell these fans they can all go to hell, and to have Stephen King back him, just adds insult to injury. 

King says now, "The color of the gunslinger doesn't matter," yet he made it matter in the course of the work when he created racial conflicts between the white gunslinger and a black character. 

That said, I'm sure Idris Elba will do a fine job.   He's a good actor, I enjoyed him in The Wire.   To the general public that doesn't live or die by King's works or who have never heard of The Dark Tower, the fact that the movie Gunslinger is black won't make an ounce of difference, nor should it.

In the novella "The Breathing Method," King introduced a motto: "It is the tale, not he who tells it."

Maybe it needs to be tweaked a little: "It is the tale, not he who stars in it." 

Then again, in the end, the casting may not make any difference.   IMO, the tale is incoherent, derivative nonsense, thankee very much.    For crying out loud, King wrote HIMSELF into the later books (when I read about that, I patted myself on the back for giving up on the series long before ever reaching that bit of meta-narcissism).

I'll probably see the movie when it hits Netflix or DVD because I like McConnaughey and Elba.   Hopefully it will be one of those rare instances where the movie rises above the original and becomes something special unto itself.

I understand why you and others may have fixated on the image of Roland as a specific race or image, but I still feel that the colorblind casting (of Idris Elba) should be a relatively minor issue.

I'm actually vastly relieved that he is NOT a clone of a young Eastwood. I've read all the DT books twice now (I have issues with many of them but they are ultimately an entertaining read), and I'm very happy with the casting decision. I honestly don't understand why it's such a big deal for some.

I'm with you on King adding himself as a story element -- a TERRIBLE decision and one that can never (unfortunately) be unwritten. Here's hoping the movies decide to avoid it. I hated every single second of that in the books. 

In fact, the problem for me with the books (other than Susannah, a racist and clumsily imagined character) is that one book would be amazing, the next not-so-much, then the next would be solid, etc etc. I mean, I adore "The Gunslinger," "The Waste lands" and especially "Wolves of the Calla," which is probably my favorite of all of them (it's a perfectly contained adventure fantasy). But in between, there's a lot of dreck, man. I kind of hope the movies improve on the dreck -- forced by the medium to cut the self-indulgent stuff King always pulls.

So I would further edit your comment: "It is the tale, no matter he who stars in it." I can imagine not wanting to see this for story reasons, or for King reasons (he's mercurial -- I love him but... not always). Yet regardless, Idris is an absolutely splendid choice for Roland. In every way. He has proven that he can play steely or present, remote or emotional, he's a quiet and classically proven actor, and he's able to turn his charisma on and off.

On 7/26/2016 at 8:45 AM, Bruinsfan said:

Well, hearing that just validated my decision to never read beyond "The Little Sisters of Eluria" in that series. Though I'll give the movie a try, since it won't be contradicting any deeply-held impressions I have from the written source.

I love the first book and am looking forward to the film. If it's a good adaptation, it may even do what really good filmmakers do with King -- and improve on the source material.

Edited by paramitch
Took my tone down a notch or two...
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millennium

millennium

5 hours ago, paramitch said:

I understand why you and others may have fixated on the image of Roland as a specific race or image, but that still doesn't change the fact that colorblind casting (of Idris Elba) -- for me, at least, is, and should be a relatively minor issue.

I'm actually vastly relieved that he is NOT a clone of a young Eastwood. I've read all the DT books twice now (I have issues with many of them but they are ultimately an entertaining read), and I'm very happy with the casting decision. I honestly don't understand why it's such a big deal for some.

I'm with you on King adding himself as a story element -- a TERRIBLE decision and one that can never (unfortunately) be unwritten. Here's hoping the movies decide to avoid it. I hated every single second of that in the books. 

In fact, the problem for me with the books (other than Susannah, a racist and clumsily imagined character) is that one book would be amazing, the next not-so-much, then the next would be solid, etc etc. I mean, I adore "The Gunslinger," "The Waste lands" and especially "Wolves of the Calla," which is probably my favorite of all of them (it's a perfectly contained adventure fantasy). But in between, there's a lot of dreck, man. I kind of hope the movies improve on the dreck -- forced by the medium to cut the self-indulgent stuff King always pulls.

So I would further edit your comment: "It is the tale, no matter he who stars in it." I can imagine not wanting to see this for story reasons, or for King reasons (he's mercurial -- I love him but... not always). Yet regardless, Idris is an absolutely splendid choice for Roland. In every way. He has proven that he can play steely or present, remote or emotional, he's a quiet and classically proven actor, and he's able to turn his charisma on and off.

So I just cannot imagine boycotting this story because the (gorgeous and talented) lead actor's skin is the wrong color. YMMV.

I love the first book and am looking forward to the film. If it's a good adaptation, it may even do what really good filmmakers do with King -- and improve on the source material.

Just so we're clear, I never suggested boycotting the movie because Idris Elba was cast as Roland.   I clearly stated I would probably see it on DVD or Netflix because I like McConnaughey and Elba.   What would prevent me from seeing it in theaters is my opinion that The Dark Tower series is a feeble, garbled story that tries much too hard to be an iconic work like The Lord of the Rings.   It's ironic.  Somewhere in my paperback horror collection, I have an anthology of fantasy tales written by unknown authors and originally published in what back then we called "small magazines" or "literary magazines."   King was brought in to write the Introduction (he did a lot of that back then, lots of blurbing too, and probably made a small fortune from it) and he gently mocked a few of the authors for writing Tolkien pastiches. 

If I have in mind a certain image of Roland, it is because the author himself established that image, both in the books, on the book jackets, and in interviews, over a long series of years.

paramitch

paramitch

On 1/22/2017 at 0:01 PM, millennium said:

Just so we're clear, I never suggested boycotting the movie because Idris Elba was cast as Roland.   I clearly stated I would probably see it on DVD or Netflix because I like McConnaughey and Elba.   What would prevent me from seeing it in theaters is my opinion that The Dark Tower series is a feeble, garbled story that tries much too hard to be an iconic work like The Lord of the Rings.   It's ironic.  Somewhere in my paperback horror collection, I have an anthology of fantasy tales written by unknown authors and originally published in what back then we called "small magazines" or "literary magazines."   King was brought in to write the Introduction (he did a lot of that back then, lots of blurbing too, and probably made a small fortune from it) and he gently mocked a few of the authors for writing Tolkien pastiches. 

If I have in mind a certain image of Roland, it is because the author himself established that image, both in the books, on the book jackets, and in interviews, over a long series of years.

Oh, I definitely agree with you that the Dark Tower series is derivative -- it's a pretty transparent mashup of "The Lord of the Rings" with a dash of Arthurian Holy Grailness, all mixed up and set in the universe of "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly." Even down to the coy Tolkien-referenced titles -- "The Dark Tower," "The Drawing of the Three," etc.

And as far as casting -- I should have said YMMV, apologies. I'm probably helped with the film casting by the fact that I have never liked illustrated King -- none of them ever remotely resembles the characters in my head when reading, and that was especially true for me with the Dark Tower books -- I thought most of the covers and illustrations were ugly and just dismissed them because they weren't the characters to me.

I do think Elba has the capacity to be charismatic and silent (and nicely brooding) so I think he'll make a surprisingly traditional Gunslinger. I'll be interested to see.

The funny thing is, all I'm really hoping is that the first movie is terrific, in the realm of the "good" King adaptations like "Shawshank" or "The Green Mile," all of which I felt were vastly improved in the translation from book to screen. I have little hope of seven actual films reaching completion -- or that all of them would be good. I'd just be delighted to see a great job on the first one. The cast has me hopeful, so fingers crossed.

millennium

millennium

1 hour ago, paramitch said:

Oh, I definitely agree with you that the Dark Tower series is derivative -- it's a pretty transparent mashup of "The Lord of the Rings" with a dash of Arthurian Holy Grailness, all mixed up and set in the universe of "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly." Even down to the coy Tolkien-referenced titles -- "The Dark Tower," "The Drawing of the Three," etc.

And as far as casting -- I should have said YMMV, apologies. I'm probably helped with the film casting by the fact that I have never liked illustrated King -- none of them ever remotely resembles the characters in my head when reading, and that was especially true for me with the Dark Tower books -- I thought most of the covers and illustrations were ugly and just dismissed them because they weren't the characters to me.

I do think Elba has the capacity to be charismatic and silent (and nicely brooding) so I think he'll make a surprisingly traditional Gunslinger. I'll be interested to see.

The funny thing is, all I'm really hoping is that the first movie is terrific, in the realm of the "good" King adaptations like "Shawshank" or "The Green Mile," all of which I felt were vastly improved in the translation from book to screen. I have little hope of seven actual films reaching completion -- or that all of them would be good. I'd just be delighted to see a great job on the first one. The cast has me hopeful, so fingers crossed.

If King is directly involved with either the writing or direction, that's like the kiss of death.   The best movie treatments of his work have always been done outside his control.

When he gets involved, you wind up with Maximum Overdrive or Graveyard Shift, etc.

millennium

millennium

(edited)
6 hours ago, voiceover said:

Ugh.  I was a King fan until I hit the "gateway" portion of It.  I threw the book against the wall and swore I'd never pick up another thing he wrote. I understand it's in this film, too.

Hey Stevie!!  That was a

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gang rape

you moron!

IT marks the start of King's dabbling in kiddie sex matter.    I always found it gratuitous and wholly unnecessary.   He really lost me as a longtime fan when I read his novella "The Library Policeman," which, as I recall, contains a graphic scene of child molestation.   I remember coming to that point in the story and feeling like I had wandered into something sick.     The more books he wrote, the more scenes or allusions involving kids and sex.  There's no good justification for rubbing the reader's nose in that. 

Edited by millennium
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DisneyBoy

DisneyBoy

(edited)

I had no idea that there was underage sex or molestation in Stephen King's books. Weird.

After watching the trailer for the new IT I found myself rather pleasantly surprised. It seems like a very faithful update of the nineties TV movie version, which scared the dickens out of me. I rewatched it a couple of years ago and found it to be slightly less creepy and a little bit more silly. Tim Curry is a genius however and manages to make so much out of so little.

The big animatronic spider at the end of the original movie was very dumb however. I wonder if they'll keep that.

 

Since we're talking about adaptations of his work, has anybody seen any of the stage versions of Carrie over the years? A video of the original stratford-upon-avon production is viewable on YT and there have been several revivals...

Edited by DisneyBoy

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