Unknown Stephen King Adaptations. From the earliest days of his career, the writing of Stephen Edwin King (along with close friend and pseudonym cancer victim Richard Bachman) has thrilled and terrified readers around the globe with tales of killer clowns, haunted hotels, and demented game shows broadcast in dystopian futures – to much critical and financial acclaim.
Of course, with success comes the perpetually originality- deficient Hollywood and its desires for film adaptations of anything that could make a splash in pop culture. For King, first on the silver screen came Carrie, and coming up next will be a proper adaptation of the Pennywise- starring IT later in September of this year. Though those two stories have gone on to be remembered by countless people, sometimes, versions of Mr. King’s work that are adapted into a different form don’t leave a lasting legacy. With that, here are 1. Movies And TV Shows You Didn’t Know Were Stephen King Adaptations.
Cast/crew information with user comments and ratings.
Cast and crew list, plot synopsis and user ratings. We all float down here, according to Warner Bros., which is taking another stab at one of Stephen King's most hideous creations: the demonic clown Pennywise.
If you haven’t seen or read these films, you might want to skim through the titles, because the write- ups contain SPOILERS! Stand By Me. Directed by former All in the Family star Rob Reiner in the earliest days of his career behind the camera, the 1. Stand by Me tells the story of childhood friends who go on a trek to find the body of a missing young man in 1. Oregon. In the film, children come of age, iconic moments occur, and viewers get to witness a fictional character played by a young Kiefer Sutherland that bears a strong resemblance to what actual Kiefer Sutherland looks like when he’s on a bender. What most people don’t know is that the piece comes from a short story written by Stephen King. First published in 1.
Andrea Reiher has gone through the extensive list of Stephen King movies and come up with a list of the ten best; did your fave make the list?
Different Seasons, and later shaped into a novella, The Body differs from its silver screen adaptation in a number of ways. None of King analogue Gordie’s friends survive into adulthood, and in the end of the piece, the character comes close to the Sutherland- played antagonist Ace in the future – a stark contrast to the final act of the beloved ’8. The Lawnmower Man. Released at the dawn of the Clinton administration, this 1. King adaptation in that the author loathed it so much that he sued to have his name taken off the piece and emerged victorious in court, arguing that it bore no resemblance whatsoever to his original short story. In the film, there are intelligent chimps trained for warfare, a mentally disabled man whom Pierce Brosnan’s fictional scientist Dr. Angelo experiments on to make intelligent (side note: wow, that bit would be condemned today) and a weird sexual storyline with a widow.
The movie tanked and ended up with the standard sub- par straight to video sequel a few years later. Maybe the film would’ve worked better had it adapted King’s actual story…well…maybe not. In the original short, a naked man follows a lawnmower and eats the grass behind it, and later on, the god Pan gets referenced just before the police arrive to investigate a brutal slaughter. It’s certainly not the most normal story by any means. Needful Things. Another ‘9.
King’s works, Needful Things is a story about a supernatural antique shop in the often- visited setting of Castle Rock, Maine that frequently appears in King’s writing. In the piece, Max Von Sydow’s Leland Gaunt (read: Satan) manipulates residents of the area and generally causes chaos in the town before moving on to sow discord elsewhere. Even though the film had a great cast with luminaries such as Ed Harris and the late and beloved scumbag character actor J.
T Walsh giving their all, it was not a success. Currently, it sports a 2. Rotten Tomatoes. Now, to be fair, at the time the piece was released, ads did mention that it was based on Stephen King’s original short story. But catching the film on some 3rd rate cable channel today at any point before the beginning and end credits, you wouldn’t realize it’s from the same man who gave us Christine and Children of the Corn.
The Night Flier. In this film about a killer who flies from place to place to commit his murders in a black Cessna, the late and always underrated Miguel Ferrer plays an investigative reporter hot on the killer’s trail. Over the course of the horror flick, he slowly loses his sanity and ultimately perishes in the struggle against the ultimate evil. Like many of King’s adaptations (including the recent Dark Tower dud), this movie was not a success. Critics loathed it, and it has languished in obscurity since its debut in 1. In spite of its flaws, the film more than likely inspired someone at Marvel for how they sometimes approach their world building.
Some tabloid headlines in the film reference incidents in Children of the Corn, Needful Things, and Thinner, and at one point in the piece, the town of Derry is referenced. Perhaps, the bad guy in this film got some advice from Pennywise. We’ll never know. 1. Tales From The Darkside: The Movie. One of many anthology films from the 1.
Ryan Murphy’s productions – Tales from the Darkside tells several stories. In the wraparound, a young boy tells tales to a modern day (for the ‘8. In the various segments, viewers are treated to the tale of a reanimated mummy, a villainous feline, and finally, a tale of love, a man, and a monster that ends up going horribly wrong.
It’s the second of these mini stories that comes from the mind of King. In the George A. Romero directed Cat from Hell, a hit man does battle with a cursed kitty that ultimately causes him to meet his end. Originally, the piece was published shortly after Carrie in the ‘7. Cavalier. Surprisingly, it was unfinished.
They even held a contest for readers to conclude it. The Dark Half. Man, King sure did have a lot of his work translated in the early ‘9.
Directed by previous collaborator George A. Romero, this story tells the tale of a writer named Thad Beaumont whose pen name identity George Stark ends becoming sentient in order to wreak havoc in a small town in Maine.
Like most King adaptations, the piece reflected an aspect of the writer’s personal life (The Dark Half was written as a symbolic way of retiring his Bachman pen name after it was revealed), and it was not a success critically or financially. It opened in 6th place at the box office during its debut week in 1. Like Richard Bachman, this adaptation has stayed buried.
Dolan’s Cadillac. A 2. 00. 9 adaptation of a 1. King that originally appeared in his Nightmares and Dreamscapes collection, Dolan’s Cadillac tells a crime story set in and around the city of Las Vegas. Stars in this piece include popular ‘9. Christian Slater and a just- beginning- his- comeback Wes Bentley. If you haven’t heard of the film before, well…there’s a reason for that.
Unlike many of King’s adaptations, which have been released in theaters or as event broadcasts on television, Dolan’s tale was released straight to video. It was shot in Canada in one of the more obscure provinces, and if the reception from the users who have seen it on Rotten Tomatoes is any indication, the company behind the adaptation was wise to bury it. Hearts in Atlantis. Released in the early ‘0. King’s epic Dark Tower mythos.
Though you wouldn’t know it from the final result. The film keeps King’s name off of the poster in big letters, is presented as more of a coming of age story featuring Anthony Hopkins as a mysterious old man, and it ends with a Stand By Me style ending, where the protagonist reflects later in life about the adventurous experiences he had as a child.
In the short story, the young man ends up spending time in a juvenile detention facility and later receives a package full of items which come from the alternate universe that contains the Dark Tower. Clearly, filmmakers were not paying respect to this part of King’s work, long before the much- maligned Sony adaptation came along. Perhaps he’s pleased that this film didn’t make much of an impact. Haven. Airing from 2.
Sharknado network that is Syfy, this small run television series detailed the supernatural happenings known as The Troubles that went on in a small town in, you guessed it, Maine. The piece begins with an FBI agent coming to the town to dig into a case, and it was ultimately cancelled before the showrunners could wrap it up in the way they’d envisioned. In the book, there are no supernatural elements, the main characters are not in law enforcement, and unlike virtually every single mystery story ever written in the history of mankind to date, it doesn’t have any answers to its puzzles!
El Universo de Stephen King. Publicado el 1. 8/0. Nuestro asesor editorial, Ariel Bosi, fue invitado a escribir una columna sobre Stephen King para el diario Tiempo Argentino, la cual salió publicada el domingo 1. IT.(más…)Acceder.