The adaptation Stephen King didn’t tell anyone he hated until it was too late: “I kept my mouth shut”
It’s not exactly a surprise to learn that Stephen King stands as the living author with the most movie adaptations to his name, perhaps because he has churned out so many novels and short stories during his career.
When you pair a strict work ethic with a period of substance abuse, who knows what you’ll churn out, and in King’s case, it was drug-fuelled titles like Cujo and It, which have become some of his most popular stories, with the latter famously helping to reinvigorate a fear of killer clowns into the masses that was only made worse by Tim Curry’s portrayal of Pennywise in the 1990 mini-series, ruling screens big and small.
It seems like King’s ideas are perfect for being transformed into popular horror and thriller fodder, mainly because he taps into people’s deepest fears to terrify audiences with stories that blend relatable real-life settings and scenarios with the kinds of images that haunt our nightmares, from a dog becoming possessed with a murderous rage and a lawnmower developing sinister abilities to a timid teenage girl unleashing telekinetic powers doused in pig’s blood, showing that anything is possible in his world.
However, while several screen adaptations exist, ranging from psychological horror classics like The Shining made iconic by Stanley Kubrick, to popular entries in other genres, like the prison drama The Shawshank Redemption, that doesn’t mean King likes them all, well-known for being critical of The Shining, offended by the portrayal of Wendy Torrence, who he believed came across as too weak, while he doesn’t think Children of the Corn is exactly an enduring piece of cinema.
“Some of the things have turned out to be real cole slaw. Graveyard Shift is not going to stand in film history,” he told Deseret News, “But on the other hand, when Rob Reiner wanted to do Stand By Me, he had no money and I was advised against doing the deal, because it was a real question about whether he could ever finish production.” That one turned out to be great, though.
In the same interview, he highlighted one that he particularly disliked, revealing, “I do not care for the Arnold Schwarzenegger film that was made out of The Running Man very much at all. It’s not very much like the book, and I like that book a lot.”
It’s surely disappointing when a story you love is tarnished by its movie adaptation, although King can rest easy now that Edgar Wright has tackled a version of it which is much more faithful to the book. According to Wright, King is a fan of the new version, which stars Glen Powell in the role originally played by Schwarzenegger, of which he reportedly said by email, “Like it? I love it!”
The 1980s version, directed by Paul Michael Glaser, just didn’t hit the mark for the author or for critics, and it’s hardly up there with the writer’s best movie adaptations, with Roger Ebert calling it “an arcade game for the big screen”.
Still, King didn’t reveal how much he hated the movie at first, explaining, “So I didn’t like the movie, but I kept my mouth shut and now the movie’s gone. It shows up once in a while on cable TV. But otherwise, the book rules. It’s in the bookstores. It’s in print. And a lot more people ultimately are going to be familiar with the book than with the movie, because movies don’t have the staying power that books have.”
Not every movie can be as good as Carrie or Stand By Me, although it seems like King has now found redemption with the new adaptation of The Running Man, thanks to long-time fan Edgar.
