The cult director who found a “supporter and cheerleader” in Stephen King
So much has been written about Stephen King’s contributions to cinema that it almost feels like background noise at this point. His novels have spawned some of the most critically acclaimed films ever made—The Shining, The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption—while Carrie, Pet Sematary, and It remain pillars of the horror genre. He even tried his hand at directing with 1986’s Maximum Overdrive… though the less said about that, the better.
One director who owes a lot to King is Mick Garris. In 1992, the two collaborated on the movie Sleepwalkers, with the author penning the screenplay and Garris sitting behind the camera. He then went on to helm a film version of King’s book Riding the Bullet in 2004 and directed the three-episode miniseries of The Shining, which the writer viewed as a redo of the Stanley Kubrick movie that he had major issues with.
Garris also worked on a project based on one of King’s earliest books, The Stand. A four-episode miniseries for ABC was a massive undertaking, shot over 200 different locations and featuring 125 speaking parts. Stars of the piece include Gary Sinise, Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Kathy Bates, and Ed Harris. It was initially developed as a feature film with George A Romero in mind to direct before it was salvaged as a TV show many years later.
According to Garris himself, in conversation with Filmmaker, King was a great help in bringing this epic idea to life. “It was the best experience you could ever hope to have,” he said. “He was around for at least a third of it, close to half of it, off and on. He had lived in Boulder and taught there and was intimately familiar with the area, and was the best resource, even though we only did second unit in Boulder.”
Adding: “A lot of people think because I’ve worked so much with Stephen King that I’m his bitch and that I do his bidding. The fact is, he has never once in our collaborations together told me how he thought I should shoot something or direct someone. He knows the difference between movies and books, and he’s a complete supporter and cheerleader when he’s around.”
King not only wrote the script for The Stand, but he also played a minor role. He clearly trusted Garris from their experiences on Sleepwalkers, the first movie King had written, which was not based on one of his own stories. This is probably why he decided that he was the man to adapt a novel that, in its uncut form, ran to 1,153 pages in length.
“He knew the scope of the project. As you said, he had written the screenplay himself – a 460-page screenplay, I might add,” Garris continued. “He’s a guy who trusts you if you instil confidence in him… it was a thrill to everyone, no matter how successful as an actor they were, that he was there and that they were doing their best to give honour to his bestselling book ever.”
All that hard work paid off, as The Stand was received as a triumph. It was nominated for six Emmys, winning two for ‘Sound Mixing’ and ‘Makeup’. It is widely regarded as one of the best King adaptations made for TV.
