The movie Stephen King hated so much that he sued the studio
The production line of Stephen King adaptations shows no signs of slowing down, having been a regular source of film and television content for going on half a century, but the author once found himself so dissatisfied with the butchery of his work that he felt obligated to take legal action.
While there are plenty of live-action productions based on his bibliography that he actively adores, there are more than a few that left him underwhelmed and often outright furious. King is one of the very few people who prefers the 1997 miniseries based on The Shining to Stanley Kubrick’s classic, while he described Dreamcatcher as a “trainwreck” and refuses to even talk about the Under the Dome series.
And yet, that’s nothing compared to his indignation over The Lawnmower Man, the 1992 sci-fi horror co-written and directed by Brett Leonard. King’s original short story was published in a 1975 issue of Cavalier magazine, but the feature-length version barely resembled its counterpart on the printed page at all.
Despite that, New Line Cinema initially opted to release the film as Stephen King’s Lawnmower Man, which is where its creator drew the line. Months after the critical dud landed in cinemas, the horror legend filed a lawsuit against the company to both have his name removed entirely and seek damages.
The ruling saw New Line remove King’s name from the title but retain the “Based Upon” credit, while the author was awarded $2.5million. With The Lawnmower Man having already finished up its theatrical run and been released on home video twice in both its original and extended, unrated form, new packaging was distributed to retail outlets with the express instruction to ensure copies weren’t sold with King’s name front-and-centre.
Sceptical of New Line’s ability to carry out those instructions – and rightly so, as it transpired – King would hire private investigators and send them to assorted video rental shops in five cities across America to find out if the ruling was being followed. As it turned out, it wasn’t, which led to him taking the studio back to court for a second time.
As it was revealed in Entertainment Weekly following the ruling, New Line ended up paying King $10,000 per day until his name was no longer visible on retail copies of The Lawnmower Man, which would have no doubt earned him a pretty penny considering how drastically the production company failed in the first instance.
These days, a VHS with the original Stephen King’s Lawnmower Man branding has become something of a collector’s item, although with over 30 years having passed since its release, it’s unlikely he’ll be roping in private eyes to have them taken down from the locations and websites where they’re being sold.
