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Stephen King


Chris B

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5 minutes ago, Chris B said:

I totally get King hating it for that. And, to be fair, I don't think being closer to the film would have made the novel better - they're both fantastic in different and similar ways. I really don't get even his fans agreeing with him on it. As you say, the miniseries was godawful, as most of the 90s TV adaptations of King were. 

Its something that a surprisingly large amount of the population fail to grasp. The mediums are different and have their strengths and weaknesses. Adapting something for film or television shouldn't treat the book like a screenplay. Trainspotting and L.A Confidential off the top of my head are two excellent adaptations where the source material was completely changed, and it didn't matter at all. 

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The TV version having the hokey boiler and topiary stuff which takes it from bad to laughable but as Chris says it's obviously his most autobiographical so I can understand being annoyed when they stripped out the humanity of a character that is basically him in the movie. 

Metacritic isn't the best for rating the films. The 237 doc opens up mentioning how badly The Shining reviewed when it came out. They marketed it as horror and people went in expecting a slasher film, rather than the slow burn. 

There was that period in the 90s were they seemed to be obsessed with churning out TV versions of his stories, probably due to the success of IT. The Langoliers always stands out for its (even by the time) dog shit effects. But at least we got Max von Sydow as the devil in Needful things. 

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I await the return of downvotes just for shitting on this but I've only seen 2 films based on King, stand by me and needfull things.

I've got a copy of Shawshank but never watched it, never seen The Shinin', green mile, IT, Carrie, Misery.

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10 minutes ago, Tommy! said:

I await the return of downvotes just for shitting on this but I've only seen 2 films based on King, stand by me and needfull things.

I've got a copy of Shawshank but never watched it, never seen The Shinin', green mile, IT, Carrie, Misery.

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You've got some good watching ahead of you. Shawshank is one of those to put aside an evening for, but it's a strange mix of heavy-going and very easy-watching. Green Mile is similar but glossier. Misery is fucking great, frankly - massively entertaining. I absolutely adore Carrie, but it's possibly the most 70s film ever - I've seen some find that off-putting at first, but it's still pretty easy to love. IT (part one) is enormously fun. It (part two) less so.

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16 minutes ago, Tommy! said:

I await the return of downvotes just for shitting on this but I've only seen 2 films based on King, stand by me and needfull things.

Most of them are shit and you've seen one of the few excellent ones (Stand by Me) already.

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23 minutes ago, bAzTNM#1 said:

Do we count "The Running Man" and "The Lawnmower Man" here? Both belters.

Only The Running Man because The Lawnmower Man was shit.

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I think King got them to remove his name as the film was nothing like the book (or short story).

He did the same with "The Running Man" film too. Very fickle Mr. King.

ADDED: I think King took his ball and went home when Arnie got the part. He wanted a skinny, downtrodden guy.

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4 minutes ago, bAzTNM#1 said:

He did the same with "The Running Man" film too. Very fickle Mr. King.

I don't think he's fickle, I just don't think he's ever understood cinema at all and is too thin-skinned about adaptations of his work, which is why he still whinges about The Shining to this day. 

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15 hours ago, Nostalgia Nonce said:

Pet Cemetery was getting high praise.

Probably because of the cracking theme song:

As for the book, the build of dread in the first half is unbelievable. I think that book is probably one of his best actually. 

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Just now, LaGoosh said:

As for the book, the build of dread in the first half is unbelievable. I think that book is probably one of his best actually. 

The book's great. Both adaptations are shit.

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1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

I don't think he's fickle, I just don't think he's ever understood cinema at all and is too thin-skinned about adaptations of his work, which is why he still whinges about The Shining to this day. 

Leave - Stephen King / Remain - Alan Moore. 

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2 hours ago, bAzTNM#1 said:

 

He did the same with "The Running Man" film too. Very fickle Mr. King.

ADDED: I think King took his ball and went home when Arnie got the part. He wanted a skinny, downtrodden guy.

Have never read it but can confidently say the film is better than the book.

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3 hours ago, bAzTNM#1 said:

I think King got them to remove his name as the film was nothing like the book (or short story).

He did the same with "The Running Man" film too. Very fickle Mr. King.

ADDED: I think King took his ball and went home when Arnie got the part. He wanted a skinny, downtrodden guy.

The Running Man would make a better TV show than movie, the way it was changed made sense for a sci fi action. It is still a dystopia with a rather twisted game show, so it has some resemblance. 

The Lawnmower man doesn't even resemble the short story whatsoever, I'm not surprised he had his name removed. 

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