The Dark Tower
Stephen King ’s work has been adapted on the big and little screen tons of time , and the writer has never been shy about naming and shaming the adaptations he does n’t wish . Since director Brian De Palma bring Stephen King ’s best - sell debut novel to sprightliness on screen with the 1976 blockbuster hitCarrie , adaptations of the horror source ’s study have been a mainstay on television and cinema screen alike . King ’s work has been adapt so many times over the 10 that some of his adaptations now have remakes of their own .
With the arrival of theItprequel seriesWelcome To Derryon HBO Max and Paramount+‘sPet Semataryfollowup , even these remakes will soon be get spinoffs . However , the sheer number of King adaptation has inevitably result in some uninspired outing . Unfortunately for screenwriter and managing director , King has always been forthright about the version he felt go bad his work .
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Over the years , the always outspoken King has tell in various interviews , retrospectives , and articles that he powerfully dislikes quite a few of his adjustment . In some sheath , this comes down to King not remember writing ( or already dislike ) the seed material . In other suit , King ’s originative differences with film maker resulted in him disliking their adaptation ( such as film director StanleyKubrick ’s Jack Nicholson - ledThe Shining ) , while King ’s distaste for other adaptation comes from the fact that the movies in question merely have nothing to do with their supposed reference cloth . Finally , in at least one instance , King ’s dislike stemmed from the fact that one adjustment had the worst possible manager at its helm — the generator himself .
The Shining
Easily the most famous case of King dislike an adaptation of his work is 1980 ’s movie adaptation ofThe Shining . Kubrick undeniably alter huge swathes of King ’s critically acclaimed novel , carving an kinky , in darkness amusing horror out of the Good Book ’s more poignant , less clinical ghost tale . Although everything fromThe SimpsonstoSouth Parkspoofed Kubrick ’s King version , the iconic movie is still unlike from the source material . decease are the novel ’s proceed topiaries , the tragic Jack end ( replaced by a more comedic one ) , and most pivotally , Jack ’s redemptory self - forfeiture . A story of fatherhood and forgiveness , King ’s novel is importantly more emotionally redolent than Kubrick ’s austere horror moving-picture show , making the author ’s disfavor ofThe Shiningunderstandable ( if arguably misguided ) given how personal the Holy Scripture is to its author .
Firestarter
1984’sFirestarterfeatures a phenomenal performance from a untested Drew Barrymore as Charlie , a child invest with pyrokinesis after her parents were experimented on by government activity organizations . Unfortunately , that functioning and a Tangerine Dream score are all the middling adaptation has going for it . presently to be remade , the movie is a King version that saw manager Mark L. Lester omit the fun inherent in the premise of a world power kid , get it all the more unfortunate that originalFirestarterdirector John Carpenterwas give the sack during production .
The Lawnmower Man/The Running Man
Both 1992’sThe Lawnmower Manand 1987’sThe Running Manearned King ’s ire for similar ground , although the former was a far worse offender than the latter . Both movies take the titles of a King light fib and novel , severally , only to then change so many details that the finished projects barely resemble the author cloth . The Running Manturned the novel ’s everyman hero , who was ram by dread circumstances to enter a realness TV competition wherein mankind are hunted , into a sinewy action paladin played by Arnold Schwarzenegger . This trip-up , King argue inOn Writing , made the motion picture ’s protagonist less relatable , but it was nothing compared toThe Lawnmower Man . Supposedly “ conform " from the short account of the same name inKing ’s collectionNight Shift , The Lawnmower Manis a bizarre fusion ofFlowers for AlgernonandTronthat bears no resemblance to the source account . This gross false advertising led King to demand that his name be hit from the moving-picture show ’s promotional materials .
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Graveyard Shift
King ’s objections to 1990’sGraveyard Shiftwere drive less by his common demands for faithfulness to the seed textile and more by a general dislike of the cheap revulsion film . queen consideredGraveyard Shiftan exploitation picture when asked why he disliked the movie ’s story of pulverisation doer being besieged by mammoth mutant rats . However , there is an argument to be made that , thanks to a plaster bandage admit genre veteran Andrew Divoff and Brad Dourif , this adaptation is precisely as foul and complete as the original little story warrants , andKing is wrong aboutGraveyard Shiftmissing the chump .
Dreamcatcher
King was not overly minus about director Lawrence Kasdan’sDreamcatcherupon the movie ’s 2003 release , but a few years by and by , he commonly refer to the expensive misfire as a jam . In fairness to the director , King was also so highly dosed on pain in the neck medication after a serious accident that he barely retrieve writing the beginning novel , which might have contributed to the flick ’s trippy , hard - to - follow plot . However , Dreamcatcherdoes include a brace of stellar operation and some striking mental imagery in its messy , overlong plot and is a uncommon King adaption that arguably deserves a remake to substantially accentuate these constituent .
Maximum Overdrive
1986’sMaximum Overdriveproved King ’s Kubrick criticismsweren’t as sightly as they ab initio seemed when the writer try his hand at direct for the first and last metre . An incredibly expensive loser , Maximum Overdrivesaw King radically change his own source story , the sparse story “ Trucks , ” and turn it into a sprawling , challenging sci - fi horror prepare in a world where machinery has run murderously and begin killing civilian . Absurdly wild , unintentionally hilarious , and painfully overlong , Maximum Overdriveis the mathematical product of what King afterward admitted was a incapacitating cocaine drug abuse , and the movie bears all the hallmark of the drug ’s ill-famed excesses .
2017’sThe Dark Towercould have see King ’s acclaimed new series become a major fantasy enfranchisement . The same year thatIt ’s movie adaptationproved a Brobdingnagian hit , this dark fantasy flopped hard , losing billion and earning abyssal review . King blamedThe Dark Tower ’s decision to trim more mature , trigger-happy content to insure a PG-13 rating while trying to compress the convoluted , self - referential plot of a massive seven - leger series into one abbreviated motion picture ’s runtime also cost the project dearly . A major loser for all involved , the 2017 flop is one of the most graspable cases ofStephen Kingdisliking an adaptation of his own piece of work .
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