Long Live the King! The Stephen King's movies Thread.

[Figs]

I really like horror anthologies and I've watched a few more lately
(like "Trick 'r Treat" which I enjoyed and Richard Matheson's "Trilogy of Terror", which was great.) But Creeepshow is still my favorite. Possibly George Romero's best film too.

You ever seen his film Martin?

 

[gwynplaine]

You ever seen his film Martin?

No actually. It's one of the few Romero films that I haven't seen, but I've always been intrigued by the premise. Would you recommend it?

 

[Figs]

No actually. It's one of the few Romero films that I haven't seen, but I've always been intrigued by the premise. Would you recommend it?

Yes, it's one of my favorite Romero films.

 

[gwynplaine]

Yes, it's one of my favorite Romero films.

Cool, I'll check it out. Somehow I have a feeling it belongs in the underrated movies thread.

 

[Sawyer]

After seeing how HBO has handled adapting stuff like True Blood and Game of Thrones, I think I'd much rather see miniseries' on HBO for The Stand and IT than movies. Sure, seeing them on the big screen would be fantastic, but so much would get cut.

 

[gwynplaine]

I agree. Same for The Talisman.

 

[Sawyer]

Just finished Firestarter. Loved it. I'm sure the movie was great as well, but given the advances in special effects over the nearly three decades since the first film, I wouldn't mind a new adaptation. The climax alone would be insane.

 

[gwynplaine]

I love Firestarter, the book, too and I think it deserves another better adaptation (Georges C. Scott was a great actor, but also pretty miscast in this.)

 

[Sawyer]

I watched the trailer and he just doesn't seem as imposing (or disfigured) as Rainbird should be. I imagine the reaction to him would be "Oh look, it's the bad guy from Thunderball" as opposed to "Oh, ****, it's Rainbird. Get me the hell out of his way."

 

[gwynplaine]

Scott was an amazing actor ("The Hustler", "Dr. Strangelove", "Patton" etc... I'm not sure he was in Thunderball though.)
But you're right he was not Rainbird. I'd love to see a remake of Firestarter as well.

 

[Sawyer]

He wasn't in Thunderball, I just said that because, with the eyepatch, he looked like this guy.

 

[gwynplaine]

Hahat:.

 

[Sawyer]

I wouldn't mind seeing King do a follow-up to Firestarter either. If not a straight-forward sequel, then at least have him revisit Charlie McGee and see where she is today. It's got to be better than that ****ty sounding tv movie sequel they did.

 

[gwynplaine]

^ That could be cool.
Also they should develop The Stand, It and The Talisman as mini series.

 

[gwynplaine]

Jim Carrey would make a great Pennywise.

 

[gwynplaine]

With its strong "Stand By Me", "It" etc. vibe, J.J Abrahams' Super 8 is as much an "homage" to King as it is to Spielberg imo.

 

[Bruce Banner]

Just found The Green Mile at Target for 5 dollars. Still probably my favorite King story to watch. Going to watch it after homework.

Also just watched Misery again and I am still up in the air over whether or not I would have wanted Sheldon's [BLACKOUT]amputation[/BLACKOUT] instead. It's too bad they couldn't do it.

 

[gwynplaine]

As great as Misery the film was, I still prefer the book much more.
I thought Kathy Bates was really good, but amputation or not, Annie Wilkes was much scarier in the novel. And I love James Caan but I thought he was a bit miscast as Sheldon. I couldn't really believe he was a writer in the first place.
Interestingly enough, one of the things that Kubrick liked about Nicholson in The Shining was that he was believable as a writer.

 

[The Joker]

Annie in the book was much more sadistic. She not only cuts off his foot, but she also cuts off one of his thumbs with an electric knife.

 

[Sawyer]

The source material will always be better than the adaptation IMO, but as King adaptations go, I'd say Misery is fairly close to the top of the list.

 

[gwynplaine]

Annie in the book was much more sadistic. She not only cuts off his foot, but she also cuts off one of his thumbs with an electric knife.

Yeah she was. Good point.
Also in the book she was described by King as more imposing physically ("The Dragon Lady"), able to carry Sheldon on her back and overpower him at every turn. As fantastic as Bates was, she was almost too tiny and not as threatening as I pictured Annie. (There's this actress in "Motel Hell" who was scarier I thought.)
Anyway great film and one of the best King adaptations. Also I thought it was a smart decision to cut out the "Misery" novel passages of the book. I missed the part where Sheldon finds Annie's "scrap book" where she keeps the news articles about all her murders though. Kinda like how I missed not seeing Jack Torrance find all the documentation about the Overlook in Kubrick's The Shining, like he did in the book.

The source material will always be better than the adaptation IMO, but as King adaptations go, I'd say Misery is fairly close to the top of the list.

True.

 

[gwynplaine]

Running Man was pretty bad. I wish they would do a version closer to the book.

 

[The Navigator]

Anyway great film and one of the best King adaptations. Also I thought it was a smart decision to cut out the "Misery" novel passages of the book. I missed the part where Sheldon finds Annie's "scrap book" where she keeps the news articles about all her murders though. Kinda like how I missed not seeing Jack Torrance find all the documentation about the Overlook in Kubrick's The Shining, like he did in the book.

Jack's fascination with the hotel definitely got an unfortunate downgrade, especially considering Nicholson's line about how the place felt familiar. It's just a job to him in the movie.

Re: Misery passages, half of me wishes King would round out Sheldon's last Misery story as part of a separate collection, but it probably wouldn't work out of context. Still, it would have a great cover:

Spoiler

 

[gwynplaine]

Jack's fascination with the hotel definitely got an unfortunate downgrade, especially considering Nicholson's line about how the place felt familiar. It's just a job to him in the movie.

Re: Misery passages, half of me wishes King would round out Sheldon's last Misery story as part of a separate collection, but it probably wouldn't work out of context. Still, it would have a great cover:

Spoiler

Agreed.
Haha cool cover. I like how he sorta looks like Kingt:

 

[LOBO3315a]

He's supposed to.