Do you think that over time ALL of his work will be adapted to film?

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Will all his works be adapted to film or television in the long run?


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Hill lover35

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this is an interesting thread. if we are talking in like 100 years naybee, but I can see more of the proven blockbusters like IT, firestarter etc.. the ones that have proven themselves over and over. I hope more of his other movles will but I see more remakes of the same books. I just hope no more carrie. I hope Steve will be like no no more Carrie remakes. we don't need a nother one
 

Gerald

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this is an interesting thread. if we are talking in like 100 years naybee, but I can see more of the proven blockbusters like IT, firestarter etc.. the ones that have proven themselves over and over. I hope more of his other movles will but I see more remakes of the same books. I just hope no more carrie. I hope Steve will be like no no more Carrie remakes. we don't need a nother one

He wanted Cronenberg or Lynch to do one. But I can't see either of those interested in doing it.
I kind of like all three Carries to a degree (not the The Rage sequel though). The De Palma is my favourite of course, but at least the main two actors (Carrie and her mother) in the other two were good too. It's a relatively simple book - it seems you can't do a whole lot of new with it apart from update it to our current times - which is what they did. That's why King wanted Cronenberg or Lynch most likely, because they might make it different because of their own style.
 

Gerald

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It's too bad these unmade projects get announced, but we never get to hear why they fail. Sometimes years later you might stumble across an article which explains it, but a lot of times you just don't know. Is it really the material itself that proves too hard to adapt, financial or other problems? Sometimes a director wants things that are considered too expensive.
On the whole it's a relatively small portion in terms of novels that aren't filmed yet, still somehow I think not all of them are gonna make it in the end.
 

Gerald

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Of the novellas (or longer stories, as it seems sort of in between short story and novella) I would like especially to see 'N' being done.

Another novella I doubt will ever be done is Blockade Billy. Because it's essentially just a series of baseball games. There's a little more to it in the end, but it's hard to see how it should be done as an interesting movie.
A Face in the Crowd, which is also about baseball, I think, I haven't read, because it's never been available here as a book. And it's not in a collection either.
 
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Edward John

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Hollywood is so obsessed with adaptions that it is likely that at some point near enough all of his work will be adapted, plus - something will sell if 'King' is put on it, it's as simple as that. Screenwriters in Hollywood really cant find a job with something original, maybe Blumhouse is an exception.
 

Edward John

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After the Play and Before the Play would be examples of extra material that would be held by Warner Bros. rights for The Shining and Doctor Sleep. The Wind Through the Keyhole would be another Dark Tower related story in addition to The Little Sisters of Eluria.

Not something I can say about the stories for TV shows as some of these are still in pre-production or negotiation and I don't know if that info is considered confidential.
Does Warner get first dibs when it comes to Stephens work? It just seems like the majority of his adaptions are done by them.
 

Edward John

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Even though some of the short stories won't ever see their own adaptation, the film rights are included with other projects. I'm thinking in particular of The Dark Tower which has a couple of related stories/novellas but aren't considered part of the Dark Tower series per se, e.g. The Little Sisters of Eluria. The producers don't want someone else using those stories for separate productions. Another example would be that some of the short stories might be optioned doing shows such as Castle Rock but would be adapted in such a way that they aren't individually produced.
Netflix has been doing some great work with adaptions.
 

Gerald

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Hollywood is so obsessed with adaptions that it is likely that at some point near enough all of his work will be adapted, plus - something will sell if 'King' is put on it, it's as simple as that. Screenwriters in Hollywood really cant find a job with something original, maybe Blumhouse is an exception.

I sure think near enough all of his work will be adapted, because to a degree that's already the case. But some adapatations seem doomed like The Talisman - and it's hard to say why they just can't do it. We got The Dark Tower, it was not what most wanted, but the film is there. But The Talisman, despite many people having worked on it, over and over gets shut down. The last time we heard it was gonna be produced by Frank Marshall, but it's gone quiet again.
And it's gone quiet on other projects, like The Long Walk too (even with Darabont attached, who you'd think they would let go ahead with ANY King-book). Some just fail several times and then it becomes hard to believe they will ever see the light. And these are also older books, so there may be a feeling with producers to rather go with the more recent ones first that are still more in the general memory, or to do remakes of films that are already well-known.

The Jaunt was another one that was announced, and sounded like an interesting one to do. And that's gone quiet too. And you just seldom hear why.
 
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Edward John

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Not that I'm aware of but Stephen's film agent is the one who does the negotiations for all of the commercial film adaptations.
That makes sense, he's probably too busy to be negotiating with film studios. Has there ever been a situation were Stephen has refused an adaption? Either becuase he doesn't think Hollywood would do it Justice or because he doesn't like a director or adapters interpretation? I think I'm asking does Stephen ever act a little like Alan Moore? lol Alan Moore dislikes adaptions in general, I know Stephen isnt like that but I suppose if they treated his work like Moores (Alan Moore's work has been hilariously mis-adapted) I doubt Stephen would like an adaption, especially in the case of Moore were they are nothing like the work.
 
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That makes sense, he's probably too busy to be negotiating with film studios. Has there ever been a situation were Stephen has refused an adaption? Either becuase he doesn't think Hollywood would do it Justice or because he doesn't like a director or adapters interpretation? I think I'm asking does Stephen ever act a little like Alan Moore? lol Alan Moore is a serious oppose of adaptions in general, I know Stephen isnt like that but I suppose if they treated his work like Moores (Alan Moore's work has been hilariously mis-adapted) I doubt Stephen would like an adaption, especially in the case of Moore were they are nothing like the work.
I'm not familiar with Alan Moore so have no idea if Stephen acts like him. He mostly leaves the negotiations to his film agent until it's time to consider an offer. There have been times that Stephen has refused a proposal as he knew it would go off the rails when the idea was pitched to him. He also refuses to allow Rage to ever be adapted to film.
 

Edward John

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I sure think near enough all of his work will be adapted, because to a degree that's already the case. But some adapatations seem doomed like The Talisman - and it's hard to say why they just can't do it. We got The Dark Tower, it was not what most wanted, but the film is there. But The Talisman, despite many people having worked on it, over and over gets shut down. The last time we heard it was gonna be produced by Frank Marshall, but it's gone quiet again.
And it's gone quiet on other projects, like The Long Walk too (even with Darabont attached, who you'd think they would let go ahead with ANY King-book). Some just fail several times and then it becomes hard to believe they will ever see the light. And these are also older books, so there may be a feeling with producers to rather go with the more recent ones first that are still more in the general memory, or to do remakes of films that are already well-known.

The Jaunt was another one that was announced, and sounded like an interesting one to do. And that's gone quiet too. And you just seldom hear why.
The novel 'Misery' doesn't really lend itself to an adaption, but that is regarded as one of the best King adaptions, which I agree with. You could talk about a lot of novels that don't lend themselves to adaptions, but if the director is capable and a good script is there then its possible. I agree with Darabont though, that guy is brillaint.
 
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Edward John

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I'm not familiar with Alan Moore so have no idea if Stephen acts like him. He mostly leaves the negotiations to his film agent until it's time to consider an offer. There have been times that Stephen has refused a proposal as he knew it would go off the rails when the idea was pitched to him. He also refuses to allow Rage to ever be adapted to film.
Rage is a great book as well. Do you know why Stephen doesn't republish it? I get its about a politically charged subject matter but I always thought that the novel was about stopping an incident before it happens and it deals with mental health issues. I think he also refuses for it to be included in his bibliography, is that true? I know for certain that his UK books dont have Rage listed, which is unfortunate because its a great book.
 
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Rage is a great book as well. Do you know why Stephen doesn't republish it? I get its about a politically charged subject matter but I always thought that the novel was about stopping an incident before it happens and it deals with mental health issues. I think he also refuses for it to be included in his bibliography, is that true? I know for certain that his UK books dont have Rage listed, which is unfortunate because its a great book.
It's not true that he refuses to have it included in his bibliography. In fact, we have it listed in his works on the main portion of the site.

It was a personal decision for him to pull Rage from future publications. Not because he thinks that books, video games, music, etc. are the cause for individuals to follow through on their thoughts of killing others but did not want to in any way contribute to it either and after he found out that Rage was among the possessions of some of the school shooters, he felt personally and morally obligated to remove it from future printings.
 

Edward John

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It's not true that he refuses to have it included in his bibliography. In fact, we have it listed in his works on the main portion of the site.

It was a personal decision for him to pull Rage from future publications. Not because he thinks that books, video games, music, etc. are the cause for individuals to follow through on their thoughts of killing others but did not want to in any way contribute to it either and after he found out that Rage was among the possessions of some of the school shooters, he felt personally and morally obligated to remove it from future printings.

I understand Stephens thinking, but I also think that if your at the point were a fictional novel makes you want to do something horrible, then you are going to do it regardless of the book or not. I can also understand that having individuals like that express love for Stephens work is not flattering, I get sai-Kings thinking.
 

Edward John

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It's too bad these unmade projects get announced, but we never get to hear why they fail. Sometimes years later you might stumble across an article which explains it, but a lot of times you just don't know. Is it really the material itself that proves too hard to adapt, financial or other problems? Sometimes a director wants things that are considered too expensive.
On the whole it's a relatively small portion in terms of novels that aren't filmed yet, still somehow I think not all of them are gonna make it in the end.
Nine times out of ten it has something to do with the script, studios dont want to invest in something they arent sure is good, but you cant really trust their judgement. The majority of major studio movies arent very good.
 
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Gerald

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The novel 'Misery' doesn't really lend itself to an adaption, but that is regarded as one of the best King adaptions, which I agree with. You could talk about a lot of novels that don't lend themselves to adaptions, but if the director is capable and a good script is there then its possible. I agree with Darabont though, that guy is brillaint.

I'm not talking about that. I think you can make a film out of every book, you can even make films out of poems. You can basically make a film out of anything, the most unlikely subjects have made good films.
I'm talking about the fact that some of the books seem to have an unusual amount of bad luck in getting made, even when tried several times. There's been a long list of people involved with making The Talisman. Why they have such a hard time though is a mystery to me. The recent IT had some bad luck too, then it moved to another director and now it's made. But when this switch from director to director happens multiple times and the movie is still not made in the end, I just don't get what's going on: why can't they make it?
 
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Edward John

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I'm not talking about that. I think you can make a film out of every book, you can even make films out of poems. You can basically make a film out of anything, the most unlikely subjects have made good films.
I'm talking about the fact that some of the books seem to have an unusual amount of bad luck in getting made, even when tried several times. There's been a long list of people involved with making The Talisman. Why they have such a hard time though is a mystery to me. The recent IT had some bad luck too, then it moved to another director and now it's made. But when this switch from director to director happens multiple times and the movie is still not made in the end, I just don't get what's going on: why can't they make it?

If a film lingers too long in development then studio interest starts to waver, studios want the next best thing and they want it now, if a film is in development for a decade then its not getting made, at least not with that team behind it, take the Tower for example, Ron Howard had been working on that for over a decade and was meant to go into production after The Mist, then it didn't happen, then it went on to JJ Abrams, who was also meant to be working on an adaption, but then he got the Star Wars job, so - timing is a massive factor. It had numerous directors attached ever since the original mini-series ended, its a similar situation.
 
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If a film lingers too long in development then studio interest starts to waver, studios want the next best thing and they want it now, if a film is in development for a decade then its not getting made, at least not with that team behind it, take the Tower for example, Ron Howard had been working on that for over a decade and was meant to go into production after The Mist, then it didn't happen, then it went on to JJ Abrams, who was also meant to be working on an adaption, but then he got the Star Wars job, so - timing is a massive factor. It had numerous directors attached ever since the original mini-series ended, its a similar situation.
JJ Abrams/Bad Robot had the rights for The Dark Tower first. My recollection is that he decided to give them up because he didn't think he could do it justice. Ron Howard/Imagine was the next one who bought the rights.