The Stephen King Movie Adaptation Thread

whiteslashasian · Jan 28, 2011

Originally Posted by cmd06

Besides Viggo Mortensen, the following actors would've been good:

Guy Pearce
Josh Holloway (Sawyer from LOST)
Clive Owen
Josh Brolin

+1

Javier Bardem doesn't work in my mind. Too large and not grizzled enough.

Catalyst · Jan 28, 2011

Clive Owen

sephlod · Jan 29, 2011

Viggo would be an ideal candidate. Clint about 15 years ago would have fit the bill.

FLMountainMan · Feb 1, 2011

The Stand is now getting the business too.....going to be hard to fit it all into one two hour movie....

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blo...ding-big-94805

Stephen King's 'The Stand' Heading to the Big Screen (Exclusive)January
31
4 comments 8:27 PM 1/31/2011 by Borys Kit
shareComments 217Stephen King's grand opus The Stand is finally getting the big-screen treatment.

Warner Bros. and CBS Films are teaming to adapt the novel, which in many ways set the bar for a generation of post-apocalyptic stories and influenced works ranging from TV's Lost to music group Anthrax.

Mosaic and Roy Lee are producing.

The companies will co-develop and co-produce the feature film, with CBS having the option to participate in co-financing. Warners will handle worldwide marketing and distribution.

The studios and producers will sit down with writers and directors in the coming weeks in an attempt to find the right take on the material. One thing to be determined is whether to attempt the adaptation in one or multiple movies. King will be involved in some capacity.

CBS has held the rights for many years but recently realized the best way to undertake the project was with a partner. Warners beat out Fox and Sony in a tight bidding war for the gig, getting its hands on one of the biggest-selling books of all time.

CBS, meanwhile, gets a chance to be involved in an ambitious big-budget tentpole with little downside. The company just released its fourth movie, The Mechanic, which performed better than expected this weekend with an opening of $11.4 million.

The Stand is a story of good vs. evil after a virus wipes out most of the American population. While it features dozens of characters (such as the Trashcan Man and Mother Abigail) and overlapping story lines running over many years, the struggle boils down to a group of survivors fighting the Antichrist-like Randall Flagg.

The novel was originally published in 1978, but by the time it was rereleased in 1990 with King adding and revising portions of the story, it had achieved cult-like status.

George Romero and Warners separately tried in vain to launch a movie adaptation in the 1980s, and a tone-downed version was produced as a six-hour miniseries by ABC in 1994. In recent years, Marvel Comics has been adapting the story to great acclaim.

King's stories made for popular Hollywood adaptations in the 1980s and '90s, but that love seemed to lose steam in the past decade. But with Universal mounting an ambitious take on The Dark Tower, and now The Stand, King may be getting ready to return to the throne as the novelist the town loves the most.

Biggskip · Feb 1, 2011

Originally Posted by FLMountainMan

The Stand is now getting the business too.....going to be hard to fit it all into one two hour movie....

You can't fit it into a two hour movie. ABC did an 8 hour mini-series in the 90's and it was still extremely brief.

tricota · Feb 1, 2011

Originally Posted by Dr Huh?

I dunno. The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, Stand By Me, and Misery were all pretty good.

So was Dolores Claiborne, Needful Things, Hearts in Atlantis, The Green Mile... So basicly anything that doesnt involve the normal horor stuff.

Good books = Good movies. Crappy Books = Crappy movies. Pretty much. That doesnt change regardless of who you are...

Dr Huh? · Feb 1, 2011

Originally Posted by FLMountainMan

The Stand is now getting the business too.....going to be hard to fit it all into one two hour movie....

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/blo...ding-big-94805

Ugh, this is such a dumb idea. As Biggskip mentioned, this was already an 8 hour mini series, and even then it had to cut some stuff. In 2 hours, how would the story work? You'd have to cut out pretty much all the backstory, as well as a few characters.

- First hour, the movie starts in the aftermath of Captain Trips, survivors meet up, try to reform society.

- Second hour, Stu and co head out West to confront Flagg.

A ton of great moments would have to be cut. And the only point of adapting it to the big screen seems to be just so they can adapt it to the big screen. The tv series wasn't great, but it wasn't that bad, and it had a lot of good actors in it. Gary Sinese, Ray Walston, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Miguelle Ferrer, Rob Lowe, Ed Harris, etc. On the big screen you probably would just get actors who are as good, or only slightly better. I just don't see the point.

LawrenceMD · Feb 1, 2011

Originally Posted by Biggskip

You can't fit it into a two hour movie. ABC did an 8 hour mini-series in the 90's and it was still extremely brief.

its almost better to expound on a good King short story like stand by me or the mist. if not then just take a section out of the whole book that can stand by itself and do a stand alone movie on part of the story.

there was a short story in 4 past midnight, The Langoliers, that could be remade into a quality movie. I guess there was a sub par TV movie made in the mid 90's.

you just need a good script writer to pry the story away from king and have them do a good movie version, analogous, but not exactly like the books.

actually maybe show time or HBO could do a big budget serial drama on a whole king book. cable could do it justice by having all the fucked up/scary/sexual/graphic/violent themes really fleshed out and real.

Rambo · Feb 1, 2011

Has there ever been a good movie made from a King book?

FLMountainMan · Feb 1, 2011

Originally Posted by Rambo

Has there ever been a good movie made from a King book?

The Shining
Stand By Me
Shawshank
Green Mile
The Mist

...for starters

Biggskip · Feb 1, 2011

Originally Posted by Rambo

Has there ever been a good movie made from a King book?

Originally Posted by FLMountainMan

The Shining
Stand By Me
Shawshank
Green Mile
The Mist

Might have to put a little * next to The Shinning. Book is pretty different from the movie. That said, they are generally the same thing and the film is in my Top 10 All-Time.

This is one of the most fascinating lists of movie trivia I've ever read.

For instance:

All of the interior rooms of The Overlook Hotel were filmed at Elstree Studios in England, including The Colorado Lounge, where Jack does his typing. Because of the intense heat generated from the lighting used to recreate window sunlight (the room took 700,000 watts of light per window to make it look like a snowy day outside), the lounge set caught fire. Fortunately all of the scenes had been completed there, so the set was rebuilt with a higher ceiling, and the same area was eventually used by Steven Spielberg as the snake-filled Well of the Souls tomb in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

Rambo · Feb 1, 2011

Shawshank was a SK novel?

Gradstudent78 · Feb 1, 2011

Originally Posted by Rambo

Shawshank was a SK novel?

Short story I think

Dr Huh? · Feb 1, 2011

Originally Posted by Rambo

Shawshank was a SK novel?

Yep. It was originally titled "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption", a novella that could be found in the collection "Different Seasons", along with "The Body" (Stand By Me), "Apt Pupil" and "The Breathing Method".

Rambo · Feb 1, 2011

Huh. I had no idea. Is the short story the same as the movie?

The Stephen King Movie Adaptation Thread

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