1970’erne 1980’erne 1990’erne 2000’erne 2010’erne 2020’erne Læs mere
Om listen
Stephen Kings værker er blevet filmatiseret af en række af verdens dygtigste instruktører: Brian De Palma, Tobe Hooper, Stanley Kubrick, George A. Romero, David Cronenberg, John Carpenter og Bryan Singer for blot at nævne nogle. Alligevel er det langt fra altid lykkes at overføre Kings historie fra papir til skærmen. Så hvad er det, der gør en god filmatisering?
I forbindelse med et oplæg på mit arbejde har jeg været ved at læse op på/se/gense filmatiseringer af Stephen King værker. Det benyttede jeg som en lejlighed, til at få opdateret Gyseren med denne liste, der tager udgangspunkt i film- og tv-oversigten på StephenKing.com.
Listen er på ingen måde fuldstændig. Film som for eksempel The Lawnmower Man, de mange sequels i f.eks. Children of the Corn-serien m.fl. er ikke medtaget. Ej heller er de mange kortfilm oplyst.
Se evt. IMDB for flere oplysninger om Stephen King filmatiseringer.
1970’erne
Carrie1976
Director: Brian De Palma
Writers: Lawrence D. Cohen (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Carrie fra 1974
2 Oscarnomineringer:
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Sissy Spacek for rollen som Carrie
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Piper Laurie for rollen som Margaret White
Carrie var den første af Kings bøger, der blev filmatiseret, og han har udtalt om filmen: “Brian De Palma’s Carrie was terrific. He handled the material deftly and artistically, and got a fine performence out of Sissy Spacek. In many ways the film is far more stylish than my book, which I still think is a gripping read but is impeded by a certain heaviness … a quality that’s absent from the film“.
‘Salem’s Lot
1979, TV
Series Directed by Tobe Hooper
Series Writing Credits: Paul Monash (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen De dødes by fra 1975.
Efter biografsuccessen med Carrie gik der tre år, før en ny Stephen King filmatisering fandt vej til skærmen. Denne gang var det romanen De dødes by, der blev til en mini tv-serie med Tobe Hooper i instruktørstolen. Hooper havde nogle år tidligere instrueret Motorsavsmassakren, så valget var ikke åbenlyst. Motorsavsmassakren var dyster, eksperimenterende og voldelig, mens tv-mediet var langt mere underholdningsstreamet og med flere restriktioner.
Umiddelbart mindes jeg serien som lidt kedelig, men når jeg læser anmeldelserne af den, ser det ud til, at jeg tager fejl: “Salem’s Lot doesn’t have breathtaking cinematography, or an awe-inspiring score. There are lots of quirks in the performances. It doesn’t have huge special effects. It isn’t fast-paced. In fact, it moves pretty slowly most of the time. Yet I would rate it a 9 out of 10, because what Salem’s Lot does have, and this is fairly unusual in a film, is a deeply engrossing story that unfolds exactly as if you were reading a book instead, and by the time the horrific material arises, Salem’s Lot doesn’t need to do anything too spectacular to create atmosphere and scares.” (Classic-Horror.com)
Serien blev nomineret til tre Primetime Emmy Awards, blandt andet for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup.
1980’erne
The Shining
1980
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writers: Stanley Kubrick (screenplay), Diane Johnson (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Ondskabens hotel fra 1977.
Stanley Kubricks filmatisering af “The Shining” er måske den King-filmatisering, der har delt vandene mest. Mange horrorfans og anmeldere anser den, som en af verdens bedste horrorfilm. Blandt andet nævner den danske forsker Rikke Schubart den i sin bog Verdens 25 bedste gyserfilm. Men King var ikke begejstret.
Han sagde: “I’d admired Kubrick for a long time and had great expectations for the project, but I was deeply disappointed in the end result… Kubrick just couldn’t grasp the sheer inhuman evil of the Overlook Hotel. so he looked, instead, for evil in the characters and made the film into a domestic tragedy with only vaguely supernatural overtones.”
Filmen var blandt andet nomineret til fire Saturn Awards, og vandt for Best Supporting Actor.
Creepshow
1982
Director: George A. Romero
Writer: Stephen King (original screenplay)
Filmen var nomineret til to Saturn Awards for Best Horror Film og Best Poster Art.
Creepshow er en antologi-film, som består af fem små historier omsluttet af en rammefortælling fra en gammel EC comic a la Tales From the Crypt. To af historierne bygger på noveller af Stephen King, mens rammefortællingens prolog og epilog handler om drengen Billy, der læser tegneserier, men bliver straffet for det af sin far. Drengen spilles i øvrigt af Kings søn, Joe.
Cujo
1983
Director: Lewis Teague
Writers: Don Carlos Dunaway (writer), Lauren Currier (writer)
Baseret på romanen Dræberhunden Cujo fra 1981.
Egentlig havde King ikke forstillet sig, at romanen Cujo kunne blive en god film. Alligevel solgte han filmrettighederne, og så frem til at lade Lewis Teague instruere den. King havde nemlig nydt Teagues film Alligator (det seneste Jaws knockoff). Alligevel var det i første omgang studiets hensigt at lade Peter Medak instruere. Efter kun én dag på settet trak Medak sig dog, og Lewis Teague sprang til.
Ifølge Scott von Doviaks Stephen King Films FAQ endte Cujo med at være Teagues yndlingsfilm af alle dem han instruerede: “His biggest challange, of course, was getting the dog to perform on cue. St. Bernards are not easily trained, it seems, and the production emplyed anywhere from five to ten dogs (no one who worked on the film can agree on the number) to perform different functions for the camera. But that wasn’t all […] “We had a man in a dog suit, we had a mechanical dog head, and we had as a backup a dog suit we could put on a Labrador Retriever, which we never actually used.”
Cujo blev blandt andet nomineret til en Saturn Award for Best Horror Film og Lewis Teague vandt Fantasportos Audience Jury Award.
The Dead Zone
1983
Director: David Cronenberg
Writers: Jeffrey Boam (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Den døde zone fra 1979.
Stephen King er blevet citeret for at kalde The Dead Zone en af de bedste filmatiseringer af hans værker. Han har rost David Cronenbergs – overraskende menneskelige – tilgang til filmen, set i lyset af hvordan han i sine tidligere film havde en langt mere dissekerende og intellektuel tilgang.
Filmen vandt en Saturn Award for Best Horror Film og var nomineret til yderligere tre, blandt andet for Best Actor (Christopher Walken) og Best Director. Derudover vandt David Cronenberg Fantafestival Audience Award samt Best Film.
Christine
1983
Director: John Carpenter
Writers: Bill Phillips (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Christine fra 1983.
Filmen var blandt andet nomineret til en Saturn Award for Best Horror Film, og John Carpenter var nomineret til
Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival Grand Prize.
Filmanmelderen Roger Ebert anmeldte Christine med ordene: “Christine” was directed by John Carpenter, who made “Halloween,” and his method is to take the story more or less seriously. One grin and the mood would be broken. But by the end of the movie, Christine has developed such a formidable personality that we are actually taking sides during its duel with a bulldozer. This is the kind of movie where you walk out with a silly grin, get in your car, and lay rubber halfway down the Eisenhower.
Children of the Corn
1984
Director: Fritz Kiersch
Writers: George Goldsmith (screenplay)
Baseret på novellen ‘Majsens børn’ fra samlingen Natholdet fra 1978.
Filmatiseringen af ‘Majsens børn’ var første filmatisering af en Stephen King novelle, og anmelderne tog ikke vel imod den. Roger Ebert skrev blandt andet: By the end of “Children of the Corn,” the only thing moving behind the rows is the audience, fleeing to the exits.
Stephen King selv var bestemt heller ikke begejstret for Children of the Corn, om hvilken han sagde: My feelings is like a guy who sends his daughter off to college. You hope she’ll do well. You hope she won’t fall in with the wrong people. You hope she won’t be raped at a fraternity party, which is pretty well what happend to “Children of the Corn”.
Ikke desto mindre tiltrak filmen et større publikum. Scott von Doviak skriver i Stephen King Films FAQ: “Still, despite its monumental flaws, the movie attrackted a cult following of its own throughout the egihties. A sequel followed, and another, and another, to the point where “Children of the Corn” has become a prolific horror franchise on par with “Friday the 13th and Halloween (albeit a lower profile, straight-to-video one).”
Children of the Corn vandt Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film for Best Fantasy Film.
Firestarter
1984
Director: Mark L. Lester
Writers: Stanley Mann
Baseret på romanen Brandstifter fra 1980.
Brandstifter blev den første King-filmatisering, som decideret floppede med et budget på $15 millioner og en omsætning på $17 millioner.
Stephen King var meget lidt begejstret for filmatiseringen, der har en meget ung Drew Barrymore i rollen som pigen Charlie med de særlige evner: “Firestarter” is one of the worst of the bunch [of movies that have been made of my works] … it’s flavourless; it’s like cafeteria mashed potatoes. There were $3 million worth of special effects and another $3 million worth of Academy Award-winning talent up there on the screen, and none of it was working. Watching that happen was an incredible, unreal, and painful experience.
Cat’s Eye
1985
Director: Lewis Teague
Writer: Stephen King (screenplay)
En mystisk kat er bindeleddet i Cat’s Eye, en antologi-film med tre gyserfortællinger af Stephen King: Quitters Inc., The Ledge, The General.
Den første historie handler om en tennisprofessionel, som tvinges til at deltage i et dødeligt spil, da han bliver fanget i at have en affære med en gangsters kone. I den anden historie hører vi om en mand, som gerne vil stoppe med at ryge. Han anbefales en klinik af en god ven, og det viser sig, at man her er yderst seriøse i at holde klienterne fra smøgerne. Og endeligt handler den tredje historie om en lille pige, som terroriseres af et lille monster efter sengetid.
Stephen King var selv tilfreds med filmen, som dog ikke blev en voldsom biografsucces. Cat’s Eye kostede omkring $7 millioner, men indspillede kun godt $13 millioner. Selvom det er næsten en fordobling, er det dog væsentligt mindre end for eksempel Cujo, der kostede ca. $5 millioner og indspillede godt $21 millioner.
Silver Bullet
1985
Director: Daniel Attias
Writers: Stephen King (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Varulvens år fra 1985.
Oprindeligt skrev Stephen King historien til en kalender illustreret af Bernie Wrightson, men historien blev for lang og endte som en kortroman, der blev filmatiseret som Silver Bullet. King var ikke selv overbevist om, at det ville være en god idé med endnu en varulve-historie, men lod sig overtale af producer Dino De Laurentiis.
Anmelder Roger Ebert skrev: “Stephen King’s “Silver Bullet” is either the worst movie ever made from a Stephen King story, or the funniest. It is either simply bad, or it is an inspired parody of his whole formula, in which quiet American towns are invaded by unspeakable horrors. It’s a close call, but I think the movie is intentionally funny. And because I laughed longer and louder during this film than during any other comedy I’ve seen since “Broadway Danny Rose,” I am going way out on a shaky limb and actually give the movie a three-star rating, which means I even think you might enjoy it, too.”
Filmen blev dog ikke en overvældende økonomisk succes med en indtjening på blot $12,3 millioner og et budget på $7 millioner.
Maximum Overdrive
1986
Director: Stephen King
Writers: Stephen King (written for the screen)
Baseret på novellen ‘Lastbiler’ fra samlingen Natholdet.
Stephen King instruerede selv Maximum Overdrive, efter at de seneste filmatiseringer af hans værker ikke blev kommercielle hits. Desværre var ikke selv tilfreds med resultatet: “I didn’t do a very good job of directing it […] Maximum Overdrive was for me a crash course in film school. What some guys take six years to learn, I learned in about ten weeks. The result was a picture that was just terrible. But it had some things in it that make me think, “Well, I can go back and I can do it right the second time. Now I understand.”
Filmen blev en økonomisk bet med et budget på $10 millioner og en indtjening på kun $7,4 millioner. Det blev også den sidste film, King lavede med Dino De Laurentiis. De øvrige var The Dead Zone, Firestarter, Cat’s Eye og Silver Bullet.
Personligt synes jeg nu Maximum Overdrive er ganske underholdende, og ikke mindst har den et fedt soundtrack.
Filmen modtog blandt andet to Razzie Awards nomineringer. Emilo Estevez blev nomineret til Worst Actor og Stephen King for Worst Director. Begge priser gik dog til Prince, der det år debuterede med Under the Cherry Moon.
Stand By Me
1986
Director: Rob Reiner
Writers: Raynold Gideon (screenplay), Bruce A. Evans (screenplay)
Baseret på kortromanen Liget i skoven.
Stand By Me er en vidunderlig “coming of age”-fortælling, og modsat tidligere Stephen King filmatiseringer nedtonede man denne gang forfatternavnet i markedsføringen. Filmen blev en kæmpesucces med et budget på $8 millioner og en omsætning på godt $52 millioner. Også anmelderne var begejstrede.
Filmen modtog blandt andet en Oscar nominering for ‘Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium’ samt to Golden Globe nomineringer for ‘Best Motion Picture – Drama’ og ‘Best Director – Motion Picture’. De fire unge hovedrolle-indehavere vandt desuden Young Artist Awards ‘Jackie Coogan Award’ (opkaldt efter skuespilleren der spillede The Kid i Charlie Chaplin-filmen fra 1921.
Stand By Me var første samarbejde mellem Stephen King og Rob Reiner, og for Reiner var det en nervepirrende oplevelse: “I was very nervous because I wanted him [King] to like it. I didn’t actually watch the film with him. I showed up after it was over and ran into him. He was visibly moved … He said, “Listen, I’ve got to compose myself. I’ll be back and talk to you.” He came back in about 15 to 20 minutes and we sat and talked. He said this was by far the best film that had ever been made out of any of his works.”
Creepshow 2
1987
Director: Michael Gornick
George A. Romero (screenplay)
Baseret på historier af Stephen King, blandt andet novellen ‘Tømmerflåden’ fra samlingen Natholdet.
Drengen Billy, der venter på et nyt nummer af tegneserien Creepshow, er bindeleddet i den anden antologifilm fra King og Romero: Creepshow 2 med segmenterne ‘Old Chief Wood’n Head’, ‘The Raft’ og ‘The Hitchhiker’. Denne gang var det dog med Michael Gornick i instruktørstolen.
Creepshow 2 gjorde det godt i biograferne med en indtjening på $14 millioner og et budget på $3,5 millioner.
The Running Man
1987
Director: Paul Michael Glaser
Writers: Steven E. de Souza (screenplay)
Baseret på Richard Bachman romanen Den løbende mand fra 1982.
The Running Man har Arnold Schwarzenegger i hovedrollen som Ben Richards, og er helt klart mere en Schwarzenegger-film end en King-film. Set med de briller er The Running Man vældig underholdende, men den har ikke meget med originalforlægget at gøre.
King sagde om filmen: “It was totally out of my hands. I didn’t have anything to do with making it. They obviously saw it as a book that could be adapted to fit an existing Rambo/terminator kind of genre, where you’re able to give Schwarzenegger the tag lines that he’s know for, like “I’ll be back”. The best thing about that was casting Richard Dawson as the game-show host. He was great. But the rest of it … dosen’t have much in common with the novel at all, exept the title.”
The Running Man blev ikke den store box-office succes med et budget på $27 millioner og en indtjening på godt $38 millioner. Richard Dawson vandt dog en Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Pet Sematary
1989
Director: Mary Lambert
Writers: Stephen King (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Dyrekirkegården fra 1983.
Filmen blev blandt andet nomineret til en Saturn Award for Best Horror Film, og Mary Lambert vandt Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festivals Audience Award. Yderligere blev Miko Hughes nomineret til en Young Artist Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor Under Nine Years of Age for sin rolle som Cage Creed.
Oprindeligt var George A. Romero tænkt som instruktør på filmen, men på grund af andre opgaver var han nødt til at trække sig. Valget faldt i stedet på Mary Lambert, der på det tidspunkt stort set kun havde lavet musikvideoer for blandt andre Madonna.
Pet Sematary er en af de få film, jeg måtte lukke øjnene under, hvilket for mig er et kvalitetsstempel. Stephen King, som selv skrev filmmanuskriptet, var også godt tilfreds med resultatet: “This movie is very special to me. It’s the first screenplay I’ve adapted from one of my novels. And it is my first book to be filmed in my home state of Maine, where many of my stories are set. What was insteresting in writing the script was that there were things not in the book I realized I could add. I think it does what horror movies are supposed to do. A lot of the reviews … have suggested very strongly that people are offended by the picture, and that’s exactly the effect that the horror movie seeks. Mary Lambert did a good job. She went in and she didn’t flinch. In a way, that’s a pretty good compliment to the way that I work … My idea is to go in there and hit as hard as you can. Mary understood that.”
Washington Posts anmelder var dengang ikke særligt begejstret for Pet Semetary: “With the exception of “Carrie” and “The Shining,” the novels of Stephen King have not made the transition to film particularly well, so it should be little surprise that “Pet Sematary” is another DOA — Dog on Arrival. For the most part it’s on a par with “Salem’s Lot” and “Firestarter” — bland, cliche’d, cheap — but in the last 15 minutes it turns very ugly indeed, coming close to celluloid child abuse.”
Til gengæld kalder HorrorMovieTalk.com den i 2019 for: “Pet Sematary is a must see for any fan of family-based horror. The impact of the film is hightened if you have children of your own, but the themes in the film touch on all levels of death and grief.”
Pet Sematary blev en box-office succes med et budget på $11,5 millioner og en indtjening på godt $57 millioner. Efterfølgende kom der en sequel til filmen i 1992 også med Mary Lambert som instruktør, og i 2019 blev den genindspillet med Kevin Kölsch og Dennis Widmyer i instruktørstolen.
1990’erne
Tales From the Darkside: the Movie
1990
Director: John Harrison
Writers: Michael McDowell, Arthur Conan Doyle (short story “Lot 249”) Michael McDowell (screenplay – segment “Lot 249”), Stephen King (short story – segment “Cat From Hell”), George A. Romero (screenplay – segment “Cat From Hell”)
Tales From the Darkside var endnu en antologifilm, denne gang også med historier baseret på andre end Kings værker. Segmentet ‘Lot 249’ er baseret på en Arthur Conan Doyle novelle. King står for segmentet ‘Cat From Hell’, mens segmentet ‘Lovers Vow’ er skrevet af Michael McDowell og i følge Wikipedia baseret på en japansk ånd kaldet Yuki-onna.
Historien, der binder de tre segmenter sammen, er en slags ‘Hans og Grete’-fortælling parret med 1001 nat, hvor en ung dreng skal være hovedretten til en middag, men forsøger at vinde tid ved at fortælle værtinden Betty historier.
Instruktør John Harrison vandt Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festivals Grand Prize for Tales From the Darkside.
Graveyard Shift
1990
Director: Ralph S. Singleton
Writers: John Esposito (screenplay)’
Baseret på novellen ‘Natholdet’ fra novellesamlingen Nightshift, 1978
Ifølge Stephan Jones Creepshows: the Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide fik King idéen til historien, da han i en periode arbejdede i et vaskeri. Her fortalte en kollega om nogle kæmpe rotter, der levede i kælderen. “[…] big as cats, goddamn, some as big as dogs! […]”
Jeg var ikke synderlig imponeret, da jeg første gang så Graveyard Shift, og ej heller er de anmeldelser, jeg har læst.
Filmen var Ralph S. Singletons instruktørdebut, og han har efterfølgende indrømmet, at det var svært at overføre Stephen Kings novelle til det store lærred: “We had a hard time story-wise. […] It didn’t have the fear and the scare. I had a big rubberised creature that we could never get to make the moves with an actor to make i terrifying. That hurt the film a lot.”
IT
1990
Series Directed by Tommy Lee Wallace
Series Writing Credits (WGA): Tommy Lee Wallace og Lawrence D. Cohen (teleplay)
Baseret på romanen Det onde fra 1986
IT blev produceret til tv som en mini-serie. George A. Romero sad i første omgang i instruktørstolen og var også med inde over manuskriptet sammen med Lawrence D. Cohen, men måtte endnu engang forlade filmen på grund af andre opgaver. I stedet blev det Tommy Lee Wallace, der instruerede og tilrettede sidste del af manuskriptet, så spilletiden endte på fire timer.
Cohen havde tidligere skrevet manuskriptet til Brian De Palmas filmatisering af Carrie, og King var begejstret for hans evner: “He’s a genius at being able to take elements that are good in a book and combine and compress them […] I’m a big fan of the potential of the mini-series.” Mindre tiltro havde King til, at serien nogensinde ville blive vist på tv: “ABC is one of the networks that still has a fairly strong censorship code […] I think the first rule is that you can’t put children in mortal jeopardy. And that’s what IT is about, children in mortal jeopardy.”
TV-serien vandt en Primetime Emmy Award samt et par andre tv-priser, og var ifølge The Hollywood Reporter en stor seersucces med over 30 millioner seere, da den blev vist d. 18. november 1990. Anmelder Miles Beller gav den følgende ord med på vejen: “A horror sci-fi miniseries these days is as rare as moon rocks, as far and few between as known inhabited planets. And make no mistake, It is a humdinger, one big kicky ride thanks to the charismatic acting of Curry as savage, sneering malevolence.”
Jeg kan kun være enig med Miles Beller. Tim Curry er fabelagtig i rollen som Pennywise, og selvom tiden ikke har været venlig ved seriens special effects, så kan et nutidigt publikum sagtens se IT med fornøjelse i dag alene for skuespilpræstationerne.
Misery
1990
Director: Rob Reiner
Writers: William Goldman (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Misery fra 1987
Misery blev den første King filmatisering, der vandt en Oscar, da Kathy Bates kunne modtage statuetten for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Udover en Oscar vandt hun også en Golden Globe, en Felix, en CFCA Award og en DFWFCA Award for rollen som den hengivne fan.
Roger Ebert gav filmen tre stjerner: “[James Caan og Kathy Bates] make an intriguing team. Caan, who has been hyper in some of his recent performances, is controlled and even passive here, the disbelieving captive of a madwoman. Bates, who has the film’s key role, is uncanny in her ability to switch, in an instant, from sweet solicitude to savage scorn. Some of the things Stephen King invents for her to do to the writer are so shocking that they could be a trap for an actor – an invitation to overact. But she somehow remains convincing inside her character’s madness.”
Vejen fra bog til lærred var dog ikke problemløst. King var træt af dårlige Hollywood-filmatiseringer, så da han solgte rettighederne til Castle Rock Entertainment var det med en klausul om, at Rob Reiner skulle være inde over filmatiseringen, enten som producer eller instruktør.
Stephan Jones skriver i Creepshows: the Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide, hvordan Reiner egentlig slet ikke var interesseret i at lave en horrorfilm: “I’m not particularly interested in horror films […] I’m more interested in character, so I just used the elements of terror that were absolutely necessary.” Reiner tilbød derfor rollen som forfatter Paul Sheldon til en lang række karakterskuespillere (blandt andre William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino og Robert Redford), som alle takkede nej, før man spurgte James Caan. Udover Kathy Bates (som manuskriptforfatter William Goldman skrev rollen med tankerne på) var også Bette Midler i spil som Annie Wilkes.
Misery blev ikke blot en kritikersucces, men tjente også godt i box-office med et budget på ca. $20 millioner og en omsætning på over $61 millioner.
Sometimes They Come Back
1991
Director: Tom McLoughlin
Writers: Lawrence Konner (teleplay), Mark Rosenthal (teleplay)
Baseret på novellen ‘Sommetider vender de tilbage’ fra samlingen Nightshift
I sin bog Om at skrive fortæller Stephen King om en gang, datteren Naomi var syg og de ikke havde råd til at købe medicin til hende. Men så kom en check på $500 med posten for novellen ‘Sommetider vender de tilbage’. En historie King ellers ikke havde haft meget håb om at sælge, men som blev købt af mandebladet Cavalier og trykt første gang i marts 1974.
Produceren Dino De Laurentiis havde igennem flere år rettighederne til novellen, men hans produktionselskab måtte lukke, og han endte med at sælge rettighederne til det amerikanske tv-selskab CBS. Filmen blev ikke nær det hit, tv-stationen havde håbet på, men endte alligevel med at afføde flere sequels.
Golden Years
1991
Series Directed by Allen Coulter, Michael Gornick, Kenneth Fink og Stephen Tolkin
Series Writing Credits: Stephen King (created by – 7 episodes, 1991), Josef Anderson (2 episodes, 1991)
Efter tv-serien ‘Salem’s Lot i 1979 udtalte King ifølge Stephan Jones i Creepshows: the Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide, at han var færdig med tv: “My idea as a writer is that you go for broke every time. You really do try to scare people, you want to make them come up out of their seats. On TV that’s not possible. There are all sorts of artificial restrictions on what you can and can’t do … Most of what television touches within the horror genre turns to absolute drivel.”
Allligevel endte King med at skrive en tv-serie til CBS. Scott von Doviak skriver, at CBS kontaktede Stephen King for at få ham til at være vært på et tv-show á la Alfred Hitchcock Præsenterer. Det var King dog ikke interesseret i, men foreslog dem derimod: “[…] a novel for television that wasn’t based on any existining work.”
CBS sagde ja tak, og Golden Years havde premiere 16. juli 1991. Serien blev dog ikke en stor seer-succes, og efter syv afsnit lukkede CBS den.
Tobias Lynge Herler har anmeldt Golden Years på Philm.dk, og her skiver han blandt andet: “Golden Years” hører til blandt de bedre tv-filmatiseringer af Stephen King. Ikke alene er denne serie spændende og velspillet, den er også teknisk på niveau med storebror film, takket være fire ambitiøse instruktører, der har instrueret seriens afsnit på skift.”
Sleepwalkers
1992
Director: Mick Garris
Writer: Stephen King
Sleepwalkers var det første samarbejde mellem Stephen King og Mick Garris. Garris havde netop instrueret Psycho IV, som også havde et moder-søn forhold som udgangspunkt, præcis som Sleepwalkers. Det var også første gang, King skrev det originale filmmanuskript, og han fortalte i et interview, at han havde haft: “[…] a bloody good time doing it. Adapting a novel like Pet Sematary for the screen is tough – like swiping all the hotel towels out of your room and trying to cram them in a medium-sized attaché case. Compared to that, writing an original screenplay – something meant from the first to fit the movies’ two-hour time frame – was a piece of cake.”
Filmen havde et budget på ca. $15 millioner og indspillede godt $30 millioner. På rollelisten ses op til flere cameo-optrædener af kendte horror-instruktører, blandt andre John Landis, Joe Dante og Clive Barker – samt naturligvis Stephen King selv.
Sleepwalkers vandt fire Fantafestival Awards for Best Actress, Best Direction, Best Film og Best Screenplay, selvom det ikke ligefrem vandt anmeldernes hjerter. Richard Harrington skrev ligefrem i sin anmeldelse i Washington Post: “Another week, another Stephen King movie disaster.” Jeg mindes den dog som ganske underholdende og med nogle ret blodige scener ind i mellem. Men det er ikke sikkert, at et gensyn vil vække samme fornøjelse.
The Dark Half
1993
Director: George A. Romero
Writers: George A. Romero (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Mørkets halvdel fra 1989
The Dark Half blev blandt andet nomineret til fire Saturn Awards for Best Horror Film, Best Supporting Actress, Best Make-up og Best Director. Og den vandt tre Fantafestival Awards for Best Actor, Best Film og Best Screenplay.
Filmen handler om Thad Beaumont, en seriøs forfatter der skriver bestseller-krimier under pseudonym. Nu truer en journalist med at afsløre det, så Thad beslutter sig for offentlig at slå sit pseudonym ihjel. King har uden tvivl fundet inspiration i sit eget liv, hvor også han har skrevet bøger under pseudonymet Richard Bachman, men blev opdaget.
Ifølge Scott von Doviak var King glad, da han opdagede, at George A. Romero (som King havde lavet Creepshow med) skulle instruere og stå for manuskriptet. Men ellers havde King ikke personligt noget med filmen at gøre.
The Dark Half blev ikke en box office succes, tværtimod, med et budget på $15 millioner og en omsætning på $10,6 millioner.
The Tommyknockers
1993
Series Directed by John Power (2 episodes, 1993)
Series Writing Credits (WGA): Lawrence D. Cohen (teleplay) (2 episodes, 1993)
Baseret på romanen The Tommyknockers fra 1987
I sin bog Om at skrive afslører Stephen King, at han skrev The Tommyknockers i en coke-rus. Han erkender også, at det ikke er et af hans mest originale eller bedste værker, og i det lys fortæller han i et interview med Cinefantastique, synes han egentlig at filmatiseringen var ganske god.
The Tommyknockers manuskript er skrevet af Lawrence D. Cohen, som også stod bag manuskripterne til Carrie, IT og senere segmentet The End of the Whole Mess fra Nightmare & Dreamscapes. Oprindeligt var Lewis Teague hyret som instruktør, men han blev fyret og i stedet kom John Power, som havde flere tv-produktioner på sit instruktør-cv.
På rollelisten ses blandt andre Marg Helgenberger (CSI Las Vegas) og Jimmy Smits (Advokaterne og New York Blues), samt den tidligere pornostjerne Tracy Lords.
Bogens ret dystre tone er blevet noget lysere i filmatiseringen, som blev vist i to to-timers afsnit d. 9. og 10. maj 1993 på ABC Network med rimelig seersucces, uden dog at nå tallene for IT.
Needful Things
1993
Director: Fraser C. Heston
Writers: W.D. Richter (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Begærets butik fra 1991
Rettighederne til filmatiseringen af Needful Things blev købt af produktionsselskabet Castle Rock. Meget passende eftersom King kaldte romanen for “The Last Castle Rock Story“. I første omgang hyrede selskabet Lawrence D. Cohen (Carrie, IT og Tommyknockers) til at skrive manuskriptet, men hans udkast blev afvist og i stedet blev det W.D. Richter (Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, 1978).
Needful Things vandt en Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress (Amanda Plummer) og var nomineret til yderligere tre Saturn Awards samt to Fangoria Chainsaw Awards.
På rollelisten ses blandt andre Max von Sydow, som var begejstet for rollen som den djævleske Leland Gaunt: “I loved Gaunt from the minute Fraser described him to me. I knew instantly that portraying him would be an actor’s delight – wickedly full of possibiliteis, ful of potential surprises.”
Et andet stort navn er Ed Harris i rollen som sherif Alan Pangborn. King havde udtrykt ønske om, at Michael Rooker, som spillede sherif Alan Pangborn i Mørkets halvdel også skulle spille rollen i Needful Things. Men filmselskabet ønskede et større navn, og rollen gik i stedet for til Ed Harris.
Needful Things floppede i box office med en omsætning på kun ca. $13 millioner. En version på 186 minutter blev derfor efterfølgende vist på tv-stationen TBS d. 22. maj 1996. Her var tilføjet flere scener, bl.a. møder vi i tv-versionen den Elvis-elskende Cora Rusk, som nærmest helt blev klippet ud i biografversionen.
The Stand
1994
Series Directed by Mick Garris
Series Writing Credits: Stephen King
Baseret på romanen Opgøret fra 1978
The Stand’s rejse fra bog til film var lang og fuld af forhindringer. Scott von Doviak fortæller i Stephen King Films FAQ, hvordan King tilbage i 1980 gav rettighederne til filmatiseringen til George A. Romero og The Laurel Group, Inc. King skulle stå for manuskriptet, Richard P. Rubenstein som producer og Romero som instruktør. Projektet stod dog over for to store problemer: tid og penge.
King kæmpede med at få manuskriptet ned på spillefilmslængde, for han var fast besluttet på, at The Stand ikke skulle ende som en tv-produktion. Men efter fem år blev det klart, at der var behov for nyt blod, og manuskriptforfatter Rospo Pallenberg kom ind over. Det lykkedes ham at skrive manuskriptet om, men på det tidspunkt var Kings modvilje mod tv-mediet ved at aftage, efter successerne IT og The Tommyknockers. Så da ABC gav King muligheden for en 6-timers serie, gik han tilbage til skrivebordet og skrev et nyt manuskript til serien. På det tidspunkt var Romero ikke længere inde i billedet som instruktør, og det blev i stedet Mick Garris, der tidligere havde arbejdet sammen med King på Sleepwalkers.
The Stand gik i luften maj 1994 og blev en succes. Hvert to-timers afsnit blev set af ca. 19 millioner seere, selvom anmeldelserne var blandede. Serien vandt efterfølgende to Primetime Emmy’er og var nomineret til yderligere fire Emmy’er samt flere andre priser.
Mick Garris tilbød rollen som Randall Flagg til blandt andre Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe og Christopher Walken, som alle sagde nej tak, før den endte hos Jamey Sheridan. Andre navne på rollelisten er bl.a. Molly Ringwall, Gary Sinise, Laura San Giacomo og Rob Lowe. Sidstnævnte spillede i øvrigt hovedrollen i en senere King-filmatisering, nemlig genindspilningen af TV mini-serien ’Salem’s Lot i 2004.
The Shawshank Redemption
1994
Director: Frank Darabont
Writers: Frank Darabont (screenplay)
Baseret på historien Rita Hayworth i Shawshank Fængslet fra samlingen Different Seasons 1982
Filmen blev nomineret til intet mindre end 7 Oscars, blandt andet for Bedste Film og Bedste Skuespiller (Morgan Freeman), samt til flere Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards m.fl.
Frank Darabont, der både har instrueret og skrevet manuskriptet til Shawshank Redemption, har haft et langt samarbejde med Stephen King. Hans debut som instruktør var The Woman in the Room fra 1984, en kortfilm bygget på Stephen Kings novelle ‘Kvinden i værelset’ fra Nightshift som en del af Kings ”Dollar babies” koncept. I 1994 lavede han så Shawshank Redemption, i 1999 The Green Mile og i 2007 The Mist.
The Shawshank Redemption havde premiere i 1994 ved Toronto Filmfestival, men trods gode anmeldelser blev den ikke umiddelbart et box office hit.
Roger Ebert skriver i sin anmeldelse fra 1999: “[…] There wasn’t much going for it: It had a terrible title, it was a “prison drama” and women don’t like those, it contained almost no action, it starred actors who were respected but not big stars, and it was long at 142 minutes. Clearly this was a movie that needed word-of-mouth to find an audience, and indeed business was slowly but steadily growing when it was yanked from theaters. If it had been left to find its way, it might have continued to build and run for months, but that’s not what happened. Instead, in one of the most remarkable stories in home video history, it found its real mass audience on tapes and discs, and through TV screenings. Within five years, “Shawshank” was a phenomenon, a video best seller and renter that its admirers feel they’ve discovered for themselves. When the Wall Street Journal ran an article about the “Shawshank” groundswell in April 1999, it was occupying first place in the Internet Movie Database worldwide vote of the 250 best films; it’s usually in the top five.” I skrivende stund (nov. 2019) ligger den nummer 1!
Også Scott von Doviak roser filmen i sin Stephen King Films FAQ, hvor han i øvrigt fortæller, at produktionsselskabet egentlig ønskede Tom Cruise i rollen som Andy og Harrison Ford som Red. Heldigvis insisterede Darabont på Tim Robbins og Morgan Freeman, som begge leverer en fabelagtig præstation i filmen.
The Mangler
1995
Director: Tobe Hooper
Writers: Tobe Hooper (screenplay), Stephen David Brooks (screenplay), Harry Alan Towers (screenplay) (as Peter Welbeck)
Baseret på novellen ‘Rullemaskinen’ fra novellesamlingen Natholdet, 1978.
Oprindeligt havde King solgt rettighederne til Milton Subotsky, der planlagde en antologifilm med titlen The Machines, som skulle indeholde filmatiseringer af de tre noveller: ‘The Mangler’, ‘Trucks’ og ‘The Lawnmower Man’. Men Subotsky døde i 1991, og rettighederne til ‘The Mangler’ overgik til Allied Vision.
Filmen vandt en Fantafestival Award for Best Actor (Robert Englund), men har ellers ikke meget at prale af på trods af Tobe Hooper i instruktørstolen. Richard Harrington skrev i The Washington Post: “The Mangler” is ludicrous from start to finish: Its plot lines dangle, its effects fail to dazzle and the acting and directing are uniformly bad. The movie looks as if it’s gone through its namesake, the five-ton, 40-foot-long Hadley Watson Model-6 Steam Ironer & Folder. Even the least demanding of genre fans will be hard-pressed to tremble in its presence.”
Heller ikke King selv var imponeret. I Stephen King Goes to the Movies skriver han: “Tobe Hooper, who directed it, is something of a genius … The Texas Chain Saw Massacre proves that beyond doubt. But when genius goes wrong, brother, watch out … The movie’s visual are surreal and the sets are eyepopping, but somewhere along the way (mabybe in the copious amounts of steam generated by the film’s mechanical star), the story got lost.”
Filmen blev da også et box office flop med en omsætning på kun $1,7 millioner.
Dolores Claiborne
1995
Director: Taylor Hackford
Writers: Tony Gilroy (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Dolores Claiborne fra 1992
Dolores Claiborne blev nomineret til tre Saturn Awards: Best Actress (Kathy Bates), Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Jason Leigh) og Best Music (Danny Elfman). Derudover modtog den blandt andet en Edgar Allan Poe Award-nominering for Best Motion Picture.
Tony Gilroy, som skrev manuskriptet, var vild med karakteren Claiborne, men han så også, at Kings måde at fortælle historien på i én lang enetale, ikke ville gøre sig godt på skærmen. Derfor ‘opgraderede’ han bifiguren Selena (Claibornes datter) til en hovedrolle sammen med Claiborne.
Efter successen som Annie Wilkes i Misery var Kathy Bates et oplagt valg i rollen som Claiborne. I et interview i Toronto Sun fortæller hun, hvorfor hun er så begejstret for at spille med i endnu en King-filmatisering: “[…] Because he is such a wonderful writer … his characters have such opposites within themselves and express themselves so colourfully. There’s just a lot to work on.”
Selvom det ikke blev til en Oscar for rollen, modtog Bates mange roser fra anmelderne for den. Forgotten Films skriver for eksempel: “Not many would deny that Bates’ character in “Misery” was an iconic, career-defining performance. However, it is with this performance [Dolores Claiborne] that Bates was truly able to shine in her ability to uncover a much more complex character. Bates has even stated in an interview with Anderson Cooper that Dolores Claiborne was her favorite character that she has played.”
Filmen blev ikke den store box office succes med en indtjening på godt $24 millioner trods generelt udmærkede anmeldelser. Blandt andet skrev Roger Ebert: “This is a horror story, all right, but not a supernatural one; all of the elements come out of such everyday horrors as alcoholism, wife beating, child abuse and the sin of pride.”
The Langoliers
1995
Series Directed by Tom Holland (2 episodes, 1995)
Series Writing Credits (WGA): Tom Holland (2 episodes, 1995)
Baseret på historien ‘The Langoliers’ fra Four Past Midnight, 1990.
TV-serien modtog bl.a. en Emmy Primetime nominering samt en Saturn Award nominering.
Efter Kings succesfulde samarbejde med tv-netværket ABC om The Stand lå det i kortene, at de gerne ville have endnu en King tv-serie. Valget faldt på The Langoliers med Tom Holland som instruktør og manuskriptforfatter. Ifølge Scott von Doviak blev serien den første King-filmatisering “to shoot entirely in the author’s hometown, at the actual location where most of the story takes place: the Bangor International Airport“.
Stephen King var ikke nær så involveret i filmen, som han var i The Stand, men har dog en lille cameo i den. The Langoliers havde premiere i maj 1995 og opnåede gode seertal. Første afsnit blev set af 17,5 millioner seere, mens andet afsnit trak 19,5 millioner seere.
Allerede året efter instruerede Tom Holland endnu en King filmatisering, nemlig Thinner.
Thinner
1996
Director: Tom Holland
Writers: Michael McDowell (screenplay), Tom Holland (screenplay)
Baseret på Richard Bachman romanen Tyndere fra 1984
Thinner modtog en Saturn Award nominering for Bedste Make-up, og som jeg husker filmen, var det også ret imponerende lavet for tiden. Filmen blev dog ikke et stort box office hit med et budget på $8,5 millioner og en omsætning på godt $15 millioner.
Anmeldelsen i San Francisco Chronicle er overordnet positiv og kalder Thinner for en af de bedre King-filmatiseringer: “Thinner” is like that. There’s a black comic edge throughout, which all the same doesn’t detract from the thriller’s high stakes.”
The Shining
1997
Series Directed by Mick Garris (3 episodes, 1997)
Series Writing Credits (WGA) : Stephen King (novel) (3 episodes, 1997)
Baseret på romanen Ondskabens Hotel fra 1977
På trods af at Stanley Kubricks filmatisering af The Shining fra 1980 blev en box office succes og prises af anmeldere og fans som en af verdens bedste gysere, har Stephen King aldrig selv ikke været begejstret for den. Allerede i et interview i Playboy i 1983 ytrede han ønske om at genindspille filmen.
Men ifølge Scott van Doviak sad Kubrick og Warner Bros. på rettighederne, og de nærede ingen varme følelser for King, som ikke havde holdt sig tilbage med at kritisere deres film. Ikke desto mindre lykkedes det for King at købe rettighederne med visse forbehold. Hans udgave måtte ikke komme på video, og han skulle stoppe med at tale om Kubricks film.
Stephen King’s The Shining blev lavet til ABC tv-netværket, som efter successen med The Stand (og The Langoliers) var helt med på Kings vilkår. Mick Garris, som havde instrueret The Stand, sagde ja tak til opgaven, og så begyndte jagten på skuespillere. Rollen som Wendy gik til Rebecca De Morney (som jeg personligt fandt fremragende i thrilleren The Hand That Rocks the Cradle fra 1992), Elliott Gould som kokken Dick Hallorann, og efter at Haley Joel Osment takkede nej til rollen som Danny, gik den til Courtland Mead. Men ingen ønskede (fuldt forståeligt) at træde i Jack Nicholsons fodspor som Jack Torrance, før endelig Steven Weber blev castet til rollen. Weber optræder i øvrigt senere i flere King-filmatiseringer, blandt andet Desperation fra 2006 der også har Mick Garris i instruktørstolen.
King har selv skrevet manuskriptet til tv-serien, som er en langt mere trofast udgave af romanen. Men spørgsmålet er, om det nødvendigvis er en god ting? I hvert fald skuffede seertallene, da serien havde premiere i april 1997, omend den modtog to Primetime Emmy Awards og var nomineret til endnu én for Outstanding Miniseries. Ligesom den vandt to Saturn Awards samt ikke mindre end 11 OFTA Television Awards!
Selvom Scott van Doviak ikke er udpræget begejstret for tv-serien, skriver han dog følgende om den: “Thematically, too, the TV-version hews closer to the novel than Kubrick’s version did. King used the book to explore his own alcoholism and conflicted feeling about parenthood, and his fears about how that volatile mixture could lead down the road to domestic abuse. The central metaphorical image of the boiler that’s about to blow its top may be a bit too on-the-nose (certainly it was for Kubrick), but it works well enough in the context.”
Quicksilver Highway
1997 Director: Mick Garris
Writers: Mick Garris (teleplay)
Baseret på novellerne ‘The Body Politic‘ af Clive Barker og ‘Chattery Teeth‘ af Stephen King
Ifølge Stephen Jones i Creepshows: the Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide var Quicksilver Highway egentlig slet ikke en spillefilm. “The project came about when [Mick] Garris was asked to script a one hour pilot for a projected series about urban ghost stories […] Thinking about the idea, Garris came up with a concept that would be a different geographic location across our country each week. Initially, what [Garris] wanted to do was put together an ensemble of actors who would be in the stories every week, playing different parts each time.”
Filmen havde tv-premiere i maj 1997 på Fox Network og blev udsendt direkte på video i Storbritannien i januar året efter.
The Night Flier
1997
Director: Mark Pavia
Writers: Mark Pavia (screenplay), Jack O’Donnell (screenplay)
Baseret på novellen ‘The Night Flier’ fra novellesamlingen Nightmares & Dreamscapes fra 1993
Ifølge Stephen Jones fødte King idéen til The Night Flier over en biperson fra Den døde zone, journalisten Richard Dees. En kynisk og hensynsløs journalist der ikke viger tilbage for noget for at få sin historie.
King selv var glad for filmatiseringen, om hvilken han sagde til Fangoria: “Mark Pavia did a super job. It’s on a shoestring, and looks it, but it’s a throwback to a lot of pictures you probably remember with real affection, like The Flesh Eaters and Night of the Living Dead. Yet, it’s not like any of those – Mark is his own person. It’s interesting, it’s really interesting.”
Filmen blev først vist på HBOs netværk i november 1997, og efterfølgende fik den premiere i udvalgte biografer i USA, før den udkom på video og dvd.
Trucks
1997
Director: Chris Thomson
Writers: Brian Taggert (teleplay)
Baseret på novellen ‘Lastbiler’ fra Nightshift fra 1978
Kings egen filmatisering Maximum Overdrive fik stor kritik – også af King selv. Men novellen Trucks er efter sigende en af hans yndlingshistorier fra de tidlige dage i forfatterskabet. Ikke mindst fordi han solgte den for $500 i 1973 til mandebladet Cavalier, hvilket var det største beløb, han hidtil havde fået.
Måske derfor sagde King ja til den mislykkede tv-filmatisering Trucks, der har en score på 3,9 på IMDB dags dato. Læs evt. anmeldelsen på Daily Grindhouse som giver en udmærket forklaring på den lave score.
Apt Pupil
1998
Director: Bryan Singer
Writers: Brandon Boyce (screenplay)
Baseret på historien ‘Mønstereleven‘ fra Different Seasons, 1982
Filmen vandt to Saturn Awards for Best Horror Film og Best Supporting Actor (Ian McKellen) og var nomineret til yderligere tre. Derudover vandt Ian McKellen en FFCC Award, en OFTA Film Award og Best Actor Award på Tokyo International Film Festival.
Filmkritiker Roger Ebert var dog ikke ubetinget begejstret. Han skrev: “The movie is well made by Bryan Singer (“The Usual Suspects”) and well acted, especially by Ian McKellen as Kurt Dussander, a Nazi war criminal who has been hiding in American for years. The theme is intriguing: A teenager discovers the old man’s real identity, and blackmails him into telling stories about his wartime experiences. But when bodies are buried in cellars and cats are thrown into lighted ovens, the film reveals itself as unworthy of its subject matter.”
Janet Maslin i New York Times var mere positiv og skrev blandt andet: “[…] rather than dwelling on the past, “Apt Pupil” soon evolves into a war of nerves as Todd begins realizing he’s in for more than he’d bargained for. The old Nazi begins to manipulate and haunt him. And as the title indicates, Todd is a quick study when it comes to misanthropy.”
Mens danske Tobias Herler Lynge på Philm.dk kalder filmatiseringen for brilliant: “Man bliver draget af filmen, der er fortalt i et delikat og stilfærdigt billedsprog med smukke og rolige billedkompositioner. Den unge Brad Renfro spiller fabelagtigt og meget troværdigt, i filmen kun overgået af en eminent spillende Ian McKellen, hvis ondskabsfulde nazist virkelig er hårrejsende flot og indfølt ramt. Filmen tager sig sine friheder i forhold til novelleforlægget, men det har ikke nogen negativ indflydelse på historien. Snarere tværtimod.”
Apt Pupil blev ikke en box office succes med et budget på $14 millioner og en omsætning på knap $9 millioner i USA. Men dens emne blev sørgeligt aktuelt ved premieren i Storbritannien, idet der måneden før havde været to high school skyderier i USA, hvor elever havde skudt andre elever og lærere, før de skød sig selv.
Efter sigende var det disse skyderier, der fik King til at trække sin Bachman bog Rage fra 1977 ud af print, så den nu som den eneste titel i Kings enorme bagkatalog ikke kan købes mere.
Se traileren for Apt Pupil på IMDB
Storm of the Century
1999
Series Directed by Craig R. Baxley (3 episodes, 1999)
Series Writing Credits (WGA): Stephen King (3 episodes, 1999)
TV-serien der blev produceret til tv-netværket ABC vandt en Primetime Emmy, en Saturn Award og International Horror Guild’s IHG Award for Best Television. Derudover blev den nomineret til en række andre priser.
Efter sigende baserede King løseligt filmens idé på Shirley Jacksons novelle ‘Lotteriet‘.
King skrev serien direkte til tv og var selv executive producer på den. Flere kritikere påpeger dog, at historien er for rodet og for lang. Blandt andet skriver Charles Tatum på eFilmCritic.com: “King’s script, on the other hand, is a mess. Recent history has television remaking a lot of King’s films into miniseries because that is the only way they can come through coherently. If anything, “Storm of the Century” could have been cut in half and still made a pretty decent theatrical film. Half way through, King introduces three different plot points that all could have been done away with: a character who suddenly reveals she is psychic, a priest who appears as if from nowhere with a secret, and Mike’s ability to quote the Bible and his unexpected expertise on demons. A good editor may have been able to work this into a leaner vehicle; watch for the climactic town hall meeting which feels longer than the storm itself, and the epilogue which also runs about five minutes too long.” Mens han til gengæld roser instruktøren Craig R Baxley: “Craig Baxley’s direction is fantastic. Everything is covered in cold blue light, the snow storm is totally believable, and the gore effects are good without going over the top (and earning an R rating).”
Storm of the Century udspiller sig i øvrigt på samme ø som fortællingen om Dolores Claiborne.
The Green Mile
1999
Director: Frank Darabont
Writers: Frank Darabont (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Den grønne mil fra 1996
Filmen blev nomineret til fire Oscars for blandt andet Bedste Film og Bedste Adapterede Manuskript. Derudover vandt den tre Saturn Awards og to Critics Choice Awards, plus en lang række andre nomineringer og priser. På rollelisten ses blandt andre Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse, Doug Hutchison og Sam Rockwell.
Frank Darabont, der både har instrueret og skrevet manuskriptet til The Green Mile, har haft et langt og vellykket samarbejde med Stephen King. Hans debut som instruktør var The Woman in the Room fra 1984, en kortfilm bygget på Stephen Kings novelle ‘Kvinden i værelset’ fra Nightshift som en del af Kings ”Dollar babies” koncept. I 1994 lavede han Shawshank Redemption, i 1999 The Green Mile og i 2007 The Mist.
Filmkritiker Roger Ebert skrev om The Green Mile: “The movie is a shade over three hours long. I appreciated the extra time, which allows us to feel the passage of prison months and years. Stephen King, sometimes dismissed as merely a best-seller, has in his best novels some of the power of Dickens, who created worlds that enveloped us and populated them with colorful, peculiar, sharply seen characters. King in his strongest work is a storyteller likely to survive as Dickens has, despite the sniffs of the litcrit establishment. By taking the extra time, Darabont has made King’s “The Green Mile” into a story which develops and unfolds, which has detail and space. The movie would have been much diminished at two hours–it would have been a series of episodes without context. As Darabont directs it, it tells a story with beginning, middle, end, vivid characters, humor, outrage and emotional release. Dickensian.”
The Green Mile var ikke alene en kritiker-succes. Den blev også et box office hit med et budget på $60 millioner og en omsætning alene i USA på knap $137 millioner.
2000’erne
Hearts in Atlantis
2001
Director: Scott Hicks
Writers: William Goldman (screenplay)
Baseret på historien ‘Lumpne mænd i gule frakker’ fra Atlantis, 1999
Filmen blev nomineret til enkelte priser, og Anton Yelchin vandt Young Artist Award for sin rolle som unge Bobby Garfield. På rollelisten ses også Anthony Hopkins som Ted Brautigan og David Morse som den voksne Bobby Garfield.
Filmen blev ikke et box office hit med et budget på $31 millioner og en indtægt på ca. det samme.
Filmanmelder Roger Ebert var dog begejstret for Hearts in Atlantis og gav den 3,5 stjerner. “Hearts in Atlantis” weaves a strange spell, made of nostalgia and fear. Rarely does a movie make you feel so warm and so uneasy at the same time, as Stephen King’s story evokes the mystery of adolescence, when everything seems to be happening for the very first time […] A movie like this is kind of a conjuring act. Like a lot of Stephen King’s recent work, it is not a horror story so much as an everyday story with horror lurking in the margins. It’s not a genre movie, in other words, but the story of characters we believe in and care about.”
Til gengæld var Stephen Holden på New York Times langt fra imponeret. Blandt andet mente han, at castingen af Anthony Hopkins var helt forkert, og slutter med ordene: “I would describe ”Hearts in Atlantis” as emotional pornography, except that the film conveys no genuine emotion. And where pornography offers a release, the only responses the movie elicits are twinges of acute embarrassment.”
Mens Edward Gunthmann på San Francisco Chronicle syntes godt om skuespillet, men følte at filmen blev alt for sentimental: “More often, Hicks doesn’t trust the material to move us on its own, but goes for the goo. He wraps his film in a sheath of twinkling nostalgia, scores it with strings and flutes that direct our emotions into place, and doesn’t leave much room for us to respond or reflect of our own volition.”
Rose Red
2002
Series Directed by Craig R. Baxley (3 episodes, 2002)
Series Writing Credits: Stephen King (3 episodes, 2002)
Rose Red blev blandt andet nomineret til en Primetime Emmy Award, en Saturn Award og en International Horror Guild Award.
King fandt inspiration til historien fra Shirley Jacksons roman The Haunting of Hill House samt fra et efter sigende virkeligt hjemsøgt hus kaldet Winchester Mystery House i San José. Men oprindeligt opstod idéen i en snak mellem Steven Spielberg og King tilbage i 1996 om at lave den mest uhyggelige “haunted house-film” sammen.
Ifølge Scott von Doviak lagde tv-netværket ABC store kræfter i promoveringen af mini tv-serien: “Taking a page from the succes of ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ABC marketed ‘Rose Red’ as if it had been based on acutal events, even airing a half-hour faux-documentary special called ‘Unlocking Rose Red: The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer’ to build the hype.”
I første omgang så det ud til at virke, for første afsnit fik en bedre start end de to forgående King-serier på ABC med 20 millioner seere. Seertallene faldt dog undervejs, og sidste afsnit havde ikke nær så mange seere. Aviskritikerne var da heller ikke imponerede. John Carman fra San Francisco Chronicle skrev: “ABC invites you to get stupid for three nights. It’s not so much. ABC itself has been stupid for years. Those three nights cover the running time of “Stephen King’s Rose Red.” It won’t add snap to anyone’s synapses. It’s a dumbly, numbly entertaining pastiche about a bad house.”
Langt mere positiv var anmeldelsen på The Flesh Farm, som først roser instruktør Craig R. Baxley: “Craig R. Baxley showed that Storm of the Century was no fluke. His combination of slow pans, lightning, fast zooms, skewed angles and pretty much the entire mise-en-scene of the piece added to what was already an amazing tale. His directing paired with Gary Chang’s chillingly masterful score add to create an atmosphere that is absolutely intoxicating.”
Og slutter anmeldelsen af således: “Stephen King has delivered one of the most bone-chilling suspenseful mini-series of all time. The format seems truly to have been created for his work. In Rose Red, Stephen King invites us to dance the Danse Macabre.”
Dreamcatcher
2003
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Writers: William Goldman (screenplay), Lawrence Kasdan (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Som en ond drøm fra 2000
Filmen blev blandt andet nomineret til to Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for ‘Best Score’ og ‘Worst Film’.
Filmkritiker Roger Ebert var heller ikke imponeret: ““Dreamcatcher” begins as the intriguing story of friends who share a telepathic gift, and ends as a monster movie of stunning awfulness. What went wrong? How could director Lawrence Kasdan and writer William Goldman be responsible for a film that goes so awesomely wrong? How could even Morgan Freeman, an actor all but impervious to bad material, be brought down by the awfulness?” Mens Mike LaSalle fra San Francsico Chronicle kalder Dreamcatcher for “a likable disaster“.
Dreamcatcher klarede sig heller ikke specielt godt på box office med et budget på $68 millioner og en omsætning på godt $81 millioner.
På rollelisten ses blandt andre Damian Lewis, Thomas Jane, Donnie Wahlberg og Morgan Freeman.
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer
2003
Director: Craig R. Baxley
Writers: Stephen King (characters), Ridley Pearson (novel), Ridley Pearson (teleplay)
Filmen var nomineret til en Saturn Award for ‘Best Television Presentation’. På rollelisten ses blandt andre Lisa Brenner, Steven Brand og Tsidii Leloka.
Scott von Doviak beskriver, hvordan The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer opstod i kølvandet på ABC tv-serien Rose Red. Som en del af markedsføringen blev lavet en mockumentary med titlen Unlocking Rose Red: The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer, som lagde an til, at begivenhederne i Rose Red var baseret på virkelige hændelser. Samtidig blev bogen The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red udgivet, om hvilken rygterne sagde, at Stephen King var forfatteren. Det blev dog senere afsløret at det i stedet var spændingsforfatteren Ridley Pearson, der havde skrevet bogen, og at ABC gerne ville have ham til at skrive manuskriptet til en prequel til Rose Red baseret på hans bog.
Kingdom Hospital
2004
Series Directed by Craig R. Baxley
Series Writing Credits: Stephen King (developed for U.S. television – 9 episodes, 2004), Richard Dooling (5 episodes, 2004), Tabitha King (1 episode, 2004)
Baseret på Lars von Triers tv-serie Riget fra 1994.
Scott von Doviak fortæller i Stephen King Films FAQ, hvordan King faldt for Riget, da han i 1996 så den i en videobutik i Colorado. Han så alle afsnittene i træk og var vildt begejstret. Så han kontaktede producer Mark Carliner for at foreslå et remake til amerikansk tv.
Men der gik nogle år, før ønsket blev virkeliggjort. Lars von Trier var mere interesseret i at sælge serien til en spillefilm, og først da det projekt faldt endegyldigt til jorden, fik King muligheden.
I mellemtiden var King i 1999 blevet kørt ned af en bil nær sit hjem i Bangor i Maine, og havde efterfølgende tilbragt lang tid på hospitaler. De oplevelser ville han have med i serien. Så selvom mange af karaktererne er de samme, tilføjede King også sine egne, blandt andet kunstneren Peter Rickman, der bliver kørt ned under en joggetur – ligesom King selv. Kingdom Hospital er da også blevet kaldt for Kings mest autobiografiske arbejde.
I marts 2004 havde første afsnit premiere på ABC, og med ca. 14 millioner seere tegnede serien til at blive et hit. Men allerede i næste afsnit faldt seertallet til 8,5 million og siden endnu mere. King selv filosoferede over grunden i en klumme i Entertainment Weekly: “So who’s to blame for this el floppo? The network? That would be an easy answer – ABC has fallen on hard times – but it won’t wash … Was it the story? Man, we all thought the idea of ghosts in a modern hospital was a groove, and the European audiences flipped for Lars von Triers version […} I realize now we were asking viewers to give os a week or two, maybe three, and that was more time than most were willing to give.”
Kingdom Hospital blev nomineret til et par Primetime Emmy’er og vandt blandt andet en Visual Effects Society Awards.
Secret Window
2004
Director: David Koepp
Writers: Stephen King (novella), David Koepp (screenplay)
Baseret på historien ‘Hemmeligt vindue, hemmelig have’ fra Four Past Midnight fra 1990
Filmen blev blandt andet nomineret til en Saturn Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ (John Turturro) og en Fangoria Chainsaw Award for ‘Best Actor’ (Johnny Depp).
Scott von Doviak beskriver i Stephen King Films FAQ, hvordan Secret Window blev til som en del af en byttehandel om rettighederne til Lars von Triers Riget der i Kings version blev til Kingdom Hospital. Til hovedrollen ønskede instruktør David Koep skuespilleren Johnny Depp: “So much of this movie is a guy in a cabin alone,” Koepp told Glenn Whipp of the L.A. Daily News. “So I needed a really charismatic actor who could make taking a nap look entertaining. And that’s Johnny. He’s never boring.”
Mick LaSalle fra San Francisco Chronicle var begejstret for Secret Window: “Adapted and directed by David Koepp, “Secret Window” belongs to the elite category of King adaptations, such as “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Shining,” with its first-rate cast and production elements. It’s not sensational but subtle, and it builds from the unease of its first moments to an almost suffocating mood of helplessness and vulnerability. Even if a certain glibness in the plotting deflates its impact somewhat at the finish, it remains an eerie, playful thriller and an all-around entertaining time at the movies.”
Også Tobias Lynge Herler fra Philm.dk er positiv over filmatiseringen, som han beskriver som en del af: “[…]den efterhånden pæne skare af mere vellykkede King-filmatiseringer: Den er visuelt meget stærk og kraftigt inspireret af store thrillermagere, bl.a. Alfred Hitchcock. Der hviler en fascinerende stemning over filmen, og den er sammen med den visuelle elegance filmens største styrke. Johnny Depp er overbevisende som Mort Rainey og dominerer helt på skuespillerlisten.”
Secret Window klarede sig ok på box office med et budget på ca. $40 millioner og en omsætning på ca. $92 millioner.
‘Salem’s Lot (2004)
2004
Series Directed by Mikael Salomon (2 episodes, 2004)
Series Writing Credits (WGA): Peter Filardi (teleplay) (2 episodes, 2004)
Baseret på romanen De dødes by fra 1975
Filmen vandt to Australian Cinematographers Society Awards og var nomineret til en række andre priser, blandt andre en Primetime Emmy og to Saturn Awards.
På rollelisten ses blandt andre Rob Lowe i hovedrollen som Ben Mears, mens Rutger Hauer har rollen som Kurt Barlow og Donald Sutherland spiller Richard Straker.
Genindspilningen af ‘Salem’s Lot er instrureret af danske Mikael Salomon, der også står bag et par senere King filmatiseringer fra serien Nightmares & Dreamscapes: ‘Autopsy Room Four’ og ‘The End of the Whole Mess’ samt tv-filmen Big Driver fra 2014.
Ifølge Scott von Doviak skulle genindspilningen oprindeligt have ført ‘Salem’s Lot til biograflærredet, men i stedet endte det endnu en gang med en tv-serie, denne gang på TNT’s netværk: “Airing on June 20 and 21, 2004, the miniseries was a hit by TNT’s standards, with its first part pulling in 5,9 million viewers to make it the most-watched basic cable movie of the year. (The second part dipped a bit to 5,3 million viewers.)”
Riding the Bullet
2004
Director: Mick Garris
Writers: Mick Garris (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen En på katapulten fra 2002
Filmen blev nomineret til en Saturn Award for ‘Best Performance by a Younger Actor’. Rollelisten tæller ud over den nominerede Jonathan Jackson blandt andre David Arquette og Barbara Hershey.
Filmen bygger på Stephen Kings første e-bog fra en tid, hvor det langt fra lå i kortene, at folk ville læse digitale bøger. Scott von Doviak skriver: “Stephen King was in an experimental mood in 2000, not long after his life-threatening accident. Having published the serialized Green Mile a few years earliger, he now release an audio-only short story collection (Blood and Smoke), and on March 14, an electornic-only novella called ‘Riding the Bullet’. King optimistically hoped for 16 thounsand downloads; instead, over 400.000 downloads were recorded in the first 24 hours, crashing the servers of Simon and Schuster’s tchnology partnr SoftLock. Within a few days, it would pass the 500.000 mark. One of its first readers was one of King’s most trusted collaborators, Mick Garris.”
Mick Garris har tidligere filmatiseret Stephen Kings Sleepwalkers, The Stand, Quicksilver Highway og genindspilningen af The Shining. Senere samarbejder tæller Desperation og Bag of Bones.
Trods et nærmest mikroskopisk budget på $5 millioner indtjente Riding the Bullett ikke sig selv i box office. Derimod blev den, den mindst sete King filmatisering til dato.
Desperation
2006
Director: Mick Garris
Writers: Stephen King (teleplay)
Baseret på romanen Desperation fra 1996
Desperation er endnu et tv samarbejde mellem Stephen King og Mick Garris. Filmen vandt en Art Directors Guild for ‘Excellence in Production Design Award’. Derudover var den blandt andet nomineret til to Primetime Emmy Awards.
Scott von Doviak fortæller, hvordan King og Garris oprindeligt ønskede at lave en biograffilm, men grundet manglende interesse endte Desperation som endnu en ABC-filmatisering: “Initially, the network hoped to do ‘Desperation’ as another miniseries, four hours over two nights, but Garris resisted. He wanted to do the script King had written for the big screen, with only the most minimal changes for broadcast. It was another take-it-or-leave-it deal, and ABC took it.”
På rollelisten ses blandt andre Ron Perlman, Tom Skerrit, Steven Weber, Annabeth Gish og Henry Thomas. Perlman var ikke ukendt med King-filmatiseringer, idet han også spillede sherif i filmen Sleepwalkers.
Filmen blev sendt den 23. maj 2006 og trak kun 7,5 millioner seere. En del af forklaringen er formentlig, at den blev sendt samtidig med finalen på American Idol.
Nightmares & Dreamscapes
2006
Series Directed by:
Rob Bowman (Umney’s Last Case, 2006 samt The Fifth Quarter, 2006)
Mikael Salomon (The End of the Whole Mess, 2006 samt Autopsy Room Four, 2006)
Mark Haber (Crouch End, 2006)
Brian Henson (Battleground, 2006)
Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (The Road Virus Heads North, 2006)
Mike Robe (You Know They Got a Hell of a Band, 2006)
Series Writing Credits:
Lawrence D. Cohen (The End of the Whole Mess, 2006)
Peter Filardi (The Road Virus Heads North, 2006)
Stephen King (8 episodes, 2006)
Kim LeMasters (Crouch End, 2006)
Richard Christian Matheson (Battleground, 2006)
Mike Robe (You Know They Got a Hell of a Band, 2006)
Alan Sharp (The Fifth Quarter, 2006)
April Smith (Umney’s Last Case, 2006 samt Autopsy Room Four, 2006)
Otte fortællinger baseret på noveller fra samlingen Nightmares & Dreamscapes fra 1993 samt Manden i det sorte jakkesæt fra 2002
Blandt instruktørerne ses danske Mikael Salomon, som står bag to af afsnittene: ‘The End of the Whole Mess’ samt ‘Autopsy Room Four’. Min personlige favorit er dog seriens første afsnit ‘Battleground’, der er instrueret af Brian Henson. William Hurt er fremragende i den ordløse i hovedrolle som lejemorderen, der pludselig kommer under belejring af en uventet fjende. Om den episode skriver Shaun Anderson: “In conclusion one would have to say Battleground is easily one of Stephen King’s best moments on the small screen. It offered an impressive start to Nightmares & Dreamscapes, which it was never likely to maintain.”
Om idéen til serien skriver Scott von Doviak, at den fulgte i kølvandet på Garris’ succesfulde horror antologi serie Masters of Horror. TNT, der havde haft succes med tv-genindspilningen af ‘Salem’s Lot ønskede at fortsætte samarbejdet med King, og det blev startskuddet til: “[…] a Stephen King anthology series. The network commissioned Bill Haber’s Ostar Enterprises to develop eight scripts based on King’s short stories. ‘We picked eight that we thought we could adapt most successfully,’ Haber said in a TNT press release. ‘We had to pick the ones that were avaible because some had already been adapted into motion pictures.’”
1408
2007
Director: Mikael Håfström
Writers: Matt Greenberg (screenplay), Scott Alexander (screenplay), Larry Karaszewski (screenplay)
Baseret på novellen ‘1408’ fra novellesamlingen Manden i det sorte jakkesæt
1408 er instrueret af svenske Mikael Håfström med John Cusack i hovedrollen som forfatteren Mike Enslin og Samuel Jackson som hoteldirektøren. Ifølge Scott von Doviak var det Quentin Tarantino som foreslog Jackson til rollen, som ellers både Stephen King og filmens manuskriptforfattere snarere havde set som en britisk type á la Michael Caine. Men som de måtte erkende: “If Samuel Jackson tells you to stay out of a room, there must be something very wrong with it.”
Efter test screeninger af filmen besluttede man at ændre slutningen, så filmholdet blev indkaldt til at filme en ny finale. Det virkede tilsyneladende, for filmen blev en box office succes med et budget på $25 millioner og en omsætning på godt $132 millioner! King selv kaldte 1408 for: “a horror movie that actually horrifies … Like one of the great old Val Lewton films, this baby works on your nerves, not your gag reflex.”
Filmen vandt en ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards for ‘Top Box Office Films’ og var nomineret til to Saturn Awards: Best Horror Film og John Cusack for Best Actor.
Anmelderne var generelt begejstrede for filmen som Austin Chronicle kalder for “one of the best King adaptations for the screen” og fortsætter: “The movie appeals to an old-fashioned sense of horror, a psychologically based creep-out that again differs from the current horror trend of randomly occurring torture porn. And I guarantee that you will never again be able to hear Karen Carpenter croon “We’ve Only Just Begun” – one of the film’s signature motifs – without letting loose an involuntary shudder of fear.”
The New York Sun kalder filmen: “if not a masterpiece, a thoroughly competent, perfectly enjoyable horror flick” og mener at: ““1408” is well worth checking out. Just don’t check in.” Mens RollingStone slutter deres anmeldelse af med ordene: “Heebie-jeebies are guaranteed.”
Jeg var personligt ikke vild med filmatiseringen, men måske skal jeg give den en chance mere.
The Mist
2007
Director: Frank Darabont
Writers: Frank Darabont (screenplay)
Baseret på kortromanen ‘Tågen’ fra novellesamlingen Skeleton Crew fra 1985
Frank Darabont er en instruktør, der har haft et langt samarbejde med Stephen King. Hans debut som instruktør var The Woman in the Room fra 1984, en kortfilm bygget på Stephen Kings novelle ‘Kvinden i værelset’ fra Nightshift som en del af Kings ”Dollar babies” koncept. Scott von Doviak skriver: “[…] King recalls 1977 as the year that student filmmakers began writing him letters about his short stories, wanting to make short films out of them. “Over the objections of my accountant, who saw all sorts of possible legal problems, I established a policy which still holds today.” For the price of a dollar, a student filmmaker could secure permission to make a film based on one of King’s short stories – with certain stipulations […].”
I 1994 instruerede Darabont Shawshank Redemption og i 1999 The Green Mile begge både box-office og anmelder-successer. Også The Mist klarede sig fint i box-office med et budget på $18 millioner og en omsætning på godt $57 millioner.
Filmsiden ReelViews kaldte filmen for:
“[…] what a horror film should be – dark, tense, and punctuated by just enough gore to keep the viewer’s flinch reflex intact. In fact, that movie’s ending is so uncompromising that one must assume director Frank Darabont had final cut so the studio couldn’t interfere. (It’s worth noting that the ending is not the same as that of Stephen King’s novella, but I won’t mention how it has changed.) Darabont has fashioned a tense motion pictures that’s ultimately more about paranoia, religious fanaticism, and the price of hopelessness than it is about monsters. But the creatures are present and accounted for, lurking in the white-out that is the mist. Someone has finally succeeded where John Carpenter failed with The Fog.”
Filmen var nomineret til flere Saturn Awards, og Marcia Gay Harden vandt en for Best Supporting Actress for rollen som den religiøse Mrs. Carmody. Det blev også til tre Fright Meter Awards for Best Director, Best Horror Movie og endnu en pris til Marcia Gay Harden for Best Supporting Actress.
Dolan’s Cadillac
2009
Director: Jeff Beesley
Writers: Richard Dooling (screenplay)
Baseret på novellen ‘Dolans Cadillac’ fra novellesamlingen Nightmare & Dreamscapes fra 1993
John Shelton beskriver i sin anmeldelse,hvordan King filmatiseringer langt overskygger andre forfatteres. Selv forfattere med flere hundrede år på bagen som Charles Dickens når ikke op i samme antal filmatiseringer som King. Omend Poe og Lovecraft måske når samme højder, hvis man tæller alt med. Dermed bliver kvaliteten også svingende, og om Dolans Cadillac skriver han: “The range of quality that comes with Stephen King movies is also remarkable. Some of them are among the most highly acclaimed and beloved films of modern times and others are utter, irredeemable crap involving killer industrial laundry machines or worse, Mick Garris. At this point, it doesn’t matter. If Stephen King writes it, you can bet that somebody’s going to make an adaptation of it, whether it deserves one or not. Which brings us to “Dolan’s Cadillac”, a King short story that really has no business at all being made into a feature film.”
På rollelisten ses Christian Slater i rollen som gangsteren Dolan og Wes Bentley som Robinson.
I USA udkom Dolan’s Cadillac direkte på dvd den 6. april 2010, omend den fik biografpremiere enkelte steder i udlandet.
2010’erne
Bag of Bones
2011
Series Directed by Mick Garris (2 episodes, 2011)
Series Writing Credits: (2 episodes, 2011), Matt Venne (2 episodes, 2011)
Baseret på romanen Knogler fra 1998
Skønt Mick Garris havde ønsket at lave en biograffilm over Bag of Bones, endte det endnu en gang med en mini tv-serie, denne gang på A&E. Premieren faldt den 11. december 2011 og blev aftenens mest sete program med 3,4 millioner seere.
Mini tv-serien i to afsnit vandt en ACTRA Maritimes Award samt Young Artist Award og var nomineret til yderligere to priser. Den blev rimeligt modtaget af anmelderne. Blandt andet skrev Cinematic Addiction: “Stephen King’s Bag of Bones is a very good film, though. Although I’m committed to calling it a ‘film,’ it does feel a bit wrong since the ‘film’ feels more like a TV show – a TV show with a lot of commercial breaks. That was one of my minor gripes. The blatant fades for the commercial breaks made the storytelling feel a bit disjointed. It just doesn’t work well with this type of story. Anyway, the rest of the film is good. Hell, it’s even occasionally great. It’s an engaging blend of supernatural mystery and horror. Some of the characters are a bit comical, as in overdone, but everything feels unique. The film has personality. If you’re a fan of jump-scares, this one has quite a few. Thanks to the moderate suspense, most are jolting, too. There isn’t much to say about it because it certainly wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t magnificent, either. It was just good, which is perfectly fine.”
På rollelisten ses blandt andre Pierce Brosnan (der også spillede med i The Lawnmower Man, filmen som King sagsøgte for at få fjernet sit navn) samt Caitlin Carmichael, der vandt ‘Best Performance in a TV Movie, Miniseries or Special – Supporting Young Actress’ for sin rolle som Kyra Devore.
Under the Dome
2013 – 2015
Series Directed by:
Jack Bender (9 episodes, 2013-2014), Peter Leto (5 episodes, 2013-2015), David Barrett (4 episodes, 2013-2015), Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (2 episodes, 2013-2015), Kari Skogland (2 episodes, 2013), Eriq La Salle (2 episodes, 2014-2015), Edward Ornelas (2 episodes, 2014-2015), Peter Weller (2 episodes, 2014-2015), Roxann Dawson (1 episode, 2013), Paul A. Edwards (1 episode, 2013), Niels Arden Oplev (1 episode, 2013), Miguel Sapochnik (1 episode, 2013), Holly Dale (1 episode, 2014), Ernest R. Dickerson (1 episode, 2014), Dennie Gordon (1 episode, 2015), Sam Hill (1 episode, 2015), Olatunde Osunsanmi (1 episode, 2015), P.J. Pesce (1 episode, 2015), Lee Rose (1 episode, 2015)
Series Writing Credits:
Brian K. Vaughan (creator) (39 episodes, 2013-2015), Adam Stein (8 episodes, 2013-2015), Peter Calloway (6 episodes, 2013-2015), Andres Fischer-Centeno (4 episodes, 2013-2015), Caitlin Parrish (4 episodes, 2013-2014), Cathryn Humphris (4 episodes, 2014-2015), Alexandra McNally (4 episodes, 2014-2015), Daniel Truly (3 episodes, 2013-2014), Tim Schlattmann (3 episodes, 2015), Scott Gold (2 episodes, 2013), Mark Bruner (2 episodes, 2014-2015), Brian Peterson (2 episodes, 2014), Kelly Souders (2 episodes, 2014), Bronwyn Garrity (2 episodes, 2015), Rick Cleveland (1 episode, 2013), Soo Hugh (1 episode, 2013), William Kendall (1 episode, 2014), Neal Baer (1 episode, 2015), James C. Oliver (1 episode, 2015), Sharla Oliver (1 episode, 2015)
Baseret på romanen Under kuplen fra 2010
Danske Niels Arden Oplev instruerede pilot-episoden, der dags dato har en score på 7,8 på IMDB.
Serien blev nomineret til fem Saturn Awards samt en række andre priser, og vandt Critics’ Choice TV Award for ‘Most Exciting New Series’.
Tim Goodman fra The Hollywood Reporter skrev: “It’s only one episode out of 13 and a whole lot of things can go sideways, but CBS’s summer series from Stephen King, Under the Dome, set the hook pretty deep. Count me in.” Og slutter: “[…] it sure helps that the first hour is intriguing as hell and filled with a lot of storytelling promise. If viewers catch the pilot, they’ll be back for the next episode. Some critics, too.“
A Good Marriage
2014
Director: Peter Askin
Writer: Stephen King (short story)
Baseret på novellen ‘Et godt ægteskab’ fra samlingen Helt mørkt, intet lys fra 2010
Stephen King har selv skrevet manuskriptet til A Good Marriage, der har navne som Joan Allen og Anthony LaPaglia på rollelisten.
Filmen har fået blandede anmeldelser, men Cinematic Addiction er dog rimelig tilfreds: “Overall, I liked A Good Marriage. The performances were great, the story was at least somewhat interesting, and the direction wasn’t half-bad. Although it lacked some in the story department, I was able to watch the film from beginning to end without pausing or checking the runtime. The film isn’t as bad as I expected – Netflix predicted I’d give this film a one star rating! If you like psychological films and don’t need a ferocious pace to enjoy your films, this may be worth your time.”
Big driver
2014
Director: Mikael Salomon
Writers: Richard Christian Matheson (teleplay)
Baseret på novellen ‘Den store chauffør’ fra samlingen Helt mørkt, intet lys fra 2010
Filmen var nomineret til en OFTA Television Award for ‘Best Motion Picure’ samt Canadian Cinema Editors Award for ‘Best Editing in Television Movie or Mini-Series’.
Anmeldelsen fra Tales of Terror er dog langt fra positiv: “Big Driver is one of King’s worst adaptations. It’s extremely low-key. It’s so simple it is stupid. With its eccentric approach, it tries to be more than a TV movie. It basically romanticizes rape with no tact and with awkward humor.”
Til gengæld er Paul Mavis fra DVDTalk begejstret. Han slutter sin omfattende anmeldelse af med ordene: “I guess women can do anything they want with their own bodies…except defend them. A bunch of liberal critics danced around Big Driver, huffing and puffing about its violence, and its rape scene, and supposed script problems, but trust me: they hated this ballsy, starkly powerful exploitation winner because they simply refused to process its unequivocal, unrepentant story about a rape victim’s redemption and ultimate empowerment through cruel, brutal, unforgiving Old Testament “eye for an eye” justice. Socko performances from all involved, a brutal, funny, beautifully-built script, and harsh-yet-hypnotic, inexorable direction, make Big Driver one of the best made-for-TV movies I’ve seen in some time. I’m highly, highly recommending Big Driver.”
På rollelisten ses blandt andre Maria Bello og Will Harris.
11/22/63
2015
Series Directed by:
James Strong (2 episodes, 2016), Frederick E.O. Toye (2 episodes, 2016), John David Coles (1 episode, 2016), James Franco (1 episode, 2016), James Kent (1 episode, 2016), Kevin Macdonald (1 episode, 2016)
Series Writing Credits:
Bridget Carpenter (developed for television by) (8 episodes, 2016), Quinton Peeples (3 episodes, 2016), Brigitte Hales (1 episode, 2016), Joe Henderson (1 episode, 2016), Brian Nelson (1 episode, 2016)
Baseret på romanen 22.11.63 fra 2013
TV-serien på 8 afsnit vandt en Saturn Award for ‘Best Presentation on Television’ samt en ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards for ‘Top Streaming Series’, og var nomineret til en række andre priser.
På rollelisten ses blandt andre James Franco i hovedrollen som Jake Epping.
Collider skriver i sin anmeldelse af serien: “On broadcast, 11.22.63 might have ended up as a sanitized, “hey look, it’s the 60s!” kind of series that wouldn’t have been half as compelling as it is on Hulu, where it is often violent, scary, and profane. A series certainly doesn’t need to be any of those things to be good (and some of 11.22.63’s profanity seems to veer off the edge of “wow, no censors!”), but this isn’t a story about admiring the past. It’s edgy and gritty and doesn’t fall into a winking wonderment at a bygone era. Jake’s cocky attitude about his historical hindsight is soon replaced with fear and confusion about being in a time that is far more complex that he was prepared for, especially in the ways it both pushes him away and pulls him in. Ultimately, a lot of 11.22.63’s success hinges on the likability of Franco as Jake, and he achieves that in spades. He’s charming but not smug, earnest but not dull, and his performance feels believably hopeful and also beleaguered, as Jake hones in on Oswald and those he believes are part of the conspiracy.”
Cell
2016
Director: Tod Williams
Writers: Stephen King (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Puls fra 2006
Kim Newman så Cell, som var Frightfests åbningsfilm, og skrev blandt andet: “There used to be jokes that Dino de Laurentiis would make a theatrical feature film out of Stephen King’s Laundry List; there was indeed a three-film franchise spun off from Big Steve’s laundry-based horror story The Mangler. Lately King adaptations have tended to be TV miniseries (Bag of Bones), TV movies (Big Driver) or TV series (Under the Dome). In the ‘80s and ‘90s, he was almost the dominant force in theatrical horror – even films (like A Nightmare on Elm St) not based on his works seem permeated by his sensibilities (as does the current Stranger Things, which even sort-of rhymes with his name). The most recent big screen King film was the remake of Carrie, which traded more on associations with Brian DePalma. So this smart, persuasive, intriguing take on King’s cellphone/zombie novel is a refreshing throwback. All it needs is a ‘Stephen King’s’ possessory credit to fit comfortably into his filmography.”
På rollelisten ses blandt andre John Cusack og Samuel Jackson, der også spillede sammen i King-filmatiseringen 1408.
The Mist (2017-)
2017
Series Directed by:
Guy Ferland (2 episodes, 2017), Nick Murphy (2 episodes, 2017), Adam Bernstein (1 episode, 2017), David Boyd (1 episode, 2017), James Hawes (1 episode, 2017), Richard Laxton (1 episode, 2017), Matthew Penn (1 episode, 2017), T.J. Scott (1 episode, 2017)
Series Writing Credits:
Christian Torpe (developed for television by) (10 episodes, 2017), Amanda Segel (3 episodes, 2017), Andrew Wilder (2 episodes, 2017), Peter Biegen (1 episode, 2017), Noah Griffith (1 episode, 2017), Peter Macmanus (1 episode, 2017), Daniel Stewart (1 episode, 2017), Daniel Talbott (1 episode, 2017)
Baseret på kortromanen ‘Tågen’ fra novellesamlingen Skeleton Crew fra 1985
Serien modtog to nomineringer, Young Artist Award samt The Joey Awards.
Dansk-serbiske Danica Curcic spiller rollen som Mia Lambert.
Om tv-serien skriver The Review Geek: “[…] The Mist has an interesting concept but its never full realized. It feels like a pale imitation of the film its based on, attempting to be clever with a “humans are the real evil” theme that just doesn’t work. The script does the characters no favours and the plot is riddled with issues that are more obvious than they should be due to the slow pace the show adopts. The horror elements and some of the scenes set within the mist are really well done, with a great understanding of horror and tension but the real horror here is how much time we spend with characters that, quite frankly, just aren’t that endearing or likeable. There’s certainly potential, but its wasted in a show that spends more time on its meaningless subplots than focusing on whats in the mist which makes for a frustrating watch in a show that doesn’t really have much going for it.”
The Dark Tower
2017
Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Writers: Akiva Goldsman (screenplay), Jeff Pinkner (screenplay), Anders Thomas Jensen (screenplay), Nikolaj Arcel (screenplay),
Baseret på serien om Det Mørke Tårn
Mr. Mercedes
2017
Series Directed by:
Jack Bender (24 episodes, 2017-2019), Laura Innes (3 episodes, 2017-2019), John David Coles (1 episode, 2017), Kevin Hooks (1 episode, 2017), Peter Weller (1 episode, 2018)
Series Writing Credits:
David E. Kelley (created by) (30 episodes, 2017-2019), Sophie Owens-Bender (20 episodes, 2017-2018), Mike Batistick (10 episodes, 2018), Dennis Lehane (8 episodes, 2017-2018), Jonathan Shapiro (6 episodes, 2018-2019), Bryan Goluboff (4 episodes, 2017-2018), Alexis Deane (2 episodes, 2018), Samantha Stratton (2 episodes, 2018), A.M. Homes (1 episode, 2017)
Baseret på bøgerne om den pensionerede politimand Bill Hodges: Mercedesmanden, De der søger og Vagt forbi
IT – Part 1: The Losers’ Club
2017
Director: Andy Muschietti
Writers: Chase Palmer (screenplay), Cary Joji Fukunaga (screenplay) (as Cary Fukunaga), Gary Dauberman (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Det onde fra 1986
Gerald’s Game
2017
Director: Mike Flanagan
Writers: Mike Flanagan (screenplay), Jeff Howard (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Geralds farlige leg fra 1991
1922
2017
Director: Zak Hilditch
Writers: Zak Hilditch (screenplay)
Baseret på historien ‘1922’ fra samlingen Helt mørkt, intet lys fra 2010
Castle Rock
2018 –
Series Directed by:
Michael Uppendahl (3 episodes, 2018), Greg Yaitanes (2 episodes, 2018-2019), Ana Lily Amirpour (1 episode, 2018), Daniel Attias (1 episode, 2018), Andrew Bernstein (1 episode, 2018), Kevin Hooks (1 episode, 2018), Nicole Kassell (1 episode, 2018), Julie Anne Robinson (1 episode, 2018), Craig William Macneill (1 episode, 2019), Loni Peristere (1 episode, 2019)
Series Writing Credits:
Sam Shaw (created by) (20 episodes, 2018-2019), Dustin Thomason (created by) (20 episodes, 2018-2019), Stephen King (10 episodes, 2018), Heather Thomason (10 episodes, 2018), Scott Brown (4 episodes, 2018-2019), Mark Lafferty (2 episodes, 2018), Vinnie Wilhelm (2 episodes, 2018), Marc Bernardin (1 episode, 2018), Lila Byock (1 episode, 2018), Gina Welch (1 episode, 2018), Vince Calandra (1 episode, 2019), Tom Spezialy (unknown episodes)
Baseret på figurer og steder fra Stephen Kings Castle Rock univers
Pet Sematary (2019)
2019
Directors: Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer
Writers: Matt Greenberg (screen story), Jeff Buhler (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Dyrekirkegården fra 1983
IT: Chapter Two
2019
Director: Andy Muschietti
Writers: Gary Dauberman (screenplay)
Baseret på romanen Det onde fra 1986
In the Tall Grass
2019
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Writers: Vincenzo Natali
Baseret på romanen In the Tall Grass fra 2012 som King skrev sammen med sin søn Joe Hill
Doctor Sleep
2019
Director: Mike Flanagan
Writers: Mike Flanagan
Baseret på romanen Doktor Søvn fra 2013
2020’erne
The Outsider
2020
Series Directed by:
Andrew Bernstein (6 episodes), Jason Bateman (2 episodes, 2019-2020), Charlotte Brändström (1 episode, 2020)
Series Writing Credits:
Stephen King (novel) (9 episodes, 2019-2020), Richard Price (9 episodes, 2019-2020),
Baseret på romanen Outsideren fra 2018
The Stand
2020
Josh Boone (2 episodes, 2020-2021), Bridget Savage Cole (2 episodes, 2020-2021), Danielle Krudy (2 episodes, 2020-2021), Chris Fisher (2 episodes, 2021), Vincenzo Natali (2 episodes, 2021), Tucker Gates (1 episode, 2020)
Series Writing Credits:
Stephen King (based on the novel by) (9 episodes, 2020-2021)
Josh Boone (developed by) (9 episodes, 2020-2021)
Benjamin Cavell (developed by) (9 episodes, 2020-2021)
Teleplay by Josh Boone, Benjamin Cavell, Owen King, Stephen King, Jill Killington, Knate Lee, Eric Dickinson, Taylor Elmore
Lisey’s Story
2021
Series Directed by:
Pablo Larraín (8 episodes, 2021)
Series Writing Credits:
Stephen King (based on the novel by) (teleplay by) (8 episodes, 2021)
Chapelwaite
2021-2023
Series Directed by:
David Frazee (2 episodes, 2021), Rachel Leiterman (2 episodes, 2021), Michael Nankin (2 episodes, 2021), Jeff Renfroe (2 episodes, 2021), Burr Steers (2 episodes, 2021)
Series Writing Credits:
Jason Filardi (developed for television by) (10 episodes, 2021), Jason Filardi (written for television by) (5 episodes, 2021), Peter Filardi (developed for television by) (10 episodes, 2021), Peter Filardi (written for television by) (5 episodes, 2021), Stephen King (based on the short story “Jerusalem’s Lot” by) (8 episodes, 2021) Stephen King (based on the short story “Jerusalem’s Lot”) (2 episodes, 2021), Scott Kosar (written for television by) (3 episodes, 2021), Declan De Barra (written for television by) (2 episodes, 2021)
Firestarter
2022
Director: Keith Thomas
Writers: Scott Teems
Baseret på romanen Brandstifter fra 1980
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone
2022
Director: John Lee Hancock
Writers: John Lee Hancock
Baseret på novellen ‘Mr. Harrigans telefon’ fra novellesamlingen Blodtørst, 2021
The Boogeyman
2023
Director: Rob Savage
Writers: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, Mark Heyman
Baseret på novellen ‘Bussemanden’ fra novellesamlingen Natholdet, 1978
Læs mere
IMDB
Scott Von Doviak: Stephen King Films FAQ, 2014
Stephen Jones : Creepshows – the Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide, 2001
Ann Lloyd: The Films of Stephen King, 1993