“I sent my books to film like parents send their children to college, hoping that they do well and don’t fall into the traps along the way. I offer advice when asked. If not, I just keep quiet and hope for the best, knowing that my books are still there, on the shelf. When I write stories, it’s just me and my keyboard against the world,” American writer Stephen King recently confessed.
Known for his disturbing psychological thrillers and horror novels, King is one of the most revered and prolific authors of our time. He published his first story in 1967 and since then he has been the owner of one of the most fruitful and popular literary works in history. Throughout his 50-year career, he has written 65 novels, more than 200 short stories and has sold more than 350 million copies.
Since “Carrie” came to light in 1974, whose wonderful film adaptation by Brian De Palma and starring Sissy Spacek was released just two years later, her creations had an enormous impact. In its plot, a shy girl, socially marginalized and raised by a violent and religious fanatic mother, discovers that she has the power of telekinesis. The film’s worldwide gross was $33.8 million.
From that moment on, King’s work and cinema became inseparable, shining in film after film, some unforgettable and others irrelevant. There is one piece of information to understand the magnitude of the bond: their stories have been adapted to film or television in more than 400 audiovisual productions, 30 of which have not yet been released.
Those who were in charge of bringing them to the screen were some of the most notable filmmakers of the 20th century. In addition to the aforementioned De Palma, the list includes Stanley Kubrick (“The Shining”), John Carpenter (“Christine”), David Cronenberg (“The Dead Zone”), Rob Reiner (“Stand by Me” and “Misery”) and Frank Darabont (“Dreams of Freedom” and “Unexpected Miracles”), among others.
That makes him, at 78 years old, the second author in history with the most film adaptations, only behind Shakespeare. Counting “The Life of Chuck”, with Tom Hiddleston, four of King’s stories will have reached the screens by the end of 2025. In addition to the aforementioned, “The Monkey” and “The Long Walk” (or “Walk or Die”) were adapted for the first time. The fourth, “The Running Man” (or “The Survivor”), arrives almost 40 years after the version starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The most outstanding
“The Shining,” directed by Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson in 1980, is considered one of the best horror films of all time. It tells the story of Jack Torrance, who works as a concierge at an isolated hotel in Colorado during the winter. There, with his wife Wendy and son Danny, he hopes to finish his writing project.
But when they are alone, Jack, immersed in hallucinations, goes crazy. King famously was not enthusiastic about that version and has stated that “a visceral skeptic like Kubrick simply could not understand the inhuman evil of the Overlook Hotel.”
Among the most relevant is “Misery”, published in 1987, about a novelist who is a prisoner of his number one fan, a psychopath. The film version (1990) was a great success with critics and audiences. Kathy Bates gives an absolutely terrifying performance as former nurse Annie Wilkes, which earned her an Oscar for Best Actress.
In contrast, “The Shawshank Redemption,” starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman as two prisoners who find hope while serving their sentences, was a flop when it was released, but was nominated for seven Oscars in 1996.
While “The Green Mile” (“Unexpected Miracles”, 1999), about a prison guard who discovers that one of the men under his surveillance has extraordinary powers, raised $286.8 million with a cast led by Tom Hanks.
Recent successes
Among the most resonant adaptations is “It” (2017), directed by our compatriot Andy Muschietti, which became the highest-grossing horror film in history with $701.7 million worldwide. Its sequel, “It: Chapter Two,” starring Bill Skarsgård again as Pennywise, grossed $473 million.
We must not forget the miniseries “IT: Welcome to Derry”, which HBO released weeks ago. Created by Andy and Barbara Muschietti along with Jason Fuchs and Brad Kane, the series racked up 5.7 million viewers in its first three days and is second only to “House of the Dragon” and “The Last of Us.”
The events follow a group of teenagers haunted by their nightmares in the town where Pennywise awakens every twenty-seven years, while a secret Department of Defense mission attempts to recover a buried weapon that generates paralyzing terror.
The most recent
What makes King’s stories end up such good movies? He is not only a master of horror, but also of people and their emotions, as demonstrated by many of his stories that are not scary, but are thought-provoking. Essentially, its protagonists are always ordinary people subjected to exceptional circumstances.
Whether he’s weaving a massive story involving eras and cosmic horror or a mundane small-house drama, King understands how his characters work and how his audience reacts to experiences like grief, fear, or resilience.
A year before beginning his “reign of terror” with “Carrie,” and while he was a high school teacher, he wrote “The Running Man” in just 72 hours, under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Today, with the remake directed by Edgar Wright and starring the ascendant Glen Powell, it is one of his darkest and most prophetic stories.
The director said he still remembers sweating as he read an email in which King suggested notes to the script, page after page: “After a while, my heart couldn’t take it,” Wright joked, comparing it to handing in homework “to the most famous English teacher in the world.”
The book presents a dystopian society where a deadly television show turns desperate people into “runners” pursued for a month by professional killers, in a race to survive and make money. In this new adaptation, Powell (“Top Gun: Maverick” and “Twisters”) plays Ben Richards, a desperate man who enters the deadly game to save his sick daughter.
Francis Lawrence, director of the sequels and prequels to “The Hunger Games,” brought the story of “Walk or Die” to the movies. During pre-production, and with the author’s approval, he modified the speed of the boys’ march and changed the ending of the book. King began “The Long Walk” when he was in high school, in the midst of the escalation of the Vietnam War.
The young people are desperate to take part in a 500+km walk where each receives up to three warnings if they slow down or stop; the fourth involves a shot to the head. Although it has a large cast, the plot focuses mainly on two characters: Ray (played by Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Peter McVries (David Jonsson, from “Alien: Romulus”).
In the end, Stephen King not only gives his stories to the audiovisual world: he accompanies each adaptation with the gaze of someone who knows his creatures intimately. As he himself confessed, it is a silent duel between the pen and the screen. As long as his books continue to find their way into the hands of filmmakers and readers alike, that creative battle promises to keep us trapped, generation after generation.
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