I didn't read the story but I did see the movie and liked it.
The Stephen King Megathread
- Thread starter Starbreaker
- Start date
I didn't read the story but I did see the movie and liked it.
Wow. Pretty awesome news indeed. One of my favorite authors of all time writing for one of my favorite series on right now......
There hasn't been any news other than they started writing a script last year.
I recently watched two King tv movies/miniseries I hadn't seen before: The Stand and The Tommyknockers. I read the stand a couple of times in the 1980s and read the unabridged version around four years ago, so the details of the book aren't cemented in my mind. But it still felt like a lot of characters were missing details and the miniseries wasn't as rich as the book. Not really surprising. What did surprise me is that I didn't hate the miniseries. I thought it was okay. Some of the portrayals didn't really work for me but some were pretty solid (Gary Sinise). A nitpick I have is King's appearance in the film. It really took me out of the moment and he kept popping up again.
I read Tommyknockers when it first came out (not even sure when that was but I'm pretty sure I haven't read any of King's work post-1990ish), so I only have this vague recollection of it being an okay read but weak in comparison to some of his other longer books. But either way the tv movie was atrocious.
Luckily I watched Tommyknockers first so The Stand looked even better in comparison.
I read Tommyknockers when it first came out (not even sure when that was but I'm pretty sure I haven't read any of King's work post-1990ish), so I only have this vague recollection of it being an okay read but weak in comparison to some of his other longer books. But either way the tv movie was atrocious.
Luckily I watched Tommyknockers first so The Stand looked even better in comparison.
The miniseries script was based on the original edition of the novel. Only one scene was taken from the unabridged version, so if that edition of the book is freshest in your mind, it's no surprise you'd feel things were missing.
I do tend to give the miniseries some slack when it comes to details. The original version of The Stand was about 800 pages, and that's an awful lot to squeeze in, even considering the show had about 6 hours of airtime to play around with. It's much the same problem Peter Jackson and his collaborators had with LOTR: deciding what advances the plot and what, while interesting, is basically filler.
I had my issues with the cast as well. Some were flat out awful (yes, Molly Ringwald, I'm talking about you), and others did credible work but just didn't fit the role (much as I like Jamey Sheridan as an actor, he didn't fit the character as King wrote him).
Pierce Brosnan is a great choice for this Bag of Bones adaptation... I just hope it doesn't suck. It's one of my favorite books of his.
After watching those two miniseries recently and realizing I hadn't read anything King wrote in the last 20 years, I picked up Cell. I thought it was a pretty fun read, nothing earth-shattering but definitely enjoyable. It's something I could see making a pretty good movie if they had a decent director.
Eli Roth? I'm not really a fan although I enjoyed Cabin Fever. I miss the days when King books got really interesting directors like Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg and Brian DePalma.
I think you'd need someone pretty special to pull off some of the weirder things in Cell like
without it seeming silly.
I think you'd need someone pretty special to pull off some of the weirder things in Cell like
the levitation and telekinesis