Posted on 05/13/2010 8:42:31 AM PDT by Hoodat
Steven is a democrat, but I have loved his work for most of my life. First story of his that I read was “The Langoliers”. It was some fantastic sience fiction I suppose, great, great story. I have read a great many of his books since then, and I have always enjoyed the movies made of them, even though some were low budget.
Steven King is a real treasure, especially for those of us who like horror.
Oh please, Lord, impart wisdom into the director, actors and screenwriters to make this great series of books into a great rendition. And you’re right, Hoodat. You can’t cram those seven wonderful books into a three-part movie.
I like his books but the movie treatments are best left for the Made for TV set.
I think Ron Howard is a poor choice of director for this undertaking.
Exactly.
What’s with ‘King’s answer to Lord of the Rings’?
Has King ever stated that?
I wonder if they’ll be able to get Anthony Hopkins to reprise his role of Ted Brautigan from “Hearts In Atlantis.”
King has written that his generation's mythology, and the fiction that grew from it was largely influenced by LOTR. His original intent was not so much "an answer" to LOTR, but to develop a mythology of similar sweeping, epic proportions. He was also heavily influenced by the Eastwood "man with no name" spaghetti westerns. A few years back, leading up to the publication of #VII, the reprint of the earlier paperbacks had a pretty extensive foreward esplaining where his influences came from, where they had taken him, and where he was going.
That said, I consider that tome to be The Great American Apocalyptic Novel. It has never been surpassed, IMO.
I agree that the made-for-TV version of The Stand was a poor rendition, and Molly Ringwald was a bad choice.
Have you read Swan Song? I put that one up there with The Stand as well.
Very uneven. Extremely good stuff, along with pure cr*p. Much of it doesn't do well on the screen.
Have you ever read his "On Writing"? He admits to (even embraces) the title of "America's schlockmeister", acknowledging that he writes some of his stuff merely because it sells and he has bills to pay, and takes his time crafting more deliberate works that he feels are his serious literature, but knows will not sell as well.
I agree, his stuff generally doesn't translate well to film ("Stand By Me" and "Hearts In Atlantis" being two exceptions). I'd like to see the "Dark Tower" films do well, but I don't see it being done in three feature length films, and I don't think Ron Howard is the best choice of director for these. Roland Deschaines meets Sheriff Andy Taylor.
The ending in the tower was disappointing. After building it up for so long, it was almost as if he decided, “That van almost killed me. Screw this: I’ll wrapt it in a neat little package and call it good.”
My daughter asked me why Frodo and Sam didn’t just hitch a ride on an eagle, drop the ring in the crack of doom and they’re home for supper.
I suppose for the same reason King’s characters rarely ride in vehicles, e.g. if they just went through a door and there’s the Tower, kill the Crimson King, shows’s over.
hey, you could do that in the first chapter of the Gungslinger.
And that reminds me: his understanding of fireams is pathetic. And so forth and so on.
TV. Opie will screw this pooch.
Would be interesting to see if they can pull it off. Personally I am still waiting on the film adaptation of “Cell”, one of the few books that I could not put down. Thought the movie was supposed to be out this year.
Agreed. It seemed like King was in a hurry to get it over with. There was such a long gap between books 3 & 4 and another between 4 & 5. I don't think he ever wanted to finish the series, but felt he was obligated to do so.
I am not sure how they will handle book four, Wizard & Glass, since it predates the others. But on that book alone, King could have written a sequel. There is so much information that is missing between Roland's youth and his quest.
While that's probably my favorite of the seven, it could probably be covered as a series of flashbacks over the course of the three films.
On another note, for those thinking about buying “Under the Dome”, don’t bother, it’s the most anti-Christian, anti-Military, anti-American horror book I have ever read in my entire life.
Actually I believe that King was imitating or paying homage to H. P. Lovecraft, not Tolkien. This isn’t his answer to Lord of the Rings, rather his stab at approaching the erie genius that was the father of all the horror and sci-fi horror genre.
They should make some of Lovecraft’s stories into movies or TV series. Now that would be something to see.
I agree, I just wish he’d stay out of politics. He surprised me with some of his remarks, because Roland and a lot of his characters have a more conservative flavor.
The first book I read by King was Salem’s Lot. It was around 2:00 am when I was reading the part where the women and the boy were opening the cellar door to drive a stake in the heart of the vampire. They opened the coffin and it was empty. The cellar door was flung open, and there was the vampire.
At the exact same second when I was gripping the book as I got to the part where the cellar door opened, a cat fight erupted on my front porch, and a cat tried to jump through my picture window.
I jumped up and yelled (or screamed) and the dog was going nuts, woke my wife and she was ready to call 911. Ha!
Robert McCammon.
One of my favorites. I actually liked it a little better than the Stand.
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