Stephen King has experienced enormous success seeing his many novels and short stories being brought to life in both cinema and the small screen. When you’ve written as much content as he has and earned the reputation that he’s acquired, it’s not exactly surprising that so many of works have seen adaptation–some even several times over, occasionally with King helping the scripting duties himself. King fans are usually quick to praise some of the writer’s more formative page-to-screen adaptations, such as The Shining, Misery, It, The Shawshank Redemption, or even more recent fare on television like Under the Dome and 11/22/63, but the author still has a rich library that’s remained untouched. We thought we’d highlight some of the more deserving and interesting works of his that could stand to go through the process, and who knows, maybe we’ll be seeing some of these stories come to life before you know it.[/tps_header] [tps_title][/tps_title]
The Bill Hodges Trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, End of Watch)
Dream Director: David Fincher (Zodiac, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo)
The Bill Hodges Trilogy might be some of the finest work to come out of the later stage of King’s career. It’s almost as if he fell in love with this world and these characters as much as the audience did and just had to keep telling stories through the infinitely affable Bill Hodges. Mr. Mercedes opens with Brody Hartsfield, the Mercedes Killer, running a car into a crowd of people, taking eight lives and injuring many more. Rather than these stories being particularly scary, King instead weaves a dazzling piece of crime fiction that involves some of the most addictive cat-and-mouse storytelling that I’ve ever read. Brody Hartsfield is one of King’s most interesting and sociopathic antagonists and watching him and Hodges egg each other on is just something that needs to be seen on screen. Finders Keepers might be a detour from Hodges and Brody’s game, but it’s the sort of detour that fleshes the world out in a crucial way, not unlike The Wire’s second season. While these stories tell an epic crime yarn, King surprisingly finds a way to turn the concluding chapter, End of Watch, into a supernatural showdown that even calls back to Carrie in a number of satisfying ways. Watching this masterful saga come to life through movies or a lengthier television show should be too tempting of an opportunity. Someone like David Fincher, whose patient, aggressive storytelling that’s evident in works of his like Zodiac and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo would be perfect for bringing this adrenaline rush of a series to life.