Editorials
Top 10 Stephen King Stories in Need of an Adaptation
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.
In a recent interview, filmmaker Christopher Nolan explained that he’s always been interested in directing a bona fide horror movie, with the award-winning director going so far as to praise genre creators for their continued risk-taking on the big screen.
If you’ve seen Nolan’s recently released The Odyssey, you’re likely aware that a scary movie helmed by the legendary director could be a very good idea.
After all, Nolan insisted on making use of old-fashioned movie magic and in-camera practical effects when shooting his adaptation of Homer’s epic. This retro approach made Odysseus’ encounters with mythological beings such as the giant cyclops that much more terrifying. By now, fans are undoubtedly aware that the massive creature was partially brought to life by an enormous puppet enhanced with near-invisible CGI, but there were also plenty of forced perspective shots where actor Bill Irwin actually chomped on disturbingly realistic replicas of Ithican soldiers.
As you can see in the below behind-the-scenes test footage shared by the Los Angeles-based Hamer FX, Irwin was given an assortment of latex dolls filled with fake blood and breakable skeletons that he could tear apart on camera. The darkness of Polyphemus’ cave covers up most of the gore in the finished film, but the moment remains a terrifying highlight in a movie that has a lot to say about the horrors of war.
Nolan actually requested these tiny edible soldiers for the flick because his vision for the iconic cyclops encounter was partially inspired by Francisco Goya’s disturbing mural of Saturn Devouring His Son. This mysterious piece is actually one of the artist’s infamous “Black Paintings,” which were found painted directly onto the walls of his old house near Madrid before a French baron ordered that the collection be transferred to canvas and assigned names for public viewing.
Details like these are what make me think that Nolan could pull off a genuinely scary horror picture if he came across the right idea. That being said, between the Fear Gas sequences in Batman Begins and Circe using body horror magic to transform men into pigs in The Odyssey, one might argue that he’s been preparing for such a task throughout his entire career.
The Odyssey is currently playing in theaters everywhere, though it’s definitely worth seeking out an IMAX screening if you can find one near you.
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