Yo…
Apologies if you read the email I sent out yesterday, I scheduled it wrong. The English language is tricky. I don’t feel as if I’ve mastered it. You’ll get that newsletter next week so think of it as a preview.
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I was home alone one dark and stormy night watching Maximum Overdrive on cable.
This was the 1986 movie Stephen King not only adapted from his own work (King’s short story Trucks in Night Shift) but also directed. And…not very well either. (In an interview in a 2003 book Hollywood’s Stephen King he basically disowned the movie.)
Still before all that that I was watching it, barely a teen…all alone as thunder clapped and lightening slashed the night sky. Maximum Overdrive is about all machines on Earth suddenly becoming sentient and embarking on a killing spree.
The primary monster is a malevolent Green Goblin truck. Just as the Green Goblin truck was racing head on towards the camera…the lights and TV went out.
Only this was an old school TV: the image of the Green Goblin truck burned on the screen for a heartbeat before eventually fading and the TV went black.
A little fearpee came out and I sat there, creeped out in a dark house with no power as a storm outside raged on.
Scary yes but thankfully this was Maximum Overdrive and not The Shining or even Carrie.
Just as Iron Man big banged the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008 so too we’ve been consuming Stephen King adaptations since Brian De Palma’s Carrie in 1976.
Perhaps that helps to explain Maine’s state slogan, which recently changed from “Vacationland” to “The Way Life Should Be.”
We’ve seen an elevator open and blood spill out, we’ve developed a healthy fear of clowns and we’ve even gone on a quest to see a dead body.
It’s been an incredible pop culture journey: first with Stephen King’s novels then the adaptations that have followed.
Parked at that crossroads of horror movies and King adaptations is King On Screen a documentary directed by Daphné Baiwir.
Attached is a fresh My Summer Lair episode: an interview with director Daphné Baiwir talking about King on Screen.
No need to suffer in silence…we all have Stephen King adaptation emotions:
Which horror movie did you watch as a kid that you were way too young to watch?
What’s your favorite Stephen King adaptation?
Who would win a fight: Pennywise The Dancing Clown vs Homey D. Clown?
In his memoir On Writing (published in 2000) Stephen King shares a word of advice he gratefully received from his mother.
Just a small child he showed her stories he copied from the comic books he enjoyed reading. Sometimes he’d add his own unique twists to these printed stories.
Stephen King’s mother reviewed these copycat stories and asked an obvious question: did he write the story? To his credit little Stevie King was honest and told her he had copied most of it from comic books.
“Write one of your own, Stevie,” she said. “I bet you could do better. Write one of your own.”
He listened to his mother and began writing.
I’ve just told you how the story started but you’ve always known how it’s unfolded. Almost 70 novels later; he’s still following his mother’s powerful inspiration: “Write one of your own, Stevie.”
As Constant Readers we’re grateful to his mother for that Firestarter spark. That tender motherly spark ignited an eternal flame of pop culture. More than just books Stephen King’s work has created a Loser’s Club of directors who’ve adapted his work. From Kurbrick’s Shining to Flangan’s Doctor Sleep to Darabont’s Shawshank Redemption.
To Carrie on that tradition is King On Screen, a documentary directed by Daphné Baiwir. In King on Screen she talks to many of the directors who’ve adapted King’s stories asking them to push back the Mist on their creative process and to share how they successfully crafted their Creepshows.
Stephen King is the most adapted writer and as if these works were buried in a Pet Sematary there’s multiple versions of many stories. You know how IT goes: Sometimes They Come Back, right?
“Filmmakers want to express their love for that material: it feeds itself and becomes this self-perpetuating cycle of references, homage and celebration.”
~ Mike Flanagan (Quoted from King on Screen)
In King On Screen you’ll hear from Taylor Hackford who directed Dolores Claiborne. Tom Holland got us Thinner, after Tod Williams told us to hang up our Cell phones. All while we slowly walked The Green Mile with Frank Darabont. Plus many more directors and adaptations.
King on Screen is a fascinating documentary because as much as Stephen King has thrilled us and frightened us, these adaptations empower King’s imagination with a distinct visual language.
If you watched Tim Curry’s IT in the 90s you know exactly what I mean. There’s an obvious reason why most of my generation is frightened of clowns.
As you’ll hear in my conversation with director Daphné Baiwir King on Screen is made by Stephen King fans for Stephen King fans.
Shall we explore The Dark Half of making a Stephen King adaptation?
The horror documentary King On Screen is playing in theaters since August 11th and available On Demand and Blu-Ray on September 8th.
It’s also playing in Toronto at Hot Docs Cinema.
A wild fun fact from King on Screen.
Of course Frank Darabont is talking about The Shawshank Redemption. (Which is one the best King adaptations. S’up there with Misery and It(s).)
I was startled to learn the original plan for Shawshank was Frank is the writer, Rob Reiner would direct and...Tom Cruise would star instead of Tim Robbins. What, yo...that doesn’t work at all!
Reiner as director...fine. I can live with that. Though Darabont killed it as the movie’s director.
But Tom Cruise? Nah, man that’s so wrong. The audience is supposed to buy that instead of (literally) dangling off guard towers White Man Jackie Chan "broke out" of prison by simply fudging taxes?!
Shawshank as it was is truly well cast; it’s one of the reasons why it works. (Even Frank as the director was the correct choice.)
I'm grateful Frank went back to the studio and insisted on directing the movie while rejecting Tom Cruise. Otherwise we’d all have been trapped in that long poop tunnel at the end.
Christine Is Just A Haunted Self-Driving Car…
Sammy Younan
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
Poop Tunnels & Bloody Elevators: This Is King On Screen