Stephen King has been quoted as saying, “Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They both are fruit, but taste completely different.” And he should know: the prolific author has had no less than 50 of his novels, novellas and short stories adapted into films, miniseries and TV shows over the last four decades. Among those are “The Shining” (celebrating its 35th anniversary this year) and “It,” the remake of which just lost director Cary Fukunaga.
So just what did he think of all these adaptations? King famously despised Stanley Kubrick's “The Shining,” which in a 2009 Writer's Digest interview he claimed was the only adaptation of his work he could “remember hating.” But that's just the most well-known example. What, pray tell, were his feelings on “Cujo”? “Firestarter”? “The Shawshank Redemption”? “The Mangler” even? After combing through the internet, I've tracked down King's quoted opinions on more than 20 of his feature-film adaptations, from Brian De Palma's “Carrie” to Frank Darabont's “The Mist.” But first, a couple of notes:
1. I limited the list to feature films.
2. If I wasn't able to locate the original source of the quote, I didn't include it in the roundup. Therefore, a number of titles, including “Christine,” “Creepshow 2” and “Thinner” had to be dropped. (If I come across reliably-sourced quotes at a later date on any of the films not included here, I'll be sure to add them.)
Are you ready, Constant Reader? Full roundup below.