|
EmmyOk posted:To put something like DT onscreen I think you'd need something like The Shining's approach. Where you take the core elements and base a story on that. The series as it is wouldn't translate well at all to the screen, in my opinion. I was just thinking that if King is still pissy about The Shining all these years later he's probably going to have a conniption about his magnum opus being changed in any way to actually be, you know, filmable.
|
#
?
Sep 20, 2013 21:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 16, 2024 04:27 |
|
|
King was fairly insulated from Kubrick's meddling, wasn't he? I imagine he'd probably be cool with a lot of tweaks as long as he's consulted as he is, after all, the author of the source work.
|
|
#
?
Sep 20, 2013 22:51
|
|
|
Blade_of_tyshalle posted:King was fairly insulated from Kubrick's meddling, wasn't he? I imagine he'd probably be cool with a lot of tweaks as long as he's consulted as he is, after all, the author of the source work. They tweaked a ton of under the dome with his consent, no reason the dark tower wouldn't work similarly.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 04:03
|
|
|
Seventh Arrow posted:I think the movie has its own merits apart from the book, but an interesting set of comments nonetheless. King doesn't get to complain about misogyny in adaptations of his early worsk. Holy poo poo, this is the guy that wrote Frannie Goldsmith and Susan Norton and oh right Wendy Torrence. There's something astoundingly dense about him thinking Wendy has any depth in the book.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 04:48
|
|
|
There are plenty of people, there always have been, who dislike how Wendy was portrayed in Kubrick's film. She's not much at all like the book version, but where she is it's in all the worst ways.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 04:54
|
|
|
Horns is $1.99 in the kindle store today.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 17:23
|
|
|
Thanks. I've never read any of his books, but for two bucks I'll throw it on my Kindle for a rainy day. Is it well-liked around here?
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 20:50
|
|
|
Kingnothing posted:They tweaked a ton of under the dome with his consent, no reason the dark tower wouldn't work similarly. I was thinking about Susannah Dean in this respect. Yes, they could "Lt. Dan" her legs away, but it wouldn't be a big deal to have her have full length legs and still be a paraplegic.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 21:16
|
|
|
No, this is a new age where you get actors with disabilities to play characters with the same. There's deaf actresses, actors with cerebral palsy, or missing limbs, whatever. I'm sure somewhere out there is a black actress with no legs below the knee who would do the role spectacularly well. And if not, Rutina Wesley has a date with a chainsaw.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 21:22
|
|
|
Dr. Faustus posted:Thanks. I've never read any of his books, but for two bucks I'll throw it on my Kindle for a rainy day. Is it well-liked around here? For whatever it's worth, I enjoyed Horns a lot more than NOS4A2. It's worth the 2 bucks. I just pre-ordered Dr. Sleep for my Kindle. I have a feeling it's not going to live up to the hype, but I still feel like I have to read it. Let's hope I'm wrong. The guy is getting up there in age, I'm just happy he's still writing and I don't think he's lost any of his story-telling magic yet.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 21:31
|
|
|
Kingnothing posted:They tweaked a ton of under the dome with his consent, no reason the dark tower wouldn't work similarly. And that worked out well. I love King's work, but honestly, King's track record with adaptions of his stories pretty much speaks for itself. The ones he's been heavily involved with have not been the best ones. It's almost a joke that one of the best adaptations, if not the best adaptation, is the only one he hates.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 21:57
|
|
|
In the way you have films inspired by true stories I think a series/film would only work if it was DT inspired rather than a true adaption. I only know Rutina Wesley from True Blood and I hated her character in that. Regardless, Gina Torres is the only Susannah
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 22:53
|
|
|
Blade_of_tyshalle posted:No, this is a new age where you get actors with disabilities to play characters with the same. There's deaf actresses, actors with cerebral palsy, or missing limbs, whatever. I'm sure somewhere out there is a black actress with no legs below the knee who would do the role spectacularly well. Except there are all the scenes from before she loses her legs. As with the Clint Eastwood's son thing I'd prefer they go with the best actor/actress for the role, instead of one who just happens to look most like the character.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 22:56
|
|
|
I would be surprised beyond surprised if an adaptation bothered over much with flashbacks to anyone's life. There's so many other things to show in a Dark Tower adaptation than spending all that time and money on Detta Walker fuckin' small-dicked honky mahfahs in 1950's parking lots and obsessing over smashing plates as a child. Anyway, Rutina Wesley is still who I'd pick as Odetta & Co. She does pretty well in True Blood with those rapid oscillations between Normal Person and Completely Batshit Insane. And again, Clint Eastwood and his son look nothing like Roland. I don't know why people keep saying that. Roland is described explicitly in Song of Susannah as looking just like Stephen King, who we also know looks nothing like Clint Eastwood.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 23:07
|
|
|
I don't really feel like trawling through the final book again but I'm pretty sure he just says that they share a few similar qualities not that they look that alike. As I recall King repeatedly said A young Eastwood was the inspiration right down to the Bombardier Blue eyes
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 23:20
|
|
|
Blade_of_tyshalle posted:And again, Clint Eastwood and his son look nothing like Roland. I don't know why people keep saying that. Roland is described explicitly in Song of Susannah as looking just like Stephen King, who we also know looks nothing like Clint Eastwood. He's also described explicitly as looking like Clint Eastwood and like the Terminator. And more than anything he's the archetype of the gunslinger, and that's the Man with No Name (read: Clint Eastwood).
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 23:29
|
|
|
DirtyRobot posted:He's also described explicitly as looking like Clint Eastwood and like the Terminator. And more than anything he's the archetype of the gunslinger, and that's the Man with No Name (read: Clint Eastwood). This, mostly. I think you are referencing the bit in DoT where Roland is control of the serial killer Jack Mort. He is described as terminator like there because it takes Roland a while to think about the policeman's questions before replying. Which made Mort look blank and robotic between answers. If you mean a different scene apologies.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 23:32
|
|
|
EmmyOk posted:This, mostly. No, that's the one. Whoops. I was remembering the dumb cop standing up in the theatre yelling "that's the guy!" but I forgot why.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 23:41
|
|
|
muscles like this? posted:Except there are all the scenes from before she loses her legs. As with the Clint Eastwood's son thing I'd prefer they go with the best actor/actress for the role, instead of one who just happens to look most like the character. Doesn't she loose her legs at like 13?
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2013 21:42
|
|
|
Kingnothing posted:Doesn't she loose her legs at like 13? No, she loses her legs when she's an adult. I don't think King gives her exact age though.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2013 21:45
|
|
|
muscles like this? posted:No, she loses her legs when she's an adult. I don't think King gives her exact age though. I think she was about 25. She was five when she was hit by the brick and the subway incident is about twenty years later.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2013 22:15
|
|
|
She was hit with the brick when she is very young, which is also what leads to her multiple personalities (I think). Not sure on what age she was for the legs though. e:beaten to it
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2013 22:17
|
|
|
Yeah, the brick is definitely what created Detta Walker. She talks about being a kid and smashing her auntie's special plates, which is not something Odetta would do.
|
|
#
?
Sep 22, 2013 22:27
|
|
|
...of SCIENCE! posted:I was just thinking that if King is still pissy about The Shining all these years later he's probably going to have a conniption about his magnum opus being changed in any way to actually be, you know, filmable. Was he that pissy about the Shining? I can't remember. The only one I know for a fact is that he wanted his name removed entirely from the abomination that was the Lawnmower Man.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 01:59
|
|
|
The Lawnmower Man one was because they didn't actually adapt the short story, instead just using the name and plastering King's name all over it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 02:02
|
|
|
It was many years before I realized that the story and the movie were even tangentially related. It has to be among the most ridiculous "adaptations" in Hollywood history.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 03:01
|
|
|
When you hear stories about how Kubrick "consulted" with Stephen King about The Shining you can kind of understand why he was pissed about it all from the get-go. I remember seeing some video of him telling the story of Kubrick calling him like first thing in the morning (inconsiderately because of the time difference) and immediately asking King "Don't you think stories about the supernatural are always optimistic by their very nature? I think so, because they imply that there is some sort of existence after death. And that's an extremely optimistic concept!" edit: After I wrote this post I found the video and I guess it's a bit apropos, the qualities lovely but whatcha gonna do, it's intelligible at least. My recollection was fairly accurate but Stephen King telling the story himself informally is way better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x98qcNZ8Fz0 kaworu fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Sep 23, 2013 |
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 03:20
|
|
|
Just listened to Rage and The Long Walk, having last read them when I was a teenager. Rage is OK, though I wish it had a better narrator, and I know we'll never get a new one. But the Long Walk was astounding. I actually teared up a few places. I love all the questions it doesn't answer about the wider world around the Walk, or why the Walk happens. And as I'm watching football today it makes me think a lot of Serious Thoughts about grinding people into uselessness for our entertainment.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 04:36
|
|
|
Read Pet Semetary for the first time in 25 years or so (read it when I was 12 or so originally). Didn't make much of an impression on me the first time, but holy poo poo is that a dark book. Even when there's nothing explicitly bad happening, every page just has this kind of rank despair oozing from it. Even in dark stories like It, there was always a sense of humor and even fun that helped counterbalance the darker tones. Dreamcatcher was originally going to be called Cancer, right? If any book deserves that title, it's Pet Semetary.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 16:03
|
|
|
rypakal posted:Just listened to Rage and The Long Walk, having last read them when I was a teenager. Rage is OK, though I wish it had a better narrator, and I know we'll never get a new one. But the Long Walk was astounding. I actually teared up a few places. I love all the questions it doesn't answer about the wider world around the Walk, or why the Walk happens. And as I'm watching football today it makes me think a lot of Serious Thoughts about grinding people into uselessness for our entertainment. The Long Walk is second only to the Running Man, in my opinion.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 16:38
|
|
|
Here's a Dr. Sleep review posted a day early, mostly positive, slight basic overview spoilers, says the ending is actually quite good: http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/1796768/stephen-kings-dr-sleep-keeps-a-shining-dream-alive/?cs=61
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 17:27
|
|
|
Khizan posted:The Long Walk is second only to the Running Man, in my opinion. Both are truly excellent, and both benefit from being shorter than his average novel and having a natural, easy, and abrupt ending.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 18:40
|
|
|
regulargonzalez posted:Read Pet Semetary for the first time in 25 years or so (read it when I was 12 or so originally). Didn't make much of an impression on me the first time, but holy poo poo is that a dark book. Even when there's nothing explicitly bad happening, every page just has this kind of rank despair oozing from it. Even in dark stories like It, there was always a sense of humor and even fun that helped counterbalance the darker tones. I totally agree with this. I haven't read King's most popular/best works yet (It, The Shining, etc), but Pet Semetary was one of the first books if King's I read, and it really is one of the most depressing books I've ever come across. Right from the start, you know what's going to happen and how the whole story will pan out, but instead of ruining it for you it just deepens the sense of hopelessness and inevitability of it all. The worst part is that you're constantly aware that what the main character does is so obviously, extremely wrong (like when the cheerleader splits off from the rest of the group in a cheap horror movie), but at the same it's totally understandable and you'd probably do the same thing even if you knew better. Good god, that book really, really left me feeling bad.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 18:41
|
|
|
Taeke posted:I totally agree with this. I haven't read King's most popular/best works yet (It, The Shining, etc), but Pet Semetary was one of the first books if King's I read Pet Semetary is one of his best books.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 19:00
|
|
|
Pet Sematary and Night Shift were my introductions to King. At the time all I read was Piers Anthony. Hey, I was about 13. My Mom was part of some club where they sent her books every month, and those were two she gave me. After school one afternoon, sitting the quiet of the family room alone before Dad was due home, for a minute I was sure, sure that if I turned around and looked in the kitchen I'd see little resurrected evil Gage in his burial suit with the moss on the shoulders. That book hosed with me, hard; and so did most of Night Shift.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 19:24
|
|
|
Khizan posted:Pet Semetary is one of his best books. I figured as much. I've got quite a bit of his books now, including The Stand (which was awesome), the Kennedy one (can never remember the date), Under the Dome and some others, but while all of them were awesome, none of them had an impact on me such as Pet Semetary did. They were all thrilling, and at times... I don't know, horrifying but not really, but none of them were dreadful the way Pet Semetary was. It's one of the few books that really stuck with me on an emotional level. I couldn't just shrug my shoulders and move on or forget about it. It probably has to do a lot with the fact that I read it when I wasn't in the best place in my life and at an age when many of my friends started getting married, moving in together and some of them even having children, so I was able to relate a lot more than I would've otherwise.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 19:34
|
|
|
I like the film of Pet Sematary. I think it's a pretty good adaptation of the book, keeping the mood and events intact while also being a good film. There's some really gorgeous visuals in there, too, like the wide shot of the miqmaq grounds, with the spiral and the mounds everywhere. Ugh, gives me shivers thinking about it, man.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 20:51
|
|
|
Boy, I don't know if I'd call it one of King's best. It's one of his most effective, maybe, in accomplishing what it sets out to do, but that layer of filth and despair that infects every page made it a not terribly enjoyable read for me. I think my favorite works of King's are the ones that have a kind of vital, propulsive force that imbues them with a kind of narrative energy. The Running Man has that in spades. So does Firestarter, and if the middle drags a bit it's only in comparison to the rest of the book. Insomnia is another book where it just feels infused with dark thoughts and a feeling I can only liken to the low when a stimulant wears off -- whether that be caffeine or ephedrine or cocaine. Just a low, sick feeling.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 22:26
|
|
|
The pervasive feeling of filth and despair is what MAKES it one of his best books.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2013 03:43
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 16, 2024 04:27 |
|
|
I loved Pet Sematary when I was 14. Haven't read it in 15 years. I'd kind of like to, but now that I have young kids in the family that are more or less the kids I never had....yeah, it will be another 15 before I ever do it again. I'm way more afraid of grief than I am of my own death.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2013 04:05
|
|
