A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

It (2017) AKA It: Chapter One Directed by: Andy Muschietti Screenplay by: Chase Palmer & Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman Starring: Jaeden Lieberher, Bill Skarsgard, Wyatt Oleff, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Chosen Jacobs, Nicholas Hamilton, Jackson Robert Scott From Page to Screen On September 15, 1986, Viking Press, a division of Penguin Random House, published It, a 1,138 horror novel by Stephen King set in the fictional town of Derry, Maine. In It, seven pre-adolescent children band together as the "Losers' Club" and confront It, an evil entity that exploits their innermost fears and takes many forms, including that of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. The novel depicts the Losers' Club's efforts to defeat It in two time periods - the late 1950s and 1985 - and often alternates between the two eras. Dust jacket of the original 1986 hardcover edition. Art by Bob Giusti. Lettering by Amy Hill. (C

In 2011, even before Scribner (a division of Simon & Schuster) published Stephen King's time travel novel  11/22/63, director Jonathan Demme ( The Silence of the Lambs ) announced that he had acquired the film rights. He was intrigued by its premise - a 21st Century high school English teacher travels back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963.  Demme would write the screenplay and direct the feature film, while King would be the project's executive producer. It was a good idea on paper, but the reality was something entirely different. According to Rolling Stone's Andy Greene, "[t]he book...had  a rather rocky first step on its road to the screen. Director Jonathan Demme was the first license to it, though King had complete veto power over every aspect of the project. "He was pretty adamant that it be a theatrical film," says the bestselling author. "It was like, 'Jon, I don't kno

What do you get when you combine the talents of writer-director Lawrence Kasdan, whose films are character-driven and meditative, and Stephen King, whose stories often focus on ordinary people in extraordinary (and often horrific) situations? You probably expect to see an odd hybrid that is part “The Big Chill,” part “Stand by Me.” Well, if you toss in a smidgen of thematic material from Byron Haskin’s 1953 invaders-from-Mars classic “The War of the Worlds,” the result of such a mashup is Kasdan’s 2003 film “Dreamcatcher,” a science fiction/horror tale based on King’s eponymous 2001 novel. Co-written by Kasdan (“Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) and William Goldman (“A Bridge Too Far,” “Misery,” “The Princess Bride”), “Dreamcatcher” tells the tale of four lifelong friends (played by Damian Lewis, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, and Timothy Olyphant) who stumble upon an alien invasion while on their annual hunting trip to a cabin near Derry, Maine. Kasdan be

(C) 1985 Warner Bros. “Silver Bullet” (1985) AKA: “Stephen King’s Silver Bullet” Directed by Dan Attias Written by Stephen King, based on the novella “Cycle of the Werewolf” Starring: Gary Busey, Everett McGill, Megan Follows, Corey Haim, Terry O’Quinn Uncle Red : I mean, uh, what the heck you gonna shoot a .44 bullet at anyway... made out of silver? Mac : How about a werewolf? Stephen King’s prolific nature  has earned him the dubious honor of having written the most novels or stories adapted for theatrical release. Ranging from the ridiculous (“Maximum Overdrive” ) to the sublime (“The Shawshank Redemption,” “Stand By Me”), movies based on King’s fiction have attracted audiences since Brian De Palma made “Carrie” in 1976. Some King fans say, tongue in cheek, that if Hollywood ever got its hands on the best-selling author’s laundry list, it, too, will be adapted into a movie If you ask me on which end of the quality spectrum I’d place 1985’s “Silver