Stephen King's Dark Tower to become a film trilogy and tv series

Awesome novels

Why does a guy who writes such popular (And sometimes decent) books offer his writings up to become bad TV movies or at best B level big screen efforts? I know there are a couple of exceptions, but for the most part, this is very true... I'm just asking why...

LikesToFightGuy wrote:

Why does a guy who writes such popular (And sometimes decent) books offer his writings up to become bad TV movies or at best B level big screen efforts? I know there are a couple of exceptions, but for the most part, this is very true... I'm just asking why...

That's not always the case, look at Stand By Me,The Green Mile,Shawshank Redemption and quite a few of his horror novels.

These are being made by Universal, Ron Howard is going to direct the first move and first tv series.

Ali_1748 wrote:

LikesToFightGuy wrote:

Why does a guy who writes such popular (And sometimes decent) books offer his writings up to become bad TV movies or at best B level big screen efforts? I know there are a couple of exceptions, but for the most part, this is very true... I'm just asking why...

That's not always the case, look at Stand By Me,The Green Mile,Shawshank Redemption and quite a few of his horror novels.

These are being made by Universal, Ron Howard is going to direct the first move and first tv series.

Like I said Ali, there's a couple of exceptions. But for the most part his stuff has been made into bad TV movies that runs non-stop on cable or low budget big screen. He's had some 75 or so done and we can probably count on one hand the one's that were done really well. Just seems he isn't very picky about who and at what level his stuff is being done was my point...

LikesToFightGuy wrote:

Ali_1748 wrote:

LikesToFightGuy wrote:

Why does a guy who writes such popular (And sometimes decent) books offer his writings up to become bad TV movies or at best B level big screen efforts? I know there are a couple of exceptions, but for the most part, this is very true... I'm just asking why...

That's not always the case, look at Stand By Me,The Green Mile,Shawshank Redemption and quite a few of his horror novels.

These are being made by Universal, Ron Howard is going to direct the first move and first tv series.

Like I said Ali, there's a couple of exceptions. But for the most part his stuff has been made into bad TV movies that runs non-stop on cable or low budget big screen. He's had some 75 or so done and we can probably count on one hand the one's that were done really well. Just seems he isn't very picky about who and at what level his stuff is being done was my point...

From what I know if you write a kind letter to Stephen asking politely to make one of his novels into a movie he's quite generous.

I understand your point though.

Misery and The Shining are two other great King adaptations.

King has some good films out there. I think the low quality of some of his titles overshadows the good though. He is batting around .400 I would say. I thought these films were good or better:
Carrie
Salem's Lot
The Shining
Stand By Me
Green Mile
Christine
Misery
The Shawshank Redemption
Hearts in Atlantis
1408
Secret Window
The Dead Zone

GDPofDRC wrote:

King has some good films out there. I think the low quality of some of his titles overshadows the good though. He is batting around .400 I would say. I thought these films were good or better:
Carrie
Salem's Lot
The Shining
Stand By Me
Green Mile
Christine
Misery
The Shawshank Redemption
Hearts in Atlantis
1408
Secret Window
The Dead Zone

Considering he's had some roughly 75 made into a movie or mini-series of some sort, according to your list he's batting well under the Mendoza line. For my finicky taste, he's batting around .066 though as I can only think of maybe 5 or so I'd go out of my way to watch. Not a very good track record... Back to single A, Stevie... lol

There are more than 5 good works created by King or others based on Kings writings. When I see the 50 or so short stories made into tv/film I'll be more qualified to give a real number. But the significant works are what I am really drawing from.

Me too... But unlike you I'm not going out of my way to watch Carrie, Salem's Lot, Christine, Hearts in Atlantis, 1408, Secret Window or The Dead Zone. Awful?... No. But just not what I consider quality movie making. My list is around five or so. Love The Shining, Shawshank and The Green Mile... And will watch Stand By Me and Misery. Everything else is pretty painful for me to stomach.

I liked some of those much more in the 80's and won't go out of my way for them toady either. Time doesn't treat the majority of films very well. Only the few really exceptional ones.

GDPofDRC wrote:

I liked some of those much more in the 80's and won't go out of my way for them toady either. Time doesn't treat the majority of films very well. Only the few really exceptional ones.

Agreed. Much of what seemed incredible in the 70's and 80's certainly doesn't stand the test of time. And much of what seems lame today would have been ahead of its time and damn near Oscar worthy then... And I won't even touch the 40's-60's out of respect to the early days of cinema.