Movies that were as good as, or better than, the book

[Kyyle23]

It was definitely close.

 

For the thousand plus pages of material, and a minimal budget, the mini series did an amazing job concentrating on the main issues. After finishing the novel several years ago I honestly believed the aforementioned points (budget, made for tv) worked in its favor.

 

Some of the material, aside from the entire homosexual angle, just wouldn't work. Such as portraying the female member of their group as a whore, or the entire "Turtle" vomiting out the universe and 'IT' chilling underneath Derry since prehistoric times part.

 

With all the references to Stephen King in this thread, I'm surprised no one has yet to suggest the film version of Pet Sematary was better than the book. Even though I enjoyed the movie, after reading the book it's obviously several notches below. I heard they're remaking the film, so perhaps now they'll attempt to recreate the Gage/Old Man encounter; or the forest Wendigo.

 

Sometimes I think its best if Stephen King books are left alone after the first attempt(and second attempt for that matter. There was a Pet Sematary 2 starring the kid from Terminator 2). Maybe it will be a better go at it, but they really missed the boat on the first one.

 

There has been some great King books translated into movies. I thought that "Thinner"(although it was his penname Richard Bachman) was a really good low budget thriller and did a really good job of following the book. Cujo and Carrie are obviously classics, Hearts in Atlantis, Firestarter, etc

 

The bad thing is that for every good movie, there is about 2 bad ones that take its place with King. While I liked the movie(in a campy horror sort of way), "Maximum Overdrive" was nowhere near as good as the story, "The Mangler" is a great short story, bad movie(2 movies actually), "The Lawnmower Man" was NOT EVEN CLOSE to the actual short story, "The Children of the Corn" has been made and remade 50 times it seems and they never get it right.

 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000175/

 

Sometimes I look at that list of movies/books/novellas and I am amazed at what he has written. I havent read all of it, but I have read a good portion of it. If someone manages to pull off "The Dark Tower" series I will be a really happy guy, but the gravity of the storyline and everything it encompasses is a HUGE challenge.

[Iwritecode]

Some of the material, aside from the entire homosexual angle, just wouldn't work. Such as portraying the female member of their group as a whore, or the entire "Turtle" vomiting out the universe and 'IT' chilling underneath Derry since prehistoric times part.

 

That's exactly why I think the movie was much worse than the book. The movie ending was just horrible.

[Iwritecode]

Sometimes I look at that list of movies/books/novellas and I am amazed at what he has written. I havent read all of it, but I have read a good portion of it. If someone manages to pull off "The Dark Tower" series I will be a really happy guy, but the gravity of the storyline and everything it encompasses is a HUGE challenge.

 

I kind of have mixed feelings on them ever making any of the DT books into movies.

 

Many of the other stories that he's written that tie into the DT like Hearts in Atlantis and IT were made into movies and they completely removed the DT connection in the movie.

[Kyyle23]

I kind of have mixed feelings on them ever making any of the DT books into movies.

 

Many of the other stories that he's written that tie into the DT like Hearts in Atlantis and IT were made into movies and they completely removed the DT connection in the movie.

 

Yeah, thats why I think it is such a huge undertaking. Anyone just seeing the DT movies(and there would be MANY movies) without much SK background just wont see the references to the other books and would probably be confused about it.

 

And Clint Eastwood really couldnt pull of playing Roland anymore. Maybe 10 years ago, but not now