stepoway@smu.UUCP (04/27/84)
#R:cbscc:-235900:smu:15300003:000:302 smu!stepoway Apr 27 12:45:00 1984 The other thing to remember about movie adaptations is that the movie should be judged on its own merits, and not necessarily compared to the book. Just because a movie is not "faithful" to the book does not necessarily mean the movie is bad, just different. Steve Stepoway SMU
donn@sdchema.UUCP (Donn Seeley) (05/05/84)
About Stephen King screenplays -- There is a short interview with Stephen King in this month's LOCUS (May '84, #280) in which he mentions that he wrote two screenplays this year (CATSEYE, an original for di Laurentiis, and THE STAND for George Romero), but his track record in the past for movies based on his novels hasn't been so good: 'There's been a lot of criticism of some of the films based on my work, saying that they left out this or that. I've done screenplays for CUJO and THE DEAD ZONE, but they were rejected on the grounds they were too complex as far as motivation. The feedback I get is that the audience has actually missed that stuff.' [p. 50] I really missed the lack of a King script for THE DEAD ZONE, at least; I think it would have been a much (read 'MUCH!') better movie with a script from the author. It seems however that THE STAND will be filmed with a King script, and that it has been King who has pruned the manuscript for the screenplay down to 171 pages by the fourth draft, or about three hours worth of film. I think the book needed some tightening up, and the fact that King has done the editing himself on the script is very encouraging. King has also written two new novels and co-authored a third... Read all about it in LOCUS! Donn Seeley UCSD Chemistry Dept. ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!donn 32 52' 30"N 117 14' 25"W (619) 452-4016 sdcsvax!sdchema!donn@nosc.ARPA