Stephen King is, all of a sudden, a hot property again. One of the major forces in popular literature of the past forty-odd years, it’s been a few years since the last major King adaptation, but a wealth of projects from the director are on their way in the next few years.
Ron Howard finally has a backer for his epic adaptation of the author’s fantasy series “The Dark Tower” in the shape of Media Rights Capital; Ben Affleck is attached to a two-movie adaptation of “The Stand“; Cary Fukunaga is planning the same approach for “It“; a “Carrie” remake is due next spring starring Chloe Moretz; a prequel to “The Shining” is in the early stages while King will release novel sequel “Doctor Sleep” next year; Brian K. Vaughan is adapting “Under The Dome” for Showtime; Justin Long is starring in Tom Holland‘s “The Ten O’Clock People“; Jonathan Demme is working on “11/22/63“; and there’s many, many more in the works as well (and his son Joe Hill is following in his father’s footsteps too — the adaptation of his novel “Horns” starts filming any day now).
What’s more is that today marks the still-prolific King’s 65th birthday, and so to celebrate the seminal genre master’s happy day, we thought we’d pick out five of our favorite big-screen adaptations of King’s work. You may not agree, and there are some omissions that may prove a little controversial, But feel free to argue your case in the comments section below.
“Carrie” (1976)
The horrors of going through puberty in a hormone-infested institution full of your peers can be related to by more than most, but it takes the special combination of Stephen King and Brian De Palma to come up with a horror film that’s both as terrifying and deeply felt as “Carrie.” Based on King’s debut novel, it opens with oddball Carrie White (an Oscar-nominated Sissy Spacek) getting her first period (something her monstrous, fundamentalist Christian mother — Piper Laurie — never prepared her for) in the shower, and being tormented by her classmates as a result. As it turns out, Carrie has telekenetic powers so this, and their subsequent prom prank, turns out to be something of a mistake. De Palma brings all his Hitchcockian skills to racking up the tension, but crucially, it’s his empathy with his central character (De Palma’s abilities as a director of women are still underrated) that makes Carrie into a classic, pitiable yet terrifying movie monster that can hold court next to Bela Lugosi‘s Dracula and Lon Chaney‘s Wolf Man. One could argue that the film’s dated a little over the past twenty-five years, but even so, Kimberley Peirce has an awful lot to live up to with next year’s remake.