Stephen King Names the Worst Book-to-Movie Adaptation of All Time

Stephen King is one of the best people to ask about movies based on books. He’s a famous writer, and many of his stories, more than 55, have been turned into movies. Because of that, he knows what works and what doesn’t when books become films.

Some movies based on his work are really popular, like The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining, Misery, and The Green Mile. But King has also seen some big failures.

For example, Maximum Overdrive is often called one of the worst book-to-movie adaptations ever. Another one he didn’t like was Tobe Hooper’s The Mangler. Even The Shining, one of his most famous stories, caused him frustration because he felt the director, Stanley Kubrick, didn’t get his main character, Jack Torrance, right.

Since King has experienced both good and bad movie versions of his books, he has an interesting view on how books should be adapted. In an interview with Feast of Fear, he talked about whether it bothers him if a movie stays true to his book.

He said, “I love the movies. I love to go to good horror movies. As for my own books, well, you have to make a basic decision: do you want to sell to the movies or not? What it comes down to is, you have to take a ‘worst case’ attitude—if they screw this up, how am I going to feel?”

This shows he’s realistic about the whole process. Many writers don’t like seeing changes made to their stories or characters, but King is okay with it. He explained, “I don’t care if they destroy it, if they make a terrible movie out of this book, because they can’t destroy the book. The book stands.”

Even though he enjoys movies, King believes books are still better art. He said, “I’m a book person. Movies are very nice, but they’re not high art the way I think books are high art.”

King also talked about how some bad movies can make people think less of the books they’re based on. One example he gave was The Day of the Dolphin, a film from 1973 starring George C. Scott.

It was based on a novel by Robert Merle. King said, “Sometimes a perfect book becomes a terrible movie. My favourite example of that is The Day of the Dolphin; I thought it was a lovely book, but Mike Nichols just didn’t do it right.” The movie tried to stay true to the book, even including talking dolphins, but many critics didn’t like it. The director said it was the hardest film he ever made.

Because King has seen both the best and worst of book-to-movie adaptations, his opinions carry a lot of weight. When he points out movies like Maximum Overdrive or The Day of the Dolphin as bad adaptations, it shows he really understands what can go wrong.

If you want to hear from someone who truly knows about adapting books into movies, Stephen King is a great person to listen to. His experience as a writer and the success and failures of his stories on screen give him a clear and honest view of what makes an adaptation work—and what doesn’t.

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