Since "Carrie" was made into a movie in 1976, more than two dozen of Stephen King's novels and stories have been adapted for movies or television. With varying degrees of success.
And that's something that surprises even King himself."It's kind of hard to believe," he said. "I think one of the reasons that so many films have been made out of my stuff is because readers respond to that idea of `There's a movie here and it's just waiting to be translated to some other medium.' And a lot of times, I think they come a-cropper because they find out that maybe it's not quite as easy as it seems to be at first.
"But I've never had a problem with rolling the dice and seeing if various people can make a really good movie out of my work."
He will readily admit that while he likes some of movies that have been adapted from his works, he doesn't like others.
- "I'm not a fan of all horror movies that have been made from my work. But I like very much the film . . . that (`The Stand' director) Mick (Garris) made from my original screenplay `Sleepwalkers.' I thought it was great. I thought it was particularly great before Columbia executives got ahold of it."
- "I liked `IT' very much. I thought they did a great job."
- "I liked `Tommyknockers' a little bit less, but I think it's adequate TV. That sounds very snotty, doesn't it? Adequate TV.
"But I thought that they did a pretty decent job with a book that wasn't top drawer to begin with."
- "I like `Pet Sematary' a lot. I was pleased with the way that turned out."
- "Some of the things have turned out to be real cole slaw. `Graveyard Shift' is not going to stand in film history. Neither is `Children of the Corn.' "
- "But on the other hand, when Rob Reiner wanted to do `Stand By Me' he had no money and I was advised against doing the deal, because it was a real question about whether he could ever finish production."
- "I do not care for the Arnold Schwarzenegger film that was made out of `The Running Man' very much at all. It's not very much like the book and I like that book a lot."
- "There are adaptations of my work that I think have been excellent. I think that (screenwriter) Larry Cohen, who did `Carrie' and then work on `IT' and `Tommyknockers,' did a fantastic job of compression. More than I could do."
- As for the scripts he's written himself, "I'll tell you the truth, and this is no bull - of everything I've done, when I look at `The Stand' and I hear the words, at least I don't want to throw up. I look at it and on the whole I'm pretty proud of it."
- Although he said he liked "Misery," he doesn't want to see a "Misery II."
"There will never be a sequel to `Misery.' I don't think. I think that one is done."
- And he's also not going to sell the rights to his series of "Dark Tower" books.
"I've been approached about films on those and I just don't want to sell them."
King said that he has no regrets about selling the rights to any of his books, even if he hated the movie that resulted.
"I remember some critic said to James M. Cain . . . `What do you think, Mr. Cain, about the way they've butchered your books on the screen,' " King said.
"And Cain said, `They haven't butchered a-one of them. Look, they're all right up there.' And he pointed to his shelf and they were all lined up."
King said that's the tack he takes even with movies he hates like "The Running Man."
"So I didn't like the movie, but I kept my mouth shut and now the movie's gone," King said. "It shows up once in a while on cable TV.
"But otherwise, the book rules. It's in the bookstores. It's in print. And a lot more people ultimately are going to be familiar with the book than with the movie, because movies don't have the staying power that books have."