Things you only figured out after all these years.

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  • edited December 2014
    karingal wrote: »
    Stephen King hated it and wasn't happy the way Kubrick filmed and changed it, so that's good enough for me...

    But he did love The Mist. Which is an awesome film - with an ending even King himself has said he wish he had thought up.
  • edited December 2014
    But he did love The Mist. Which is an awesome film - with an ending even King himself has said he wish he had thought up.
    I've not seen that one so I'll have to check the ending of it, if I remember correctly King left the book ending pretty much open-ended so that the reader didn't know what would happen.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • edited December 2014
    Wow, that is far darker than the book ending, no wonder King wishes he had thought of it.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • edited December 2014
    murtceps wrote: »
    There is a town in Bedfordshire called Kempston, from where the electronics company took its name from, as it was based there.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kempston

    You didn't know that?! :o

    I grew up there. It's a right sh?t-hole!
    The comp.sys.sinclair crap games competition 2015
    "Let's not be childish. Let's play Spectrum games."
  • edited December 2014
    leespoons wrote: »
    You didn't know that?! :o

    No, that's why I posted It here.
  • edited December 2014
    karingal wrote: »
    I've not seen that one so I'll have to check the ending of it, if I remember correctly King left the book ending pretty much open-ended so that the reader didn't know what would happen.



    Oh, it's a fair film (a bit like a film-version of a Half-Life episode) but the daft ending has got to go down in history as one of the absolute worst. It's the most ridiculous, "School-play" ending I've ever seen. I honestly could not believe it. The sort of silly thing I did in Drama-class when I was 12!
  • edited December 2014
    You can open bananas from the other end. Apparently that's the way monkeys do. As soon as I found out I had to try - and it works!

    As for the Mist; yes it is a bit like a level from Half Life! Personally (as far as King movies go) I thought it was pretty neat. As for the ending; I certainly never saw that coming, and as for King not thinking about it; pretty much all his books are open-ended or have happy endings (at least for the main character(s)). Not always, but very often.
  • edited December 2014
    You can open bananas from the other end. Apparently that's the way monkeys do. As soon as I found out I had to try - and it works!

    I saw a monkey fiddling with itself at a zoo.

    I too had to give it a try, and I am now banned from Chester zoo!
  • edited December 2014
    murtceps wrote: »
    No, that's why I posted It here.

    Fair enough... I'd heard of Ashby-de-la-Zouch when I was playing Ultimate games though! :p

    (to be fair I was a bit sad as a kid and used to spend hours poring over maps, wondering what life was like in such exotic places like Kidderminster and Blubberhouses)
    The comp.sys.sinclair crap games competition 2015
    "Let's not be childish. Let's play Spectrum games."
  • edited December 2014
    karingal wrote: »
    Stephen King hated it and wasn't happy the way Kubrick filmed and changed it, so that's good enough for me...

    its not often that films are better than books that they are based on; but the Shining is one of them.

    No wonder King didn't like it - his story was improved.

    Certain parts of the book were just not feasible to be filmed back then and had to be left out - the topiary coming to life being one. This annoyed King, so much so that he constantly reminds us in Doctor Sleep (in the intro, and several times in the plot)
  • edited December 2014
    weesam wrote: »
    its not often that films are better than books that they are based on; the Shining is one of them.

    No wonder King didn't like it - his story was improved.

    Certain parts of the book were just not feasible to be filmed back then and had to be left out - the topiary coming to life being one. This annoyed King, so much so that he constantly reminds us in Doctor Sleep (in the intro, and several times in the plot)
    Absolute rubbish, in the film Jack is pretty much insane from the beginning, whilst in the book it documents his descent into insanity. What annoyed King was that in the film there was no real reason behind why Jack was insane, whilst the book clearly gives alcohol abuse as the reason. Also King thought that Nicholson portrayal of Jack was completely over the top which is exactly what Kubrick wanted, Kubrick sacrificed the story in favour of the Nicholson performance, minimising all other characters
    (i.e. Wendy, a heroine in the book, a victim in the film). A writer will always put the story first unlike a film director like Kubrick who was more about visual effects and creative scene set ups.

    The film looks great but poor plotwise, definitely not an improvement on the book. King was right.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • edited December 2014
    Graz wrote: »
    Oh, it's a fair film (a bit like a film-version of a Half-Life episode) but the daft ending has got to go down in history as one of the absolute worst. It's the most ridiculous, "School-play" ending I've ever seen. I honestly could not believe it. The sort of silly thing I did in Drama-class when I was 12!

    I read somewhere that the plot to Half-Life was actually inspired (i.e. nicked, but not enough to get sued over) by Stephen King's The Mist.
  • edited December 2014
    karingal wrote: »
    Absolute rubbish, in the film Jack is pretty much insane from the beginning, whilst in the book it documents his descent into insanity. What annoyed King was that in the film there was no real reason behind why Jack was insane, whilst the book clearly gives alcohol abuse as the reason. Also King thought that Nicholson portrayal of Jack was completely over the top which is exactly what Kubrick wanted, Kubrick sacrificed the story in favour of the Nicholson performance, minimising all other characters
    (i.e. Wendy, a heroine in the book, a victim in the film). A writer will always put the story first unlike a film director like Kubrick who was more about visual effects and creative scene set ups.

    The film looks great but poor plotwise, definitely not an improvement on the book. King was right.

    King usually builds tension up over 400-500 pages before delivering his climax in the last 50, with very little action along the way. He tends to build up his characters so that when they do what they do at the end we know why. Trying to do this in a film would make it a box office disaster, so Kubrick made it into a slasher. And Nicholson is over the top in just about every film he's in!
  • edited December 2014
    ewgf wrote: »
    I read somewhere that the plot to Half-Life was actually inspired (i.e. nicked, but not enough to get sued over) by Stephen King's The Mist.
    Didn't know that but it was quite possible.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • edited December 2014
    ewgf wrote: »
    I read somewhere that the plot to Half-Life was actually inspired (i.e. nicked, but not enough to get sued over) by Stephen King's The Mist.

    Yeah , you can imagine that the soldiers escaping from the scientific facility which opened the portal would have been quite similar to Black Mesa.

    Incidentally, the main character from Breaking Bad is identical to Gordon Freeman, and in the openung episode is seen walking out of the Mesa Bank. Coincidence?
  • edited December 2014
    King usually builds tension up over 400-500 pages before delivering his climax in the last 50, with very little action along the way. He tends to build up his characters so that when they do what they do at the end we know why. Trying to do this in a film would make it a box office disaster, so Kubrick made it into a slasher. And Nicholson is over the top in just about every film he's in!

    Fair enough but even films allow a bit of background before the core of the story develops. King just wanted the audience to realise that Jack wasn't always insane but that the alcohol and isolation triggered the insanity.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • edited December 2014
    Yeah , you can imagine that the soldiers escaping from the scientific facility which opened the portal would have been quite similar to Black Mesa.

    Incidentally, the main character from Breaking Bad is identical to Gordon Freeman, and in the openung episode is seen walking out of the Mesa Bank. Coincidence?

    Possibly a little nod of appreciation.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • edited December 2014
    ewgf wrote: »
    I read somewhere that the plot to Half-Life was actually inspired (i.e. nicked, but not enough to get sued over) by Stephen King's The Mist.
    Yeah , you can imagine that the soldiers escaping from the scientific facility which opened the portal would have been quite similar to Black Mesa.

    Oh cool. I was sure that the game came before the film. I only saw it on DVD at the begining of the year.
    Incidentally, the main character from Breaking Bad is identical to Gordon Freeman, and in the openung episode is seen walking out of the Mesa Bank. Coincidence?
    karingal wrote: »
    Possibly a little nod of appreciation.

    Also the DVD cover to one of the series is pretty much the same as Half-Life's original orange box. I had to do a double-take as I thought a Half-Life film had been made!
  • edited December 2014
    King usually builds tension up over 400-500 pages before delivering his climax in the last 50, with very little action along the way. He tends to build up his characters so that when they do what they do at the end we know why. Trying to do this in a film would make it a box office disaster, so Kubrick made it into a slasher. And Nicholson is over the top in just about every film he's in!

    Did you ever see the mini series. It was a very close adaptation, with king helping out. Was a bit pants though.
  • edited December 2014
    mile wrote: »
    Did you ever see the mini series. It was a very close adaptation, with king helping out. Was a bit pants though.
    Yep it was, King got a bit too close to it, same with the miniseries of It. Having said that I thought the adaptation of The Stand was quite brilliant.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • edited December 2014
    karingal wrote: »
    Yep it was, King got a bit too close to it, same with the miniseries of It. Having said that I thought the adaptation of The Stand was quite brilliant.

    Yeah the stand was really good, very ambitious for the time. They are doing it again as a trilogy of films which seem to have promise.

    I think the dome and lawnmower man are the worst adaptations. The later only used the title and Stephen kings name in a very shameless way. The dome tv series is really only using the concept of a town under a dome.
  • edited December 2014
    karingal wrote: »
    Yep it was, King got a bit too close to it, same with the miniseries of It. Having said that I thought the adaptation of The Stand was quite brilliant.

    I watched the stand a couple of weeks ago after not seeing it for years, and it is still awesome!

    I'm hoping the new version of IT will be as good. The mini series couldn't do the book justice due to horror restrictions on TV.

    Incidentally, if anyone has seen Kingdom Hospital, when the guy get hit by a truck at the beginning, it's almost exactly what happened to Stephen King, even down to the model of truck used....
    My test signature
  • edited December 2014
    mile wrote: »
    Yeah the stand was really good, very ambitious for the time. They are doing it again as a trilogy of films which seem to have promise.
    I didn't know about The Stand trilogy coming up, sounds exciting, though I do have very high expectations as it is quite possibly my favourite Stephen King book.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • edited December 2014
    karingal wrote: »
    I didn't know about The Stand trilogy coming up, sounds exciting, though I do have very high expectations as it is quite possibly my favourite Stephen King book.
    Ah so is it a new adaptation of It or The Stand, adding a bit of grammar wouldn't hurt mile!!!
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • edited December 2014
    karingal wrote: »
    Ah so is it a new adaptation of It or The Stand, adding a bit of grammar wouldn't hurt mile!!!

    No I meant the stand. Seems IT is getting one as well though. :wink:
  • edited December 2014
    mile wrote: »
    No I meant the stand. Seems IT is getting one as well though. :wink:
    Yep, just done a quick Google, they're doing both!!!

    The Stand is a 4 movie series!!
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • edited December 2014
    The mini series of Salem's Lot is fab. Really like that. Much better than the film. I'd love to see the original Kingdom Hospital. Not sure it's ever been released on DVD. I've got "King's" version. Pretty good. Can't beat the Langoliers though. Best King film ever.
  • edited December 2014
    karingal wrote: »
    Yep, just done a quick Google, they're doing both!!!

    The Stand is a 4 movie series!!

    Ah cool. They do need all that time to tell the story.

    I think IT is going to be a two parter. One film with the younger kids, and the second as adults.
  • edited December 2014
    Graz wrote: »
    The mini series of Salem's Lot is fab. Really like that. Much better than the film. I'd love to see the original Kingdom Hospital. Not sure it's ever been released on DVD. I've got "King's" version. Pretty good. Can't beat the Langoliers though. Best King film ever.

    Maximum overdrive is the best king film. :-D
  • edited December 2014
    karingal wrote: »
    Absolute rubbish, in the film Jack is pretty much insane from the beginning, whilst in the book it documents his descent into insanity. What annoyed King was that in the film there was no real reason behind why Jack was insane, whilst the book clearly gives alcohol abuse as the reason. Also King thought that Nicholson portrayal of Jack was completely over the top which is exactly what Kubrick wanted, Kubrick sacrificed the story in favour of the Nicholson performance, minimising all other characters
    (i.e. Wendy, a heroine in the book, a victim in the film). A writer will always put the story first unlike a film director like Kubrick who was more about visual effects and creative scene set ups.

    The film looks great but poor plotwise, definitely not an improvement on the book. King was right.

    absolute rubbish

    the film deliberately deviates from the book - Its different and its BETTER
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