Terry Gross talks to the great Stephen King about his new novel, Joyland (I can’t wait), on bookshelves June 4. In the interview he is asked about whether he believes in God or not. His answer is that he chooses to believe in God. I think that’s really the only way atheists can get any kind of spiritual relief. You force yourself to believe something you know isn’t true. But I thought you might enjoy this exchange about Kubrick:
GROSS: Really. So is your interest in the supernatural connected to your interest in or questioning of God? Because they’re both in some way about powers beyond our perception.
KING: Well, belief in the supernatural or belief in wild talents like precognition and telepathy and telekinesis and things like that, it seems to me that belief in those things is just very, very freeing. I can remember talking to the late Stanley Kubrick, who called when he was getting ready to start filming “The Shining,” and whatever else you could say about him, he was a thinking cat.
You know, he really thought about what he was doing. He didn’t just go out there and shoot film. So he said to me, Stephen, don’t you feel that anybody who tells a ghost story is basically an optimist because that presupposes the idea that we go on, that we go on into another life? And I said, well, yes, I can see that, but what about hell?
And there’s this long pause on the other end of the line, and then Stanley Kubrick said in this very stiff voice: I don’t believe in hell.
Top 10 Best Stephen King movie adaptations, to my taste
1. The Shining
2. The Mist (the ending, seals the deal)
3. Carrie
4. The Green Mile
5. Christine (the final showdown is a pure masterpiece of filmmaking)
6. The Shawhank Redemption (a bit overrated, to my taste)
7. Misery
8. Dolores Clayborne
9. Stand by me
10. The Dead Zone
next in line… Apt Pupil. Unless I am missing anything, which I probably will. That makes eleven great, great films made out of King’s material. Among the guilty pleasures, Children of the Corn, Salem’s Lot, The Stand, It, Maximum Overdrive (so goofy and with that AC DC soundtrack)… plenty of adaptations deserve to be remade with a better edge or budget or both, as Langoliers, Tommyknockers, Needful Things, Rose Red… and I dream of adapting one day, one of his short stories, Popsy, about vampires and pedophiles…
I’m surprised no one mentioned ” The Green Mile ” as a Top 5 Stephen King movie .
If Kubrick thought Earth was Hell, that’s probably why 2001: A Space Odyssey is Kubrick’s most celestial film.
Banjo, true story – I watched IT at the tender age of 3. That movie scarred me for the longest time. Even now I’m still leery of clowns. Then I read the book, which was even far more disturbing but also far superior to the miniseries.
Looking back on it now, IT is pretty disjointed and hokey, especially the adult scenes. But Curry’s Pennywise is one of the best villains ever. That roll, Hexxus from Fern Gully, Dr. Frank-N-Furter – what a under-appreciated career.
Wasn’t there talk last year about Warner Bros developing a new adaptation of IT? — it was to be split into a pair of films, both directed by Cary Fukunaga, remember?
Yeah, that’s the last I’ve heard too about the new adaptation. I really can’t imagine anyone else playing Pennywise, though. Your thoughts?
Someone was nice enough to scan a vintage Fangoria issue covering IT. Apparently there was a 6 hour cut that King himself declared a masterpiece. http://maskofreason.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/tim-curry-pennywise-and-stephen-kings-it/
Tim Curry’s Pennywise so completely undid me as kid that I still find IT to be a pleasant shock-test for my shock-endurance. Seriously, there are still moments where I struggle not to shield my eyes. But it’s so long and slow, on the whole, that I couldn’t put it in my top five.
[nodding] I found the children segment(s) borderline masterful, but the adult parts weren’t nearly as affecting. And I was thinking along your same lines about there being a huge gap after the legendary top 2 and then you still have more fingers in one hand.
I need to add SILVER BULLET to my guilty pleasures. Terrible oversight!
Top 5 King film adaptations
1. THE SHINING (1980)
2. CARRIE (1976)
3. STAND BY ME (1986)
4. THE DEAD ZONE/APT PUPIL (1983)/(1998)
5. MISERY (1990)
Bonus: The excellent tv-miniseries IT (1990)
Guilty Pleasure: CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984)
p.s. I know, I must be the only person who doesn’t find THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPSION particularly compelling.
My first thought: Hey, great list idea!
Later, upon reviewing the history of King adaptations, I realized that it’s hard to assemble a list that doesn’t pretty much just like yours. There’s just been so much dreck made out of King’s books and stories, that the upper echelon stands pretty clearly apart.
Still:
1. THE SHINING (1980)
2. CARRIE (1976)
3. MISERY (1990)
4. APT PUPIL (1998)
5. SALEM’S LOT (1979) (the version that was trimmed down for theatrical release)
And guilty pleasure: GRAVEYARD SHIFT (1990). You will never see a more hilarious scene involving a hand being bitten off. Ever.
Tim Curry’s Pennywise so completely undid me as kid that I still find IT to be a pleasant shock-test for my shock-endurance. Seriously, there are still moments where I struggle not to shield my eyes. But it’s so long and slow, on the whole, that I couldn’t put it in my top five. If only it had been cut down for theatrical release, as SALEM’S LOT was.
You are not alone in not finding much to shout about in THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. Even if I thought it was an all-time-great on its own merits, it would be hard not to hold a grudge against it for being the prototype of the “Morgan Freeman’s narration over-explains it all” movie that we’ve seen so many times since then.
Oh, and THE MIST, while pretty average overall, has an ending that… I won’t say. But it’s doubly remarkable because, as I understand it, it differs from King’s novella, but King heartily approved the change. Gotta love him for that.
I feel, through the viewing of his films, Kubrick believed Earth was hell.
I always knew I was going to hell!
“Man thinks, God laughs.”