Stephen King Shares Favorite Adaptations of His Works: None of Them Are Horrors

Summary:

• Stephen King pointed out two dramas, The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me, as his favorite movies based on his works.
• These already classic films feature remarkable, detailed characters and a high level of movie production.

Stephen King, the most popular horror writer of modernity, is the author of more than 70 books and 200 short stories, having a lot of his works adapted in movies, for instance, The Shining, Carrie, It, The Dead Zone, Salem’s Lot, etc.

Even though we tend to associate him with horror, the genre diversity of his books is a vast area covering also drama, detectives, sci-fi, and there is sometimes even a soft touch of romance.

During a 2016 Deadline interview, focused mostly on the topic of movie adaptations and cinema as a whole, Stephen King was asked which movies based on his stories he considered the best at that moment.

The writer’s answer was unexpected and somewhat obvious at the same time: “I love The Shawshank Redemption and I've always enjoyed working with Frank (Darabont)... And I love that Rob Reiner thing, Stand By Me."

These two mentioned movies have a lot in common in the sense of their roots: their screenplays derive from the short stories published in King’s 1982 collection called Different Seasons and both of them weren’t horror at all from the beginning.

Darabont’s movie, based on the story Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, came out in 1994, featuring a mind blowing story about a presumably innocent person sent to prison and his survival in its circumstances. Since then, it has acquired the golden movie status, being the top-1 movie ever made according to IMDb's Top 250 list, which is justified by its perfectly calibrated directing and excellent actors’ work.

Stand By Me (1987) has its grounds in The Body, a story about four boys hoping to become famous in their hometown by finding a dead body in the Oregon woods. This coming-of-age drama centers mostly on showing characters’ development as they’re moving forward towards their goal and, metaphorically, adult life. This film has also become nostalgic classics of the 20th century both for teens and their parents.

Thus, both The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me are more valuable for their characters than for their plots, regardless of the fact they’re brilliantly written. They serve as an evident reminder that Stephen King not only writes iconic horror fiction, but works with a large scope of genres and dramatic stories of high-quality.

Source: Deadline