Stephen King's Favorite Stephen King Book Still Hasn't Been Made Into A Movie
To say that Stephen King has had an impressive career would be an insulting understatement. One of the most prolific authors ever, he has published nearly 70 novels and dozens upon dozens of short stories, many of which have been adapted for the screen over the years. But it turns out that even in the golden age of King adaptations spurred by the insane success of "It" in 2017, the author's favorite book hasn't yet been turned into a movie.
In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, King name-checked "Lisey's Story" as the best book of his storied career. That's no small thing. As for why? Here's what he had to say about it at the time:
"Lisey's Story. That one felt like an important book to me because it was about marriage, and I'd never written about that. I wanted to talk about two things: One is the secret world that people build inside a marriage, and the other was that even in that intimate world, there's still things that we don't know about each other."
Published in 2006, "Lisey's Story" was largely met with acclaim by the literary world. Though it took 15 years, the book was eventually adapted into a miniseries by Apple TV+, which aired in 2021. What's unique about the show is that King adapted it personally for the screen. Inspired by "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story," King wrote the whole show himself. For those who may not be familiar, the synopsis reads as follows:
"Lisey's Story" is a deeply personal thriller that follows Lisey Landon (Julianne Moore) two years after the death of her husband, famous novelist Scott Landon (Clive Owen). A series of unsettling events causes Lisey to face memories of her marriage to Scott that she has deliberately blocked out of her mind.
Lisey's Story deserves another shot – without Stephen King involved
Ultimately, the adaptation proved unsatisfying for many critics and viewers. Joshua Meyer, writing for /Film in 2021 following the "Lisey's Story" finale, suggested that King may not be the right person to adapt his own work. This is far from the first time that King has been involved in adapting his own work over the years, but it often hasn't gone super well; his only directorial effort is the deranged "Maximum Overdrive," and don't forget about the utterly bizarre "Sleepwalkers," which involves incestuous werecats.
On the flip side, when other creatives have taken the wheel, it's often gone very well. From the aforementioned "It," which remains the highest-grossing horror movie of all time, to "The Shawshank Redemption," there are numerous examples of these adaptations pairing very well with the original texts. A controversial example is Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining," a movie that King himself famously hates. Be that as it may, the film remains a cinematic classic.
We have a "Lisey's Story" TV show, but there is an argument to be made that a movie would still be warranted — one adapted by someone other than King. To that end, in the same Rolling Stone interview, the author shared his thoughts on the adaptations of his work, and shed light on why these interpretations may be better off in other hands:
"The movies have never been a big deal to me. The movies are the movies. They just make them. If they're good, that's terrific. If they're not, they're not. But I see them as a lesser medium than fiction, than literature, and a more ephemeral medium."
While it's probably not worth going over the exhaustive list of people who could turn the book that King loves so dearly into a movie, there are undoubtedly writers and directors out there who could do something compelling with this material. So maybe King's favorite book deserves another shot in another medium, just adapted with a very different methodology.