Stephen King’s novels are popular again! In Hollywood that is, with Dark Tower, Firestarter, Pet Sematary and The Stand all due for big screen reimaginings.
What does the horror author think of it all? Well, he’s not particularly pleased about The Stand getting a new version, that much is clear.
Having already written his own definitive 1994 mini-series based on the massive tome, which was directed by Mick Garris, King is uber-cynical about a movie version.
“No one will be able to top Gary Sinise, who played Stu Redman in the original ABC miniseries. He was perfect,” the author writes in a reactionary column for Entertainment Weekly .
He goes on to add: “I didn’t know anything about the remake until I read about it on the Internet. You absolutely can’t make it as a two-hour movie. If it was a trilogy of films… maybe.”
King does offer a few casting ideas, though, suggesting that Jake Gyllenhaal could fit the Redman role, and Billy Bob Thornton the, uh, Trashcan Man.
Expect King’s next novel to be a scathing expose of the demons operating Hollywood behind the scenes…
