Stephen Kings The Gunslinger

[gypsyman]

Picked up "The Gunslinger" at a used book store for a long flight. Wow. Now on my 3rd book "The Wastelands" in a series of I think 7 books. I have not finished the series yet, but what I have read just begs to be made into a movie or series of movies like LOTR or mabye even a well done TV miniseries. Very impressed.

 

[lxskllr]

Stephen King books should never be made into movies. I haven't seen one yet that wasn't a butchered, watered down experience.

 

[gypsyman]

Yes some real bad ones have been made. I have not read the books but I think the following were done well on the big screen.

The Shining.
Shawshank Redemtion

I think that "It" was well done for TV.

 

[phoenix79]

The Dark Tower series is so long it would either be a series of about 10-12 movies or butchered so badly as to be unrecognizable.

 

[lxskllr]

The Shining was /alright/. As you would expect, the subtlety was lost due to the medium. You can't really build a story based on the slow descent into insanity in 1.5-2 hours. The details make the difference with King. The rough story is decent, but the details are what makes his work exceptional.

 

[xboxist]

The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed.

 

[Elderly Newt]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Stephen King books should never be made into movies. I haven't seen one yet that wasn't a butchered, watered down experience.

That's the case with pretty much all movies based on books, but The Green Mile, The Shining, and The Shawshank Redemption were all good (Redemption being awesome) movies, although I never read the last two.

 

[bobdole369]

No - The Dark Tower series does NOT need to be made into the garbage that The Stand, The Langoliers, to a lesser extent The Mist, Carrie, The Shining, or any of the other dismal poor performing garbage based on the otherwise excellent novels. If non-hardcore King fans watch these movies it tends to turn them off to his writing.

Leave Roland and the man in black in print I say - a movie would destroy it.

Not to mention you would need 10 movies - and thats just for the first book.

Look at what happened with "The Postman" or "Battlefield Earth" both excellent novels that just really needed to be split off into 3 or 4 movies to cover it all. Hollywood gave us 1 and it sucks.

 

[nageov3t]

the ending of the series (last 2-3 books) were so godawful bad they retroactively ruined the entire series for me.

 

[bobdole369]

That's the case with pretty much all movies based on books

King books are turned into "exceptionally bad movies". Shawshank was a fluke - Morgan Freeman made that movie, same as Jack Nicholson made the Shining and Tom Hanks - The green mile. All of the other terrible movies star basically nobody - so they really stink it up.

 

[bobdole369]

the ending of the series (last 2-3 books) were so godawful bad they retroactively ruined the entire series for me.

Oh yeah.... I consider the series unfinished after about halfway into Wolves of the Calla.

 

[lokiju]

As long as they can do it justice like they did with the mini-series The Stand then I'd be all for it!!!!!!!!!!!!

/sarcasm


Talk about taking a awesome book and making a terrible movie out of it...


One book that would make a good movie would be "Cell"

 

[SlitheryDee]

Originally posted by: lokiju
As long as they can do it justice like they did with the mini-series The Stand then I'd be all for it!!!!!!!!!!!!

/sarcasm


Talk about taking a awesome book and making a terrible movie out of it...


One book that would make a good movie would be "Cell"

Agree. That was a cool take on the zombie horror story.

 

[SP33Demon]

Originally posted by: bobdole369

the ending of the series (last 2-3 books) were so godawful bad they retroactively ruined the entire series for me.

Oh yeah.... I consider the series unfinished after about halfway into Wolves of the Calla.

/agree

 

[phoenix79]

Originally posted by: SP33Demon

Originally posted by: bobdole369

the ending of the series (last 2-3 books) were so godawful bad they retroactively ruined the entire series for me.

Oh yeah.... I consider the series unfinished after about halfway into Wolves of the Calla.

/agree

+1

 

[CountZero]

I would suggest that you read up through Wizard and Glass and stop there and just imagine whatever you want for the ending.

The last three books feel like they were picked up by a different writer who decided to take the whole thing in a totally different direction.

 

[MBony]

Originally posted by: CountZero
I would suggest that you read up through Wizard and Glass and stop there and just imagine whatever you want for the ending.

The last three books feel like they were picked up by a different writer who decided to take the whole thing in a totally different direction.

I can't agree more. I haven't finished the series either, but Wolves of the Calla got the series going downhill and I couldn't even finish Song of Sussanna. WTF! Cherish the first 4 books, so far, thats as good as it gets!

 

[nageov3t]

TBH, I really hated Wizard and Glass too... might just be a personal issue, I hate extended flashbacks like that on the general principle that stories are boring when you already know the ending.

 

[Maleficus]

I've heard so many good things about this book/series, i tried to read it a couple years back, couldn't finish book 1, was bored out of my mind.

 

[MBony]

Originally posted by: Maleficus
I've heard so many good things about this book/series, i tried to read it a couple years back, couldn't finish book 1, was bored out of my mind.

Just suck it up and finish it. Books 2-3 will are 10x better, but you need that first book under your belt. Book 1 is rather dry.

 

[JJ650]

I recently finished the first book, and going to have grab the "Drawing of three" book now.
I was hoping for more horror and demonesque stuff, but I was pleased with the first book.

 

[DefDC]

Originally posted by: MBony

Originally posted by: Maleficus
I've heard so many good things about this book/series, i tried to read it a couple years back, couldn't finish book 1, was bored out of my mind.

Just suck it up and finish it. Books 2-3 will are 10x better, but you need that first book under your belt. Book 1 is rather dry.

QFT.


So far,

Book 1: Slow...
Book 2: Fastastic. One of the best books I've ever read. GREAT characters and suspense.
Book 3: Just as good as two.
Book 4: Yawn. Actually, pretty bad...
Book 5: Not bad
Book 6: Just started
Book 7: (Profit?)

I used to reread book 2 and 3 fairly frequently. Great stuff.

I used to think books two and three would make good movies. But I'd be heartbroken if they were crap...

Am I the only one that thought "The Stand" was done fairly well, for a TV movie anyways?

I always wished "It" would be done as a year long mini-series on HBO with full blood, gore and sex...

I have no problems telling people to watch "It" and THEN read the book. At least you'll get the characters right away, and hardly get any of the plot of the book...

 

[zebano]

Excellent choice of books. Wizard and Glass was the worst of the series, but the rest are all good.

 

[Ricochet]

Originally posted by: gypsyman
Yes some real bad ones have been made. I have not read the books but I think the following were done well on the big screen.

The Shining.
Shawshank Redemtion

I think that "It" was well done for TV.

Let's not forget The Running Man. Classic Arnold movie.

 

[Delita]

I personally enjoyed each one of them, but really enjoyed 4 and 2. I was a little disappointed halfway through the end of the 7th book because it seemed very rushed. Otherwise it is probably my favorite series.