Summary
While many authors have maybe one or two of their books adapted for film or TV,Stephen Kinghas had most of his short stories, novellas, and novels optioned. Fans are often curious about what he really thinks of all those projects, and in a recent interview,he revealed his general approach to Hollywood crafting new versions of his beloved horror stories.
King’s career trajectory is impressive, and his first novel,Carrie, hinted at the memorable scary stories he would tell for decades to come. The novel was published in 1974, anda film adaptation directed by Brian de Palmaand starring Sissey Spacek followed in 1976. King often writes about innocent kids in tough situations, particularly those with supernatural abilities, but his 2025 adaptations are particularly compelling since they’re so different from each other. For instance,The Life of Chuckis a hopeful but sad story without any horror tropes, andThe Institute,which George R.R. Martin spoke very highly of, is about a 12-year-old boy with telekinetic powers. Now King has shared his thoughts on the process of adapting his work, along with whether or not he likesThe Institute.
Stephen King Reveals His Thoughts About His Many Adaptations And Praises MGM+’s The Institute
In an interview with theAssociated Press,Stephen King discusses what he really thinks about watching his beloved horror novels be adapted for film and TV. He said:
“When you deviate from the story that I wrote, you do so at your own risk. I know what I’m doing and I’m not sure that screenwriters always do or that producers and directors always do.”
Mike Flanagan once talked about the process of adapting King’s workand said that the author gives filmmakers and showrunners the “freedom” to bring these works to the small and big screen. In hisAPinterview,King was honest about how good adaptations stick to the story that he originally told and don’t stray too far from the source material. When characters are omitted or big plot points are changed, the result is often lackluster and disappointing. For example,Pet Sematary,The Green Mile, andMiseryfollow the books fairly closely, althoughone unsettling scene wasn’t included inMisery. However, any changes made didn’t ruin those three adaptations.
In the same interview,King shared that he’s pleased with the MGM+ TV series based on his 2019 bookThe Institute. He said that he was happy that the writers didn’t give Tim Jamieson, the police officer character, a different name because “I read somewhere that no great thing was ever done by a man named Tim.” King didn’t want that to be the case and decided to name his character Tim. The author said:
“When I write a book, it’s a single-person sport and when these people do a TV show or a movie it becomes a team sport. So you expect some changes and, sometimes, man, they’re really good.”
While King has had a steady stream of movie and TV adaptations since he started his writing career, 2025 is a particularly exciting time for him.Four King movie adaptations are being released this year and two of his stories have been adapted for TV.This past spring, Osgood Perkins wrote and directedThe Monkey, a gory and terrifying film based on the short story of the same name. Then, in June,Mike Flanagan’sThe Life of Chuckwas released. In September, fans can check outThe Long Walk, and it won’t be a long wait untilThe Running Manremake, which was co-written and directed by Edgar Wright, comes out in November. WhileThe Institutehas gotten fairly good reviews, fans and critics are also anticipatingWelcome to Derry, theITprequel that will be released on HBO Max sometime before the end of 2025.
Although there are no release dates at the time of this writing, there are plenty of other King adaptations being developed. Doug Liman will directa movie version ofThe Stand, andFlanagan is working on aCarrieseries for Amazon Prime Video along with aDark Towerseries.Flanagan recently shared his dream forThe Dark Tower: five seasons and two movies. It will be interesting to hear what King thinks of those finished projects, although given Flanagan’s talent and love for King’s storytelling powers, they are likely to be big successes.
