Which Film Adaptation Of His Books Stephen King Enjoy The Most?

According to the horror master himself, his two favorite movie adaptations of his writing are two of his non-horror stories.

Stand By Me was adapted from one of four of King’s novellas found within the collection Different Seasons. The original novella was entitled The Body.

The story is very special to King because it’s somewhat autobiographical — but not for the reason some think. King has told the story of how, when he was 4 years old, he went to play with a friend who lived by the railroad tracks. His mother later found King walking home, pale and shocked. His friend had been killed by a train. However, King denies that it directly influenced the story of four friends going to see a dead body of a boy that was hit by a train. He didn’t see his friend die. He was just told about his death.

But so much of the story reflects his upbringing.

King has often said that Stand By Me is his favorite adaptation of his work. In fact, after screening the film, director Rob Reiner said that he found King shaking and emotional. King told him it was the best adaptation of his work he had ever seen. He was crying.

But a decade later, another adaptation came to light. And King now includes it as part of two (the other being Stand By Me) that stand out as his favorites.

The Shawshank Redemption was an adaptation of another one of the novellas found within Different Seasons — Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.

King told Deadline:

"I like, well I have a number that I like, but I love The Shawshank Redemption and I\"ve always enjoyed working with Frank. Frank Darabont."

Darabont has been the most prolific King adaptor. He also made the celebrated The Green Mile (1999) and the divisive The Mist(2007).

So those are his top two. What else did he have to say about some of his other favorites?

King once spoke with Florida Weekly, saying:

"I liked De Palma\"s film of Carrie quite a bit ... I think De Palma saw a chance to make a movie that was a satirical view of high school life in general and high school peer-groups in particular."

He told Deadline:

"Of the smaller pictures, the best one is probably Cujo, with Dee Wallace... the people who made Cujo ... I was a young writer at the time, and this is a case of them showing some deference to the writer when they didn\"t have to, contractually, because they did that."

And, no, he famously doesn’t like the adaptation of The Shining. But he appreciates it as a film.

"I think The Shining is a beautiful film and it looks terrific and as I\"ve said before, it\"s like a big, beautiful Cadillac with no engine inside it… Jack Torrance has no arc in that movie. Absolutely no arc at all. When we first see Jack Nicholson, he\"s in the office of Mr. Ullman, the manager of the hotel, and you know, then, he\"s crazy as a s**t house rat…In the book, he\"s a guy who\"s struggling with his sanity and finally loses it. To me, that\"s a tragedy. In the movie, there\"s no tragedy because there\"s no real change."