1408

A while back we did a 1408 show. I liked the movie so much I went out and read the short story that it was based on. This is the first time I have ever read "the source material" of any movie. It was an unique expierence. For one thing I had a difficult time remembering that the movie came after the story I was reading, so I was like "Hey, they left this out!" or, "They changed that" referring to the book as opposed to the movie. Another thing was that the characters in the book (regarless of how they were described) were the actors in the movie. So it was Sam Jackson and John Cusack.

Now I have only read "The Stand" (then saw the movie), and I have seen only a handful of Stephen King's movies. I even watched "Kingdom Hospital." And I have always had a problem with the way he ends the movie (with the exception of this one, 1408). We met Stephen King at the NY Comicon and he said "You know the problem is that no matter what ending you come up with, it won't beat what the reader already has in his/her mind".

But (on our show) You can hear that I said I really liked this ending. and I liked the movie. Turns out that 90% of the movie was not in the book. It really was a short story and soooo much was added for the movie. The ending was completly different, there was no daughter, and almost nothing that happened in the room happned in the book! I have to say that I really didn't like the story at all. I wonder if I had read the story first would I have even went to the movies to do and do a show on it?


10/21/08 update: Recently I saw the movie "The Ruins" (based on the novel by the same name). It was really bad. A friend of mine who didn't see the movie had read the book told me that alot of points that I had mentioned to her in the movie were in the book. Yet the (SPOILER) fact that the girl got away at the end didn't happen. I am actually curious to see what happens in the book. Peter David, my favorite comic book writer once said that the whole point of any movie that is based on a book (or even comic book) is designed to make you go and read the source material. So I guess "The Runis" did its job (only sort of seeing as how I don't plan to go run out and buy the book, but if it ever crosses my path, I'll give it a read.