This Beloved Stephen King Novel Is Becoming A TV Show, But…

Stephen King's books, novellas, and short stories often seem perfect for the big screen thanks to his sinister villains, well-drawn characters, and the contrast of good and evil in every story. But some of his best adaptations are TV series, including 2020's The Outsider which aired on HBO and the 1990s IT miniseries starring Tim Curry as the iconic Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

Fans have quite a few King movies to choose from this summer and fall as The Life of Chuck is currently in theaters and The Long Walk is up next in September. Since King has written so much for so many decades, his fans are always wondering what story could be adapted for the big or small screen next. One King book was optioned for TV, but it would make an excellent movie.

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The legendary author has been slowly mastering crime fiction in recent years, and adapting one such story to the screen could prove it to audiences.

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By Conor McShane

Stephen King's Joyland Is In Development For TV, But It Would Make A Perfect Movie

In 2018, Deadline reported that Freeform was developing the Stephen King book Joyland into a TV series. But the coming-of-age story would likely be a great movie thanks to the classic horror setting, the smart main character, and the flawless ending.

Joyland, which was published in 2013, is about Devin Jones, a teenager who begins working at the amusement park of the same name during the summer. Devin gets swept up in a murder mystery along with some typical teenage story tropes.

While there are some fun teen thriller shows, like Freeform's Cruel Summer, Joyland would lend itself better to a movie adaptation. One main reason? A film could tell a complete story with a solid and satisfying ending. If the book was adapted for TV, that would mean adding in a cliffhanger at the end of season 1 that might or might not get resolved, depending on whether it was given a second season or not. However, the book's ending is moving and smart, and it would be a shame not to see it on the big screen. Although sometimes King's endings are changed, Joyland definitely has a compelling conclusion.

A teen thriller show is only as good as its twists, turns, and reveals, and while Joyland has some notable and interesting plot points, the amusement park setting would lend itself perfectly to a horror movie. Some horror film settings that stand out include the House of Wax museum, the small town of Woodsboro that most of the Scream franchise takes place in, and any haunted house. It would be great to see Devin at Joyland on the big screen, and it would be an enjoyable and memorable cinematic experience.

Stephen King Once Shared The Book He Would Love To See A Movie Adaptation Of

Since Stephen King is so prolific, filmmakers and TV showrunners have a lot of material to work with, but not all of his books, short stories, and novellas have been adapted for the big and small screen. In a 2016 interview with Deadline, King was asked whether there is a book of his that he's "surprised" hasn't become a film. He mentioned his 1996 novel The Regulators and said:

"It was one of two books that I thought of as repertory company books. There was one called Desperation, and the other one was called The Regulators and they both had the same characters but they were all doing different things, in different places."

He continued:

"I had a meeting with Sam Peckinpah a few months before he died, and he was really interested in turning that into a movie called The Shotgunners, and I wanted to write a screenplay for it. I thought it would make a terrific R-rated action-adventure, the kind of thing Sam was terrific at. It just didn’t happen and never went any further than that.""

It looks like King's hope could still come true. In 2022, Deadline reported that Bohemia Group bought the rights to The Regulators and hired George Cowan to write the screenplay. The story sounds as bleak as the upcoming movie The Long Walk: those living on Wentworth, Ohio's Poplar Street can't leave their homes or they will be shot by people who have shown up in vans with guns. There hasn't been an update since, but hopefully it will still happen as that story would no doubt lend itself to a dark, haunting, and memorable movie.

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