Stephen King And Hulu Work Together

Warning: Book and TV show spoilers ahead!

Stephen King is an author of many horror novels such as Pet Cemetery, Thinner, and It. His most recent novel, 11.22.63, was released in 2011 and is about a time traveler who attempts to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The main character, Jake, did not think of the plan to stop the assassination, but he agrees to work out the plan with his friend, Al. Al came up with the idea, but is dying of cancer, so he needed some help. In the story, Stephen wrote interesting rules about time travel, including that time does not want to be changed, according to the Cap Times. The book is 849 pages long and Hulu has made it into an eight-hour mini-series that premiered yesterday. The film version adds more suspense to the story through graphic scenes such as Jake (played by James Franco) attempting to call his father in the past as the phone booth is demolished. Stephen King seems to have brought another amazing novel to us and the mini-series will bring King’s amazing work to even more people than the novel alone.

While Stephen King’s book was the catalyst for the new series, some important things were changed between the book and mini-series. In the book, Al’s time tunnel goes to September 9, 1958, while in the series, the tunnel goes to October 21, 1960. This change has occurred due to the need to shorten the story so it will fit into the time allotted for the eight episodes. According to Yahoo, King says that cutting out this part of the book was the best way to meet the time requirements of the mini-series. Also, in King’s novel, Al kills himself before the cancer can kill him. In the mini series, the cancer has its chance to kill him instead. This seems like a minor change, and Stephen agrees that as long as Al is dead, it does not matter how it happens. But for people who read the book first (or after for that matter), it may change how they perceive Al’s personality. However, in the series and in the book, Jake goes through the tunnel and keeps his promise to Al.

Stephen King has weighed in on all the movies based on his books and they all have differences between print and film. While he loved the first filming of Children of the Corn and the adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption, he hated The Shining and Graveyard Shift as movies. According to the Guardian, while King will allow anyone to adapt his work into films for a price and approval rights on the director, the screenwriter, and the principle cast, he does not always enjoy what is created. So far we’ve only seen one episode of 11/22/63, so we will have to wait and see what Stephen has to say about the film version of his most recent novel. Since King has spoken positively about the mini-series so far, it’s reasonable to expect that he will continue to give positive reviews of the new mini-series.

Stephen King is the master of horror novels and works hard at what he does. He has created numerous novels that will keep you on your toes and will continue to write for as long as he can. The new mini-series based on his novel is sure to keep us in suspense and waiting for the next week’s episode to be available for viewing. Hopefully, the chills the mini-series gives you does not keep you up all hours of the night!

(Photo by Francois Mori/AP Images)