“Maximum disaster, exemplary boring…”: Stephen King’s only movie is a disaster

It’s not exactly a discovery. Filmmaking, in front of and/or behind the camera, isn’t always a smooth ride. The experience can even be taken to extremes, as was the case with Apocalypse Now, whose Homeric set-pieces are told in mind-blowing fascination. Heart of Darkness. Or Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and his conflicted relationship with Klaus Kinski.

While some talents are not particularly keen to one day wear the director’s hat, there are just as many who eventually succumb to the sirens of directing, out of desire and/or challenge.

It is a fact that some attempts will not be repeated. For what ? Painful and exhausting experience, financial reasons… there is no shortage of explanations.

Among these efforts, one that remains unique is that of an author who needs no introduction: Stephen King.

An absolute and undisputed master

The work is there, huge, filled with many absolute masterpieces: more than 60 novels, more than 200 short stories, more than 400 million copies sold worldwide. For over 40 years, Stephen King has been the undisputed master of horror/terror. However, to reduce this author to this genre would be almost insulting. Because it is also distinguished by brilliant works that are sometimes very far from this type of inclination.

For example, like a collection of stories different seasonswhich contains history the bodyAdapted for a movie called Stand by Me, or even Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank RedemptionLavishly adapted by Frank Darabont (hilariously) under the title Les Evadés.

His work – prolific – may have been widely explored on the small and big screens, with more or less success, but the master never switched to directing. It was something (very poorly) done in 1986 with Maximum Overdrive, which remains his only off-camera foray to this day.

Steven makes plans for the comet

the pitch An Earth-orbiting comet named Rhea-M is seriously disrupting vehicles on Earth’s surface. Everything starts with small incidents: the cash register insults the customer, the neon sign invites passers-by to go and see…

The situation becomes tragic when the drawbridge spins out of control. From now on, all the machines are autonomous and seem to have only one goal: to rid the Earth’s surface of human presence.

King has a rather mixed memory of that trying time, as he said when he arrived in Paris in November 2013 to present his novel Dr. Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, the adaptation of which will be released in 2019.

“It was a disastrous experience, but I really want to do another film! Regarding this film, you have to keep in mind that I was working with an Italian technical crew, so we didn’t understand each other.

I was drunk most of the time! More seriously, I had no experience as a director. In that sense, this film was like a lesson. But I think I would do a much better job now.”

George A. Romero to the rescue?

Intoxication, to which we can also add large pinches of cocaine… Among the stories about the chaotic production of Maximum Overdrive is a rumor that claims that the film was actually mainly directed by George A. King was being treated secretly by Romero at the time. Due to addiction to white powder…

While the writer never publicly acknowledged this assistance from Shadows, he did state that Romero was very much present on the set, regularly asking him for advice on the production.

And yet, neither Emilio Estevez nor veteran Pat Hingley or Laura Harrington (who will be seen later in Gilbert Grape or The Devil’s Partner) can save this artistic and even more commercial ship as the film grosses less than $7.5 million. at the international box office.

In terms of audience reviews, the film is quite divided, although the majority of ratings (38) give it two out of five stars. Looking at the 106 movie reviews available on AlloCiné, the results are decidedly mixed.

“The result is so disastrous that it is difficult to take seriously the criticisms he leveled at the directors who filmed his other works.” we can read others? “After a fun intro, the movie just goes haywire and loses all coherence”. 33% of audience critics note the weakness of special effects. On the negative side, the screenplay’s relative originality is largely offset by 48% of critics.

It is enough to momentarily instill the desire to repeat the experience for Stephen King. Moreover, after making a declaration of principle on this issue in 2013, it has yet to come out. It shows that the master of horrors is taking his time…