The Stephen King novels and short stories not yet added to the author's cinematic universe.
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00:00Over the years, Stephen King has published a massive amount of novels and short stories
00:05that have eventually been adapted for the screen.
00:07Of his 65 novels, a whopping 45 have been adapted to film or TV, but there surely can't
00:13be that many stories left to explore.
00:15The truth is, though, there's quite a few great King tales rife with cinematic potential
00:20that have never made the leap to Hollywood.
00:21So, with that in mind, I'm Ellie for WhatCulture here with 10 Stephen King Stories That Haven't
00:26Been Adapted Yet, But Should.
00:2910.
00:30Afterlife
00:31Stephen King has always had an occupation with mortality, but rarely with such overt
00:35musings as his short story Afterlife, which follows a deceased investment banker who lands
00:41in purgatory and must face what comes next.
00:43If you could start your life over again and knew you could never do anything differently,
00:47would you?
00:48Or would you let yourself vanish from existence?
00:50Well, that's the question that haunts William Andrews, who recalls the worst chapters of
00:54his life and ponders suffering through them again.
00:57Philosophical and ambiguous, Afterlife finds King at his most gloomy and atmospheric, forcing
01:02Andrews and the mysterious stranger responsible for his time in purgatory to connect, question
01:08their lives, and seek some kind of solace in their decisions.
01:11Granted, none of this would make for a particularly flashy film, but given the depth of its characters
01:16as well as its haunting farewell and dense themes of faith and awakening, you can see
01:20two great actors squaring off to bring Afterlife alive on screen, forcing audiences to question
01:26everything about themselves.
01:289.
01:29Later
01:30This 2022 novel is one of the most quintessentially Stephen King stories he's written in recent
01:35years, following a young boy who can speak to the recent dead and must use this secret
01:40skill to thwart a terrorist attack and the violent actions of his mother's plotting ex-girlfriend.
01:46Short but bracing, moving, and surprisingly humorous, Later is a dark, fantastical coming-of-age
01:51story that fits very much into classic King territory, dealing with a child imbued with
01:56a higher purpose when all they want to do is live a normal life, and its various plot
02:00twists only make it that much more compelling.
02:02A delicate tale of family, coming-of-age, and motherhood, as well as a breakneck thriller,
02:07Later's cinematic potential is gigantic.
02:10Its visceral imagery and powerful character development is sight to behold right until
02:14its haunting final chapter, which will break your heart but leave you hopeful.
02:19Give this thing to the right director and young actor raring to go, and you've surely
02:22got yourself a winner, full of darkness but sprinkled with hope.
02:268.
02:27Everything's Eventual
02:28Eventual.
02:29Eventual.
02:30Eventual.
02:31That's a word I struggle to say.
02:33Hey, we've learned something today.
02:35Stephen King sure loves to tell stories about telekinesis and powers of the mind, but when
02:40they're as compelling as Carrie, Firestarter, and this riveting novella, Everything's
02:44Eventual, who can blame him?
02:46The titular tale is one of his finest short story collections.
02:50Everything's Eventual concerns teenager Dinky Earnshaw, who has the ability to influence
02:54people's actions simply by drawing mysterious pictures.
02:58Hired by an enigmatic stranger to act as his unseen assassin, Dinky lives a life of luxury
03:03until his conscience catches up to him.
03:06Darkly amusing, deeply unsettling, and violent, Everything's Eventual is a somber tale of
03:11murder and power, both literal and political, that grips at every turn, even when its drama
03:16slips into outright horror and despair, and Dinky loses his grip on reality and himself.
03:22Constantly surprising and bursting with complex characters, not just a morally compromised
03:26Dinky but also his secretive employer, Mr. Sharpton, this is one story that would make
03:30for one hell of a movie indeed, genre-bending and thrilling to the very end.
03:357.
03:36Roadwork
03:37Back in 2019, It director Andy Muschietti announced that he was planning to adapt another
03:42King novel with Roadwork, originally published under the author's pseudonym Richard Bachman,
03:47though it seems the project has fallen through.
03:49After five years without an update, it appears we'll have to wait a while to see Roadwork
03:53on the big screen, and that really is a shame.
03:56The story of a mourning father who plots to stop his house and business being demolished
04:00to make way for a new highway is one of King's finest unsung gems.
04:04A socially conscious satire and thriller about man's relationship with big businesses, as
04:09well as a very dark comedy with a brilliantly compelling protagonist driven to madness.
04:13Think Falling Down, but it's set in a house Michael Douglas refuses to leave.
04:18Roadwork screams big screen potential through and through.
04:21This isn't the best of King's creative Bachman era, we'll get to that in a moment, but it's
04:25still a galvanizing piece of work deserving of more exposure, proving the author can write
04:30about horror just as well when he's writing about the everyday.
04:346.
04:35From a Buick 8
04:37Another under-appreciated jewel in King's sprawling bibliography, From a Buick 8 proclaims
04:42to tell the story of a car that acts as a conduit to another world, but its main focus
04:47is on the aging men and women around it, their relationships, and lives.
04:51A thematically dense piece of work told from several perspectives across decades' worth
04:55of memories, this 2002 novel is King at his most typical.
04:59Spooky and fantastical, with cliffhangers and ambiguity galore, but also his most sensitive
05:04and character-driven.
05:06In a way almost wistful in its assessment of memory and age and mourning and found family,
05:11From a Buick 8 still has plenty of scares, but its true power lies with its characters,
05:16who remain some of the author's most vividly drawn and memorably moving.
05:20Like The Green Mile and Shawshank, this is one movie-in-waiting not without its twisting
05:25flights of fantasy, but it works best as a touching character study that sneaks up on
05:30you with its feeling.
05:315.
05:32Strawberry Spring
05:34King, of course, has written many disturbing tales over the years, but few as consistently
05:39bleak as his short story Strawberry Spring, recently made into an Audible series but left
05:44bafflingly untouched by the big screen.
05:46Told from the perspective of a melancholy former college student whose memories of murder
05:51are stirred by the return of an elusive local serial killer, Strawberry Spring builds to
05:55a conclusion that feels inevitable, but King's slow-burn reveal and love for creepy ambiguity
06:00still makes its conclusions deeply unsettling.
06:04Released in 1968, the story is one of King's earliest works, but it's lost none of its
06:09bite and never reads as amateurish, its slight but profound narration capturing a world of
06:14feeling and forgotten memories difficult to shake.
06:17You can totally see Strawberry Spring as a movie.
06:20A lonely man recounts the tale of a murderer lost to his thoughts and evading the truth,
06:25and this classic King tale is as tragic as it is horrifying, packing a mean punch.
06:304.
06:31Summer Thunder
06:32Over the years, King has dealt with the apocalypse in a variety of ways, from the epic, such
06:37as The Stand and Cell, to the more understated, such as Sleeping Beauties, but never with
06:42such visceral intimacy as his short story Summer Thunder, the closing chapter of his
06:47collection The Bizarre of Bad Dreams.
06:50Set during a mysterious nuclear war, the story follows its mourning narrator Robinson as
06:55he befriends his elderly neighbour, adopts a stray dog, and waits for the inevitable
06:59radiation poisoning in the air to take its hold and kill him.
07:03Bleak but thoughtful, Summer Thunder certainly won't make for a cheery comedy, but its
07:07meditative musings on death and companionship do give the whole sorry state of things a
07:12hopeful lilt, as Robinson finds peace in his final days and learns to live with the grief
07:16of losing his family.
07:18A tender, heartbreaking, oddly beautiful tale, Summer Thunder is King at his most atmospheric
07:23and vividly imaginative.
07:25With images bursting off the page with unforgettable intensity.
07:303.
07:31The Long Walk
07:32The very best of King's Backman books, The Long Walk boasts a simple premise brilliantly
07:37executed.
07:38In a dystopic future, 100 teenage boys are forced to participate in The Long Walk, an
07:43epic marathon that ends with only one walker left alive.
07:47Viscerally gruelling and intense, The Long Walk is first and foremost a high-concept
07:52thriller in which a group of boys, each with something to fight for, all with something
07:55to prove, befriend and betray each other for victory, but it's also a thematically rich
08:00exploration of class struggle, fascism, and the futility of the Vietnam War.
08:05Unlike the rest of the stories on this list, there is reportedly a Long Walk movie in the
08:08works from The Hunger Games director Francis Lawrence, the first positive update on its
08:13existence since George A. Romero worked on his own film back in 1988.
08:16We'll wait to see if this one happens or fizzles out like Romero's, so as it stands,
08:21The Long Walk is one of King's most timely, thrilling, and breathtaking novels, never
08:25given the big-screen treatment.
08:27Madness.
08:282.
08:29Joyland
08:30Joyland is another in a long line of late-era King novels that elevates a simple story with
08:35a grasp of character and emotion that leaves you reeling, with its horror secondary to
08:40the hopeful worldview and humanity the author captures even in the darkest of times.
08:44The story of a lovelorn young man who starts working at a small amusement park, befriending
08:49a secretive woman and her son, and learning about a local ghost story, Joyland is an economically
08:54paced novel about love and heartbreak and companionship, with just a dash of murder
08:59for good measure.
09:00Devastating and deeply moving, the story pulls the rug from under you repeatedly, crafting
09:04a bracing mystery around one man's desire to move on from past hardships and find himself.
09:10King has always had a knack for this, emotionally resonant stories with a gripping edge of violence
09:15and ghouls, and Joyland is one of his finest recent achievements in that regard.
09:19As a movie, it's positively dynamite.
09:221.
09:23Revival
09:24The single most breathtakingly bleak and scary novel of Stephen King's work this century,
09:30Revival is also one of his most underrated tales, rarely discussed but begging for wider
09:35acclaim.
09:36Just read carefully when you seek it out.
09:38Following a struggling musician whose shared past with a disgraced minister leads them
09:42both down a path to understanding what happens after death, the novel is relentless in its
09:47tragedy but profound in its humanity, a thoughtful tale of grief and faith that tackles its lofty
09:52themes eloquently.
09:53As a whole, Revival isn't easygoing.
09:56Few King tales are, really, but it is one of the author's most assured assessments of
10:00mortality and human nature, full of poignant characters, disturbing twists, and the most
10:05harrowing finale of King's career.
10:07Which is saying a lot, but just trust me on this, it's a lot.
10:11Although Revival won't win points for being uplifting, but in a world where successfully
10:15terrifying horror movies are few and far between, it might just be the tale we need.
10:20Stephen King has rarely been better, nor as entertainingly hopeless, since the 1980s.