Shawshank Redemption & Green Mile Shouldn’t Be Remade, Says Stephen King

Stephen King reveals that he hopes that neither The Shawshank Redemption nor The Green Mile ever gets remade. As one of the most prolific and well-regarded authors working today, King has seen many of his books adapted into films of varying quality. The Shawshank Redemption, which is directed by Frank Darabont and based on Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption by King, was a box office bomb upon in release in 1994, but the film was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, and has since gone on to become one of the most revered movies of all time.

The Green Mile, which is based on a book of the same name by King and also directed by Darabont, fared far better at the box office upon its release in 1999. The film stars Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Sam Rockwell and would go on to be nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture. The emotional story follows Hanks as a death row prison guard who begins to experience supernatural events following the arrival of a mysterious convict played by Duncan.

In a new interview with Bangor Daily News, King reveals that, of all the adaptations (and remakes of adaptations) of his work, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile are the two movies he would not want to ever see remade. While King doesn’t elaborate too much on the comment, it’s clear that he’s quite proud of the two Darabont-directed adaptations. Check out King’s full comment below:

“I wouldn’t care to see Shawshank or “The Green Mile” remade, and I’m doubtful about the proposed “Christine” remake.”

King has a checkered history with remakes of his novels, liking some but making no secret of his disdain for others (King famously hated Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining, for example). Interestingly, while King is most famous as a writer of horror, both The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile are not horror at all and are two of the most highly acclaimed adaptions of his work. It’s also curious that Darabont directed both movies, suggesting that perhaps he had a better eye for how to adapt King’s work than others.

While there have been a number of serviceable adaptations of King’s work, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile do stand above the rest, and it’s clear that King would not argue with such a claim. King is no stranger to having adaptations of his books remade in subsequent decades, such as with IT, Pet Sematary, and the upcoming adaptation of Firestarter, but sometimes, when something really works, it’s better to just leave it alone. Hopefully, King gets his wish and The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile are left to stand on their own, free from potentially being tarnished by being remade.

Source: Bangor Daily News

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