His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His recent work includes Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. The music is a highlight of the film, amping up its zany energy and heightening the ludicrousness of it all.Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. The entire soundtrack was composed by AC/DC and the track Who Made Who was one of the most successful the band had released in years up to that point. There’s also a brief cameo from Giancarlo Esposito as an early victim of the machines, but not before he inexplicably retorts 'yo mama' to a malfunctioning pinball machine. Maximum Overdrive was only Yeardley Smith’s third film, but she would go on soon after to voice Lisa Simpson to this day. The film features a bevy of familiar faces and voices. Pedestrian, maybe, but funny, nonetheless. There isn’t much rhyme or reason behind which machines are 'turned,' especially considering that the ultimate goal of the trucks is to get refueled - what do the arcade machines get out of this? Additionally, there’s King’s notorious brand of childish comedy, including an ATM calling a customer an 'a**hole' and a soda machine shooting a can directly into a man’s crotch.

The acting is often stilted, and characters behave illogically even for the strange situation they’re in. This is by no means a good movie, and that’s exactly what makes it such a good time. King dislikes the film, admitting in Hollywood's Stephen King that he was “coked out of mind all through its production, and really didn't know what was doing.”

Similarly, Maximum Overdrive was deeply affected by King’s addictions, and it shows in the final product. He famously recalls in his book On Writing that he barely recalls writing the novel Cujo. It’s no secret that there was a significant period of King’s career that was fueled by heavy doses of drugs and alcohol. Related: 20 Horror Novel Adaptations to Watch if You Love Stephen King Movies For their next project, King wanted to direct, and De Laurentiis, the shrewd businessman, didn’t turn down the opportunity to employ one of the most popular authors at the time for his directorial debut. Though King wasn’t a fan of Firestarter, he would pen the screenplay for Cat’s Eye and, subsequently, become friendly with De Laurentiis. Producer Dino De Laurentiis had already worked on Stephen King properties before: Firestarter in 1984 and Cat’s Eye in 1985.

Firestarter book stephen king