Summary
- King disliked the adaptations of “The Shining” and “The Lawnmower Man” due to their divergences from the original stories.
- “The Lawnmower Man” film strayed significantly from the original short story, leading King to file a lawsuit and remove his name from it.
- The movie adaptation of “The Lawnmower Man” was vastly different, featuring VR tech and a different storyline than King’s original work.
Stephen King, a master of horror storytelling, has experienced both triumphs and controversies with the film adaptations of his work. When you’re talking about an author who has been as prolific as Stephen King, there will be some adaptations that are closer to the source material than others. That’s especially the case when considering that quite a few of the adaptations that have come along over the years have been based on short stories. Movies and television shows need to fill in the blanks that are left by a story only being 30 to 50 to even 150 pages. However, there have been a few times when the adaptations of the author’s work have gone in some interesting directions.
It’s also a no-brainer that with the number of adaptations that have been done with Stephen King’s work, there are going to be some that he didn’t like. That he didn’t support. The Shining is the most famous of these. The Stanley Kubrick film took some serious liberties while still staying somewhat true to the original story, but it was changed enough that the author went on the record as saying that he hated it. He even went so far as to put his full weight behind a miniseries that was a straight adaptation, even if it was viewed as not nearly as good. However, there was another adaptation that King hated even more than The Shining and he hated The Lawnmower Man movie so much he even filed a lawsuit.
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The Lawnmower Man vs The Lawnmower Man
When considering just how different The Lawnmower Man movie was from The Lawnmower Man short story, it’s not hard to see why Stephen King had a rather severe reaction to the adaptation. And not just because the movie was a science fiction failure at the theater and with critics.
The original Stephen King short story involved a man named Harold Parkette who was in need of new lawn mowing service. The summer before, a neighbor’s cat was accidentally killed when another neighbor’s dog chased it under the mower. Harold has been putting off hiring new help for the summer, but when he sees an ad for a mowing service, he calls the number. A van reading “Pastoral Greenery” soon pulls up to his home. The man driving the van soon makes a pitch to get the job after being shown the grassy back yard and Harold believes he’s found someone who can do the job.
King’s story advances to the point where Harold is enjoying a rest as he reads the paper, though he feels uneasy about his new hires because of an odd mention of a greek goddess. Eventually, he hears some odd sounds coming from the backyard and goes to look, and sees the lawnmower running by itself and the naked lawnmower man following it on all fours and eating the grass. The lawnmower seemingly deliberately chases and kills a mole and this event causes Harold to become so upset that he loses consciousness.
When he regains consciousness, the Lawnmower Man tells him that in order for his business to be successful, there are the need for sacrifices. Harold eventually pretends to be ok with it while calling the police and when the Lawnmower man finds out, the lawnmower comes into the house and kills Harold.
On the other hand, The Lawnmower Man movie involves a person who does work for a lawnmowing service but that’s really where the similarities between the two stories end. The movie instead has the man, played by Jeff Feahy, is mentally disabled. He is found and recruited by a scientist who is working on VR technology that is meant to repair that kind of mental disability.
Eventually the man, Jobe becomes not only smarter, but almost godlike in the VR world and the scientist, played by Pierce Brosnan has to find a way to defeat him. And while in the short story, The Lawnmower Man ends up victorious, in the movie he’s defeated as a villain. Even if it’s an unfortunate villain.
Stephen King’s Lawsuit Against The Adaptation
Not long after the movie came out, King sued the studio and wanted his named removed from the title because he claimed that the movie ‘bore no meaningful resemblance’ to his short story of the same name. In 1992, a federal judge granted his argument.
King was awarded several million dollars, and eventually he was able to get his name off the Lawnmower Man movie precisely because it was clear to everyone that the movie that hit theaters was nothing like the story. Really the only thing that was similar to what the author wrote is that someone used a lawnmower at some point. That’s why this was the story that enraged Stephen King to the point where he had to file a lawsuit to make it clear he had nothing to do with it.
Stephen King
Stephen King is one of the most prolific living authors. A master of horror, King’s classic works include The Shining, Carrie, Cujo, It, and the Dark Tower series. Many of his books and short stories have been adapted to film and television, including The Shawshank Redemption, Lisey’s Story, 1408, Secret Window, and The Stand.
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