• The

    Lisey Story

    mini-series

    premieres

    Friday on Apple TV +, with the first two episodes then one episode per week.

  • Stephen King adapts his favorite novel himself, accompanied by a dream team: Pablo Larraín (

    Jackie

    ) directing and Julianne Moore and Clive Owen casting.

  • The series raises the question of fidelity to the text or compatibility with the medium.

“To adapt is to betray. The expression is known, and finds one of its most famous examples with

The Shining

by Stanley Kubrick, entered the pantheon of cinema and yet disowned by its original author Stephen King, who prefers the 1997 TV series. for which he himself signed the screenplay. Released on Apple TV + on Friday,

Lisey's Story

is an adaptation of his favorite novel, and he's written all eight episodes on his own.

“This story is different, very close to me,” he explains in a video.

I had pneumonia in the 2000s, and when I got out of the hospital my wife had rearranged my studio.

It is as if I had died and returned as a ghost.

"

Lisey's Story

was born from the idea, with a widow, two years after the brutal murder of her writer husband discovered he had not told her everything between traumatic childhood, treasure hunt and secret world.

“I wanted to tell the story of the book, and even make it better,” adds Stephen King.

As I repeated to my wife, I didn't want anyone to ruin everything.

Or I preferred it to be me.

"

Stephen King has already adapted his novels for the screen

Stephen King is therefore the only screenwriter of the

Story of Lisey series

, but this is not the first time that he has adapted one of his novels for the screen. Among the sixty adaptations of his works, the novelist and screenwriter has worked on the films

Peur bleue

,

Simetierre, Cell

, or the mini-series

Le Fléau

,

La Tempête du siècle

,

Rose Red

,

The Shining

. He often found the same directors there, the craftsmen Mick Garris and Craig R. Baxley. Yet his adaptations are not among the most successful films, next to

Carrie

by Brian De Palma,

Stand by me

by Rob Reiner,

The Evaders

and

The Mist

by Frank Darabont,

This

by Andy Muschietti or 

Jessie

and

Doctor Sleep

by Mike Flanagan.

"With streaming services, there is more freedom"

Would an adaptation of Stephen King be better with an artist directing?

On

Linsey's Story

, he surrounded himself with the best, from filmmaker Pablo Larraín (

Jackie

) to directing to Darius Khondji (

Seven

) to photography to JJ Abrams to production, Julianne Moore and Clive Owen to the cast, not to mention Apple TV + for the broadcast.

“With streaming services and cable channels, there is more freedom,” he told Variety.

When you adapt a book into a movie, there's what I call the "sit on the suitcase" syndrome.

When you're trying to put all your clothes away and the suitcase won't close.

You sit on it until it closes, but often times it breaks and your dirty laundry gets strewn all over the place.

It is difficult to hold a book in two hours.

But in the TV series, you have 10 hours.

"

Text fidelity or media compatibility?

Say like that and with this

dream team

,

Histoire de Lisey

would therefore be an ideal adaptation. It is, without a doubt, one of the most faithful, if not the most literal. Stephen King, who considers himself a "visual writer," explores his favorite themes: love story stronger than anything, the power of the imagination, supernatural and human monsters, and "that different world writers go to when. 'they write their stories', here the Boo'ya Moon.

Histoire de Lisey

thus plunges spectators into a mental universe of obsessions, repetitions, confusion… to the point of losing them?

Fans of Stephen King, the writer, will surely have less difficulty letting go.

But for others, as

The Hollywood Reporter

sums it up

, "the battle between fidelity to the original text and compatibility with the serial medium is felt, and if Stephen King seems to prefer the first, the series had a lot to gain from the second".

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