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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