Stephen King fans have a whole lot to look forward to in 2024. The author’s latest book, the collection You Like It Darker, is scheduled to arrive in stores in May, and while specific release dates haven’t been announced, it feels safe to keep our fingers crossed about both Gary Dauberman’s Salem’s Lot and Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, there’s a few last bits to go over for 2023 in this latest edition of The King Beat.
In this week’s column, I have a King-related suggestion for your New Year’s resolution, thoughts from the writer about Christmas-centric media, some new Stand By Me trivia from Kiefer Sutherland, and, as always, a new Recommendation Of The Week. Let’s dig in!
Going Into 2024, Adjust Your Movie-Watching Habits Stephen King-Style
I have a confession to make: I love a good rewatch. It’s always wonderful to check out films and shows I’ve never seen and broaden my taste (and I certainly do plenty of that, as evidenced by the fact that I watched 138 new releases in 2023), but I also frequently turn to familiar favorites in my down time. If you’re the same way and looking to try and shake that habit in 2024, there’s a New Year’s resolution you may want to borrow from Stephen King.
Specifically, I’m referring to the deal that King made with himself back at the start of 2022. Almost exactly two years ago, the writer came up with an interesting system for his movie-watching habits in order to try and catch up with notable titles that he missed in the past: he selected one film to watch from every year between 1961 and 2021 with a concentration on features that he hadn’t previously seen. Thanks to this plan, he ended up watching a lot of terrific classics and excellent recent releases.
So what did he end up watching? Being the active social media user that he is, he posted every step of his cinematic journey on Twitter, and below you can check out the full rundown of titles he screened:
- 1961 - The Innocents
- 1962 - The Manchurian Candidate
- 1963 - Hud
- 1964 - A Hard Day’s Night
- 1965 - The Hill
- 1966 - Seconds
- 1967 - Point Blank
- 1968 - The Producers
- 1969 - Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
- 1970 - M*A*S*H*
- 1971 - Fiddler On The Roof
- 1972 - Aguirre, The Wrath Of God
- 1973 - Mean Streets
- 1974 - The Parallax View
- 1975 - The Sunshine Boys
- 1976 - Network
- 1977 - Eraserhead
- 1978 - Straight Time
- 1979 - Wise Blood
- 1980 - Breaker Morant
- 1981 - Blow Out
- 1982 - Sophie’s Choice
- 1983 - Risky Business
- 1984 - 1984
- 1985 - The Trip To Bountiful
- 1986 - River’s Edge
- 1987 - Au Revoir Les Enfants
- 1988 - Hairspray
- 1989 - The Little Mermaid
- 1990 - The Godfather III, The Death Of Michael Corleone
- 1991 - Boyz 'n The Hood
- 1992 - Reservoir Dogs
- 1993 - Menace II Society
- 1994 - The Lion King
- 1995 - Outbreak
- 1996 - Trainspotting
- 1997 - 12 Angry Men
- 1998 - Little Voice
- 1999 - Fight Club
- 2000 - Under Suspicion
- 2001 - Enemy At The Gates
- 2002 - Road To Perdition
- 2003 - The Last Samurai
- 2004 - Dead Man’s Shoes
- 2005 - L’Enfant a.k.a. The Child
- 2006 - 16 Blocks
- 2007 - Fracture
- 2008 - Ponyo
- 2009 - Up
- 2010 - The Way Back
- 2011 - The Ides Of March
- 2012 - The Master
- 2013 - Dallas Buyers Club
- 2014 - Life Itself
- 2015 - Ant-Man
- 2016 - Silence
- 2017 - Life
- 2018 - The Clovehitch Killer
- 2019 - Them That Follow
- 2020 - I Care A Lot
- 2021 - Stillwater
From the cult comedy classic Hairspray, to the F-bomb worthy Boyz In The Hood, to the anarchic chaos of Fight Club, the man spent months feasting on excellent cinema, and it didn’t take him the full year to complete his resolution, as he was able to wrap things up by late August.
If you haven’t watched some/most/any of the titles that Stephen King watched, his list is a great place to start – and it’s certainly better than signing up for a gym membership that you quit on by February.
Stephen King Went Into Full Dad Mode For Christmas… And Admitted To Not Being The Biggest Fan Of Christmas Movies And Music
As evidenced by the eclecticism of his writing (not to mention the list above), Stephen King has a deep appreciation for a wide variety of genres. He’ll always be primarily associated with horror, and he certainly has a deep love for scary stuff, but it’s far from an exclusive relationship. That being said, it was surprising this month when King took to Twitter to make a shocking confession: when it comes to Christmas movies and music, you can definitely count him out.
More than simply not liking them, he apparently hates them. The topic came up when King saw a post from his friend/fellow novelist Ray Garton, who took to his own account to recommend that his viewers make a double feature out of two seasonal classics starring Bing Crosby: Holiday Inn and White Christmas. Not mincing words, King retweeted the suggestion with a four word response: “I hate Christmas movies.”
I hate Christmas movies. https://t.co/cRvZQKfntuDecember 18, 2023
He didn’t stop there, however. The haterade continued to flow four days later when Stephen King saw a post asking Twitter users about the Christmas song that “gets you.” Instead of sharing his own personal favorite, he opted to dismiss “almost all” of it – sharing particular hatred for “Holly Jolly Christmas,” most famously sung by Burl Ives:
I hate almost all Christmas music. The worst is “Holly Jolly Christmas.” https://t.co/FF4Md69SqnDecember 22, 2023
Before you start calling Stephen King a Grinch, however, it should be noted that the man did have some cheer to spread during the 2023 holiday season. Evidently this family-centric time of year brought out the father in him, as he shared a pair of dad jokes that are as cute as they are groan-worthy:
How does the man in the moon cut his hair?Eclipse it.Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, I’ll show myself out. https://t.co/sBe8u7qe1CDecember 25, 2023
The waiter asked if I would give him a tip. I said, “Stay hydrated.”Try the chicken.December 26, 2023
Assuming that your eyes didn’t just roll out of their sockets, let’s move on to a cool bit of trivia about one of the best Stephen King movies of all time…
Kiefer Sutherland Shares The Story Of How Rob Reiner’s Adaptation Of “The Body” Became Titled Stand By Me
It’s not unusual for films to alter their titles from the source material they’re based on, but it’s a rare occurrence when it comes to the works of Stephen King. Not counting anthologies like Creepshow and Cat’s Eye, there are only a few examples in Hollywood history – and that includes “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption” becoming The Shawshank Redemption and “Secret Window, Secret Garden” becoming simply Secret Window. Among these projects, Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me is a notable standout, and Kiefer Sutherland recently revealed the possible backstory behind the change.
The actor best known to Stephen King fans as Ace Merrill was a guest on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon late last week, and it was during a discussion of Sutherland’s guitar skills that he shared a wonderful behind-the-scenes story. According to him, there was a day on the Stand By Me set when he was casually jamming with co-star River Phoenix, and Rob Reiner overheard what the song that they were playing. The song? Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.” Said Sutherland,
We were making Stand By Me, which was a Stephen King short story called 'The Body,' and River Phoenix was learning guitar and playing guitar, and he was actually very, very good... And I was playing 'Stand By Me' and singing that song, and he said, 'Oh, I love the melody of that song,' and he hadn’t heard it before. So I was teaching it to him, and Rob Reiner walked by and said, 'Oh, I haven’t heard that song for a long time. I love it.' And that was the end of that discussion, and then Rob Reiner ended up using that song for the film and changing the title to Stand By Me.
Fallon followed up by asking if there was a direct correlation between that moment and the decision to change the title, and while Sutherland couldn’t say for sure, it certainly seems like he thinks it played at least some role:
I have no idea. I just know it was part of that conversation.
Shakespeare tells us that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but given how generic “The Body” is as a title, I think it’s safe to say that Rob Reiner and his fellow filmmakers made a smart call with the change.
Recommendation Of The Week: “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption”
Whether or not you decide to form a specific New Year’s resolution for 2024, it’s always best to charge into January with feelings of optimism, and there is no better place to find that energy in the Stephen King canon than “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption.” First published in the 1982 collection Different Seasons, the novella unquestionably goes to some dark places (it is a story set in prison, after all), but it uses that darkness to showcase the indomitable qualities of the human spirit and the power of hope.
If you’re a dedicated King fan, you’ve probably seen writer/director Frank Darabont’s film adaptation of the story more times than you can count, but if you’ve never read the source material, that’s a situation you should remedy. In addition to featuring some notable differences, it’s a beautifully written experiment in perspective (King wrote it to echo the style of author Max Brand, a.k.a. Frederick Schiller Faust), and it even has some specific ties to New Year’s celebration in that protagonist Andy Dufresne maintains a specific tradition during the holiday.
That does it for this week’s King Beat, but I’ll be back next Thursday to ring in the new year with a brand new column, and in the meantime, you can dig further into King history with my Adapting Stephen King series.
