h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Isn't there rumours of Stephen King collaborating with Peter Straub again to write a sequel to The Talisman?

A fair amount of autobiographical detail is mentioned in his book "On Writing". Other books about his work can also be found. I even once saw a Stephen King Quiz Book.

The Lawnmowerman is another example of his name being used to make more money than it deserved, even if it did star a pre-Bond Pierse Brosnan. The film bore little relation to the short story found in his anthology, though the name of it escapes me. Another short story from this collection seems to be the basis of his film Maximum Overdrive (wasn't that Emelio Estevez's screen debut?).

Stephen King's TV version of The Shining, though truer to the book than Kubrick's, falls short of what I consider to be one of Kubrick's better films, particularly with Jack Nicholson's performance.

SK also wrote an episode of the X-Files, something about ju-ju dolls. Set in Maine, of course.

the episode of the x-files is the only thing of kings i've stayed with till the end.

The name of that anthology is Night Shift and while Maximum Overdrive doesn't have a "based on" credit (I think) it does seem to follow the short story Trucks pretty closely. There was also made for tv movie based on Trucks that appeared on cable television a couple of years ago. It was also extremely bad. At least Maximum Overdrive was kind of entertaining in a totally moronic, turn-off-your-brain kind of way. (I think the AC/DC score helped that out. There's nothing funnier than hearing AC/DC try to play the Bernard Hermann Psycho theme.) Night Shift has also been the basis for such cinematic stinkers as Graveyard Shift and Children of the Corn.

Straub and King have gotten together for another book called Black House. To the best of my knowledge (since I have not as yet read it) this is not a sequel to The Talisman.

The Stephen King Quiz Book is available and handles King's works up to the point of '92/'93. It was written by Steven ... Spegnesi? Surname questionable, will post correct spelling if incorrect. It is broken down into each of the books or short stories and the books are further broken down into three categories containing 10 questions in each: People, Places, Things.

The Lawnmower Man appeared in Night Shift which also had the short stories upon which Graveyard Shift, The Mangler, Trucks (Maximum Overdrive - written and directed by King - and a remade-for-TV version called Trucks), a "prequel" to The Stand and the Children of the Corn franchise (currently on Part 6 but only Part 1 has direct ties to King's story really.)

While jack Nicholson may have made the Kubrick movie version of The Shining work, it ties to the book were almost nullified by the fact that this was Nicholson's first role after One Flew Over The Cuckoo Nest which coupled with Kubrick's "vision" gave the impression that the only real horror of the house was all in Jack Torrance's head as he lost his sanity due to the claustrophobia of the place and his alcoholic nature. The TV series spanned 3 hours, renamed true to the book and was actually very watchable ... something most King horror adaptions aren't.

King's non-horror stuff does tend to do quite well and people are surprised when they find out that these are based on works by him; these include Stand By Me (based on the novella The Body in Different Seasons and has a cast when the majority went onto far greater careers), Dolores Clairborne (renamed Total Eclipse in some areas), The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption among others.

The Black House is a sequel to The Talisman, but only in the sense that it uses the Territories (although nowhere near as much as the first book) and the main character Jack.

That's handy about the TV series of The Shining. If I ever get a chance to see it, I'll make sure I do!