Movies and books: Never the King shall meet

Marty Demarest, the hard-working producer for Spokane Public Radio , read with interest my comments in this column about Lawrence Kasdan’s adaptation of Stephen King ’s novel “Dreamcatcher.” He wasn’t in complete agreement.

“I was happy to see that on your blog you qualified your statement about Stephen King with an acknowledgement that your view of some of his recent writing was ‘based on’ the screenplay adaptation of ‘Dreamcatcher,’ ” he said “But I’m curious – when, ever in the history of film adaptations, and translation in general, was it possible to learn anything certain about the source material from the adaptation? I think that the book ‘Dreamcatcher’ was a mess, but not nearly the mess, in either extent or content, that the movie presents.”

And Demarest continues: “Wouldn’t it have been more accurate – and fair – to compare a King movie adaptation to other King movie adaptations? My retooling of your question would be: How many times is Hollywood going to remake ‘Stand by Me’?”

Good points. I have not read King’s novel “Dreamcatcher,” so I can’t pass judgment on it. And since I always preach to never confuse movies and books because of their obvious differences in form, my complaints should be confined only to the movie versions of King’s work.

I will say, though, that if “Dreamcatcher” the novel follows “Dreamcatcher” the movie in its use of four friends, flashbacks to the past, walks along train tracks and dialogue that sounds like 7-year-old boys playing at swearing, then I hold my ground. The man is mining tired literary territory.