“The Mist” Update: A New Ending for the Film
By Norm Schrager at November 14, 2007 | 12:10 am | Print
If you’re looking forward to next week’s premiere of The Mist (recently featured on Movie Poster Monday), chances are you’re a fan of Stephen King’s novella. Well forget it. The ending has been changed for the movie, courtesy writer-director Frank Darabont. We’re skeptical.
Our friends at Late Film pointed out a Darabont interview on Sci-Fi Wire, in which the filmmaker discussed his ‘very different’ decision. The director says he preferred a “definitive ending,” rather than King’s open-ended chiller (the last line of the story still hangs in my memory, frankly).
Darabont: It’s not a judgment on Steve’s story as much as … I just don’t think it works in a film.” Darabont, who also directed King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, claims the author loved the changed ending saying, “If I’d thought of it, I’d have used it in the story.”
THE LOBBY TAKE: We figure Mr. King is, at best, sincerely excited… at worst, he’s just polite. The guy certainly understands the structure of a powerful story, but he’s never been a good screenwriter. Storm of the Century was solid, but Maximum Overdrive? The TV versions of The Stand, The Shining? Hopefully, he can judge ‘em better than he can write ‘em.
QUESTION: What book has most been ruined by a subpar movie?
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13 Comments
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Congo by Michael Crichton
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- Gin –
Funny you should mention Congo. While I was reading the book, Crichton was super-popular and I kept thinking there was no way they’d try a film adaptation since it’d be difficult to make the gorilla interaction believable. How wrong I was. And how right you are.
-Norm S.
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I was going with Michael Crichton, too, but the y botched Timeline even worse than Congo. You knew Congo was stupid to try to make, but Timeline had soooo much potential. Heath Ledger simply didn’t work, and making the character go to “save his dad” completely ruined the motivations behind the characters’ actions. The changes were just awful.
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- James –
After reading your comment, I thought of another screen disaster of a Crichton novel: Sphere. The guy’s ideas just don’t lend themselves to literal visualization. They only live really well in the brain, not the screen.-Norm S.
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Well, the film has been out over a month…I hate the ‘new ending’, so Im planning a ‘Novella Cut’ of the film, once its on DVD…have a peek at the test footage for the recut ending, which will reflect the great book ending…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMhglG0M4Tw…also, for fun, I did an animatic of the ‘Family Guy’ version of the ending…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMhglG0M4Tw -
Hmmm…looks like dem links didnt go in right…lets try again…Novella Ending–
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMhglG0M4Tw
FG Spoof Ending–
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UPDATED Novella Cut Ending…
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygjScJBgKr4[/url]
K
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I watched this film last night and I do not know what this director was thinking of, this is the sickest and most pointless ending ever. I will not be buying this one which is a shame as I thought that this was an enjoyable if slightly dragged out film until this god awful ending. You can get over a bad start but a bad ending, there’s just no point watching the whole film.
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You know what they say Karen: The audience will always remember the first and last things they saw.
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