Night Shift

The Shining, and stuff like that.

But then when, um, I saw the cover of the, the paperback for Night Shift, the hand with the eyes-

Mm

... that one, I was in, and read all of those just, "Oh, wow, these are so good." And, um, then, oh, he's got novels out.

That's just a frigging skill.

I think in the...

I remember in the, um, in the intro to Night Shift, the, the one that John D. MacDonald wrote, he, he said, you know, "Louis L'Amour could stand at the edge of a, of a lake or a pond and imagine the years of Indian wars and stuff, and Stephen King could stand at the edge and imagine some creature pulling itself out of the wa-" Like-

Mm-hmm

Based on the Stephen King short story, which is a great short story.

Terrifying, mean, cruel, awful, and awesome short story from the Night Shift collection, which is still, I think, is my favorite.

Um, my favorite King, honestly, is Night Shift.

I just, I love the, the variety and the early passion there.

But I love that story.

Okay.

I think it's like ha- or like half an idea from a night shift short story.

Yes.

Okay.

Just a tiny bit of Jimmy Stewart.

sorry first volume of short stories titled night shift which came out in 1978 and actually funnily enough the 1984 film i think it's the first uh adaptation of of any material from that volume i think so so anyway so the story goes Now, Stephen King, when he writes this already in 1978, he's already a bit of a name because Carrie is out and The Shining is out and Salem's Lot is out.

So he's a big name, right? Before that, he would have to really struggle to sell a short story to Penthouse, right? But at this point, he writes a short story and just gives it to someone, and he gets a few thousand dollars back, right? So he sells it to Penthouse.

He publishes it in 1978 in Night Shift.

Night Shift, I think, is quite successful as far as short story volumes go.

And the short story is, I want to say, immediately optioned.

And I can't remember who this guy was, but is it Joseph Mansfield? I think options it in 1980 officially.

I think 11 entries just to grant total.

This is gonna determine whether or not you and I are friends.

Uh, Skeleton Crew or Night Shift?

Oh, that's evil.

Yeah.

Ooh.

But this is the debate we have at work-

... over which one of the two is...

It's from his first collection of short stories.

I'm pretty sure Night Shift, which is also the one that has Children of the Corn.

Uh, he-

Did not know that

The film was aggressively marketed as a direct adaptation of Stephen King's 1975 short story.

Which readers probably know from his 1978 collection, Night Shift.

Right.

Let's clearly define what that 1975 story actually is for you guys listening, because the gap between the text and the screen is staggering.

Yeah, that is the Stephen King story.

story.Allied Vision's initial strategy was broad.

They intended to adapt the entire Night Shift collection.

They wanted to treat it as an IP goldmine

It was a short story.

Yeah, it was a short story Stephen King wrote in his Night Shift collection.

Rest

assured, the movie... is nothing like it's so much so that stephen king said take my name off it