REVIEW

Dreamcatcher - The Shooting Script

Posted: July 19, 2003
Category: Books
Dreamcatcher - The Shooting Script is quite an interesting book. It contains first and foremost the entire shooting script of King's Dreamcatcher. Since I have been finding it really interesting to read scripts lately I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It's always interesting to read the thoughts of the screenwriter and then see if they came through in the finished movie. There is so much in the script that is written to describe a scene that has to be translated to a visual version for the movie.

Besides the script Dreamcatcher - The Shooting Script also contains introductions by King (All story, no bacon), William Goldman (Adapting King) and Lawrence Kasdan (Controlling the fear). These are all interesting to read. King talks about some of the feelings he has about his books being adapted into movies. He also mentions how much he likes Dreamcatcher. Personally I have a hard time seeing how King could like it so much. It's far from the worst adaptation of a King book but it's also far from the best. Just look at the ending…could that have been done worse? Well, apparently the filmmakers think so since there is an alternative ending that was rejected. It will be included in the DVD edition that will be released later this year though so we can all se for our self.

In his introduction Goldman talks about the three King books he has adapted for the silver screen; Misery, Hearts in Atlantis and Dreamcatcher and what made him accept the offer to adapt them. What surprises me here is Goldman's comment that he has no idea why Hearts in Atlantis tanked. Well, I can tell him why. He removed all The Dark Tower parts or hanged them into something ridiculous. He also only used parts of the book to tell the story and took the title from one of the stories he didn't use. What he was left with was fragments of a great story with some changed Dark Tower stuff that no one understood or cared about. That is why it tanked if you ask me.

Kasdan talks about how much he enjoyed adapting Dreamcatcher and how much he admired King's work. He also mentions some of the struggling they had to do to get the book turned into a script.

Except these introductions and the script itself Dreamcatcher - The Shooting Script contains, told by taking a closer look at some of the scenes, how the book was turned into a script and then into a film. It's really cool to see drawings that where done prior to the filming and then photos from the actual scene in the film. It's quite amazing to see how accurate they get their thoughts down on film.

Dreamcatcher - The Shooting Script also contains a section with short bios about the actors and filmmakers.

Lilja's final words about Dreamcatcher - The Shooting Script:

This is the book you should get if your interested in a) reading the script, b) how the book was turned into a movie or c) if you're a die hard King fan!

If you want to comment or discuss this review, please mail me.