Hello Robert: 
 
 RM> It's very difficult to put all of a book on the screen.  Part of the
 RM> problem is that some things just don't translate - for instance, where
 RM> in a book it's easy to "listen" to someone think, 
 RM> it would be boring to
 RM> have the character just look out the window while we here his thoughts
 RM> going around.  And most books would, if everything went into a flick,
 RM> produce four or five-hour movies - if not longer.  
 RM> And the usual length
 RM> is about two hours.
True...but I don't mean to see the characters think their actions speak 
louder than words. 
yes the translation of books to movies is a hard process and it is good when 
the authour of the works does the teleplay (since he wrote the characters to 
begin with)...it's good that King is bringing his works to television into 
mini-series format for it brings out the vintage King and the reason for the 
characters potrayal...
 
 RM> I don't mind so much that book-based movies aren't 
 RM> exactly like the book
 RM> as I do the all-too frequent movie that doesn't 
 RM> have any resemblance to
 RM> the book it's supposedly based on - *Dracula*, for instance (which was
 RM> actually an adaption of a stage play, which didn't exactly follow the
 RM> book in all particulars; however, that is a *classic* flick).
Neither do I but having read the book prior to making the movie one must take 
into account the time period in which the book was written and update to the 
screen...
The Shining mini-series was well done and kepted most of the elements of the 
novel and didn't "improvise" scenes to make it a different movie.
 
--- Maximus 3.00
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