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Stephen King has heaped praise on the new Apple TV remake of Cape Fear.
The celebrated horror author, 78, is a noted fan of John D. MacDonald’s 1957 novel The Executioners, which has been adapted several times for the screen.
The book inspired the 1962 film Cape Fear, which starred Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum. That movie was subsequently remade in 1991, with a cast that included Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange.
Last month, Apple TV released a new version as a 10-episode series. Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson star as the couple pursued by the psychopathic Max Cady, played by Javier Bardem.
King took to social media to declare himself a fan of the latest retelling, writing on X: “It’s entertaining because it’s more f***ed up than Peter O’Toole on his birthday.”
O’Toole, who starred in Lawrence of Arabia and died in 2013 at the age of 81, was famed for his hell-raising personality.
King’s comment came in response to another user who had opined: “Cape Fear is undeniably entertaining, but it is the most sloppily and ridiculously plotted series I have ever watched.”
But the It author clarified that his own comment was intended as praise, adding: “I say that with love and admiration.”
The latest version of Cape Fear was created by screenwriter Nick Antosca and will conclude Friday, July 31.
Earlier this week, a new film adaptation of King’s The Long Walk raced to the top of HBO Max’s streaming charts after arriving on the platform.
Originally released in theaters last year, the movie from Constantine director Francis Lawrence is based on King’s dystopian novel first published in 1979.
A film adaptation spent decades in development hell and became considered “unfilmable.” Among the filmmakers attached to the project over the years were George Romero (Dawn of the Dead) in the late 1980s and The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont in the 2000s.
King himself was involved in the eventual adaptation and made one request of Lawrence and screenwriter JT Mollner (Strange Darling): that they up the violence.
“If you look at these superhero movies, you’ll see some supervillain who’s destroying whole city blocks, but you never see any blood,” King told The Times last year. “And man, that’s wrong. It’s almost, like, pornographic.”
He continued: “I said, ‘if you’re not going to show it, don’t bother.’ And so they made a pretty brutal movie.”
The Long Walk stars Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson and Mark Hamill, and centers on a televised competitive walking contest in which failure results in the death of the contestants.
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