ROTTEN TOMATOES: Tobe Hooper Behind the Wheel of Stephen King's Buick 8

Tobe Hooper Behind the Wheel of Stephen King's Buick 8

Director gets the keys from Moonstone and Amicus.

by Jeff Giles | October 11, 2007

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Just in time for the 25th anniversary of Poltergeist comes word that its director, Tobe Hooper, is plotting a horrorific return to theaters.

Variety reports that Hooper is attached to direct the feature adaptation of Stephen King's From a Buick 8, from a script written by Johnathon Schaech and Richard Chizmar. The film is being co-produced by Moonstone Entertainment and Amicus Entertainment. From the article:

"From a Buick 8" centers on a mysterious Buick stored in a state trooper barracks. After one of the troopers dies, his son becomes obsessed with the mysterious vintage automobile.

"From a Buick 8" will not be "your stock horror film by any means. There's a really cool, layered quality to the story," Hooper said. "The producers, writers and I shared the same sensibility about the project and responded to it in a similar way."

Buick isn't one of King's more...distinguished late-period works, but Hooper knows how to scare people, and it's been awhile since we've seen him do it on the big screen. Maybe this will be the project to bring him back.

Source: Variety

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(1-16 of 16 posts) | Reply

Defmonkey writes:
on Oct 11 2007 06:19 AM

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome.

Its great to see alot of King's work to be adapted into films. Its done better, then back in the 80's too!

Hopefully, they'll get "The Long Walk" rolling.

(Reply to this)

Shatter24 writes:
on Oct 11 2007 06:32 AM

What do they mean by "distinguished"? Probably they mean, non-horror, like his Green Mile story, etc. From a Buick 8 was a great book, and I thought it did well in bookstores. It was just as good as any of his other later stuff.

(Reply to this)

TheNextReel writes:
on Oct 11 2007 06:36 AM

I read the novel. It's not a "scary car" story by any means, but a very mature examination of how people deal with a constant and ultimately unknowable presence in their life. The focus is how long the mysterious car has sat at the police barracks and what of the characters lives it has seen or influenced, not all of which is horror. For all intensive purposes, the car isn't a car at all, but a physical portal and a symbol of guilt and harbored grief for those around it.

I hope the film adaptation doesn't collapse into a cheap monster movie (there are only one or two moments featuring unnatural beings). They should treat it as drama about a family of police officers and their one great, big X-file of a secret.

(Reply to this)

scarh791 writes:
on Oct 11 2007 09:02 AM

I was under the impression that Tobe Hooper was pulled from the director's chair on Poltergeist by Spielberg himself after only a few weeks. Apparently he thought Hooper's approach was too grim and didn't tackle the subject with a sense of awe or wonder like E.T. did extraterrestrials. I could be wrong, but I thought this was Hollywood legend.

(Reply to this)

Bruce Campbell writes:
on Oct 11 2007 12:22 PM

Well, I guess it's for the best, since George Romero will be directing Diary of the Dead II....

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bigbrother writes:
on Oct 11 2007 01:34 PM

I'm not sure how well this is going to adapt. The book is so cerebral and as I remember it lacks much action to hold movie goers attention. So much of the joy of it is Kings writing style. I mean the car sits in a garage the entire movie.

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rt_hire_me writes:
on Oct 11 2007 01:52 PM

I agree. I just don't know how it's going to work. Love S. King's storytelling. He's the champ. But a movie out of this? I could see a movie out of Everything's Eventual. Oh well. Green Mile worked. This one just doesn't have a 'go-for-the-jugular' moment.

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damvbat writes:
on Oct 11 2007 03:21 PM

im there dude

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ManofStee1 writes:
on Oct 11 2007 05:59 PM

"Buick isn't one of King's more...distinguished late-period works"

What the hell is that supposed to mean? King's a wonderful storyteller, and From a Buick 8 was a great book. A great book to adapt to a movie... well maybe not so much, but I'll be there on opening night most likely. The fight with the... well the fight at the end might be pretty freaky on film.

(Reply to this)

Steve Perry writes:
on Oct 11 2007 07:23 PM

In reply to this comment (#1183420)
I loved the long walk but I dont see it working as a movie.

(Reply to this)

Steve Perry writes:
on Oct 11 2007 07:35 PM

In reply to this comment (#1183420)
I loved the long walk but I dont see it working as a movie.

(Reply to this)

Simsgil writes:
on Oct 12 2007 03:28 AM

Didn't care for Buick 8 myself. Maybe the movie will work better. It happened that way for me with Christine. Let's get working on Bag of Bones.

(Reply to this)

bigbrother writes:
on Oct 12 2007 02:26 PM

In reply to this comment (#1184329)
By later works they mean post-The Stand. As King admits there are a group of people who feel he could have stopped writing then and the world would not be much worse off. I disagree. While from Carrie to The Stand marks one of the greatest runs in literature and probably IS the defining part of Kings career (I might even expand that out to include IT and do consider The Gunslinger part of that period even though it might have been released afterward) there are still plenty of Gems in his "later" works. Notable for me Wizards and Glass, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, From a Buick 8 and Needful Things. In this case I think he's just a victim of his own success. When you start your career that brilliantly people come to expect every novel you put out to be better than the last and that's just not realistic. King is still King though and I think in a hundred years will be the author who defined his generation like we think of Hemingway or Dickens.

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slappy face writes:
on Oct 13 2007 08:46 PM

I was not impressed by this book at all. In fact I felt cheated. It wasnt scary or all that interesting. No satisfaction at all. Ive read quite a few King books and this one just seemed empty and phoned in. King books if not great are at least somewhat interesting. It was pretty boring. And Im sure the movie will be too. When King writes a good book it is sure to be made into a crappy movie, excusing Stand by me, Shawshank Redemption, and maybe Pet Semitary. Most of them stay so far from the books that it turns out to be not even the same stories. Major plot points are left out and taken in different directions Its all pretty disheartening as a King fan.

(Reply to this)

slappy face writes:
on Oct 13 2007 08:48 PM

In reply to this comment (#1186555)
I was not impressed by this book at all. In fact I felt cheated. It wasnt scary or all that interesting. No satisfaction at all. Ive read quite a few King books and this one just seemed empty and phoned in. King books if not great are at least somewhat interesting. It was pretty boring. And Im sure the movie will be too. When King writes a good book it is sure to be made into a crappy movie, excusing Stand by me, Shawshank Redemption, and maybe Pet Semitary. Most of them stay so far from the books that it turns out to be not even the same stories. Major plot points are left out and taken in different directions Its all pretty disheartening as a King fan.

(Reply to this)

woodboy747 writes:
on Jul 15 2008 01:09 AM

bigbrother, you are so right.

(Reply to this)