7/18/2023 0 Comments Apt pupil bookThe first half hour of Apt Pupil is, for all practical purposes, exactly the same as Stephen King’s version of events, but it’s after that point that the deviations start to pile up. The film may have been graded with an R-rating by the MPAA, but put side-by-side with the novella it feels practically Disney-fied. That being said, the movie stands apart from the source material as a different emotional experience because of the content that is excluded. In totality, Bryan Singer’s Apt Pupil can be categorized as one of the more faithful Stephen King adaptations brought to the silver screen, even with macro changes like the setting being changed from 1974 to 1984, and the events playing out over the course of a single year instead of three. (Image credit: Sony Pictures) How Bryan Singer’s Apt Pupil Differs From Stephen King’s Novella The stories eventually have a deteriorating and corrupting effect on Todd – eventually allowing for a turning of the tables that sees Dussander threaten his protégé’s future – and the demons resurrected inevitably drive both of them to satisfy bubbling homicidal urges. While the Nazi is initially reticent, he complies and spends hours with the protagonist every week telling him about his experiences. The teen has learned about the history at school and read books with personal accounts, but they haven’t properly scratched his itch, and he wishes to know more. Bowden wants the man to tell him all of the “gooshy” details about the Holocaust, and in exchange he won’t go public with the revelation that Denker is in actuality Kurt Dussander, a Nazi war criminal who oversaw the execution of thousands at concentration camps before and during World War II. Set in mid-1970s Los Angeles, the novella begins as Todd Bowden – a sharp high school student and all-star baseball player – offers a proposition to Arthur Denker, an elderly German immigrant who lives in his neighborhood. Monsters masked by the veil of humanity like Todd Bowden and Kurt Dussander could be your next door neighbors, and you don’t have a clue. “Apt Pupil” is unequivocally one of the darkest stories Stephen King has ever written, supernatural or not, and the fact that it is wholly grounded in reality does skyrocket the horror factor. There has always been that primitive impulse as part of my writing. I like the feeling that I reached between somebody's legs like that. I've written something that has really gotten under someone's skin.’ And I do like that. If the same story had been set in outer space, it would have been okay, because then you would have had that comforting layer of ‘Well, this is just make-believe, so we can dismiss it.’ And I thought to myself, ‘Gee, I've done it again. Winter for Stephen King: Art Of Darkness: This only made King more impassioned to include it, as he explained to Douglas E. While “The Body” is a wonderful story about childhood friendship, and “Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption” is a gorgeous tale about the power of hope, the darkness of “Apt Pupil” successfully freaked out Stephen King’s publishers as New American Library, and they went as far as to request that the novella not be a part of Different Seasons. In the case of “Apt Pupil,” the story was written in the two weeks after the author finished The Shining – and it was controversial from the start. (Image credit: Sony Pictures) What “Apt Pupil” Is AboutĪs I noted in my columns about Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me and Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption, all four of the novellas in Different Seasons were written in the immediate aftermath of King completing a major novel. The role was then turned down by Alec Guinness, Paul Scofield, and John Gielgud – and while Nicol Williamson was eventually cast in the part (opposite Ricky Schroder as protagonist Todd Bowden), the production had to shut down ten weeks into filming because financial backing fell through. James Mason, with whom Richard Kobritz worked on Salem’s Lot, was the filmmaker’s first choice to play the villainous Nazi Kurt Dussander, but he died before Kobritz could finalize the acquisition of the book rights. But issues mounted throughout development. The plan was to make an indie movie with a budget of $5.5 million, one that heavily toned down the content of Stephen King’s story, and British director Alan Bridges was attached to helm. According to Creepshows by Stephen Jones, Richard Kobritz (a producer on both Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot and John Carpenter’s Christine) first teamed up with fellow producer William Frye to make an adaptation of “Apt Pupil” in 1987 – five years after the novella was first published in the collection Different Seasons.
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