It’s good to be Stephen King.
He’s been a phenomenally successful author for five straight decades, but the surprise success of 2017’s remake, It, the highest-grossing horror movie of all time, set off a shockwave of renewed interest in his entire catalog. A remake of Pet Sematary, the movie based on his 1983 hit, just made double its budget in the first 10 days of release, and the sequel to It is on the way in September, days before his new novel, The Institute, is set for release.
Rarely does a week go by, in fact, without the announcement of some new King-related project in the works, like this week’s news that AMC is adapting Sleeping Beauties, the 2017 novel King wrote with his son, Owen.
It’s enough to make one wonder, just how many of Stephen King’s novels and short story and novella collections have not been adapted, or aren’t currently in development?
Out of 67 potential projects, it’s just 13. (This being Stephen King, of course the number is 13.) I arrived at this number by excluding all the Dark Tower sequels, since a series based on the books is currently in development at Amazon, despite the fact that the 2017 film version with Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba flopped. I also excluded 2015’s Finders Keepers and 2016’s End of Watch, since they are part of a trilogy with Mr. Mercedes, a TV series currently in production.
Several of the unadapted books are ones he wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, including 1996’s The Regulators, 2007’s Blaze, and 1978’s Rage, the latter of which will probably never be made into a film, considering that it’s about a school shooting. Rose Madder (1995) was in development in 2011, but the project fell apart, and 2008’s Duma Key was in development recently, but is not currently. The story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (2015) are the only ones with no pieces to be plucked for an on-screen version. Finally, the remaining novels yet to be adapted are 1994’s Insomnia, 2001’s Black House, and 2018’s slim tome, Elevation.
Some of those books may one day join their literary siblings in the Stephen King televisual library.
Until then, though, just for the hell of it, here is the full list of the author’s books that have been adapted or are currently in development.
1974 Carrie (movie in 1976, sequel in 1999, reboot in 2013)
1975 Salem’s Lot (miniseries in 1979, again in 2004, and possibly in development)
1977 The Shining (movie in 1980, miniseries in 1997)
1978 Night Shift (collection) (movie, Graveyard Shift, in 1990)
1978 The Stand (miniseries in 1994, reboot currently in development for CBS All Access)
1979 The Long Walk (published under pseudonym Richard Bachman) (movie currently in development)
1979 The Dead Zone (movie in 1983, TV series 2002-2007)
1980 Firestarter (movie in 1984, reboot currently in development with Blumhouse)
1981 Cujo (movie in 1983, reboot was in development as recently as 2017, status currently unknown)
1981 Roadwork (currently in production)
1982 The Running Man (published under pseudonym Richard Bachman) (movie in 1987)
1982 The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (movie in 1997, TV series reboot currently in development at Amazon)
1982 Different Seasons (collection) (movies Stand by Me, Apt Pupil and Shawshank Redemption, with Breathing Method possibly in development)
1983 Christine (movie in 1983)
1983 Pet Sematary (movie in 1989, reboot in 2019)
1984 The Talisman (written with Peter Straub) (currently in development)
1984 The Eyes of the Dragon (currently in production)
1984 Thinner (published under pseudonym Richard Bachman) (movie in 1996)
1985 Skeleton Crew: collection (movie of The Mist in 2007, miniseries The Mist in 2017, and The Jaunt recently in development)
1986 It (miniseries in 1990, first movie in 2017, sequel due in 2019)
1987 The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
1987 Misery (movie in 1990)
1987 The Tommyknockers (miniseries in 1993, reboot reportedly in development)
1989 The Dark Half (movie in 1993)
1990 Four Past Midnight (collection) (miniseries The Langoliers in 1995, movie Secret Window in 2004)
1991 The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
1991 Needful Things (movie in 1993)
1992 Gerald’s Game (movie in 2017)
1992 Dolores Claiborne (movie in 1995)
1993 Nightmares & Dreamscapes (collection) (TV minseries in 2006)
1996 The Green Mile (movie in 1999)
1997 The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
1998 Bag of Bones (miniseries in 2011)
1999 Hearts in Atlantis (collection) (movie in 2001)
1999 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (currently in production)
2001 Dreamcatcher (movie in 2003)
2002 From a Buick 8 (currently in development)
2002 Everything’s Eventual: collection (movie Riding the Bullet in 2004 and movie 1408 in 2007)
2003 The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
2004 The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
2004 The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
2005 The Colorado Kid (TV series, Haven, from 2010-2015)
2006 Cell (movie in 2016)
2006 Lisey’s Story (currently in development at Apple)
2008 Just After Sunset (collection)
2009 Under the Dome (TV series 2013-2015)
2010 Full Dark, No Stars (collection) (movie A Good Marriage in 2014, TV movie Big Driver in 2014, movie 1922 in 2017)
2011 11/22/63 (miniseries in 2016)
2012 The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole2013 Joyland (TV series currently in development)
2012: In the Tall Grass (written with Joe Hill, in production at Netflix)
2013 Doctor Sleep (movie is currently in development)
2014 Mr. Mercedes (TV series started in 2017, currently still in production)
2015 Finders Keepers (sequel to Mr. Mercedes)
2015 The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: collection
2016 End of Watch (second sequel to Mr. Mercedes)
2017 Sleeping Beauties, written with Owen King (currently in development at AMC)
2018 The Outsider (currently in development at HBO)
UPDATE: Since the publication of this post, the following Stephen King properties are now being adapted: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Roadwork, The Eyes of the Dragon, and “Rest Stop” from the book Just After Midnight.
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