1. “Gerald’s Game” by Stephen King
Ideal Cast: Mira Sorvino as Jessie Burlingame, Timothy Olyphant as the Space Cowboy/Apparition, and Leonardo DiCaprio as Gerald Burlingame.
Ideal Director: David Cronenberg.
This is one masterpiece of a psychological horror novel, definitely one of Stephen King’s best. “Gerald’s Game” tells the tale of Jessie Burlingame, a woman who goes on a vacation with her husband Gerald at a secluded cabin in the woods where they engage a kinky sex act, one that ends with Jessie accidentally killing Gerald and leaving her handcuffed to the bed. Jessie finds herself hopelessly trapped with no sign of rescue whatsoever. As a result, she begins to suffer from hallucinations as the voices in her head consume her. However, Jessie is visited by two creepy things – a stray dog named Prince who begins munching on Gerald’s corpse and then a horrific apparition which may be real or all in Jessie’s head. “Gerald’s Game” has all the right ingredients to make for an incredible horror movie, one that could be made on a fairly reasonable budget too.
2. “Flood” by Stephen Baxter
Ideal Cast: Kate Winslet as Capt. Lily Brooke, Anthony Hopkins as British Officer Pier Michaelmas, Matthew McConaughey as NASA scientist Gary Boyle, and Sigourney Weaver as Helen Gray.
Ideal Director: Christopher Nolan.
“Flood” is a sci-fi disaster novel set in the near future. As a result of deep submarine seismic activity, massive seabed fragmentation occurs, opening up the countless subterranean bodies of water beneath the sea floor and thus flooding the entire Earth. While the human species survives the global catastrophe, the worldwide flood destroys much of human civilization. The book follows the progress of the worldwide flood over the course of a few decades which begins with the disappearance of low-lying islands and a tidal surge that strikes Sydney and London in 2016. By 2052, Mount Everest doesn’t even exist. “Flood” is one of the most terrifying and most catastrophic disaster books ever written, one that would make for a much better film than “Waterworld” as it scientifically makes sense.
3. “The Long Walk” by Stephen King
Ideal Cast: Shia LaBeouf as the lead teen and Jeremy Irons as the head of the military.
Ideal Director: Ridley Scott
Published under the pseudonym of RIchard Bachman in the late 1970’s, Stephen King strikes gold once again with “The Long Walk”, a novel set in the near future where a totalitarian and despotic United States government holds a terrifying walking content the spans from Canada to the southern United States. The contest involves over a hundred teenagers walking without any breaks or stopping for any reason as they are monitored by the military from a half-track off the side of the road. Food rations and bottled water is provided to them by their request but they must not stop and maintain a record of four miles per hour or else they will be shot. “The Long Walk” is almost reminiscent of “The Running Man” story albeit in a much more brutal and dreadful way. With the right director and writer, “The Long Walk” could make for an original Stephen King film.
