Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished - Revised & Expanded Edition (52 page)

¹¹⁵
The Stephen King Story
, George Beahm, p.223-224 

¹¹⁶
Joseph Hillstrom King, now the Award-winning and best-selling horror writer, Joe Hill
 

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1970s)
 

The screenplay of
Something Wicked This Way Comes
is held in Box 1010 at the Special Collections Unit of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine, Orono. Written permission from King is required to access this work. There is no indication when the screenplay was written but a film adaptation of the book was released in 1983.  

In an interview with David Chute (published in
Take One
for January 1979 and reproduced in
Feast of Fear
¹¹⁷
) King talks of having written this script, saying: “…I felt more divorced from the source material. I loved the book, and I think that of all the screenplays I’ve done, that was the best. But in spite of loving it I was a little divorced from it, where I wasn’t with my own book.” The date of this interview indicates the script was completed no later than 1978. 

A note on the Folder holding the screenplay at the Library states “Incomplete
–
Pages Missing.” Of the 81 pages those missing are pages 5, 9-13, 16, 33-36 and 39-40, for a total of 13 missing, leaving 68 extant. 

The screenplay is of Ray Bradbury’s novel of the same title. Published in 1962, it is regarded as a classic in both the fantasy and horror genres. Noted King expert Stanley Wiater describes it as a “…masterpiece of modern Gothic literature’” Bradbury is also the author of the magnificent anti-censorship novel,
Fahrenheit
451
,
The Martian Chronicles
and that collection’s short story,
Mars Is Heaven
(more of which later), among over five hundred works of fiction. Both Bradbury and King are recipients of the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. 

Due to the release of the 1983 film with Bradbury himself as the scriptwriter it would seem most unlikely that King’s screenplay will ever be produced. It is also certain that it will never be published or be made available for public reading, as King has chosen to place it in a Restricted Box at the Fogler Library. The best solution for readers who have not had the pleasure of being exposed to this story is to read Bradbury’s novel or to rent the video/DVD of the film.  

King writes extensively of the novel in Chapter 9, section 6 of
Danse Macabre
. The amount of space King used to comment on the tale is a clear indication of how important he considers its impact to be in the horror genre. He says,“‘…I believe that
Something Wicked This Way Comes
, a darkly poetic tale set in the half-real, half-mythical community of Green Town, Illinois, is probably Bradbury’s best work…’” King quotes Bradbury’s re-telling of the story’s inspirations saying it,“‘…began as a short story in
Weird Tales
called‘“Black Ferrs”’ in May 1948…’” Bradbury then turned that short story into a movie outline called
Dark Carnival
that he pitched to Gene Kelly, who loved it but could not raise the finance. Bradbury said,“‘…to hell with it and sat down and spent two years, on and off, finishing
Something Wicked
…’” as a novel. 

King’s analysis of Bradbury’s writing and the novel itself is superb and readers should take the time to read this section of 1981’s
Danse Macabre
, in which King makes no mention of his own screenplay. If you have read the novel, it will enhance your understanding. If not, you will be unable to resist by the time Big Steve is finished. 

In this screenplay, which is part of the America Under SiegeRreality, a carnival comes to Green Town, Illinois. Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show suddenly appeared in the small mid-Western town on 23 October 1962 and set up in Rolfe’s Meadow. Shortly after the Show’s arrival a hunched old man with wild gray hair (known in the script only as“‘The Drummr’”) gave a local boy, Jim Nightshade, a lightning rod to place on his house. Apparently the carnival denizens had done something evil to this old man but we do not discover what it was. 

When Nightshade visited the carnival with his friend Will Halloway they realzsed something was very wrong. Their reaction somehow alerted Cooger, Dark and their cohorts, including the“‘Dust-With’.” The carnival had strange attractions, including a Mirror-Maze reflecting different ages of the viewer, and a carousel that could increase or decrease the rider’s age. 

Cooger used the carousel to take himself back to twelve years of age. He then went to the house of a local teacher, Miss Foley and confused her by introducing himself as Robert, her nephew. However, Nightshade and Halloway interrupted his plan to rob her. Cooger then tried to set the boys up as the ones who had stolen her jewellery. 

That night Dark and the Dust-Witch sought the boys, presumably to kill them. The Dust-Witch was an ancient, withered crone in gypsy clothes. She was blind and her eyes were sewn up but she could somehow sense using her fingers. She floated over the town in a balloon, using the fingers to seek the boys, and threw a bucket of silvery-stuff onto the shingled roof of the Nightshade house to mark it. Nightshade and Will Halloway washed the slimy stuff off with a garden hose. Later, Halloway shot the balloon down from the roof of an abandoned house, the Redman place, using a bow and arrow.  

The next day the Cooger and Dark carnival paraded down Main Street, where Nightshade and Halloway were hiding from Dark and his followers. After being alerted to the danger by the boys Bill Halloway, Will’s librarian father, researched the history of the carnival’s visits to Green Town. Speculating it could be hundreds of years old, he also came to the realzsation that the evil could be laughed away. 

About 9pm that night Dark, the Dust-Witch and the carnival’s Dwarf succeeded in capturing the two boys at the Town Library. When Bill Halloway (
strangely King changes the father’s name from the original Charles
) challenged Dark using a Bible, Dark claimed that it could not hurt him“‘…nor could silver bullets or dawn’s early ligh.’” Bill Halloway then followed the kidnappers to the carnival, intending to rescue the boys. However, Jim Nightshade was tempted by the chance to grow a little older and took a ride on the carousel as it turned forwards. Will Halloway jumped on to the infernal device to remove him, aging a year in the process. Jim had aged two years and appeared to be dead when taken off the carousel. However, the two Halloways were able to laugh and dance him back to life.  

Bill Halloway then laughed the Dust-Witch to death. Although Dark had used the carousel to disguise himself as a nine year old boy Bill saw through the ruse, seized this version of Dark, as he would not have been able to hold the man, and“‘lovingly laughed him to deah’.” The carousel and carnival then both self-destructed. 

The carnival moved on, leaving a poster advertising Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show’s visit to Dallas, Texas for“‘one day ony’” on November 22, 1963. That is, of course, the date of John F Kennedy’s assassination in that very city. 

Among the things we learn of the Cooger and Dark Show is that it had visited Green Town in the Octobers of 1846 and 1860, on 12 October 1888 and in October of 1910, the year Bill Halloway was born. 

The two boys are our heroes in the piece (although it is Bill Halloway who turns out to be the real hero, rescuing the boys and killing Dark and the Dust Witch). The boys were born only minutes apart, Will Halloway at 11.59pm on 30 October 1948 (All Hallow’s Eve); and Jim Nightshade at 12.01am the following day. It is obvious that Bradbury took great care in naming the boys, who would turn fourteen a week after the carnival’s visit. 

Dark was also known as“‘The Illustrated Mn’.” Tattoos covered his face, neck, chest and arms. He had tattooed photos of Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade on his palms and he had probably run the carnival for hundreds of years.  

We know less of Dark’s partner, Mr. Cooger, also known as“‘Mr. Electro, the Man of Lightnig’.” He was tall with oiled, dark hair, dressed like a riverboat gambler and had a pocked face that was very pale. He somehow became trapped in the carnival’s electric chair (
these are some of the pages that are missing from the screenplay
) and this was probably the boys’ fault. As a result, he died and disintegrated into dust. 

Among the Carnival’s attractions were The Hall of Freaks and the Egyptian Mirror Maze. When the carousel spun backwards its calliope would play
The Funeral March
in reverse. The carnivals“‘freas’” included Vesuvio, the fire-eater; The Crusher, who was the strongman; the Dwarf; and the Skeleton. 

In this screenplay Miss Foley was the only“‘innocet’” victim of all this mayhem. An elderly schoolteacher with gray hair, Halloway and Nightshade initially saved her from the carniva’’s Mirror-Maze, where she could see visions of herself aged about 80, hunched and with snow white hair. Later, Cooger tricked her into believing the boys had stolen her jewellery. Later again, Dark and his cohorts tricked her onto the carousel and turned her into a nine-year old. Halloway and Nightshade found this young girl crying under a huge old elm tree on Brackman’s Lot. 

In the only link to King’s other fiction Green Town, Illinois is also mentioned in
Bag of Bones
. In that novel it appears in the context of the first space traellers to Mars discovering they had apparently arrived in this town (or was it Heaven?) in Ray Bradbury’s story
Mars Is Heaven
(originally published as
The Third Expedition
in the 1950 short story collection,
The Martian Chronicles
). That story is known to be one of King’s earliest influences and favorite horror/science fiction tales. In fact, in
Danse Macabre
King write:,  

‘My first experience with real horror came at the hands of Ray Bradbury – it was an adaptation of his story“‘Mars is Heave!’” on
Dimension X
. This would have been broadcast about 1951, which would have made me four at the time. I asked to listen, and was denied permission by my mother … I crept down to the door to listen anyway, and she was right it was plenty upsetting…’ 

We should note that it is Bradbury, not King, who chose to use Green Town, Illinois in both
Mars Is Heaven
and
Something Wicked This Way Comes
and this is therefore not a“‘Lik’” in the sense of one created by King himself. 

In King’s screenplay Green Town has a population of 4063. There are three or four streets, which run at right angles to and intersect Main Street. Miss Foley lived on Culpepper Street, four houses up from Main. Both the Nightshade and Halloway families lived on Oak, the Nightshades at number 97.  

All in all, this is a relatively unique King piece. Including this script, he is thought to have adapted only two works of other writers for the screen. The other is a screenplay of Patrick McGrath’s novel,
Asylum
. That screenplay has not come to light, although one purported review of it has been seen on the Internet. The original claim was made in an article in the entertainment industry magazine
Variety
for 6 February 2001. 

To the casual reader’s eye this is a very competent movie script and it would have made an interesting note to King’s career had there been a production of his screenplay of any other author’s work, particularly one of such note. Ultimately, as we mentioned earlier, Bradbury himself wrote a script that was produced and, as we have argued elsewhere, this is generally preferable to scripting by another writer. 

¹¹⁷
Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King
, Tim Underwood and Chuck Miller (editors), page 79
 

Sorry, Right Number – The Shooting Script (1986)
 

A version of the screenplay for a series episode on the horror anthology series,
TalesfFrom the Darkside
appears in King’s 1993 collection
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
. Most fans would be forgiven for believing this was the telescript actually used for the program. However, it varies significantly from the actual shooting script. 

That script is held in Box 1012 at the Special Collections Unit of the Raymond H. Fogler Library at the University of Maine, Orono. It is marked as the“‘Final Shooting Scrit’,” dated July 11, 1986,“‘Story and Teleplay by Stephen Kig’.” As King chose to publish his first draft of
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
we can safely assume this shooting script will never be published. Box 1012 is open to the public so readers may access this version at the Fogler. 

As the basic storyline can be enjoyed in
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
or watched on video
we will satisfy ourselves here with a short summary of this shooting script and the key changes. 

In this America Under Siege tale a woman briefly hears from an anguished caller. She and her husband tried to discover the source of the call, as she was sure she recognzsed the voice. That very night Kate Weiderman’s husband Bill, a successful horror novelist, died of a heart attack.  

Ten years later, on the anniversary of Bill’s death, his daughter was about to marry at the family home. Katie absent-mindedly dialled her old phone number and was momentarily connected with her earlier self. She realzsed she had been trying to send a warning of the heart attack from the future and tried to blurt out that warning but was cut off. When redialled she discovered the number was not connected. 

The script was produced as the episode
Sorry, Right Number
for
Tale Ffrom the Darkside
and was first televised on 22 November 1987. John Sutherland directed and the key actors were Deborah Harmon as Katie Weiderman; Rhonda Dotson as Dawn; Arthur Taxier as Bill Weiderman; and Catherine Battistone as the“‘Voice on the Phoe’.” The episode is available on video as part of Volume 4 of a compilation set from the series. Mysteriously, ie was released on DVD 19 October 2010. 

King gives the background to the screenplay in the
Notes
to
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
¹¹⁸
. He says he wrote it,“‘…pretty much as it appears here, in two sitting.’” After writing the telescript King relate:,  

‘My West Coast agent – the one who does film deals – had it by the end of the week. Early the following week, Steven Spielberg read it for
Amazing Stories
, a TV series which he then had in production … Spielberg rejected it – they were looking for
Amazing Stories
that were a little more upbeat he said – and so I took it to my long-time collaborator and good friend, Richard Rubinstein, who then had a series called
Tales from the Darkside
in syndication. I won’t say Richard blows his nose on happy endings – he likes happily-ever-after as well as anyone, I think – but he’s never shied away from a downer; he was the guy who got
Pet Sematary
made after all … Richard bought“‘Sory’” the day he read it and had it in production a week or two late.’ 

King continue:,  

‘This version, by the way, is my first draft, which is longer and a little more textured than the final shooting script, which for budgetary reasons specified just two sets. It is included here as an example of another kind of story-telling … different, but as valid as any othe.’ 

There are, in fact, key differences between the two scripts. The time lapse between Bill’s death and Polly’s wedding (that is, between the call being received and later being made) is ten years in the case of the shooting script, but only five years in the published version. Bill Weiderman’s age at his death changes from 44 in this script to 45 in
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
. He and Katie have an extra child and he is credited with an additional novel in the published version, and the movie made from his work is of a different novel in each version (
see the feature panel for details
). In the published version, but not the shooting script, Katie had remarried (to an architect, Hank). In the opposite direction, in the published version Polly’s husband-to-be remains unnamed but we know him as Jack in the shooting script. In another interesting twist there had been murders in Colville the month before Bill Weiderman died but these did not appear in the earlier, published version. 

For those interested the number dialled in the shooting script was 555-4408 but no number is given in the
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
version. In yet another amusing in-joke from King, when Katie Weiderman called her daughter Polly at her dorm the person answering mentioned that, if the caller was Arnie, Christine was not in (this is a reference, however obscure, to
Christine
and its key characters). 

This is not one of King’s key works of fiction. It is derivative and the production itself suffered from a lack of real suspense.  

Bill Weiderman – Not Saved By The Bell
 

A successful horror writer, he was about 44 when he died of a heart attack. He was the husband of Katie and father of Polly, Connie and Jeff. Among his books were his first,
Spider’s Kiss
(a best-seller, which had been made into a movie) and
Night of the Beast. 

Source: Sorry, Right Number
(The Shooting Script) 

A writer aged about 45 when he died of a heart attack. He was the husband of Katie and father of Connie, Dennis, Jeff and Polly. He wrote
Ghost Kiss
(also made into a movie),
Spider Doom
and
Night of the Beast
. 

Source: Sorry, Right Number
(
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
) 

¹¹⁸
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
, Stephen King