Dean Koontz and Movies


No, no, no! For quite a few years, the name "Dean Koontz" has not sounded so nice when spelled too close to the word "movie", since the adaptation for the big screen of some of his works has more often than not brought out some rather low-quality products. Let's just put it this way: the shivers you feel when you read one of his books are not exactly in the same league as the ones you get when you watch one of those flicks! After all, this is the widely known opinion of Koontz himself, who's hardly ever seen the depth of his stories and characters reproduced in a decent way whenever a director has put his hands on them.
In an interview for the Mystery Guild:

Q) "How many of your books have been turned into movies?"
A) "Too many. If you've seen them, you know what I mean."

On Hollywood.com I read that in 1995 he fought a legal battle to remove his name from the film "Hideaway" after he viewed the final product, so I was not surprised to see him go a bit more specific about it in this other interview:

Q) "Did you like the movie based on Hideaway?"
A) "Do you think I'd like being attacked by a swarm of killer bees? Do you think I' d like being run down by a truck? Do you think maybe I'd like to live the rest of my life in a Calcutta sewer? Do you think I'd like to be stuffed into a bread-making machine and baked into a loaf of whole wheat?"

For the Detroit News in 1996, instead, he relaxed his position a bit, throttling his powerful imagery (well...not so much after all!):

"I told some people when Hideaway came out, you can go to this movie if you absolutely insist upon it. But you'd have a lot more fun if you stayed home and nailed your tongue to a table."

With his ever growing reputation, though, Koontz has acquired more and more power and credibility in the realm of film producers, and movies based on his books are certainly acquiring much more dignity. The TV versions of Sole Survivor and Intensity, produced by FOX, have had great success, and here's a statement Koontz made for Hollywood.com talking about Phantoms:

"I don't want to get into the usual Hollywood thing where you write the script and they love it for a week and a half, and then they bring in seventeen other writers. […] I said the only way I'll do this if I have control of the shooting script, no one can write behind me unless I approve it, and if they do, I can throw out what they did. Give me a choice of director, and approval of all the creative elements in it, and I'll do it. And I was astonished that they said yes. Nobody but Miramax would have done that for somebody like me."

If you're wondering about future projects, you'll be glad to know that, as stated by VARIETY columnist Michael Fleming, Dean Koontz has joined up with Rob Lee of "Elephant Walk Entertainment" and Ken Kaufman of "Patchett-Kaufman Entertainment" a few months ago to develop several TV projects, starting with a series of two-hour films for FOX based on his novella BLACK RIVER.
Additionally, his novels WINTER MOON and DARK RIVERS OF THE HEART will be turned into miniseries, and TWILIGHT EYES as well should be developed into a TV series.

Did you know that...

Under the pseudonym Brian Coffey, Dean Koontz wrote an episode of the TV series CHIPS:

Well, now that you know something more, here's a list in alphabetical order of all the Koontz-related movies. The big source was IMDB, of course.


Black River

2001 - USA - TV mini - 100 min.

Director:
Jeff Bleckner

With:
Jay Mohr
Ann Cusack
Lisa Edelstein
Diana Stevan
David Ogden Stiers

Notes:
this movie aired on July 6th 2001 on Fox. Koontz was the executive producer as well as the writer of the novella this film was based on.

NOW ON DVD
Release date: 1/29/2002
Retail price: $24.95
Studio: MTI
Runtime: 90 min.
Standard format: full frame
Closed Caption: NO
Multi audio: NO
16:9 enhanced: NO
Regionally Coded: region 1

Plot:
When burned out Hollywood screenwriter, Bo Aikens (Jay Mohr), arrives in the picturesque little town of Black River, he's just seeking relaxation and artistic inspiration. Initially he finds it, along with romance in the arms of a beautiful architect. But when Bo becomes entangled in a nightmarish plot, preventing him from coming safely back home, it suddenly seems clear that this perfect little hideaway captures more than just the imagination of its visitors.

Demon Seed

1977 - USA - 94 min.

Director:
Donald Cammell

With:
Julie Christie
Fritz Weaver
Gerrit Graham
Berry Kroeger
Lisa Lu

The Face of Fear

1990 - USA - TV movie

Director:
Farhad Mann

With:
Pam Dawber
Lee Horsley
Bob Balaban
Kevin Conroy
Walter Addison

The Funhouse

1981 - USA - 96 min.

Director:
Tobe Hooper

With:
Cooper Huckabee
Miles Chapin
Largo Woodruff
Sylvia Miles
Elizabeth Berridge

In this case, the movie came first. The novel "The Funhouse", in fact, written by Koontz under the pseudonym Owen West, is a novelization of this movie, screenplayed by Larry Block, and it was published three months before the movie.

Hideaway

1995 - USA - 106 min.

Director:
Brett Leonard

With:
Jeff Goldblum
Christine Lahti
Alicia Silverstone
Jeremy Sisto
Alfred Molina

Intensity

1997 - USA - TV mini

Director:
Yves Simoneau

With:
John C. McGinley
Molly Parker
Blu Mankuma
Lori Ann Triolo
Brent Stait

The Intruder

Original title:
Les Passagers

1976 - France / Italy - 97 min.

Director:
Serge Leroy

With:
Jean-Louis Trintignant
Mireille Darc
Bernard Fresson
Richard Constantini
Adolfo Celi

This movie is based on the book Shattered, written by Dean Koontz under the pseudonym K.R. Dwyer, but in this adaptation the story is set in Europe.
Jean-Louis Trintignant escorts his 11-year-old stepson from school in Rome, Italy to their new home in Paris, where his wife (Mireille Darc) awaits. They’re pursued, Duel-style, by a psychopathic killer (Bernard Fresson) who terrorises them with his Ford Panel pickup truck.

Mr. Murder

1998 - Germany/USA - 132 min.

Director:
Dick Lowry

With:
Stephen Baldwin
Julie Warner
Bill Smitrovich
Thomas Haden Church
James Coburn

Phantoms

1998 - USA - 91 min.

Director:
Joe Chappelle

With:
Peter O'Toole
Rose McGowan
Joanna Going
Liev Schreiber
Ben Affleck

Sole Survivor

2000 - Canada - TV mini

Director:
Mikael Salomon

With:
Billy Zane
John C. McGinley
Isabella Hofman
Gloria Reuben
Rachel Victoria Roberts

The Servants of Twilight

1991 - USA - 95 min.

Director:
Jeffrey Obrow

With:
Bruce Greenwood
Jarrett Lennon
Belinda Bauer
Grace Zabriskie
Richard Bradford

Watchers*

1988 - Canada - 91 min.

Director:
Jon Hess

With:
Corey Haim
Barbara Williams
Michael Ironside
Lala Sloatman
Christopher Carey

Whispers

1989 - Canada/USA - 100 min.

Director:
Douglas Jackson

With:
Victoria Tennant
Jean Le Clerc
Chris Sarandon
Peter Mac Neill
Linda Sorenson

* you can also find Watchers 2, Watchers 3 and Watchers Reborn.

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