Of the first 10 novels the legendary author published after his 1974 debut, four of them feature a protagonist with some kind of mental superpower, whether it's telekinesis in Carrie, the ability to see ghosts in The Shining, or clairvoyance in The Dead Zone.

It was something King could appreciate.įirestarter is playing in theaters and on Peacock now.Stephen King has always been fascinated by people with strange and often dangerous mental gifts. He helped others who dealt with bad situations in their lives. There was a comforting aspect to Efron's character. On the other hand, there was a scene in the book that's not in the movie where he pushed a guy into putting his hand in a garbage disposal and turning it on. There's a woman at the beginning who's a smoker, and he's talking her out of it. 'Sometimes movie people think up things, and you say, 'I wish I had done that.' In this movie, Andy becomes a kind of a counselor to try to talk people out of their bad habits. King brought up a violent scene in the book that he would have liked to see in the movie. It's an inward, powerful performance.'Īlso, King noted that he was pleasantly surprised by the use of Andy's powers for a positive impact. There's a lot more authenticity to that performance. They've kept the major beats in the story and thank God they got a real Native American to play John Rainbird. 'I read the script beforehand and I thought to myself, okay, what they've done here is they have concentrated the story and made it a family story. Additionally, the writer liked the casting of Michael Greyeyes for the character Rainbird. King thought highly of the actor's performance. Unlike the first motion picture, Efron's character does not lie to his kid. This character, this iteration of Andy McGee, doesn't do that. In the original Firestarter movie there's a lot of, 'Oh, Charlie, everything's going to be all right.' There's nothing that raises my hackle so much as lying to a child. 'If you compare David Keith as Andy McGee and Zac Efron, I think Efron wins the battle because he seems a lot more intelligent, and he does a lot less lying to the kid, too. King appreciated that the actor who plays the father in the remake is more honest than the one in the original.

Firestarter novel