Rights to King's story for a dollar

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

The rights to shoot a film based on the work of Stephen King cost two teenagers one dollar. The famous horror master made such a deal in order to support the younger generation.

Young filmmakers from South Wales will spend the next several months writing the script before filming King's short story, Exercise Bike. They won't be able to make money from the film, but the bonus will be the fact that the picture can be shown at festivals.

The contract also states that they will have to send a copy to King himself. Members of the BBC-backed Blaenau Gwent Film Academy decided to write to King when they first conceived the project. Kevin Phillips of Green Valley Film Productions, who will help the teens make the film, said the response from the writer came in less than a day and detailed how they could get the rights to the story.

“It was incredible,” Kevin said. “Within a few days, a contract was signed, and we actually paid only one US dollar for the rights.”

Sixteen-year-old Alfie Evans and fourteen-year-old Caris Cliff are working on the script and will invite a local actor to play the lead role. Phillips will direct, and he hopes filming will begin on Christmas Day, the South China Morning Post reported.

King's story tells the story of an artist who begins to exercise on a stationary bike to lower high cholesterol. To fight boredom, he buys a map and makes a route from New York to the small town of Herkimer, every day marks the kilometers that he covered on the way to his goal. But the closer he gets to her, the stronger the feeling becomes that someone is following him on his daily bike rides.