Summary
Stephen Kingis deservedly considered one of the living icons of horror. He has written some of the most beloved and popular stories in the genre’s history, many of which have beenadapted for TV and film. But as readers well know, the author has also left his stamp on many other genres across his six-decade run, from the high fantasy ofThe Eyes of the Dragonand2022’sFairy Taleto the dystopian sci-fi ofThe Long WalkandThe Running Man(both under his Richard Bachman pseudonym).
In the past decade or so, King has increasingly turned his pen towards a genre he’s on record as having loved his whole life: crime fiction. Works like 2013’sJoyland,2018’sThe Outsider,and the Bill Hodges trilogy ofMr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watchall play in the genre. While a couple of them have been adapted for television, King’s horror work still reigns supreme in Hollywood. But an upcoming adaptation might help turn the tide, as King’s 2021 novelBilly Summersis set to be adapted into a film in the near future. If the movie succeeds, it could show casual fans that King has mastered a whole new genre.
Billy Summers’Portrait of a Hitman
Billy Summersfollows its titular protagonist, an Iraq War vet making a living as a contract killer, who’s forced to hold up in a small Midwest town for months to await his next target. While he waits, Billy adopts several personas to blend in with the locals, one of which, in true King fashion, is a first-time novelist. This persona makes Billy want to write down his life story, and large sections of the book are devoted to Billy working through his troubled upbringing on the page. The novel settles into a relaxed pace in its first half, before a major narrative turn halfway through takes the story in a different direction.
This midpoint twist divided critics. Some considered it an exciting narrative move, while others favored the more laid-back first half and found that the second half took a turn for the lurid and cliche. Still, most critics who reviewed the book agreed it contained some of King’s best writing in years, whether in its character-focused first half or as a whole.
Most of King’s crime stories still contain some element of the supernatural, fromLater’sprotagonist’s ability to see ghosts toThe Outsider’smysterious shape-shifting villain.Billy Summers,by contrast, doesn’t have a paranormal hook; rather, it anchors its story in the here-and-now (or at least, the here-and-now of late 2010s America). King has written plenty of prose over the years without an overtly paranormal element. At least one of them, the novella “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption,” anthologized in 1982’sDifferent Seasons,was adapted into what many consider one of the greatest films of all time.
How aBilly SummersMovie Might Add to King’s Legacy
Despite the success of movies likeThe Shawshank RedemptionandStand By Me(adapted from anotherDifferent Seasonsnovella, “The Body”), the popular perception of King’s work stays squarely in the horror realm. There’s no denying that his contribution to that genre outweighs any other on sheer word count alone. The association is so strong that casual TV viewers who checked outMr. Mercedes,the series adaptation of his Bill Hodges novels, might have been surprised to see his name in the credits.
In recent years, Hollywood has been on a serious King kick. Studios have been cranking out adaptations of works likeGerald’s GameandDoctor Sleepalongside new takes on previously adapted classics likeIT,Salem’s Lot,andPet Sematary,though thesedon’t always improve upon their predecessors. King’s name recognition still has huge value, but the most lucrative adaptations have generally focused on telling and re-telling his most famous stories. A successfulBilly Summersmovie might show Hollywood that King’s more recent work is still worth adapting.
A cinematic take onBilly Summershas a lot of potential, but there are some challenges. The deep interiority that King brings to his characters has often struggled to make it to the screen intact, and the richness of his prose doesn’t always translate to film. Figuring out a way to depict Billy’s awakening as a writer authentically will be difficult, but necessary to keep the story from feeling too much like other recent hitman fare. However, the script is set to be penned by veteran screenwriters Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, so there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic.
King’s legacy is already more than secure as one of the most prolific and beloved authors of all time, and one whose works have beenfruitfully adapted for the screenmany times. He doesn’t need a successfulBilly Summersmovie to cement his status as one of the greats. But for those who only know his work from its big- or small-screen incarnations, it could help prove there’s more to his stories than just scares.
