- “Doctor Sleep” comes to movie theaters on Friday.
- The movie is just the latest entry on the list of movies and TV shows based on the written stories of Stephen King.
- About a third of King’s short stories, novellas, and novels have been adapted for the screen over the years.
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“Doctor Sleep” comes to movie theaters on Friday, continuing the story of Danny Torrence, the young boy who confronted the horrors of the Overlook Hotel in the classic novel and movie “The Shining.”
The movie is based on Stephen King’s 2013 horror novel of the same name. King is one of the most prolific writers of modern times, and the new movie is just the latest entry in the list of dozens of screen adaptations of his written works.
To commemorate the new movie’s release, we decided to take a look at how many of King’s short stories and novels have been brought to life in movies or television shows.
According to our count based on the list of written works on Stephen King’s official website, King has published 213 short stories, novellas, and novels since 1974, not including story anthologies, limited or special editions of novels, screenplays, essays, non-fiction, speeches, and interviews.
King's website also lists the various TV, movie, and other video projects he's worked on over the years. By our count, 66 of the 213 short stories, novels, and novellas - a full 31% - have had some form of screen adaptation. A whopping 39 of those are full-length feature films, with the others including TV series and shorter film adaptations.
And more is yet to come. King's website includes a handful of video projects in the works, including an upcoming HBO series based on his novel "The Outsider." Our count is just based on which works already have had adaptations released, and exclude those future projects.
Some of King's short stories and novels have been adapted for the screen multiple times, including "It," "The Shining," and "Pet Sematary." Since we're counting how many of his written works have been adapted for screen, remakes and alternate adaptations aren't counted in our figures.
Here's our count of King's written works and their screen and movie adaptations as of November 2019:
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