When Jack Nicholson played Stanley Kubrick adapted “The Shining,” The terrible stigma surrounding Stephen King has faded for a while in Hollywood. Although he liked to write fantasy, fiction, if the A-list team of Kubrick and Nicholson felt that his material was suitable for a motion picture, perhaps there was a box office and glory that should have been removed from his other books (which the famous author. was pumping out at an amazing speed ).

This idea would have been criticized by the horror factor in the 1980s. Although respected directors such as David Cronenberg and Rob Reiner received positive reviews, respectively, “The Dead Zone” and “Stand by Me,” critics did not use “Cujo,” “Firestarter,” ” Children of the Corn,” “Silver”. Bullet,” “Pet Sematary,” and the King-directed “Maximum Overdrive.” Of course, if it weren’t for Reiner’s “Stand By Me,” the potential for a classic version of King’s legend might have been dismissed.

This was King’s Hollywood drama in the 1990s when Reiner was hot box office smash “When Harry Met Sally…” decided to adapt the author’s 1987 novel “Misery” as his next feature. A 310-page masterpiece about a romance writer caught in the snow by her first lover, “Misery” is read as a spin-off of Frederick Knott’s play “Wait Till Dark.” The wounded cat and mouse between Annie Wilkes and writer Paul Sheldon will have moviegoers on the edge of their seats as they are shot and, mostly, to the right.

Although we know that Reiner pulled this out of the park with James Caan and Kathy Bates (who won an Oscar for Best Actress), there was a time when the project was about to move forward with Warren Beatty, who was a star of Nicholson’s stature, in the role. of Paul. But why didn’t this happen?

In a 1990 Los Angeles Times article During the production of “Hardcore,” Reiner revealed this, while working with them William Goldman photographer during the transition, Warren Beatty expressed interest in the project. For a long time, the star got used to it, he began to give notes on the script. On Reiner:

“He was very interested in this part for a while. He had a good idea of ​​the character of the writer, which makes him not quiet. Warren is very clever, but he is difficult to oppose. So it did not work. . Maybe we were not far or he was a little afraid. ono by making a promise.”

Beatty may be an amazing artist, but when working for another director, he has a penchant for directing the production if it doesn’t go his way at times. As Jeremy Pikser, who received the Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination for “Bulworth” (with Beatty as a co-writer), told Peter Biskind in the biography of the author “Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America,” Beatty “starts to rule, and no one knows what is happening but him alone.

It seems to have helped all those involved as Beatty gave up and began to think more the classic “Dick Tracy.” Aside from Beatty’s restrained demeanor, it’s hard to imagine him crawling on the slopes like Caan did on the film’s set. So we have two leads instead of one, and I’ll change them every day.