Tim Martin
KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/GETTY IMAGES, ALASTAIR MUIR/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK, ROH / BILL COOPER 2013
In 1986 Stephen King, whose novels had already been adapted for the screen by directors such as Brian De Palma, Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg, John Carpenter and Rob Reiner, decided to make a film of his own. To signal the advent of Maximum Overdrive, a ludicrously camp horror film in which a passing comet sends the world’s machines on a human-killing spree (crushing people with steamrollers, zapping them with arcade cabinets, hacking at them with electric carving knives), the producers cooked up a trailer in which King himself, bearded and intense, stepped forward from a dark backdrop to look the audience in the eye. “A lot of people have directed Stephen King novels and stories,” he declared, “and I finally decided, if you want something done right, you ought to do it yourself.”