Arnold Schwarzenegger Once Reached Out To Stephen King To Collaborate on a "Exorcist" Horror Project
We all know that Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in the 1987 film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Running Man, which King wasn’t a fan of because the story was completely changed. In fact, he didn’t want his name used in the marketing for the film and he didn’t like the casting of Schwarzenegger in the lead role.
As for the changes in the story, the book centers on an unemployed Ben Richards who volunteers to join the dangerous TV show in order to pay for his daughter’s medical bills. In the movie, Ben Richards is a policeman who is forced to enter the show when he is wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn’t commit by a corrupt system. King didn’t like that.
Well, it turns out that a few years later in the ‘90s, Schwarzenegger actually reached out to King to collaborate and a horror film project in the vein of The Exorcist! This is something I had never heard before until I started listening to the podcast Think Twice: Michael Jackson.
While talking about the opportunity to work with Jackson on a project, King shared:
“Others have reached out to me before. Arnold Schwarzenegger reached out and said ‘Stephen, I want to do a scareumovie like The Exorcist.’ And I said, ‘That’s terrific Mr. Schwarzenegger, let me think about it,’ but I never thought about it seriously.”
Now, I can’t help but think what that would have ended up being had King actually entertained the idea! I Stephen King and Arnold Schwarzenegger's demonic horror movie!? I’m actually bummed out that this didn’t happen!
Now, Schwarzenegger did end up making his demonic horror movie with End of Days in 1999. King was not involved with that project, though. It came from director Peter Hyams (Runny Scared, Timecop, The Relic) and writer Andrew W. Marlowe.
I haven’t seen the movie since it was released in theaters, but I remember it not being very good. The film took place at the end of the century, and Satan comes to New York in search of a bride. Schwarzenegger plays an ex-cop in the story who runs an elite security outfit and he sets off on a mission to stop Satan.
Yeah, I would’ve much rather seen King and Schwarzenegger. I have no doubt that would have been a better horror movie. It’s a shame that King didn’t take it seriously, but he’s a busy guy who’s always writing books, and working on other projects, and this obviously wasn’t on his list of priorities.