Dean Koontz Novels - ever made into films?

A few were. Phantoms and Hideaway were two. Neither were terribly good.

Watchers has been adapted into film twice, actually. Once in the late 70's and once in the 80's, IIRC.

They both sucked dirty duck butt compared to the source material.

Just for future reference, you can go to the Internet Movie Database and put in a writer's name and get a list of films the writer was involved with (click Writer for those where he or she has a writing credit; it may be because of a book made into a movie, or because the writer in question wrote the screenplay).

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0465588/#writer

Wasn't Demon Seed based on a Dean Koontz novel?

shaldna said:

Wasn't Demon Seed based on a Dean Koontz novel?

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Yes, and that was a really interesting case. It was based on an earlier, SF novel of that name. Sometime in the '70's Koontz decided to try to "improve" his reputation and be known as a mainstream writer rather than a genre/SF writer (so he could write the same amount but sell more copies of each book), so he bought the rights back to all his older books so they wouldn't get reprinted, and he's never had them reprinted (that's why a MMPB of "Starblood" sells for $20 and up). "Demon Seed" was originally a hardback SF novel the movie was based on. He not only bought the reprint rights back, with that one he rewrote it into a longer, "mainstream" book and it was sold as (perhaps among other formats) an MMPB. It's a longer book with the same title.

Apparently he succeeded with his evil little plan. Few if anyone thinks of Koontz as an SF author anymore.

ETA:

voodoo said:

...
Is it one of those things where the author
just doesn't want Hollywood to touch it?

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From reading the reviews in posts #2 and #3, and seeing what a take-control-of-his-own-writing-career person he's been, I'm willing to bet this is the case.

Was that under his actual name? I thought Demon Seed was one of the ones written under a pen name, though I could be wrong and don't have the book here to check. I did know it was a rewrite of one of his earlier books, though. I had thought most of those earlier books had been originally written under different names and then rereleased under his actual name once he became more popular. I always loved reading how he killed off his old pen names.

kaitie said:

Was that under his actual name? I thought Demon Seed was one of the ones written under a pen name, though I could be wrong and don't have the book here to check. I did know it was a rewrite of one of his earlier books, though.

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I'm pretty sure my old copy actually had Dean R. Koontz on the cover. It was the original version, not the rewrite.

Demon Seed was first released under Koontz's K. R. Dwyer pseudonym, and then rewritten completely and released under Koontz's real name.

There were a few movies made off Koontz novels but they were all terrible. The only one that was marginally good was the TV movie version of INTENSITY...but they changed parts of that enough to make a Koontz fan cringe too. Not even Dean himself likes what has been put out.

Jamesaritchie said:

Demon Seed was first released under Koontz's K. R. Dwyer pseudonym, and then rewritten completely and released under Koontz's real name.

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That's what I thought, too. I have the old Dean R. Koontz version at home, but I knew that wasn't the original. I've actually tried to find some of the old out of print originals just because I thought it'd be fun to compare for kicks, but they're hard to find.

Kaitie (who admits to loving Dean Koontz)

kaitie said:

Kaitie (who admits to loving Dean Koontz)

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I love his older stuff: Phantoms, Visions(the bats--ARGH!)Strangers, Watchers.

kaitie said:

That's what I thought, too. I have the old Dean R. Koontz version at home, but I knew that wasn't the original. I've actually tried to find some of the old out of print originals just because I thought it'd be fun to compare for kicks, but they're hard to find.

Kaitie (who admits to loving Dean Koontz)

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I'm a major Koontz fan. The podcasts on his website are fascinating, and often hilarious.

I've had the best luck finding his old books at used bookstores, but you have to know which pseudonyms to look for, and even then it's tough.

DennisB said:

​

Are there really writers who would turn down a movie deal (perhaps in the six figures) on principle (not because they have trouble with the project)?​

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you'd better believe it.

terry pratchett turned down alot of movie deals because he said that he felt people wanted to make the movies more than they cared about telling the story.

Kathleen42 said:

A few were. Phantoms and Hideaway were two. Neither were terribly good.

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Phantoms, with Koontz writing the screenplay adaptation, retained the same dumbass error regarding brains: Koontz was under the impression that the human brain weighs six pounds.

I stopped reading Koontz when, in the middle of one of his books, there was a scene with a vicious Mafia boss getting maudlin over the loss of his little lapdog -- and then Koontz explained to me, the reader, why that was ironic. I tossed the book and didn't look back.

Jamesaritchie said:

I'm a major Koontz fan. The podcasts on his website are fascinating, and often hilarious.

I've had the best luck finding his old books at used bookstores, but you have to know which pseudonyms to look for, and even then it's tough.

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I called around to the ones in my area, but they didn't have any in stock. I think just really old books like that aren't that easy to come by. I've even looked online for some of them.

He's got the best sense of humor. I love reading his website interviews.

I don't think Stephen King has been happy with any of the films adapted from his books (except, I believe, The Stand). But I think I read that he tolerates them because they haven't changed his BOOK. They've told his story in a different way.
Maybe if you're so in love with your story you will always say "no, thanks." But if you're secure that your writing hasn't been altered, let 'er rip!

The only Dean Koontz movie that I saw was, "Servants of Twilight". But I like those off-the-wall/weird movies.

A church preacher starts calling this little boy's mom to tell her that she should kill her son because he's the Anti-Christ. Then the church members start harrassing the mother and her son, forcing the mom to hire a private detective/bodyguard (Bruce Greenwood).

I thought it was decent.

DennisB said:

I don't think Stephen King has been happy with any of the films adapted from his books (except, I believe, The Stand). But I think I read that he tolerates them because they haven't changed his BOOK. They've told his story in a different way.

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If he hasn't been happy with them, I think he should stop doing acting and cameos in these movies. He should especially not seem delighted and satisfied in the "Making Of" documentaries of the various projects. And he shouldn't be executive producer either. Could really send the wrong impression of what he thinks of the adaptations, y'know?

Manuel Royal said:

Phantoms, with Koontz writing the screenplay adaptation, retained the same dumbass error regarding brains: Koontz was under the impression that the human brain weighs six pounds.

I stopped reading Koontz when, in the middle of one of his books, there was a scene with a vicious Mafia boss getting maudlin over the loss of his little lapdog -- and then Koontz explained to me, the reader, why that was ironic. I tossed the book and didn't look back.

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You should keep trying. I think most of his books are wonderful, and extremely well-written. Every writer will have a book or two that you won't like, but that's no reason to give up on the writer completely.

Besides, if we're thinking about the same scene, we sure read it very differently.

DennisB said:

His web site states that Frankenstein has been optioned as a movie.​

Are there really writers who would turn down a movie deal (perhaps in the six figures) on principle (not because they have trouble with the project)?​

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It's generally more like seven figure for someone like Koontz, but, sure, you still turn down a bad deal. You should go over and listen to the Koontz podcasts about Hollywood. You'd turn down some of those deals, too.