MovieChat Forums > Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders (1996) Discussion > Did someone say King?

Did someone say King?

posted 15 years ago by blmccallum
5 replies | jump to latest

The toy monkey story is a complete copy of the short story "The Monkey" in Stephen King's book Skeleton Crew.

The only good thing about this movie is that it made a great MST3K episode!

[–] chocolatepiazza 15 years ago

I thought the same thing. I didn't really thing it was a total copy (haven't read the story for a while, but I do remember some diffrences, but still makes you wonder if "grandpa" was actually Steven King! ;)

http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?HuckleberryBeej.

[–] thecalhouns 15 years ago

Stephen King should sue

back in 98 I did a titty comedy for Skinemax. Sex Camp, ya remember it?

[–] Danzig_Misfit 14 years ago

This movie is already so lame, I don't think Stephen King should give it the dignity of being sued by someone so great.

[–] Cearb 13 years ago

The concept was nakedly stolen from King's story "The Monkey" (published in 1980), down to the scene where Dad saves the kid's life by sticking his hand in between the cymbals just before his son can be hit by a careless driver.

There are differences, but I'm pretty sure King would have had a solid case had he tried to take the hack screenwriter to court.

It's a bit like having a nice work of art stolen and used to wipe up vomit.

At least we get to see this nasty stinker of a movie mocked on the MST3K DVD -- though I kept hoping Mike and the Bots would call the movie out for stealing from King.

[–] them_wuz_da_days 10 years ago

It was well known during the production of "The Devil's Gift" that one of the original collaborators on the storyline had stolen all the major plot points from SK's "The Monkey" - I heard that first-hand from the director, Ken Berton. He claimed that he did not know about the plagiarism until they were well into production, and as the monkey was central to the plot there was little they could do short of scrapping the whole production, so they chose to forge ahead.