In 1992, New Line Cinema set out to make an adaptation of Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man, but the final product earned them a lawsuit. Stephen King has been writing successful books since 1974, which saw the release of Carrie, King's tale of a teenage girl with psychic powers. King's work has been being adapted into successful films for nearly as long, with Carrie becoming a movie just two years after its publication, in 1976. Carrie has even gone on to be adapted into four different films.

King has seen dozens of his stories hit either the big or small screens in the last 40-plus years, sometimes both. Both King's novels and short stories have made the transition to film or TV, some adapted very faithfully, while others ended up as looser adaptations. King has even written several of the scripts for his movie adaptations himself, such as with Silver Bullet, Pet Sematary (1989), The Shining (1997), and The Stand. His lone directorial work is 1986's Maximum Overdrive, which ended up in the "so bad it's good" category.

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King's work has a long history in Hollywood, but only once has the master himself actually balked at an adaptation so much that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. That reaction was reserved for New Line Cinema's 1992 sci-fi/horror film The Lawnmower Man.

Why Stephen King Sued The Lawnmower Man Movie

The Lawnmower Man

Since so much of Stephen King's short fiction has been adapted into movies, it's not unusual for his material to be greatly expanded upon in order to craft a feature length script. For an example, one need only look at movies like Children of the Corn and Graveyard Shift. Other than his famous dislike of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining movie, King tends to have a laid back attitude about adaptations of his work, arguing that film and books are two different mediums, and his version of the story is still available to read. That wasn't the case for The Lawnmower Man.

Directed by Brett Leonard, and starring Pierce Brosnan and Jeff Fahey, The Lawnmower Man movie was marketed as an adaptation of King's short story of the same name, included in the Night Shift collection. That story is a very brief tale about an exceedingly bizarre lawn service that ends up sacrificing the man who hired it to the god Pan. The Lawnmower Man movie sees an intellectually disabled man named Jobe become brilliant after experimental treatments using virtual reality. The stories have absolutely nothing in common, outside of Jobe working as a greenskeeper, and a few other small references. Naturally this didn't sit well with King.

Angry that the film was being promoted as "Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man," King filed a lawsuit following its release, arguing that the movie didn't actually adapt his story, and his name shouldn't be attached. A federal judge agreed, ordering King's name to be removed from all marketing. For whatever reason, New Line Cinema defied this ruling, and put King's name on the home video release, leading them to be held in contempt of court. The moral of the story here is don't mess with the King of horror.

More: Why Carrie Defined Stephen King’s Career