Fiction Adaptation: Theory Essay Changes

After having a one to one tutorial with my course leader, I have decided to change the focus of my essay analysing a fiction adaptation of The Shining. As I mentioned before I decided I wanted to talk about the 1980 Stanley Kubrick film version of Stephen King's 1977 novel. I have since realised that my essay should be mainly focused on the TV adaption because this is a Television Production based essay.

I will still use examples from the film version, however I will now be focusing on the TV version predominantly. It still links back to the book adaption and I can talk about what the films influence might have been on that version.

The Shining (1997) - TV Version.

Something I noticed immediately when I researched into the book version was that it came out 17 years after the original version. How has this film been influenced by the 1980 film as opposed to the original novel? I thought this was a quite interesting question in itself but I also noticed when I clicked on the TV versions IMDB page that it had a low rating of 6.1. This shows that it has been generally poorly received by the public.

I'm now curious as to why this has been so badly received, I will investigate once I watch the TV mini-series and re-read through the book. I can also compare and contrast this with fans of the original book. How has it been received by those that have and haven't read the original Stephen King novel? 

Stephen King

I noticed when I was researching for the mini-series that it was actually commissioned by Stephen King himself to correct the "mistakes" that he felt were apparent in the film version. What is interesting about this is that the TV version has a lower rating. So even though the original author made his own version because he thought the film was unfaithful it was still received poorly by fans and critics. Why is the supposedly more faithful adaption considered worse than Kubrick's looser adaption? 
Its important to mention how the Kubrick film version came out 17 years before the mini-series. So how did it influence the TV version?

I feel that if I ask all these questions as well as add in my own theory than I can construct a very interesting essay. I will also head down to my local library and seek out any books I can find relating back to TV/Film adaption.

Stay tuned for more.