Look through any 'Window'
Which way will this Stephen King adaptation go?
By Todd Leopold
CNN
 |  Johnny Depp in "Secret Window." |
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| | ON CNN TV |  "Eye on Entertainment" talks about the weekend's happenings on CNN's "Live Today" between 10 a.m. and noon EST Thursday. |
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(CNN) -- Movies based on Stephen King works are usually like the proverbial little girl with the curl: When they are good, they are very, very good.
And when they are bad, they are horrid.
On the plus side of the ledger, you've got "Carrie," "Stand by Me," "Misery," "The Shawshank Redemption," and probably "The Dead Zone," "Dolores Claiborne" and "The Green Mile."
On the other side, there's "The Lawnmower Man," "Cujo," "Pet Sematary," "The Running Man" and "Children of the Corn" 1 through 666. (Actually, there have been seven "Children of the Corns" -- who knew a little "Night Shift" short story could lead to so many bad movies?)
There's just something about his work that brings out the most thoughtful of movie people (Rob Reiner, Frank Darabont) or the hackiest of camera jockeys (too many to mention).
This weekend brings another Stephen King movie -- "Secret Window," based on a novella from his book "Four Past Midnight." It's got the recently Oscar-nominated Johnny Depp, whose roles are nothing if not interesting, and direction and screenplay by David Koepp, who has "Jurassic Park," "Carlito's Way," "Panic Room" and "Spider-Man" to his writing credit. So, on the surface, it would seem to be a "good" Stephen King adaptation.
Then again, that's what they said about "Hearts in Atlantis."
Eye on Entertainment goes for blood.
Eye-opener
The story goes that King so wanted the rights to Lars von Trier's German miniseries, "The Kingdom," that he struck a deal with Columbia Pictures in exchange for the rights to one of his works. The studio chose "Secret Window, Secret Garden."
"The Kingdom" -- or, in King's version, "Kingdom Hospital" -- is now an ABC miniseries scheduled to run for the next couple months. Early reviews have been mixed, but ratings have been good so far.
But "Secret Window" isn't going to get a few weeks to find its footing. In today's open-one-weekend, close-the-next mentality, it's got to do boffo business (as Variety would say) its first three days to have any kind of life thereafter.
It may just pull it off. The plot is in the "Straw Dogs"/"Cape Fear" vein: Depp plays a recently divorced writer who's gone to his remote lake house to finish a novel. While there, he's stalked by a bizarre man, played by John Turturro, who accuses Depp's character of stealing a story -- but changing the ending.
The cast is uniformly strong: Besides Depp and Turturro, there's Maria Bello ("The Cooler"), Timothy Hutton, Charles S. Dutton and Len Cariou. Trivia buffs out there may realize that Cariou once played Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, "the Demon Barber of Fleet Street," known for killing his customers and having them baked in pies. Talk about appropriate for a Stephen King movie.
"Secret Window" opens Friday.
On screen
David Mamet's fast-talking, double-crossing characters return in "Spartan." This time they're secret agents, led by Val Kilmer, who pursue an official's daughter, whose disappearance they believe may be related to a white slavery ring. Also starring Ed O'Neill, Derek Luke and Tia Texada; William H. Macy has a small role. Opens Friday.If you liked "Agent Cody Banks," you've probably already lined up to see "Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London." Frankie Muniz reprises his own secret agent role, though he doesn't run into Val Kilmer. Opens Friday.On the tube
"Wonderfalls" follows in what must be a new trend: young women and offbeat spirituality. But instead of talking to God, as "Joan of Arcadia" does, souvenir shop owner Jaye Tyler's (Caroline Dhavernas) toys and stuffed animals start talking to her. The show premieres 9 p.m. Friday on Fox.About a year ago, there were a number of ideas in the "Minority Report" vein -- cops in the future. One of them, "Century City," finally hits the air. It concerns a law firm in the year 2030. The clothes look very nice. 9 p.m. Tuesday, CBS.Sound waves
David Byrne's new album, "Grown Backwards" (Nonesuch), is released Tuesday.Paging readers
Ever wanted to write your own Lemony Snicket book? Mr. Snicket gives you the chance with "The Blank Book" (HarperCollins), which is just that -- except for all the quotations and drawings from the other Lemony Snicket books. All I can say is, watch out, Baudelaires!John Saul's newest novel, "Black Creek Crossing" (Ballantine), is due Tuesday.
