13 Things You Didn't Know About Stephen King
2. He Directed A Film
Perhaps one of the moments Stephen King would rather forget - and which, for the most part, the world has forgotten - is his feature-length directorial debut, Maximum Overdrive (1986).
The comedy-horror films sees Emilio Estevez and co. go toe-to-toe with all manner of suddenly animate machines, including an ATM machine, a lawnmower, an electric hairdryer and a host of trucks. So far so good, right? Critics and audiences didn't think so. The film tanked so badly it didn't come close to making its modest $7 million budget back domestically. What perhaps didn't help was that eyewitness reports stated King was high on cocaine and other substances throughout production and had no background in film whatsoever. Still, what happens in the eighties...
Maximum Overdrive ended up being King's only foray behind the camera - but it is no surprise why. King swore thereafter never to take the director's chair again and has since satiated himself with cameos and pen-work.