Why The First Cut Of Maximum Overdrive Nearly Made George Romero Sick

Why The First Cut Of Maximum Overdrive Nearly Made George Romero Sick

When horror icon Stephen King showed his first film Maximum Overdrive to genre legend George A. Romero, the director almost threw up due to its gore.

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Why The First Cut Of Maximum Overdrive Nearly Made George Romero Sick

Stephen King may have only directed one movie in his many years as a horror icon, but Maximum Overdrive’s original cut almost made fellow genre legend George A. Romero throw up. Famous for writing everything from Misery to terrifying doorstopper IT and the source novel for Stanley Kubrick’s (loose) adaptation The Shining, Stephen King remains a behemoth of American horror literature. King’s work has been adapted to both the big and small screen to varying degrees of success over the decades, with both blockbusters and flops to the prolific author’s name.

However, King himself only sat in the director’s chair once for action-horror hybrid Maximum Overdrive starring Emilio Estevez. This “attack of the machines” sci-fi horror was adapted from King’s short story “Trucks,” during the mid-‘80s when his career was enjoying an unprecedented high. Unfortunately, the film itself was impacted by his then rampant cocaine addiction and alcoholism, which led the author to spend much of the decade in a scarcely-remembered daze.

Whatever the film’s many, many faults, Maximum Overdrive still remains a cult favorite. And credit to King, the writer/director managed to make a movie so gruesome that even fellow horror legend George A Romero reportedly balked at his first cut of Maximum Overdrive. This original edit featured some much gorier scenes, including the bible salesman’s face peeling off and – most infamously – a child being run over by a steamroller, whose head exploded in a shower of gore.

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A lot of these shots understandably had to be trimmed out of Maximum Overdrive or it would have instead received the commercial kiss of death, the NC-17. However, the reports that King’s friend and collaborator Romero almost threw up watching King’s initial version means the author likely knew cuts would be necessary, even before censors insisted upon them. In the years since Maximum Overdrive flopped, rumors have suggested only King has the original, uncut version of the critically-derided horror movie.

However, King himself has since debunked that claim, so the uncensored footage of Maximum Overdrive is now considered lost and has joined the cut sequences from Event Horizon as a missing piece of screen horror history. Meanwhile, Stephen King’s continuing contributions to movies are mostly limited to a producer role, whether it’s as successful as the recent two-part adaptation of IT or as disastrous as the author’s Tobe Hooper collaboration The Mangler. He’s essentially ruled out a return to the director’s chair following Maximum Overdrive, which is a shame since there are parts of the movie which show he had promise as a filmmaker.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/stephen-king-maximum-overdrive-first-cut-george-romero-sick/

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