I'm McGarras and this is post-mortem. Let's talk about hallowed ground. No, not churches and

graveyards, but cinematic hallowed ground, those sacrosanct classic films that should not be touched,

tampered with, sequelized, or otherwise disrespected.

I have set foot on such grounds on more than one occasion and have received plaudits and brick baths for daring to do so.

In 1997, after the success of the mini series of The Stand,

ABC offered Stephen King the opportunity to the second thought. People gasped in horror that he would dare consider remaking a film that had been turned into an iconic classic by Stanley Kubrick.

I was fortunate enough to be along for that ride as the Stan's success led King to invite

me on that next journey.

And who could turn down the opportunity to direct a well-budgeted virgin of my favorite

King novel with a script by King himself.

It was well known that King was not a fan of the Kubrick film, that it disregarded major elements

of the novel that were extremely personal to King.

None of us involved thought for a moment that we were remaking the Kubrick film.

We were adapting the novel as if for the first time. Despite its success and great reviews,

Kubrick fans hated the mini-series

just because it dared to tread the ground

that Stanley had made his.

Warner Brothers paid Kubrick a million and a half dollars for the rights to make the

mini series and it was a huge success for them in all ways.

But you can't believe some of the hateful emails I got at the time for daring to go where

Kubrick had gone before.

To this day, this is some of the work I'm most proud of.

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