In the early eighties, the peaceful, reclusive life of poet and writer Alice Walker was interrupted by the appearance of three extraordinary gifts: a widely praised best-selling novel (The Color Purple), the Pulitzer Prize, and an offer from Steven Spielberg to make her novel into a film that would become a major international event. This last gift, which Walker identifies as "the knock at the door," led her into the labyrinth of a never-before-experienced...

"Surely America's greatest storyteller, no single author has been adapted more regularly than Stephen King. With sixty-five existing movies and thirty television shows, and many more to come, the concept of the King adaptation lies at the core of what we understand as Hollywood entertainment, the essence of horror, and the landscape of American life. Illustrated with a fabulous array of familiar and unusual iconography, this is the most comprehensive...