The upcoming Apple TV+ series Lisey’s Story is rare in that Stephen King, who wrote the original story, is also writing all of the show's episodes. In a new featurette, Stephen King: In His Own Words, the iconic writer and storyteller explains what it meant for him to return to his 2006 novel. Speaking quite emotionally about the circumstances that gave birth to the story, it is a glimpse into the mind of one of the genre’s most prolific writers.
“Lisey’s Story is my favorite. It always has been. At its core, this is a love story," King says. “Lisey is a different thing for me. It’s very close to my heart.”
King goes also goes on to talk about how he wrote the book when he himself was on the edge of death, having a serious case of pneumonia around 2000, which then helped to inspire this book. “I was really close to stepping out,” King says. “When I came home from the hospital, my wife had cleaned out my study and I thought to myself, ‘I’ve died, I’m a ghost.’ The idea for Lisey’s Story came from that.”
Said story sees Julianne Moore as Lisey Landon, a woman struggling to deal with the loss of her husband. Clive Owen is Scott Landon, a famous novelist who exists not just as a character within the novel but also as a way for King to weave himself through the story.
As King himself noted, he was working through his own near-death experience and seeing what the world would be like if he were to no longer be in it. Or, even if he were to die in the story or in real life, he was imagining that it's possible he would no longer be in our world and may end up going to a world of his own creation.
In the series, the loss of her husband will leave Lisey struggling to cope with her world unraveling in front of her very eyes. In order to find any sense of healing, Lisey will have to confront her past and the memories she has repressed from her marriage to Scott. For King, it means he gets to revisit his own past and look upon his work with a fresh pair of eyes, even seeing where certain elements can be improved.
“I wanted to tell the story that was in the book, but I wanted to make it better,” King says. “I thought if somebody was going to mess it up, I used to tell my wife, nobody is going to mess it up but me.”
However, there have been some rather well-constructed series adaptations of the writer’s work such as Castle Rock and there seems to be a lot of potential for Lisey’s Story to fall into that more positive category. When paired with a director with a sharp eye for visuals like Pablo Larraín, the series already has a lot going for it.
Lisey's Story premieres on June 4 on Apple TV+. Check out Stephen King: In His Own Words below.