Is Stephen King happy with The Institute TV adaptation? Yes, very much so
King’s screen adaptations notoriously run hot and cold, but the new TV adaptation of his 2019 novel The Institute definitely gets his approval
Stephen King has a rule for anyone wanting to adapt one of his books for the big or small screen. It is basically the Hippocratic Oath for intellectual property: first, do no harm.
“When you deviate from the story that I wrote, you do so at your own risk,” he says in an interview from his home in the US state of Maine. “I know what I’m doing and I’m not sure that screenwriters always do or that producers and directors always do.”
Not everyone has listened to King, who has enjoyed hit adaptations (The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, Misery, It, The Shining) as well as flops (Salem’s Lot, Graveyard Shift, The Lawnmower Man).
The industrious novelist has lately watched as a wave of adaptations of his work has been crafted for cinemas or streaming platforms, a list that includes The Life of Chuck and the upcoming The Long Walk, The Running Man and It: Welcome to Derry. It also includes the eight-episode series The Institute, which debuts on July 13 on American network MGM+ and will also be available on Amazon Prime Video.
The Institute is about a secret government facility where children with special talents – telekinesis and telepathy – are imprisoned and put to dark geopolitical uses. Their bedrooms are faithfully re-created, and creepy posters – “Your Gift is Important” and “I Choose to be Happy” – line the halls.