Stephen King Loves Steven Spielberg's Duel, And This…

Summary

Steven Spielberg's 1971 TV film Duel kickstarted his career, impressing Universal and leading to bigger projects.
Stephen King and son Joe Hill collaborated on Throttle, a novella inspired by Spielberg's Duel.
A film adaptation of Throttle is in the works.

There is one undeniable fact about the artistic pursuits of humanity: great art always inspires great art. Sure, it also inspires a heaping helping of garbage as well, but the most influential works always have imitators that meet their level or even rise above. Every piece of artwork you've ever loved was created by an artist who was inspired by something. Mozart doesn't become the master he is without the influence of Bach. Tolkien doesn't reinvent the Fantasy genre without Beowulf. Andy Warhol doesn't become a household name without Marcel Duchamp.

When you're a writer as prolific as Stephen King, you have to find your inspiration all over the place, and the so-called Master of Horror has always looked to film and television as a major influence. That such a large number of his stories have been adapted to film and television is simply the cherry on top. In the late 2000s, King teamed with his son Joe Hill to write a novella based on Steven Spielberg's first film Duel, itself based on a short story written by the sci-fi/horror great Richard Matheson. But what makes Duel, and in turn Throttle, stand out?

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By Ademilade Shodipe-Dosunmu

Before He Was Famous, Steven Spielberg Directed 1971's Duel

Can You Believe It Was A Television Film?

Everyone has to start somewhere. Years before The Sugarland Express put him on the map and Jaws sent shockwaves through the entire filmmaking industry, a young Steven Spielberg was hired by Universal Television to direct a TV movie for ABC's Movie of the Week series. That film was Duel, a seemingly simple story of a traveling salesman endlessly harassed by a semi-truck driver throughout rural California. Armed with a budget under half a million dollars and a scant cast featuring Dennis Weaver of Gunsmoke and McCloud fame as the lead, Spielberg worked his considerable magic.

Instead of being just another forgotten thrill-of-the-week television movie of the era, Duel was a hit that exceeded Universal's wildest expectations. The film was so well-received stateside, Universal put together an extended cut of the film to be released in theaters around the globe. The company was so impressed with Spielberg's work on the television film, they gave him the green light for The Sugarland Express. Spielberg's trademark mastery of action and suspense is there for everyone to see, despite viewers never getting a look at the antagonist of the film or finding out why he was doing what he was doing. Everything about Duel works because the two vehicles are the stars of the show. Sometimes, all you need is a simple good vs. Evil story, and Duel highlights this to a tee.

Stephen King Teamed With His Son Joe Hill To Write 2009's Throttle

Like Father, Like Son

Since publishing Carrie in 1974, Stephen King has become one of the most prolific writers of the past fifty years, having sold hundreds of millions of copies in that timeframe. His name is synonymous with horror, and he is undoubtedly one of the most famous writers on the planet. His son, Joe Hill, is no slouch either. First coming to prominence with 2007's Heart-Shaped Box, Hill has written novels, short stories, comic books, poetry, and screenplays. Put it this way: combine the workload of this father-and-son duo, and you have enough work for an entire family.

In 2009, King and Hill collaborated on a novella titled Throttle for an anthology honoring Richard Matheson. King clearly loved both the short story of Duel and the film, as he wrote about Spielberg's adaptation in his 1981 non-fiction book Danse Macabre. In it, King claimed the television film was a "gripping, almost painfully suspenseful rocket ride of a movie." Throttle features a truck driver going out of his way to harass a biker gang after coming across them at a remote diner. Unlike Duel, the motives of Throttle's trucker are revealed at the end, but that's best left for you to find out on your own if you are so inclined.

A Film Adaptation Has Been In The Works For Years With David S. Goyer Attached

Will It Ever Escape Production Hell?

Throttle was adapted into a comic book in 2012, and a film adaptation was first announced back in 2017. In 2020, it was revealed that HBO Max was on board as distributor, with David S. Goyer joining as producer. Goyer is a major player in Hollywood, having worked on the original Blade trilogy, the Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel, and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Goyer is also the creator of Apple TV+'s Foundation and worked on numerous entries of the Call of Duty: Black Ops video game series.

It has been more than five years since that update about Throttle. It's been so long, HBO Max has had time to change its name to Max and subsequently change it back to HBO Max again. Numerous Stephen King adaptations have been stuck in development hell over the years. For example, a film based on The Long Walk has been in the works in various incarnations since 1988, and it will finally come to fruition in September of this year. Will Throttle ever get the adaptation Spielberg and King fans want? Who knows?

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