The Dollar Baby (also sometimes referred to as the Dollar Deal) is a term coined by best-selling author Stephen King in reference to a select group of student and aspiring filmmakers for whom he has granted permission to adapt one of his short stories for the sole consideration of one dollar ($1). The term is used interchangeably to refer to the film work itself or the filmmaker (IE: "The Sun Dog" was made as a Dollar Baby, or writer/director Frank Darabont was a Dollar Baby). Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author best known for his highly successful horror novels. ... Frank Darabont (born on January 28, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. ...

History

As Stephen King explains in his introduction to the published shooting script for The Shawshank Redemption (a film by Frank Darabont adapted from King's "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption," a novella that appeared in the collection Different Seasons), "Around 1977 or so, when I started having some popular success, I saw a way to give back a little of the joy the movies had given me.¹ Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Frank Darabont (born on January 28, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. ...

"'77 was the year young filmmakers - college students, for the most part - started writing me about the stories I'd published (first in Night Shift, later in Skeleton Crew), wanting to make short films out of them. Over the objections of my accountant, who saw all sorts of possible legal problems, I established a policy which still holds today. I will grant any student filmmaker the right to make a movie out of any short story I have written (not the novels, that would be ridiculous), so long as the film rights are still mine to assign. I ask them to sign a paper promising that no resulting film will be exhibited commercially without approval, and that they send me a videotape of the finished work. For this one-time right I ask a dollar. I have made the dollar-deal, as I call it, over my accountant's moans and head-clutching protests sixteen or seventeen times as of this writing.¹ A night shift is either a group of workers who work during the night, or the period in which they work. ... Skeleton Crew (1985) is a short story collection by Stephen King. ...

Once the film was made and King received his copy he explains, "...I'd look at the films ... then put them up on a shelf I had marked Dollar Babies."¹

The most famous Dollar Baby was young 20-year old Frank Darabont's adaptation of "The Woman in the Room" which was eventually released in 1986 on VHS by Granite Entertainment Group Interglobal Home Video as part of the Stephen King's Night Shift Collection along with New York University film student Jeff Schiro's adaptation of "The Boogyman." Darabont went on to direct two feature film adaptations of Stephen King's work, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, both nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Frank Darabont (born on January 28, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The Green Mile has several different meanings, including: The Green Mile, a 1996 book by Stephen King. ... Academy Awards The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent film awards in the United States. ... The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the awards are voted on by other people within the industry. ...

One of the first to bring the Dollar Deal to the public eye was author Stephen J. Spignesi in his exhaustive volume The Stephen King Encyclopedia wherein he writes about two student short adaptations: "The Last Rung on the Ladder" (1987) by James Cole and Dan Thron and "The Lawnmower Man" (1987) by Jim Gonis.² This is the title of a short story written by Stephen King and published in his Night Shift collection. ... The Lawnmower Man is a short story by Stephen King, first published in Cavalier in 1975. ...

1977-1996

As Dollar Babies were not intended to be seen by the mass public - beyond film festivals and school presentations - and not commercially sold or openly traded (prior to the advent of the Internet), many of them have eluded the King fan community. Although as stated in 1996 (quoted above, the first time King openly discussed the Dollar Deal policy) King mentions "sixteen or seventeen" such Dollar Babies, it is difficult, if not impossible without access to King's desiginated "Dollar Baby shelf," to account for them all. Although Frank Darabont, one of the earliest Dollar Babies originally requested to make his adaptation of "The Woman in the Room" in 1980, it took him three years to complete the film. Prior to 1996, the known Dollar Baby adaptations are: Frank Darabont (born on January 28, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. ...

• • The Boogyman (1982) by Jeff Schiro
  • Disciples of the Crow (1983) by John Woodward
  • The Woman in the Room (1983) by Frank Darabont
  • Srajenie (The Battle) (1986) by Mikhail Titov
  • Last Rung on the Ladder (1987) by James Cole and Dan Thron
  • The Lawnmower Man (1987) by James Gonis
  • Here There Be Tygers (1988) by Guy Maddin

• • Night Surf (unknown date and filmmaker)
  • The Sun Dog (unknown date and filmmaker)

Then after 1996: Here There Be Tygers is the name of two different short stories by two different prominent American authors. ...

• • Llamadas (Sorry, Right Number) (1999) by Daniel Yañez

New Dollar Babies (2000- )

In 2000 Dollar Babies came back into the public eye when Los Angeles based filmmaker Jay Holben made an adaptation of "Paranoid: A Chant," an obscure 100-line poem that appears in Skeleton Crew. Paranoid was the first such Dollar Baby to be released (with King's permission) for a limited time on the Internet in 2002 and then was the first to be released on a commercially available DVD (again with specific permission from King) along with the quickly defunct Total Movie Magazine (a failed offshoot of the immensely popular UK publication Total Film). King fans clamored to download the eight-minute visual mind-trip, and then clamored for more. Skeleton Crew (1985) is a short story collection by Stephen King. ... Total Film, published by Future Publishing, is the United Kingdoms second best-selling film magazine, after the longer-established Empire from Emap. ...

After Paranoid a rash of Dollar Babies cropped up including:

• Night Surf (2001) by Peter Sullivan
• Strawberry Spring (2001) by Doveed Linder
• Rainy Season (2002) by Nick Wauters
• Autopsy Room Four (2003) by Steve Zakman
• Here There Be Tygers (2003) by James Cochrane
• The Man in the Black Suit (2003) by Nicholas Mariani
• All That You Love Will Be Carried Away (2004) by James Renner
• All That You Love (2004) by Scott Albanese
• The Gunslinger (Roland Meets the Dweller) (2004) by Robert David Cochrane
• Luckey Quarter (2004) by Robert David Cochrane
• The Secret Transit Codes of America's Highways (2004) by Brian Berkowitz
• The Road Virus Heads North (2005) by Dave Brock
• El Sueño de Harvey (Harvey's Dream) (2005) by Rodolfo Weisskirch
• Stephen King's Gotham Cafe (2005) by Julie Sands
• I Know What You Need (2005) by Shawn S. Lealos
• Home Delivery: Servicio a Domicilio (2005) by Elio Quiroga
• La Femme Dans la Chambre (The Woman in the Room) (2005) by Damien Maric
• Sorry, Right Number (2005) by Brian Berkowitz
• Suffer the Little Children (2005) by Bernardo Villela
• Tijger (Here There Be Tygers) (2006) by Leyla Everaers

In September of 2004, fellow Dollar Baby James Renner ("All That You Love Will Be Carried Away") put together the first public film festival presentation of Dollar Babies in the Corbet Business Theater at the University of Maine, Orono, Stephen King's own Alma Mater (1966-1970) where King wrote for The Maine Campus newspaper. Renner followed the festival with a second incarnation in September of 2005 at the same location. http://www.dollarbabyfilmfestival.com Here There Be Tygers is the name of two different short stories by two different prominent American authors. ...

On the Internet, the largest public collection of the Dollar Babies has been put together by Bernd Lautenslager in the Netherlands. Many of the films listed above are available for download: Stephen King Short Movies.

Copyright

It is a common misconception that the filmmakers of the Dollar Babies have optioned or obtained the legal rights to the stories the films are based on. In fact, author King retains all rights and merely grants the exclusive permission to the filmmaker to make a non-commercial adaptation. As in the case of The Woman in the Room and The Boogyman, Granite Entertainment Group Interglobal Home Video negotiated and purchased the rights to commercially release both shorts on video in 1986 (the non-public details of these agreements are well beyond the original $1 for Dollar Baby permission). Both of these films were originally announced for home video distribution by Gerard Ravels' Native Son International, but after Frank Darabont discovered that Ravels did not secure proper rights to the stories, the release was scrapped. As part of the agreement with Stephen King, all Dollar Baby films must include the specific phrase "© Stephen King. Used by Permission. All Rights Reserved." Frank Darabont (born on January 28, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. ...

This rather unorthodox arrangement is the reason why the films cannot be commercially released nor can the filmmakers garner any profit from the works (as they have not paid the author for the official rights to the material) and this also accounts for the multiple adaptions of the same source material by multiple filmmakers (IE: All That You Love Will Be Carried Away was adapted three times in 2004 by James Renner, by Scott Albanese (as All That You Love) and by Brian Berkowitz (as The Secret Transit Codes of America's Highways)).

King's phrase "so long as the film rights are still mine to assign..."¹ actually has two meanings. This refers to King retaining rights to the original material in order to sell them to a legitimate buyer in the future and also to material that has not been previously bought (IE material that King still holds all the rights). If another company or individual has purchased the film rights to one of King's stories, he no longer has legal authority to grant permission to a Dollar Baby as the rights are now held by the buyer.

Posessory Title

Some of the Dollar Baby filmmakers have mistakenly assumed that Stephen King's explicit permission to make and showcase the adapted filmwork automatically qualifies the film for the 'posessory credit' (e.g. "Stephen King's Silver Bullet" as opposed to just "Silver Bullet"). In actuality, this is a specified legal usage of the author's name and King does NOT grant permission for Dollar Baby filmmakers to use his name in this manner. The posessory title is only used on projects that Stephen has a direct and considerable involvement.

Previously, this title was applied more liberally until it was grossly abused with the release of Brett Leonard's The Lawnmower Man. The film, which bears no resemblance to King's short story of the same title (with the exception of a single scene, utilized far out of context from the original story), was originally released as Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man, but the posessory title was removed following a lawsuit filed by King against the filmmakers. A federal court ruled in King's favor and, later, a Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that King's name should be removed from the title.[4] The Lawnmower Man is a short story by Stephen King, first published in Cavalier in 1975. ...

Journalists and Internet fans often mistakenly apply the posessory credit to Dollar Baby films beyond the control of the filmmakers. Stephen King's Gotham Cafe, in which Stephen King has a cameo, is an exception to this and the filmmaker was granted permission by King to use a posessory title.

Critical Commentary

As Stephen King himself comments, "Many of these adaptations weren't so great, but a few showed at least a smattering of talent. ... in many cases one viewing was all a person could bear..."¹ As many, if not the majority, of the Dollar Baby films are made by student or tyro filmmakers, the quality is often sub-standard; although there are a few notable exceptions. King refers to "...a fairly impressive eighteen minute version of "The Sun Dog""¹ and Darabont's "The Woman in the Room," in addition to being photographed by the renowned cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchia (Glengarry Glen Ross), made the semi-finalist list for Academy Award consideration in 1983. King is also quoted as saying that "The Woman in the Room" is "clearly the best of the short films made from my stuff." [5] Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ...

The production budgets range from a few hundred dollars to over $35,000 ("The Woman in the Room") and formats range from home video to professional 35mm film. Some of the most critically acclaimed Dollar Babies have included "Paranoid" of which David Wild from Rolling Stone Magazine said "Rarely has paranoia been so much fun... Jay Holben has created a stunning and artful rendering of madness, turning a poem by Stephen King into a vivid and compelling nightmare vision."³ This article is about the music magazine. ...

Of the 20 Dollar Babies listed on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), the top rated films (with more than 40 votes) are "Autopsy Room Four," "Gotham Cafe," "Paranoid," "The Woman in the Room," "Strawberry Spring" and "Night Surf." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb), owned by Amazon. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) [1] is an online database of information about actors, movies, television shows, television stars and video games. ...

The Definitive List

This list includes all the known Dollar Baby films, the directors and (when available) format, length and production budget. Where possible, links are provided to the films' official websites.

• • Night Surf (unknown date and filmmaker)
  • The Sun Dog (unknown date and filmmaker) (animation)
  • The Boogyman (1982) by Jeff Schiro (16mm 29 minutes $20,000)
  • Disciples of the Crow (1983) by John Woodward (30 minutes)
  • The Woman in the Room (1983) by Frank Darabont (35mm 32 minutes $35,000)
  • Srajenie (The Battle) (1986) by Mikhail Titov (animation 10 minutes RUR 5,000)
  • Last Rung on the Ladder (1987) by James Cole and Dan Thron (Super8mm 12 minutes $1,500)
  • The Lawnmower Man (1987) by James Gonis (16mm 12 minutes $5,000)
  • Here There Be Tygers (1988) by Guy Maddin
  • Llamadas (Sorry, Right Number) (1999) by Daniel Yañez (8 minutes)
  • Paranoid (2000) by Jay Holben (35mm 8 minutes $3,000)
  • Night Surf (2001) by Peter Sullivan (DV 30 minutes $2,000)
  • Strawberry Spring (2001) by Doveed Linder (35mm 8 minutes )
  • Rainy Season (2002) by Nick Wauters (24p HD 15 minutes $10,000)
  • Autopsy Room Four (2003) by Stephen Zakman (22 minutes)
  • Here There Be Tygers (2003) by James Cochrane (DV 12 minutes $100)
  • The Man in the Black Suit (2003) by Nicholas Mariani (20 minutes)
  • All That You Love Will Be Carried Away (2004) by James Renner (26 minutes)
  • All That You Love (2004) by Scott Albanese (35mm 15 minutes $23,000)
  • The Gunslinger (Roland Meets the Dweller) (2004) by Robert David Cochrane (DV 4 minutes)
  • Luckey Quarter (2004) by Robert David Cochrane (35mm 11 minutes $10,000)
  • The Secret Transit Codes of America's Highways (2004) by Brian Berkowitz (15 minutes $1,500)
  • El Sueño de Harvey (Harvey's Dream) (2005) Rodolfo Weisskirch (Mini DV 35 minutes $350)
  • Gotham Cafe (2005) by Jack Sawyers (15 minutes $10,000)
  • Harvey's Dream (2005) Andy Cambria (35mm 10 minutes)
  • Home Delivery: Servicio a Domicilio (2005) by Elio Quiroga (animation 11 minutes €190,000)
  • I Know What You Need (2005) by Shawn S. Lealos (Mini DV 40 minutes $1,500)
  • La Femme Dans la Chambre (The Woman in the Room) (2005) by Damien Maric (Mini DV 13 minutes €10,000)
  • The Road Virus Heads North (2005) by Dave Brock (21 minutes $10,000)
  • Sorry, Right Number (2005) by Brian Berkowitz (19 minutes $30,000)
  • Suffer the Little Children (2005) by Bernardo Villela (DV )
  • Umney's Last Case (2006) by Rodney Altman (35mm/16mm 30 minutes $60,000) (in postproduction)
  • The Sun Dog (200?) by Lawrence D. Cohen (IMAX 65mm) (unknown status)
  • I've Got to Get Away (200?) Kamran Syd (unknown status)
  • Last Rung on the Ladder (?) by Lucas Knight (30 minutes $60,000) (unconfirmed)

References

¹ "The Shawshank Redemption The Shooting Script" Darabont, Frank Newmarket Press 1996 introduction King, Stephen pp. ix-x

² "The Stephen King Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Works of America's Master of Horror" Spignesi, Stephen J. Contemporary Books 1991 "Student Cinema" pp. 602-605, "The Woman in the Room" pp. 578-579 "The Boogyman" pp. 588-589

³ Paranoid, the Official Website

[4] "Creepshows the Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide" Jones, Stephen Titan Books 2001 pp. 75

[5] "The Lost Work of Stephen King: A Guide to Unpublished Manuscripts, Story Fragments, Alternative Vesions and Oddities" Spignesi, Stephen J. Birch Lane Press 1998 pp. 332

Other Sources

"Stephen King at the Movies" Horsting, Jessie Signet Press / Starlog Press 1986 pp. 94-95

"Creepshows the Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide" Jones, Stephen Titan Books 2001 pp. 132-135

"The Essential Stephen King" Spignesi, Stephen J. Career Press / New Page Books 2001

"Why Kitty Absolutely Had to Die, or How I Made A Movie of a Stephen King Short Story for a Buck" Cole, James appearing in "The Lost Works of Stephen King: A Guide to Unpublished Manuscripts, Story Fragments, Alternative Vesions and Oddities" Spignesi, Stephen J. Birch Lane Press 1998 pp. 346-350

"Stephen King's poetry comes to the red screen" Hollyer, Mary-Beth Rue Morgue Magazine 'Dreadlines' #21 May/June 2001 pp. 26 Marrs Media Inc. May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). ...

"Who's Watching Me" Holben, Jay American Cinematographer Magazine 'Short Takes' vol 82 no 11 November 2001 pp. 111-112 November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 50 days remaining. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ...

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Stephen King Short Movies

Liljas Library, extensive fan site (see interviews with James Cole, Jim Gonis and Jay Holben)

External links

• The Official Stephen King Web Presence
• Paranoid
• The Home of Skemers (Stephen King E-Mail Ring)