It’s fair to say that Stephen King‘s Maximum Overdrive isn’t one of the highlights of the author’s career. The 1986 film is his only directorial effort, and is notable for its bizarre living machines and mix of comedy and horror. Despite the experience working on the movie pretty much putting King off from getting behind the camera ever again, though, his son Joe Hill has now thought up a way of making Maximum Overdrive relevant for 2020.
The original was based on King’s short story Trucks, wherein machines come to life due to what’s shown to be a passing comet in the 1980s picture. Another effort was then made to adapt the material via a 1997 television production, also called Trucks, which similarly left audiences and critics unimpressed. However, Hill thinks that the subject matter could be updated, and had this to say in an interview on Post Mortem with Mick Garris:
“The time is right, okay. So basically, they’re all the self-driving vehicles. So it’s no longer a comet that sets them off, it’s a virus in the electronics that sets them off. And so you’ve got these giant Tesla semi trucks, ya know, wiping everyone out. I think it could be great.”
We can certainly see this concept having potential, albeit it could end up just being as campy as Maximum Overdrive. In any case, the idea of artificial intelligence run amok has become a recurring theme for horror movies, and was notably used in the recent Child’s Play reboot as an effective alternative to the voodoo plot device of its predecessors.
Although he may not have been entirely serious, Hill also suggested that he’d been keen to write and direct this new take on Trucks. Of course, his own books have become a reliable source of film and television adaptations in recent years, too, from Horns to the success of Locke & Key, so his getting a crack at directing isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Whether that first project ends up being a rebooted Maximum Overdrive is another question, though. At the very least, it’d be a playful homage to the short-lived filmmaking career of his father.
What do you think about bringing Stephen King‘s Maximum Overdrive back for the self-driving era, though? As ever, let us know in the comments down below.
