Eli Roth has been saying how Stephen King has endorsed his film version of King's latest novel Cell. Well that's what the report says, and King's words don't really drip with enthusiasm or passion for the project.

"Do whatever you want."

That's what Roth said King told him when he asked if he could deviate from the book. Really that's not an endorsement, what is is that King is talking to him. It's funny but I've heard King talk like this about his books before, and use a quote from another famous author. When a reporter was interviewing him in his home he asked him what he felt of all the Hollywood films made of his books and how they were destroying them.

King looked surprised and pointed to all the books on his shelves and said something along the lines of "What do you mean? They're all still there."

It always seems that King has not bothered that much about the film adaptations of his books. Perhaps with a few early on, and definitely with Frank Darabont, but these days I think he's more concerned about his writing than how the films appear on screen. I guess if you've seen some incredibly duff versions come out then you might feel a little jaded.

According to SciFi Wire through JoBlo, Roth and the screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski are hard at work on the screenplay right now, and Roth will be making some needed changes.

"I love the opening [scene]," Roth said. "But I also want to keep, ... not necessarily that same chaotic tone, but I want to keep the tension of the opening 40 pages of the book going throughout the whole film and introduce other elements. Because I think the book, for me, where it loses tension is where suddenly you don't feel like the phone crazies are trying to kill them. ... I find that it's finding other ways to make it so you still feel the tension that any second you could get killed [and] carrying that throughout the whole film."

Sounds like he might be making changes in the right places then, and not just for change making sake. I think you have to hand it to Roth, he certainly does know his horror, and the marrying of King and Roth seems perfect. Perhaps King will rethink his position when he starts to see some footage or even reads the script.