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Author Stephen King wrote an emotional tribute to director Rob Reiner for The New York Times on Tuesday after the filmmaker and his wife were murdered over the weekend.
The “It” and “Carrie” writer described Reiner inviting him to the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1985 to watch a rough cut of his film “Stand by Me,” which was based on King’s 1982 novella “The Body.”
King recalled feeling “deeply affected” upon watching the film for the first time, remarking how well Reiner had adapted his “nakedly autobiographical story.”
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“When the movie was over, I thanked Rob and surprised the hell out of myself by giving him a hug,” King wrote. “I’m not ordinarily a hugging man, and I don’t think he was used to getting them. He stiffened, muttered something about being glad I liked it, and we both stepped away.”
He continued, “I apparently wasn’t done feeling my feelings. I went into the nearest men’s bathroom and sat in a stall until I got myself under control. Nostalgia can be dangerous when it’s up close. I don’t exactly know what I mean by that, but it feels true.”
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Reiner went on to direct the 1990 film “Misery,” based on King’s 1987 novel of the same name. King wrote that he was “equally delighted with that film but not as emotionally wrecked by it.”
King added that at Reiner’s request, he also took part in a documentary “about how little liking we had for Donald Trump.”
“Rob took a lot of brickbats and slurs for it on Twitter with his customary grace. (I refuse to call it X; that’s for porno films.) He was a political presence, a social commentator and a wicked satirist. But all that still pales for me when I watch Chris Chambers say to the weeping Gordie Lachance: ‘You’re gonna be a great writer someday.’ That weeping boy was me. It was Rob Reiner who put it on the screen,” King wrote.
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Reiner was found dead along with his wife Michelle Sunday inside their Los Angeles mansion. Their son, Nick Reiner, was arrested Sunday night on suspicion of murdering his parents.
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Family friends informed the Los Angeles Times that Nick had gotten in an argument with his parents at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party Saturday evening and was behaving strangely before their deaths.