Welsh School Children buy Film Rights from Stephen King for a Dollar

A class of GCSE students from Wales has bought the rights to a short story from Stephen King for just a dollar (77p) and will now adapt it for film. The year 11 students from Blaenau Gwent Film Academy in Tredegar, Wales will adapt the short story The Stationary Bike, first published in 2003 and paid just 77p for the rights to do so.

The deal came after their tutor Kevin Phillips discovered the Dollar Babies section on Stephen King’s website. The section allows prospective filmmakers to buy the rights to one of King’s short stories for just $1. King has previously revealed that in 1977 he decided to ‘give back a little of the joy the movies had given me’ by offering some of his stories to potential filmmakers for a nominal fee.

It was through this section that The Shawshank Redemption came to fruition. Frank Darabont bought The Woman in the Room for just $1 and turned it into a short film, King loved the film and a friendship blossomed between the two leading to King giving Darabont a ‘handshake deal’ to Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption leading to the much loved and Oscar nominated 1994 movie.

The drama students who have bought The Stationary Bike will now turn it into a short film. GCSE drama student Cerys Cliff, and Alfie Evans, both aged 14 will write the script.