Arnold Schwarzenegger once approached Stephen King about collaborating on an “Exorcist” horror project.

We all know it Arnold Schwarzenegger he starred in the 1987 film adaptation of Stephen King’S The runner, which King wasn’t a fan of because the story had completely changed. In fact, he didn’t want his name used in the film’s marketing and didn’t like the casting of Schwarzenegger in the lead role.

As for the changes in the story, the book centers on an unemployed Ben Richards who volunteers to join the dangerous TV show to pay for his daughter’s medical bills. In the film, Ben Richards is a cop forced into the show when he is wrongly convicted of a crime he didn’t commit by a corrupt system. King didn’t like this.

Well, it turns out that a few years later, in the 1990s, Schwarzenegger actually contacted King to collaborate and make a horror film project in the vein of The exorcist! This is something I had never heard before until I started listening to the podcast Think twice: Michael Jackson.

While speaking about the opportunity to work with Jackson on a project, King shared:

“Others have already contacted me. Arnold Schwarzenegger reached out and said, “Stephen, I want to make a scary movie like The Exorcist.” And I said, “That’s great, Mr. Schwarzenegger, let me think about it,” but I never seriously thought about it.

Now, I can’t help but think what would have happened if King had actually entertained the idea! Stephen King and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s demonic horror film!? I’m actually sad that this didn’t happen!

Now, Schwarzenegger has ended up making his own demonic horror film End of days in 1999. King, however, was not involved in that project. He came from director Peter Hyams (Running scared, Timecop, The relic) and writer Andrew W. Marlowe.

I haven’t seen the movie since it came out, but I remember it not being very good. The film is set at the turn of the century and Satan comes to New York in search of a bride. Schwarzenegger plays in the story an ex-cop who runs an elite security group and goes on a mission to stop Satan.

Yes, I would have much rather seen King and Schwarzenegger. I have no doubt that it would have been a better horror film. It’s a shame that King didn’t take this seriously, but he’s a busy guy who’s always writing books and working on other projects, and this obviously wasn’t on his priority list.