Walken plays a schoolteacher, Johnny Smith, who awakens from a coma to find he has psychic powers. The film received positive reviews. The novel also inspired a television series of the same name in the early 2000s, starring Anthony Michael Hall, the pilot episode of which borrowed some ideas and changes used in the 1983 film.
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In the novel, the phrase "dead zone" refers to the part of Johnny's brain that is irreparably damaged, resulting in his dormant psychic potential awakening. When some information in Johnny's visions is beyond his perception, he considers that information as existing "in the dead zone." In the film adaptation, the phrase "dead zone" is that part of his psychic vision that is missing—a blank area that he cannot see. This "dead zone" refers to an outcome that is not yet determined, meaning Johnny can change the future.
After King's novel The Dead Zone was released in 1979, Lorimar Film Entertainment began developing a film adaptation. Producer Carol Baum gave the book to screenwriter Jeffrey Boam and asked him to write a screenplay. He developed a script with director Stanley Donen, who left the project before the film had reached production at Lorimar. Boam completed his first draft for the film on the same day as Ronald Reagan's election as president.
Film producer Dino De Laurentiis purchased the rights to The Dead Zone after Lorimar's failed attempt to produce the film.
Lorimar eventually closed its film division after a series of box-office failures, and soon after, producer Dino De Laurentiis bought the rights to The Dead Zone. He initially disliked Boam's screenplay and asked King to adapt his own novel. De Laurentiis then reportedly rejected King's script as "involved and convoluted"; however, David Cronenberg, who ultimately directed the film, said that he was the one who decided not to use the script, finding it "needlessly brutal". De Laurentiis commissioned another script from Andrzej Żuławski, but rejected it and returned to Boam. Cronenberg later questioned the quality of the script De Laurentiis read as it was initially written in Polish, translated to English, and then translated to Italian. The film was finally on track to be made when De Laurentiis hired producer Debra Hill to work with Cronenberg and Boam.
Cronenberg received five scripts for the film, including one from King which he described as "the worst one by far". The Dead Zone was his first film in which he did not have any involvement in writing the script. It was also his first film that did not have any Canadian content.
Boam abandoned King's parallel story structure for The Dead Zone's screenplay, turning the plot into separate episodes. Boam told writer Tim Lucas in 1983, "King's book is longer than it needed to be. The novel sprawls and it's episodic. What I did was use that episodic quality, because I saw The Dead Zone as a triptych." His script was revised and condensed four times by Cronenberg, who eliminated large portions of the novel's story, including plot points about Johnny Smith having a brain tumor.
Before Christopher Walken was cast as Johnny Smith, Bill Murray was considered for the role as it was King's first choice. Cronenberg initially wanted Nicholas Campbell to portray Johnny, but the director wound up casting him as the Castle Rock Killer instead. Cronenberg also wanted Hal Holbrook to portray Sheriff Bannerman but De Laurentiis objected. In addition to Donen, both John Badham and Michael Cimino were also considered to direct.
Source: Wikipedia