Stephen King reveals how own near-death experience inspired new series Lisey’s Story

King wrote all the episodes of the new Apple TV+ show, which stars Julianne Moore and Clive Owen.

Stephen King has opened up about how coming close to dying from a serious case of pneumonia inspired his new Apple TV+ series Lisey’s Story, saying: “I was really close to stepping out”.

In a new featurette, the prolific author explains that his 2006 novel Lisey’s Story came to him after he was hospitalized and nearly died in 2003.

“When I came home from the hospital, my wife had cleaned out my study and I thought to myself, ‘I’ve died, I’m a ghost,’” he explains. “The idea for Lisey’s Story came from that.”

The new series is produced by J. J. Abrams and premieres on 4 June. It stars Julianne Moore as Lisey Landon, a woman struggling to deal with the death of her husband. Clive Owen plays Scott Landon, a famous novelist who bears some similarities to King himself.

“At its core, this is a love story,” King says. “Lisey is a different thing for me. It’s very close to my heart.”

King’s novels and stories have inspired some of the most successful adaptations in Hollywood history – from 1980’s The Shining to 1990’s Misery and 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption.

Unusually, in this case King has adapted the novel for the screen himself. “I wanted to tell the story that was in the book, but I wanted to make it better,” he says. “I thought if somebody was going to mess it up… I used to tell my wife, nobody is going to mess it up but me.”