50 Fun Facts About Misery

Who wrote the 1987 novel Misery?

The book took fourth place on the year's bestseller list and won the first Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel.

Who plays Annie Wilkes in the 1990 film?

She was a stage actress effectively unknown to film audiences when the screenwriter suggested her.

Who plays the captive novelist Paul Sheldon?

He said the appeal was that 'being a totally reactionary character is really much tougher.'

Who directed the film?

His producing partner Andrew Scheinman read the novel on a plane and recommended it to him.

Which screenwriter, also behind The Princess Bride, adapted the novel for the screen?

He later wrote a separate stage version, which reached Broadway in 2015.

What kind of books has Paul Sheldon made his fortune writing?

He despises the series and hopes his new manuscript will launch a more serious career.

What is the surname of Misery, the heroine of Paul's book series?

The title of the novel refers both to her and, King said, to his own state of mind while writing it.

In the novel, what is the title of the crime manuscript Paul has just finished when he crashes?

Annie later forces him to burn it, ending the career he hoped it would start.

In which US state does Paul crash his car in a blizzard?

The film's exteriors for the town of Silver Creek were actually shot in Genoa, Nevada.

What car is Paul driving when he goes over the embankment?

'Shotgun' by Junior Walker and the All-Stars plays on the soundtrack just before the crash.

What was Annie's profession before she settled in her remote farmhouse?

The character became a stereotype of the nurse as torturer and 'angel of mercy'.

How does Annie describe herself to Paul?

The film's final scene has a waitress use the same phrase, and Paul hallucinates Annie's face.

What sends Annie into a rage after she reads Paul's latest book?

In the novel she then abandons him for over two days without food, water or painkillers.

What does Annie make Paul do with the only copy of his new manuscript?

She then buys typing paper and an antique typewriter so he can bring Misery back from the dead.

What is the title of the new book Annie forces Paul to write?

In the novel he ends the ordeal by seemingly burning it, but the copy on the fire is a decoy.

What does Paul use to unlock his bedroom door while Annie is out?

Exploring the house by wheelchair, he finds the phone dead and every outer door locked.

The scrapbook Paul finds reveals that Annie was tried in connection with what?

The case lacked evidence and the trial collapsed; in the novel her clippings suggest more than thirty victims.

In the film, what does Annie use to break Paul's ankles in the infamous 'hobbling' scene?

Bravo ranked the moment number 12 on its list of the 100 scariest movie moments.

In the novel, how does Annie punish Paul for leaving his room, in a scene the film softened?

The director insisted on the change, arguing an amputation would make audiences hate Annie rather than pity her madness.

In the novel, what does Annie remove with an electric knife when Paul complains about the typewriter?

The typewriter is missing a letter, and complaining about it costs him dearly.

Annie despises profanity. Which of these is one of her signature minced oaths?

'Dirty bird' is another; King said Annie 'seems perfectly sane and reasonable to herself'.

Which pianist and showman is Annie's favourite musician, heard on three recordings in the film?

The rest of the score was written by Marc Shaiman.

In the film, how does Annie kill the sheriff who finds Paul in her basement?

In the novel the lawman is a state trooper, and she runs him over with her riding lawnmower.

Which veteran actor and former stuntman plays Sheriff Buster?

He was later Oscar-nominated for The Straight Story, at the time the second-oldest Best Actor nominee ever.

Who plays Buster's wife and deputy, Virginia?

She was also Esther Clavin on Cheers and Bunny MacDougal on Sex and the City.

Which Hollywood legend plays Paul's literary agent, Marcia Sindell?

Her final scene has her suggesting Paul write a nonfiction book about his ordeal, which he declines.

What does Paul use to finally kill Annie in the film's climactic fight?

The typewriter is used earlier in the struggle, and she briefly knocks herself out falling onto it.

How long after the ordeal does the film's final restaurant scene take place?

Paul now walks with a cane and admits the experience revived his passion for writing.

Why was the 1991 Best Actress Academy Award for Annie Wilkes a landmark?

It is also one of the very few acting Oscars for a horror-genre performance.

Which two actresses turned down the role of Annie Wilkes before Bates was cast?

One of them later said she deeply regretted the decision.

Which actor was offered the part of Paul Sheldon twice and declined both times?

The list of refusals also included Kevin Kline, Michael Douglas, Dustin Hoffman, De Niro, Pacino, Dreyfuss and Hackman.

Which star was interested in playing Paul but dropped out when post-production on Dick Tracy overran?

He had wanted to make Sheldon a less passive character.

In which Nevada town were the film's exterior scenes shot?

Interiors were filmed at Hollywood Center Studios in Los Angeles.

Misery opened second at the US box office in November 1990, behind which family comedy?

It went on to gross about $61 million worldwide.

Where did King write the first pages of Misery, at a desk once owned by Rudyard Kipling?

Kipling had died of a stroke while working at that very desk.

Under which pseudonym was Misery originally scheduled to be published?

King's alter ego had been unmasked before the book came out, so it appeared under his own name.

What was the novel's working title?

King originally planned for Annie to bind Paul's finished book in his own skin, then found Paul too resourceful for that ending.

King has said the character of Annie Wilkes was partly a metaphor for what in his own life?

'Annie was my drug problem, and she was my number-one fan,' he said; fans' rejection of The Eyes of the Dragon was another spur.

On which real-life child-killing nurse is Annie loosely based, per the director's commentary?

The novel gives Annie a birthplace of Bakersfield, California, and a nursing degree from USC.

Who starred as Paul Sheldon and Annie Wilkes in the 2015 Broadway play?

It was the action star's Broadway debut, and critics called his performance 'vacant' and 'inert'; his co-star earned a Tony nomination.

Where did Annie Wilkes rank on the AFI's 2003 list of the 100 greatest heroes and villains?

That made her the sixth most iconic villainess in film history by the AFI's reckoning.

Which actress played a young Annie Wilkes in the second season of the TV series Castle Rock?

The season ends with Annie at a Paul Sheldon book signing, the start of her obsession.

On what did Stephen King jot down the idea for Misery after dreaming it on a flight to London?

The scribbled dream already had Annie explaining she named her pig Misery 'in the spirit of fan love, which is the purest love there is'.

In the novel, how does Annie kill state trooper Duane Kushner?

The film turned the trooper into Sheriff Buster and gave Annie a shotgun instead.

Misery was the first Best Novel winner of which horror-fiction prize, in 1987?

It was also nominated for the 1988 World Fantasy Award and reached number four on the New York Times bestseller list.

Who starred as Annie Wilkes in Simon Moore's 1992 London stage adaptation?

The Cagney & Lacey star played opposite Bill Paterson at the Criterion Theatre; a 2005 revival cast Susan Penhaligon.

Which producer read the novel on a plane and recommended it to his Castle Rock partner Rob Reiner?

Reiner then brought in William Goldman, who fought unsuccessfully to keep the novel's axe amputation in the script.

What uncredited cameo does director Rob Reiner make in the film?

J. T. Walsh also appears uncredited as State Patrol Colonel Sherman Douglas.

Roughly how much did Misery gross worldwide?

Castle Rock and Nelson Entertainment produced it and Columbia released it on November 30, 1990.

In 2022 Stephen King named Annie Wilkes as what?

Annie also ranked 17th on the AFI's list of the greatest screen villains thanks to Kathy Bates's Oscar-winning turn.