According to “Creepshows,” screenwriters Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon wanted to option King’s “The Body” for a movie, but they couldn’t afford King’s asking price ($100,000 plus a cut of the profits). To help realize their vision, the screenwriters shopped the project around to several studios, only to be rejected again and again. Finally, Embassy Communications came on board. “Fatal Attraction” director Adrian Lyne had initially been tapped to helm the film, and even worked with Evans and Gideon to sell the project. But eventually, Lyne left the film due to scheduling issues, and was replaced by Rob Reiner.
However, before production could begin, Embassy Communications was sold, and the film was immediately canceled. Thankfully, Norman Lear, who created Reiner’s TV series “All in the Family,” came in to rescue the film and paid for the entire budget (which was about $8 million). Eventually, Columbia Pictures would pick up and distribute the movie. Reiner wasn’t much of a horror fan, but that turned out to be okay — “The Body” wasn’t a horror story.
In the film, four young friends — Gordie (Wil Wheaton), Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman), and Vern (Jerry O’Connell), learn that the body of a missing kid named Ray Brower has been discovered by a group of older teens in the woods. Ray had been struck by a train and killed, but the teens who stumbled upon his corpse decided not to report the discovery because they had just stolen a car and didn’t want to get in trouble with the cops. Gordie and his friends decide to set out and find the body themselves, hoping to become local heroes in the process.
