Cain Rose Up (David Britten Prior)

Title: Cain Rose Up (1999) (USA)
Runtime: unknown (Unproduced)
Director(s): David Britten Prior (David Prior)
(Script-)writer(s): David Britten Prior
Producer(s): David Britten Prior
Cast: Deborah Offner
Additional Crew: unknown

From: David Prior
To: Stephen King Short Movies
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004
Subject: Cain Rose Up

Hello Bernd,

I was forwarded an email you sent to Sheryl about my screenplay Cain Rose Up. I took the title “Cain Rose Up” from the passage in Genesis recounting Abel’s momentous encounter with his brother (which is where King got the title as well, you can bet), but my story is a feature-length crime drama about a man trying to justify commiting a murder on moral grounds.

The script has been optioned several times, but remains as yet unproduced. One of these would-be producers who optioned it began to report prematurely that the film was being made; that must be how it ended up on the Imdb site. I noticed with some amusement that it was subsequently mentioned in Stephen Jones’ book Creepshows. Yet another valuable lesson in not believing everything you read.

The other side of all this is that for my entire life I’ve been a huge fan of Mr. King’s. There are several stories of his that I’d love to adapt as both short films and features. In fact I’ve often thought that I’d be perfectly happy doing nothing but film adaptations of his work for the rest of my career, if I could be so lucky.

So the confusion over “Cain Rose Up” has always tickled more than rankled me. But who knows, maybe I should change my title. After all, King got there first. Anyway, I hope that clears things up. If and when I do embark on a King adaptation, dollar-baby or otherwise, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Best always,
David Prior