Stephen King’s Biggest Acting Role Was Inspired by a Looney Tunes Character

George A. Romero and Stephen King: A Perfect Couple for Horror Cinema. It was probably inevitable that Stephen King would break into film, and the horror master eventually produced his first screenplay in the form of Romero’s Creepshow, one of the best horror anthology films ever made. King had written screenplays before (for example, he wrote a draft of The Shining that Stanley Kubrick rejected), but Creepshow was King’s first original script to be brought to the screen. King and Romero originally met when Romero was being courted to direct the TV adaptation of King’s vampire novel Salem’s Lot, and while Romero ultimately didn’t direct the miniseries (that task eventually went to Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper), he and King became friends. Eventually, the two decided to make a film together, with King writing the screenplay and Romero directing.