It’s been a while since my last update , primarily because there hasn’t been much news to report. With May fast approaching, and bringing with it the sweeps season, some reviews and previews of Desperation are starting to emerge. The first review I’ve seen comes from the San Antonio Express News. Their bottom line: “The movie has a little of everything: heart, spirituality, incredibly crafted flashback sequences, wonderful acting and shiver-under-the-covers shocks, a combo that should get ABC big audience numbers.”
Ron Perlman (Collie Entragian/Tak) told SCI FI Wire that his character is particularly unpleasant. “He commits some very, very gruesome acts that are very cold-blooded, very sudden and very unpredictable, and they’re without compunction, which is really the scariest part of it all. There’s no censoring.There’s no value judgment to this guy’s bloodlust. And he’s smart. Because he’s a Stephen King character, his turn of a phrase and his theatrical point of view is really, really smart. So there’s an added perverseness to all of it that make it incredibly compelling to watch, … I hope. I’m just giving you the sense I had of him from reading the script and playing the role.”
The Tucson Film Office and Fox Tucson Theatre are presenting an exclusive prescreening of Desperation on Saturday, May 6. Desperation was filmed in and around Tucson and Bisbee in the fall of 2004. Several cast and production members are scheduled to appear and get a red-carpet welcome, including director Mick Garris, producer Mark Sennet and actors Steven Weber, Annabeth Gish and Ron Perlman. The red-carpet opening event starts at 6:30 p.m., followed by opening comments by the director and producer at 7:15, and the film screens at 7:30. Tickets are available for $25 at the Fox Tucson Theatre box office at 17 W. Congress St.
“The Things They Left Behind” from Transgressions was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. Winners will be announced at the HWA Annual Conference and Stoker Banquet in in Newark, NJ, June 16-18 at the Hilton Newark Airport. As with Legends, the paperback of this anthology (to be released in late August) is split into multiple volumes. King’s story is in Volume 2 along with “The Ransome Women” by John Farris.
The Seattle Arts & Lectures announced that King will appear as part of its Literary Lecture Series on November 1st. Information: www.lectures.org or call 206-621-2230. Other authors appearing include New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Rich and author Frank McCourt. King’s appearance is only a week or so after the publication of Lisey’s Story. The moderator of his message board quotes the book jacket copy: “Lisey’s Story is about the wellsprings of creativity, the temptations of madness, and the secret language of love,” and continues, “Translated, that means a woman is regaining memories of the dark side of her husband triggered when she is going through his belongings after his death.”
Read Kev Quigley’s report of his encounter with Stephen King in a bookstore and King’s newest EW column, My Morning People.
As tracked by Nielsen BookScan, Stephen King’s Cell has sold more than 377,000 copies.
