I can’t believe it’s been a year since I last wrote one of these columns (except for a couple of book reviews). I refused to believe it until I verified it three different ways. It’s mind-blowing. Where has the time gone? Oh well, I’m here now and we have a few things to talk about.
No, not hurricanes or the Olympics or the forthcoming election. We’re here to talk about what’s new in the Stephen King Universe, so let’s get to it.
You Like it Darker has been out for a while now and has been quite well received, debuting at the top of many national and regional bestseller lists.
What comes next? The only book we know about for sure is called Always Holly. No release date has been announced, which means it’s almost certainly not going to be in 2024. When King first talked about this novel, originally titled We Think Not, he indicated that Holly Gibney wouldn’t be the main focus and that Jerome would play a major part in proceedings. It appears that his original idea, inspired by news of the kidnapping of Lady Gaga’s dogs, didn’t pan out. In a couple of subsequent interviews, he alluded to the fact that he was having trouble with the book. Apparently he abandoned that plot and decided to write about Holly being hired as a bodyguard for a woman who’s a flashpoint in US politics. “Throw in a stalker and stir,” he said on a recent Talking Scared podcast interview.
Beyond that, readers are hoping King will write a third book in the Jack Sawyer series. He has said that’s in his active file, but he’s only reread The Talisman thus far, taking copious notes, and has yet to tackle Black House. That means he hasn’t started working on the book, so it could easily be two or three years before that happens, if it does at all. King has a long letter from Peter Straub detailing a story idea inspired by Charles Starkweather, who has long been someone with whom King is also fascinated. We’ll see.
We’re still waiting on the next issue of CD magazine, which contains the new story “The Extra Hour” and my interview with King. End-of-summer, last we heard. King also admitted that he’d forgotten to include one short story in You Like it Darker: “The Music Room,” from the anthology In Sunlight or in Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper edited by Lawrence Block. The story will appear in the paperback edition of You Like it Darker, he says.
King has written an introduction for The End of the World as We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand, the authorized anthology of stories set in the world of The Stand, edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene. The full list of contributors has yet to be announced, but I’m pleased to have a story in this massive book (34 stories by 36 authors), which should be out next summer.
According to Brian Keene:
The book is broken into five sections. Part 1 is a sort of prologue that takes place before the events of the novel. Part 2 takes place during the spread of Captain Trips. Part 3 takes place between the migrations to Las Vegas and Nebraska/Denver and the Hand of God moment. Part 4 takes place after the end of the novel, showing what happened to humanity in the years and decades that followed. And Part 5? Well… part 5 takes place somewhere else along the Beam.
A new book scheduled for publication in April: King Noir: The Crime Fiction of Stephen King by Tony Magistrale and Michael J. Blouin with contributions by King and Charles Ardai of Hard Case Crime.
Some interview and podcast interviews since we last spoke:
- We’re out of things to say [New York Times, October 2023]
- At home with Stephen King [Washington Post, October 2023]
- Stephen King on Fiction and the Frightened Brain [CNN, October 2023]
- Tracy Chapman, Stephen King and Chloë Sevigny on Their Debuts [NY Times, April 2024]
- What I’ve Learned [Esquire, May 2024]
- Stephen King doubts it’s possible to ‘gross out’ the American public [NPR, May 2024]
- Audio of a 1984 interview with King and Peter Straub about The Talisman was unearthed by Michael Small, who was working for People magazine at the time. The entire interview is featured in the podcast I Couldn’t Throw it Out, and they invited me to discuss the interview and the book, too. [June 2024]
- Talking Scared [July 2024]
We go through booms and busts when it comes to adaptations of King’s works. There’s been a dry spell recently, but that’s about to change. There are several projects either in the can or in production, the only (mostly) sure indication that something will become available.
First, there’s the feature film version of ‘Salem’s Lot, which has been picked up by Max (formerly HBO Max) for streaming release. The premiere date hasn’t yet been announced, but I’m betting on October 2024 because the movie will actually be in theaters in the UK on October 11. To be honest, my expectations are pretty low for this adaptation, but I’m glad we’ll get a chance to see it.
Also in the can but without a release date is Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck. It will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in early September but beyond that we don’t know if it will go to theaters or streaming.
Production began in July on a feature film version of The Long Walk, which is currently shooting in Winnipeg. The announcement that the film will feature Judy Greer and Mark Hamill (who is also in The Life of Chuck) has generated a lot of buzz for the film. The cast also includes Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Jordan Gonzalez, Joshua Odjick, and Roman Griffin Davis. The director is Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games) from a script by JT Mollner.
Another early Bachman novel is getting the cinematic treatment with a reboot of The Running Man slated for production this fall, directed by Edgar Wright and starring Glen Powell, with a script by Michael Bacall.
We have an actual date for the Osgood Perkins adaptation of “The Monkey”: February 21, 2025. Theo James stars alongside Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell and Sarah Levy.
Welcome to Derry is targeting a 2025 release as a series on Max. The cast includes Bill Skarsgård, Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, James Remar, Stephen Rider, Alixandra Fuchs, Kimberly Guerrero, Dorian Grey, Thomas Mitchell, BJ Harrison, Peter Outerbridge, Shane Marriott, Chad Rook, Joshua Odjick and Morningstar Angeline. According to Jason Fuchs, the co-showrunner, the series wrapped filming recently after a 237-day shoot.
There hasn’t been much news about this one lately, but Ben Barnes and Mary-Louise Parker are set to lead an eight-episode series adaptation of The Institute produced by Jack Bender (Mr. Mercedes) and written by Benjamin Cavell (The Stand). Production was slated to begin in Nova Scotia later this year.
Jack Bender is also associated with an adaptation of Holly, but that one is barely more than a rumor yet. Other projects have been announced (e.g., Billy Summers and a new version of The Dead Zone) but there’s been no news since they were acquired. Mike Flanagan is still interested in doing The Dark Tower, but that one is still only in the conception stage.
It’s not often that anything remains of the set of a movie filmed nearly fifty years ago. With all of the main stages at Elstree in London taken over by Stanley Kubrick for the elaborate construction of parts of the Overlook Hotel, the smaller Building 5 was used for sets that only had to be dressed, not constructed. The building is still standing and a new 25-minute documentary, Shine On – The Forgotten Shining Location, was released on Kubrick’s birthday on his YouTube channel. Art Director Leslie Tomkins, Location Researcher Katharina Kubrick (Kubrick’s daughter) and Executive Producer Jan Harlan walk through the building, reminiscing about how the various rooms used to look, together with split screen clips from the movie or behind the scenes to show how these places were “dressed” to turn them into the kitchen, the pantry where Jack gets locked in, the boiler room and other similar small sets. Interesting trivia: Jan Harlan has the bathtub from room 237 in his house and his children played with Danny’s tricycle. The table where Jack types and other furniture are in Kubrick’s house.
Signed copies of Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences are still available from Village Books in The Woodlands. Be sure to specify if you’d like a dedication and/or inscription on the order form. A new edition, Stephen King: His Life, Work, and Influences (Young Readers’ Edition), is coming out in September, which you can also order from Village Books.
Also coming in September: Lost (or Found) in Translation, a Lividian Publications patreon chapbook that explores the interesting ways the titles of King’s books have been translated in other languages, with artwork by François Vaillancourt.
