February 27, 2007: Stephen King confirmed at New York Comic Con last weekend that he had granted the option to make a Dark Tower movie to J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindeloff (LOST) for $19.
King also addressed the persistent rumor that he might go back and rewrite the rest of the Dark Tower books, as he did with The Gunslinger. “Yes, that’s correct. It’s a first draft. It was written over a long period of time, and I look at it as a work that’s still in progress. That’s why I re-did the first book. The vision that I had of what was going on got clearer as it went along. So, for instance, I looked back at the first book and I said to myself ‘there’s a lot of things I can do with this now, now that I know how everything turns out in the end.’ I’m a really instinctual writer—I don’t work with an outline. I did have an outline of some of The Dark Tower stuff way back when, when I started, when I was stoned, and I lost it. I didn’t have a clue, and I couldn’t remember what was going on, and I had that poem by Robert Browning to draw on, to start, so I knew certain elements that I wanted to be in it, that were in the poem. So, when I got done, and I looked at it, I said This Horn of Eld should be there at the front. That’s what you when you rewrite a book. I’ve got a book now called Duma Key, and there’s a woman who has some bracelets and the bracelets are important, but they’re not there until the end of the book. What I’m saying is, I know now some things I could do. The Dark Tower is one book, and I’d like go back and fix it up. Who knows—I might end up novelizing their comic book.”
He also suggested that The Stand would make a good project for a comic book adaptation. Here are some reports about the panel, including some with photos:
Eric Roth also stated that Cell would be his next movie project after Hostel II. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood and 1408) are working on the script. “By the time I finish Hostel Part II the script should be ready. I really want to read it.”
Lilja has a nice photo courtesy of Frank Darabont from The Mist set at his web site.
Don’t forget that issue 2 of The Gunslinger Born will be out on March 7th. Each of the first five issues will be released on the first Wednesday in the month. No word yet on the release schedule for the July issue, since the first Wednesday is July 4th.
Thanks to King’s praise of Meg Gardiner, both on his website and in Entertainment Weekly, there’s been a run on her books at second hand outlets and her agent told Publishers Lunch that publishers are lining up to make book deals with her in the U.S., where she is currently unpublished.
Here are more details about Blaze, which is now up for preorder at Cemetery Dance:
| Blaze: A Posthumous Novel By Richard Bachman Foreword by Stephen King List Price: $23.00 |
Here’s a short “interview” with King as part of a series where celebrities talk about credit cards.
