Author Bev VincentPosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneLeave a comment on Bev Vincent reviews The Outsider (HBO) 
“There’s Always a Reasonable Explanation”
This Sunday, January 12th, HBO premieres the first two episodes of their 10-episode adaptation of The Outsider. Is it good? Absolutely. One of the best. Before I get into that, let me take a little step back.Continue Reading
Author Bev VincentPosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead Zone7 Comments on Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #200
Over the past few years, TV series based on the works of Stephen King have taken different approaches with varying degrees of success. One of the best was 11.22.63, which stayed reasonably close to the source material and did not continue past the novel’s conclusion. At the other end of the spectrum was Under the Dome, which started out okay, but struggled as time went on. Rather than film the novel, they decided to stretch it as far as it could go, and it broke.Continue Reading
Author Bev VincentPosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead Zone1 Comment on Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #199
Bridgeville, Maine is a pretty little town.
Unless you look closely, that is.
For one thing, it seems to have a major bug problem. Bugs are one of the main motifs in the first episode of the new series The Mist, which premieres on Spike TV on June 22, the first of ten 1-hour episodes. Heck, the first thing we see is a full-screen shot of a spider, and then we see the spider crawling across a guy’s face. Seriously creepy.Continue Reading
Author Bev VincentPosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead Zone4 Comments on Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #195 Castle Rock.
A little town in the lakes region of Maine, just south and west of Lewiston-Auburn, population somewhat less than two thousand. Not much to make it stand out from all of the other little places in the state. The founders made full use of the Castle name. Castle View is right next door. Nearby bodies of water are the Castle Stream, Castle River and Castle Lake, and the town is the county seat of Castle County. The more affluent people live on Castle Hill.Continue Reading
Author Bev VincentPosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneLeave a comment on Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #192 
We’ve been spoiled in recent years by getting two novels from Stephen King. 2016 will see the end of that streak. The recently published End of Watch is the only book from King we’ll see this year. Later this fall, though, we’ll get Hearts in Suspension, edited by Jim Bishop, a collection of essays by King and others about his time as a student at the University of Maine. The publisher says that King’s essay is quite long (the longest of the set of about ten essays by various authors), and that the essay is “funny, truthful, and an involved work about Steve’s experiences during the 60’s, 70’s and the anti-war work of the Vietnam era, and so much more.”Continue Reading
Author Bev VincentPosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead Zone2 Comments on Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #190
Not long now until End of Watch comes out, the final installment in the Mr. Mercedes trilogy. King is doing a major tour for this book, with twelve stops between June 7 and June 18. The June 16 event in Albuquerque is of particular interest because George R.R. Martin will be interviewing King. Most of the events have already sold out (some in almost record time), but you can find the list of venues here.
After years of saying “no news yet” with reference to the Dark Tower movie, things are finally moving forward. The current release date is set at February 17, 2017, and the following people have been cast: Idris Elba (Roland), Matthew McConaughey (Man in Black), Jackie Earle Haley (Richard Sayre), Fran Kranz (Pimli Prentiss), Tom Taylor (Jake), Abby Lee (Tirana) and Katheryn Winnick (unknown). Some early photos from the set appeared a few days ago, and some of them disappeared soon after!Continue Reading
Author Bev VincentPosted on Categories Breaking NewsLeave a comment on Stephen King: News from the Dead Zone #162
Scribner has released their description of Mr. Mercedes, King’s next novel, which will be out on June 3, 2014.
In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, hundreds of desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.
In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.
Brady Hartfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of highly unlikely allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.
Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.
This is just one of two novels we’ll see next year, the other being Revival. There’s a new King short story, “Summer Thunder,” in the CD anthology Turn Down the Lights. Editor Rich Chizmar says it “might be one of the most heartbreaking post-apocalyptic tales we’ve ever read.”
King joined Twitter late last week. Within minutes he had 30,000 followers and the number has since climbed to nearly 200,000. You don’t need to join Twitter to see his feed, though. Just click here.
Samuel L. Jackson will play Tom McCourt in the movie adaptation of Cell, joining John Cusack for the second time (1408). There were some amusing follow-up articles in which Jackson confessed that he didn’t know that his character was gay in the novel. The film will be directed by Tod “Kip” Williams (Paranormal Activity 2). Production is scheduled to begin in January.
Long-time King fan Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) plans to adapt Lisey’s Story. King had a cameo in Boone’s debut, Stuck in Love. Boone talks about how King responded when he sent some books to be autographed when he was 12 in this article.
Add another title to the list of remakes or reworkings. Bob Weinstein is developing a proposed 10-part series with Frank Darabont, based on Dimension’s film version of The Mist. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) is in talks to direct Pet Sematary. The day after it was announced that Scott Cooper was considering Christian Bale for the theatrical version of The Stand, the director left the project. Paul Greengrass is now being courted to help the film. Cary Fukunaga is currently attached to the remake of It.
Doctor Sleep link roll:
European tour:
In closing, here is my review of the campy horror film You Can’t Kill Stephen King, which should get US distribution in 2014.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneLeave a comment on News From The Dead Zone #98 
The first published collaboration between Stephen King and Joe Hill, a novella entitled “Throttle” inspired by the classic Richard Matheson story Duel (and the equally classic adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg), will appear in the Gauntlet Press collection He Is Legend: Celebrating Richard Matheson, which was announced this morning and is now up for reservation pre-orders for a February 2009 limited edition release.
You can listen to King’s NPR interview from last week online here. The main news arising from the interview is that Marvel seems to be moving forward with plans to do a graphic novel adaptation of The Stand.
The Mist comes out on DVD tomorrow. Blockbuster has an online game where you fight off monsters as you escape from the supermarket. If you make it to the end you can see a snippet from an interview between King and Frank Darabont. Blockbuster is also giving out Mist globes at participating stores to people who purchase the DVD tomorrow. Here’s a neat little interview with Francis Sternhagen.
Note that the official title for King’s upcoming story collection from Scribner is Just After Sunset.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneLeave a comment on News From The Dead Zone #93
There’s a new interview in today’s USA Today: ‘Duma Key’ finds Stephen King stepping into his own life. The interactive graphic at the top is called Stephen King By the Numbers. “His next book will be a collection of short stories, but he and his publisher can’t agree on a title. He wants to call it Unnatural Acts of Human Intercourse, which ‘could be a tough sell in some markets.'”
The Mist will be released on DVD on March 25th. The two-disc version will contain the theatrical release along with the movie rendered into black and white, which was how Darabont originally envisioned filming the movie. Special features on the two-disc version include:
| • Audio commentary by writer/director Frank Darabont • Eight deleted scenes with optional commentary • A Conversation With Stephen King and Frank Darabont featurette • When Darkness Came: The Making of THE MIST featurette • Taming the Beast: Shooting Scene 35 featurette • Monsters Among Us: A Look at the Creature FX featurette • The Horror of It All: The Visual FX of THE MIST featurette • Drew Struzan: Appreciation of an Artist featurette |
The single-disc presentation won’t have all the bonus features, nor will it have the B&W rendering.
Two more Duma Key reviews:
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneLeave a comment on News From The Dead Zone #87
The New York Academy of Sciences is hosting the following presentation The Science of Stephen King: From Carrie to Cell, The Terrifying Truth Behind the Horror Master’s Fiction tonight.
This new Q&A has been getting a lot of press, mostly because of King’s “waterboarding” comments. King also talked to Nightline about his childhood, career and the secret to a successful horror film. ABC news has an interesting from book to screen photo essay.
The Mist took in $13 million dollars during the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It was a ninth place opening, but the film’s budget was only $18 million, so in five days they’ve earned back most of their money. Here’s a NY Times interview with Darabont and King, an interview with Marcia Gay Harden, an interview with the extras, pictures from the premiere and “Ms Mod’s” review — by the moderator of King’s message board, a USA Today article, and an MTV interview with King. My set visit report is a Cemetery Dance free read, but beware of the spoiler notice at the top of the page. I have interviews with Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden and Toby Jones. My interview with Frank Darabont in Rue Morgue #73 should be on stands for a few more days. For my thoughts on the film, visit my LiveJournal.
To see exclusive storyboards from The Mist, visit Fangoria.com. They also have an exclusive video interview with writer/director Darabont here, as well as some cool clips of Darabont and King talking together here. Star Thomas Jane sounds off here. Check out all the articles in Fearful Features too, and the cover story of the current issue of FANGORIA (on newsstands now).
CD’s very own Glenn Chadbourne said he spotted his t-shirt design featuring Doug Graves in The Mist. Glenn said he heard on King’s radio station WKIT that multiple t-shirts were used in the movie because of all the blood.
Fear.net has a nice interview with Peter, wherein he talks about T3, The Talisman movie and his next book. Note: this video is only available in North America.
Promotional bookmarks for The Long Road Home, the second Marvel graphic novel series, indicate that the launch will be in March 2008. The hardcover version of The Gunslinger Born was the #1 hardcover graphic novel on multiple sales charts and Amazon.com’s editors’ picked it as the #1 Comic & Graphic Novel of 2007.
“This is everything a hardcover collection of this type should be, and more,” gushed Joe Hartlaub of BookReporter.Com, who furthered described Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born HC as, “a beautiful hardcover edition that pays proper homage to the work within.”
According to Entertainment Weekly, ABC is planning a new drama series that’s loosely based on The Colorado Kid. King describes the script, from The Dead Zone‘s Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn, as “closer to The X-Files than Supernatural.” King will have a small stake in the show (currently dubbed Sanctuary) should it go to series, “but it’s not something that keeps me up nights, the way Kingdom Hospital did.”
When you read Duma Key in January, check out the epigraph, then back up to the copyright page and look at the acknowledgements for the song “Dig” by Shark Puppy. You’ll see some familiar names, I’m sure.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneLeave a comment on News From The Dead Zone #86
Stephen King will appear on ABC’s Nightline tonight at 11:35 P.M. (EST). If you miss it, the full interview transcript will be at ABCNEWS.com after the show airs. “If I can make you feel for my characters, and if you worry that something will happen to them instead of rooting for something to happen to them, for their head to be blown off, or for Freddy to get them with his nails, then I got something going,” King tells Jake Tapper.
Publisher Donald M. Grant posted an updated last week about their new edition of the revised version of The Gunslinger combined with Little Sisters of Eluria. “We have now received from Michael all the additional art for the book and can start working on design and production. Price, schedule and other details have not been set and when further information is available it will be posted on our website and published in our newsletter. We expect that this will be announced in the beginning of 2008.” This book will be called Little Sisters of Eluria.
TMZ.com posted a video of King greeting fans before the New York premiere of The Mist when someone asks him to autograph their daughter’s diaper. Saying he had “changed a few” in his day, King happily obliges, but the kid throws a fit. Here are some video highlights from the press conference where King and Darabont field questions about The Mist, a quick text recap of the high points and a link where you can listen to the interview. Fangoria magazine says “not only is The Mist intelligent, thoughtful and empathetic toward its characters, it is proudly and unashamedly a horror movie through and through. Darabont has scored his third successful King adaptation in a row, and there’s nothing hazy about his intention this time to scare the hell out of all of us.” Wandering through the Mist is an interview with Darabont and Marcia Gay Harden. Here is the third trailer.
Darabont tells MTV about his hopes to adapt The Long Walk. “It’s a hard story to pitch to a studio. Because they say ‘well what’s it about?’ Well it is about a bunch of kids walking and talking – uh okay. The thing I keep thinking about is that these guys never stop moving. So, I how do you get a really good close up. It would be an interesting challenge to not have people get just sick of watching the image because of all the movements. So, I think that there are certain rigs that stabilize the image even more so than a steady cam,” he revealed. “But [overall] I think a lot of run and gun, a lot of the guerrilla approach that I applied on The Mist. It will again be letting those ragged edges show.”
Hodder & Stoughton are offering you a unique opportunity to design the advertising for Duma Key. “The winning designer will see their work in print on the London Underground and in city centres and have a hand in promoting a fantastic book by an internationally-renowned author.” The competition is open to anyone. Further information on the competition is available at www.stephenking.co.uk. Deadline for entry is December 7, 2007.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneLeave a comment on News From The Dead Zone #83
Leonard Lopate interviewed King today about The Best American Short Stories 2007. A podcast of the interview is available here. There’s an article in The Harvard Crimson about his appearance in Cambridge earlier this week and one in the NYU News about his New York appearance.
Look for King to appear in an ESPN ad, preparing copy for anchor John Anderson. “I think it was the Red Sox’s clutch hitting, not that New York was possessed by demons,” Anderson deadpans as King rips the copy out of Anderson’s hands, throws it in the garbage and begins typing again.
Eli Roth has this to say in an interview with MTV: “The latest with Cell is that the script is not finished. I’ve realized that I can’t multitask in the writing department; I can only kind of do one thing at a time. So right now I’m working on [a guest-director episode of] Heroes, and then I’ll work on Trailer Trash, and then we’ll see about Cell after that.
Frank Darabont will receive the Kodak Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at ShowEast’s closing gala. He will also screen The Mist tonight.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneLeave a comment on News From The Dead Zone #82
A second new King story will come out in November. In addition to “Mute” in the December issue of Playboy, “Ayana” will appear in the fall issue of The Paris Review. This is the story Susan Moldow mentioned that King gave her when he appeared in Toronto earlier this year. See the June 11 post below for more details.
In a brief interview at USA Today, King talks about what he’s working on: “It’s called A Very Tight Place. Not a novel but a long story. I’ve been writing lots of stories lately.” The paper also reviews The Best American Short Stories 2007: At a story a night, there’s enough variety and talent in the 20 selections here to keep readers entertained for nearly three weeks. Guest editor Stephen King’s lineup includes literary all-stars: Alice Munro’s “Dimension” is a chilling look at criminal insanity; Richard Russo’s “Horseman” explores how a professor’s encounter with student plagiarism triggers questions about her authenticity. But the real finds are the lesser-known writers. Beverly Jensen’s haunting “Wake,” about a rousing funeral in the midst of a nor’easter, is made even more poignant by the note that Jensen died at age 49.
In an interview posted at The Overlook Connection’s web site, Peter Straub says: “The Talisman has just been shelved for the hundredth time, now because of the budget. Steve and I have agreed to do the last book in the series, but it will have to wait until our desks are clear.”
Director Tobe Hooper says that From a Buick 8 will not be “your stock horror film by any means. There’s a really cool, layered quality to the story. The producers, writers and I shared the same sensibility about the project and responded to it in a similar way.”
Note: Links to two web sites that posted clips from The Mist were removed from this page because the producers advised me the clips were unauthorized.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneLeave a comment on News From The Dead Zone #81 
According to an announcement at the back of the current issue (November), there will be a new King short story called “Mute” in the December 2007 Playboy. The story is described this way: “In a confession to a priest, a traveling salesman tells of his encounter on the Maine turnpike with a deaf-mute hitchhiker to whom he rants about his adulterous wife.” The street date for this issue should be early November.
The Best American Short Stories 2007 entered the NY Times paperback list at #14.
Because 4 isn’t enough: MovieWeb has 8 clips from The Mist.
With the hunt for the World Series under way, King’s appearances at Red Sox games have been announced in numerous sports articles, including this one: King shows why he’s Faithful to the Sox.
King discusses movie violence in his new EW essay: A History of Violence.
Author Cemetery Dance OnlinePosted on Categories Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneLeave a comment on News From The Dead Zone #80
Shock Till You Drop has The Mist trailer, three Webisodes and four clips, all in one place.
Lilja has a new interview with Jae Lee about the Gunslinger Born series and his work on the next series, too. The entire creative team talks to Publishers Weekly, too.
Here are King’s comments about The Girl Next Door, the movie adaptation of Jack Ketchum’s novel, which is screening in NY this weekend: “The first authentically shocking American film I’ve seen since Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer over 20 years ago. If you are easily disturbed, you should not watch this movie. If, on the other hand, you are prepared for a long look into hell, suburban style, The Girl Next Door will not disappoint. This is the dark-side-of-the-moon version of Stand By Me.”
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