This April 23-25, a selection of Stephen King movies will be available to watch online for free. Hosted by Canadian film production company Barker Street Cinema, the virtual festival, called Stephen King Rules, will screen 25 submissions by filmmakers from all over the world, many of which have never been seen by a global audience before.
A new paperback edition of Lisey's Story will be released on June 1st. It will have a media tie-in cover and contain an interview with King. Order your copy at Amazon.com.
Here are my thoughts about a small book called A Little Silver Book: Black House
Chizmar and Schaech have produced an interesting script, but unfortunately it was doomed to fail, at least for now. Why? Well there are two reasons.
On July 1st (100 days from now) Shining in the Dark will be released in Greece. The book will be released by Klidarithmos and the Greek title will be Λάμψη στο σκοτάδι (Lampsi sto skotadi).
Hodder & Stoughton reveales that they will release King's entire backlist with a new look between now and the fall of 2024. Devided in 2 - 3 batches per year all will culminate with the 50th annerversay of Carrie. Hodder will then have released over 70 books with this new look.
The books will be grouped into different categories including Chilling Classics, Epic Thrillers and
Reading Group Suspense, helping readers to navigate their way through the extraordinary range and
depth of King's body of work, and discover which type of novel will most appeal to them. Each group
will be unified by striking new author brand lettering, and distinguished by a distinct colour palette
and title lettering.
The first six titles to be released in May are: Christine, Cujo, Doctor Sleep, Firestarter, `Salem’s Lot and The Shining.
As most of you know I love books in different languages and their covers. I also collect one book in each language King’s book have been published which is 54 languages so far (including Braille). Read more about the languages here.
Now I’m happy to let you know that language 55 is on its way. Foliant in Kazakhstan will release two of King’s books in Kazakh this summer if everything goes as planned.
In the Tall Grass, originally published by Esquire magazine (and as a film on Netflix), will now be released as a 5×7 bound paperback. The book be will released on April 24th, cost $12.99 and celebrate Independent Bookstore Day.
Independent Bookstore Day is a one-day national party that takes place at indie bookstores across the US on the last Saturday in April.
The only way to get this book is to visit a local Independent Bookstore!
Looks like Spielberg is trying one more time to bring The Talisman to the screen, this time as a series. Here is what The Hollywood Reporter say:
Now, Talisman may finally be ready to reach screens but, as befits the times, as a series.
And, as it sometimes takes a village to raise a project, Spielberg has assembled some mighty collaborators to help him make the adaptation a reality.
The Duffer Brothers, whose own Stranger Things owes more than a few debts to King’s work, will executive produce a series adapting the book, that will be produced by Netflix in association with Spielberg’s Amblin Television and Paramount Television Studios.
Curtis Gwinn, who worked as a writer-exec producer on Duffers’ Stranger Things, will act as writer and showrunner of the project, which is in development. With deals still being sewn up and in negotiations, Netflix and the production parties involved had no comment.
Today Later is released and here are my thoughts about the book. Later is a nice little book with quite few characters for a King book but as usual they are what carries the story forward. And the story is an interesting one. It might sound like something you have read or seen before but not quite with this twist that King has put upon it.
Jack Bender who’s done Under The Dome, Mr. Mercedes, and The Outsider is turning Elevation into a movie. Here is what he says about it:
He is very generous about that when it works. I've recently adapted a book of his called Elevation, which we're going to make into a film. And I invented some stuff and added, and was nervous because he'd never read anything I've written, only directed and produced. And needless to say I was nervous about it, but he loved it. He's very gracious, and he knows that when we make a TV show, there's going to be stuff added stuff taken away; that's just the way it goes.
In 2019 Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer slaughtered Pet Sematary and now it’s time to do it again. It’s Paramount’s streaming service Paramount+ who’s planing a new movie. The new installment in the franchise will be an “origins story”. Jeff Buhler, who wrote the 2019 adaptation, is also writing this new movie [sigh] and even though there are no word yet on plot details, the film will presumably tell a new story set within the world of King‘s Pet Sematary [sigh, sigh].
Keith Thomas talked to ComicBook.com about his upcoming remake of Firestarter and it looks like it will be a bit different than the original.
“It’s something I’ve thought a lot about. And, certainly, when [Firestarter] first came to me, I was very lucky in that the script by Scott Teems, who wrote the upcoming Halloween Kills, was just very, very good, and very rich. The material itself isn’t different, right? I mean, it’s the same book that this film is drawing from, the one the earlier film did. But what we’re leaning into from the book is different. That’s the angle where you can do something. So, for me, it was really leaning into more emotional aspects. It was leaning into parenthood and what that looks like, and then, how do you raise a child, especially a child with abilities like this. That was the place the script went and I thought that it was something that’s a little different than the original film.”
“Also, the book’s super-rich. There’s a lot of stuff that’s in the book that isn’t in the original film. There’s stuff in there that we’re using, that we’re going into. At the same time, I feel like, just for me, in terms of the films I’m interested in, I feel like there’s a visceral quality to the story that I didn’t see in the ’80s version, a rawness that I think is there in the book, that I certainly felt, that I’m really interested in diving into. And, luckily, I think everybody else involved feels the same way, that this is going to be … not only will it have the effects and you’re going to get to see all the stuff Charlie can do, which is fun, and cool, and exciting, but if we do it right, it’s not so much as dark as The Vigil, but you should come out of it emotionally. If you do it right, it’s going to really hit that way.”
“The screenplay is by Scott Teems who wrote the upcoming Halloween Kills, it’s an amazing script. It has everything you would want; people’s heads catching fire and their faces melting off, and a dad and daughter on the run trying to survive being chased in this heightened tense experience.”
Dave Erickson (Fear The Walking Dead) has closed an overall deal with MRC Television. Erickson will exclusively work with the studio on the creation and development of television series on which he will serve as writer-showrunner or supervise other writers.
As part of the deal, Erickson is developing The Jaunt, based on King's 1981 Stephen King short story.
Here are my thoughts on The Stand.
The show is good and well worth seeing but not the masterpiece I was hoping for. Oh, and they should have spent the time and money needed to create the Lincoln tunnel scene. The sewers are very flat in comparing and not scary at all if you ask me.
Here is the main cast of Lisey's Story listed by Apple TV+.
Julianne Moore as Lisey Landon Clive Owen as Scott Landon Jennifer Jason Leigh as Darla Joan Allen as Amanda Dane DeHaan as Jim Dooley Ron Cephas Jones as Professor Dashmiel Sung Kang as Officer Dan Beckman.
On Friday, during a panel for the upcoming Apple TV+ series Lisey’s Story, King mentioned that he and J.J. Abrams is talking about creating a horror anthology series.
“I talked with JJ Abrams a lot about a possible anthology series of tiny horrors,” King said. “We got really down and dirty about it and talked about things that were really, really scary.”
In an interview with Hollywood Reporter King mentions that
King also noted that he and Abrams have been discussing a horror anthology called Tiny Horrors. (Additional details on the project were not immediately available.)
King talks Lisey’s Story with Hollywood Reporter.
"Lisey's Story means a lot to me because it's the one I love best," King told reporters Friday. "It's a story about love and marriage and the creative impulse and it's also got a kickass villain in it, which I liked a lot."
Paramount Pictures is making a deal with Edgar Wright to direct a new adaptation of The Running Man. This won’t be a remake of the 1987 film with Arnold Schwarzenegger though. This time they will be much more faithful to King’s book. Michael Bacall will write the script and Simon Kinberg will produce.
Lisey's Story is finally coming to the small screen. In this "Spring 2021 + More" preview there is a short clip from it.
Julianne Moore and Clive Owen are the stars of a small screen adaptation of Stephen King‘s Lisey’s Story that’s coming to Apple TV+, with Moore playing the title character and Owen co-starring as her late husband. Dane Dehaan, Joan Allen, and Sung Kang will also star.
The 8-hour limited series is written by King, who will also executive produce. J.J. Abrams is on board to produce through Bad Robot Productions.
Deadline reports that new company Fabel will develop an TV series based on King's story The Ten O’Clock People.
The new company is also soon to go out with a TV take on The Ten O’Clock People, Stephen King’s short story about a group of people in authority who are monsters disguised as people.
Hard Case Crime is releasing a set of their three King books in September. The set will be in a slipcase and contain all three books by King, The Colorado Kid, Joyland and Later.
The set will also include three exclusive art cards showing a variant cover of each book – the original Glen Orbik cover for The Colorado Kid, the Robert McGinnis limited-edition hardcover cover for Joyland and the Greg Manchess limited-edition hardcover cover for Later.
The set will be released on September 14 but you can pre-order your set over at Amazon.com
Last week I got a chance to talk to Angelina Kekich who was the costume designer on The Stand. We talked about all the clothes that was created for the show and how they were created. We also talked about how they had to create several versions of Flagg's jacket and how it happened that Tom is wearing a Dolly Parton t-shirt. Here is what she had to say.
Meet Marv as you have never seen him before. Followers of Lilja’s Library already know him as Marv – The Library Policeman, the site’s mascot and he is here to welcome you to celebrate Lilja’s Library’s 25-year anniversary all through 2021!
But let me warn you. As the Library Policeman he is he demands attention and silence and if you don’t give him what he wants he might use his trusty pliers to expand his necklace with your tongue…
Marv is done by the very talented Vincent Chong
Last week I got a chance to talk to Aaron Haye who was the production designer on The Stand. We talked about how the set was built, what it means to be a production designer and what hurdles they had to face each day to make the set look just as it should. Here is what he had to say.
Concept photo of Flagg’s room in Las Vegas.
Concept photo of Stu’s room at the underground facility.
Michael Greyeyes has been cast as Rainbird and the project is currently in the works from Universal Pictures, Blumhouse Productions and Weed Road Pictures.
What do you say? Do you want a new Firestarter movie?
The A Winter Evening with Stephen King online event has just ended and some of the interesting things that were touched upon was this...
- For the last two months King have been working on a new book and this one will probably be long.
- Even though The Dark Tower is always present King has no plans to write a new Dark Tower book. He’s not saying never but he don’t see it happening.
I wish there would have been more questions about King’s work (Later and Billy Summers in particular) but all in all it was a good event. It was also one question though (that we would all have wanted to heard the answer to) that King missed. That question was “Will there be a third Talisman book soon”. I guess we’ll have to wait and see...
King’s fall 2021 book has been announced. It’s titled Billy summers and will be released on August 3rd.
Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?
How about everything.
This spectacular can’t-put-it-down novel is part war story, part love letter to small town America and the people who live there, and it features one of the most compelling and surprising duos in King fiction, who set out to avenge the crimes of an extraordinarily evil man. It’s about love, luck, fate, and a complex hero with one last shot at redemption.
You won’t put this story down, and you won’t forget Billy.
Here is a very short excerpt from the book.
"Two million. Five hundred thousand up front, the rest after."
Billy's whistle isn't part of the act, which he doesn't think of as an act but his dumb self, the one he shows to guys like Nick and Frank and Paulie. It's like a seatbelt. You don't use it because you expect to be in a crash, but you never know who you might meet coming over a hill on your side of the road. This is also true on the road of life, where people veer all over the place and drive the wrong way on the turnpike.
"Why so much?" The most he's ever gotten on a contract was seventy K. "It's not a politician, is it? Because I don't do that."
"Not even close."
"Is it a bad person?"
Nick laughs, shakes his head, and looks at Billy with real affection. "Always the same question with you."
Billy nods.
The dumb self might be a shuck, but this is true: he only does bad people. It's how he sleeps at night. It goes without saying that he has made a living working for bad people, yes, but Billy doesn't see this as a moral conundrum. He has no problem with bad people paying to have other bad people killed. He basically sees himself as a garbageman with a gun.
Borderlands Press are publishing the script for a movie version of Black House. The script is written by Richard Chizmar and Jonathan Schaech.
For our 14th title in Series III, we give you a fantastic offering from publishing Living Legend, feature film producer, and bestselling writer, Richard Chizmar and Hollywood actor Jonathan Schaech.
BLACK HOUSE: A Screenplay written by Richard Chizmar & Jonathan Schaech
Based on the bestselling novel by Stephen King & Peter Straub
Commissioned by Akiva Goldsman, Academy Award winning writer and producer of A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man, and The Dark Tower.
Never produced because of complications with The Talisman rights.
The book will be released on March 6, 2021, limited to 750 copies numbered and signed by the screenwriters.
Titan Books has announced the upcoming publication of the definitive companion title to the new CBS All Access series, The Stand. The Art And The Making of The Stand takes readers behind the scenes of this much-anticipated series to discover how a remarkable group of producers and actors brought Stephen King’s genre-defining opus to screen. The book is full to the brim with on-set photography, concept art and more, accompanied by interviews with the crew and all-star cast alongside the shooting script for the never-before-published coda written for the new series by King himself.
Written by Andy Burns, The Art And The Making of The Stand is set to publish in hardback on May 4, 2021, priced at $45.
2020 was a very strange year. While the pandemic swept throughout the world we tried to stay afloat as best we could and one way to do it was to turn to Stephen King. We did get one book, If it Bleeds and we did get two short stories, The Fifth Step and One Slide Inn Road. We didn’t get any feature films, but we did get The Outsider and The Stand on our TVs. So, considering what we got from King it was a pretty good year.
2021 will, when it comes to King, be an even better year. Here is what’s confirmed.
- The Stand will continue with one episode / week until it’s conclusion on February 11.
- A second book from King will be out during 2021. We don’t know the title or the release date yet, but a guess is that it’s the book about an assassin that he’s talked about and that it will be out in the fall. This has not been confirmed yet though.
- A new Children of the Corn movie is done and will be released in 2021. No release date has been set.
We also have a few things that probably will happen but that haven't been confirmed yet.
- The TV series Chapelwaite will probably air. The show isn’t finished yet, but my guess is that it will be and will air during 2021.
- TV series version of Lisey’s Story will air on Apple TV+. This is not confirmed but when the pandemic happened, they had a few weeks left of shooting so a guess is that they will finish that, edit it and air it before 2021 is over. Probably late in the year.
- Gwendy’s Final Task (third book about Gwendy) seems to be pretty much done so I would be very surprised if it’s not out in 2021. No date has been confirmed yet though and some talk about 2022 has been heard...
Beside all this there is a lot, and I mean a lot, of stuff that has been mentioned but I choose not to list them here because with the current situation in the world and the limited information we have about these projects it seems unlikely to me that they’ll be ready for 2021. But we’ll see. If I’m wrong I’ll be sure to post it on Lilja’s Library! King will probably throw in a few surprises as well during the year in the form of a short story or two…
Last, I also want to take the opportunity to thank you all for your support during 2020. As you know I love to talk Stephen King and you all give me that opportunity so thank you for that! I also want to thank all of you who have bought my book Shining in the Dark. It was released in four new physical editions this year in Brazil, Sweden, Japan and France. But we haven’t seen the end of that book. At least two new translations are lined up for 2021!
And with that I thank you for 2020 and wish you all a great 2021 where I hope we’ll be seeing a lot of each other in one way or the other.
Comicbook reports that Mike Flanagan’s film version of Revival won’t happen.
In a disappointing update however, Flanagan has confirmed that his version of the movie isn't happening.
It was in the podcast ”The Company Of The Mad” that Flanagan confirmed this was the case.