The CW are working on Revelations (working title), a one-hour drama based on King’s short story The Revelations of ‘Becka Paulson, from writer Maisie Culver, Katie Lovejoy and Warner Bros. TV.
Written by Culver, in Revelations (wt), after accidentally shooting herself in the brain with a nail gun, a Pollyanna-ish Becca Paulson is recruited by an over-it Jesus to be his “chosen one” in stopping the apocalypse. In order to save the world, Becca will have to prove that our deeply backward planet Earth is redeemable — starting with her quirky midwestern hometown.
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Lovejoy will executive produce. Culver will co-executive produce. Warner Bros. TV is the studio.
Five years ago today (July 17, 2015) I got the OK from Stephen King to use The Blue Air Compressor in my anthology Shining in the Dark.
The book was created to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Lilja’s Library back in 2016 but was delayed and first saw the light of day in 2017 in Bulgaria.
Then in 2018 it was released in the US, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden and the UK.
In 2019 it was released on audio in both the US and the UK as well as a paperback editions in the US and Serbia.
This year (2020) it’s been released in Brazil, Sweden (paperback) and Bulgaria (audio) and before the year is over it’ll be out in both France and another (to be revealed) language.
In 2021 it will be out in Greece and as we speak negotiations are beign held for two more translations.
12 different langages in 23 different editions in 5 years...not bad. I want to take this opertunity to thank every one of you that has read the book. I couldn’t be more proud of it!
The book also contains stories by Jack Ketchum, P.D. Cacek, Stewart O'Nan, Bev Vincent, Clive Barker, Brian Keene, Richard Chizmar, Kevin Quigley, Ramsey Campbell, Edgar Allan Poe, Brian Freeman & John Ajvide Lindqvist.
All four stories in If It Bleeds might be turned into movies.
Netflix, Blumhouse and Ryan Murphy have teamed to option Mr. Harrigan’s Phone which John Lee Hancock will adapt and direct. Jason Blum, Murphy and Carla Hacken will produce.
Rat has been optioned to Ben Stiller, who intends to product, direct and star in the feature.
Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa has optioned The Life Of Chuck. At this point, Aronofsky is just aboard as producer.
If It Bleeds staring Holly might find it’s own movie but may also bleed into the future of The Outsider series.
If this happens it’s the first time since Full Dark, No Stars we have seen so many stories in a 4-story collection been filmed.
In the story If It Bleeds King mentions Buckie Thistle FC. The club excists and King asllnsent them two signed copies of his book. They on the other hand sent King a few memorabilia.
Mike Flanagan got to watch his adaptation of Doctor Sleep sitting next to King in a theater in the author’s home in Bangor, Maine. King had one issue with the movie, he thought it was too brutal. More exactly the death of actor Jacob Tremblay at the hands of the True Knot.
Flanagan tells The Kingcast: “It was one of the only times he leaned over to me during the movie was when Tremblay got killed. He leaned over and he was like ‘That’s a little brutal isn’t it?’ I was like ‘S*** I gotta go back, I gotta go back and edit this. I gotta pull stuff out.’ And we did, we changed it. We backed off…He said to me after as we talked about that, that was his only note for the movie really was, ‘That one’s gonna hurt…You need that, you’re right, but I would have a hard time showing this to my wife so you should think about pulling it back.’ And he was right.”
Mike Flanagan talks about his work on Revival. A first draft of the script is done and King loves it.
“It’s a return to cosmic horror which I think is so fun. It is relentlessly dark and cynical and I’m enjoying the hell out of that. I think a lot of King’s work is like this too, there’s a safety in the sentimental approach to a lot of those stories and this is just bleak and mean and I like it for that. I haven’t gotten to end a movie that way since, geez, Absentia maybe? Maybe Ouija? I get to be like ‘Oh you want a dark ending? Cool, get ready. I’ve gotten pretty good about digging my heels in on stuff like that. It’s a lot easier to do, I can talk a big game when I’ve got Stephen King in my corner advocating for the same ending.”
Looks like Lisey’s Story will be delayed with only a few weeks left...
He also has an Apple TV+ series in the works with Warner Bros. Television and Bad Robot, “Lisey’s Story,” which Stephen King adapted from his novel and stars Julianne Moore as a widow in free-fall after the death of her husband.
However, like everything else, production on “Lisey’s Story” shut down in mid-March. “We were [shooting] for six months in a row and we had a few weeks left, and we had to stop, so I guess we’re wondering and seeing how we restart, how are those conditions. I don’t have clarity today,” Larraín said during a recent Cannes market conversation with MUBI founder and CEO Efe Cakarel.
A few questions have popped in during the 8 hours since the contest went live, and I’ll try to answer them here:
Question: Why isn’t the contest open to anyone outside the US? Answer: The contest IS open to everyone no matter where you live. If you live outside of the US just put your country in the field marked "ZIP Code” and you’re in.
Question: I didn’t get a confirmation mail. Have I entered the contest anyway? Answer: No, you must confirm your email to enter. Check the spam filter for your email or try again, maybe you got one or more letters mixed up.
Question: Is this really a copy of The Dark Tower 7 with an authentic signature by Stephen King? Answer: Yes. Here is the description of the prize:
Donald M. Grant. 2004. Stephen King "The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower" Signed First Edition, First Printing. This book has been personally signed by Stephen King directly onto the title page. Full number line as required for a first printing. Fine/Fine in a Fine slipcase. Event ticket and COA included. The dust-jacket is protected with a Brodart archival acid-free sleeve.
Question: Why and how can you give away a book like this for free? Answer: Well, I want to do it as a thanks to all of you that follow Lilja’s Library and I can thanks to the sponsoring of veryfinebooks.com.
I had to include this last question...
Question: How can I thank you? Answer: First, thanks for asking. All of you are very sweet and if you want to thank me please visit veryfinebooks.com and follow Lilja’s Library on Instagram, facebook and twitter.
It is contest time once again here at Lilja’s Library. But this is not just any contest. This prize is phenomenal. This contest is in collaboration with veryfinebooks.com and the prize (donated by veryfinebooks) is a signed first edition copy of The Dark Tower 7, personally signed by Stephen King directly onto the title page!
You MUST CONFIRM your email address to complete your entry for this contest! Please check your email to confirm your entry. Be sure to check your spam or Junk Mail folder as well, in the event that it was accidentally filtered.
Look for an email from veryfinebooks.com/ Lilja’s Library [Promotions] - from this email address: info@veryfinebooks.com with this subject line: "Response Required: Please confirm your contest entry ."
In order to complete your contest entry, you must click on the link in that email. You will not be entered in our contest until you click that link to complete your entry.
If you don't see that email in your in-box shortly, fill out the form again to have another copy of it sent to you.
…and you have successfully registered for the contest where you can win a signed copy of The Dark Tower 7 signed by Stephen King!
Good luck and if you’re looking for other signed books, start at veryfinebooks.com…and don’t forget.
If you want to help me run more contests like this in the feature, follow Lilja’s Library on Instagram, facebook and twitter. The bigger we get the bigger the chance to host contests like this is. Thanks!
Remember: This contest ends on August 2nd, 2020 and the winner will be announced shortly thereafter.
Variety have an update on the new Children of the Corn movie that was filmed in Australia during the pandemic shut down. The new film’s cast includes Elena Kampouris (Before I Fall), Kate Moyer (“When Hope Calls”), Callan Mulvey (Avengers: Endgame) and Bruce Spence (The Road Warrior).
The film describes the events leading up to, and including, the massacre of the adults of a small town in Nebraska by their children, after the adults’ irresponsibility ruins the crop and the children’s future.
Producer Lucas Foster also says that the movie has almost nothing to do with the original 1984 classic. “We went back to the story and free-associated from there,” Foster said.
I got a chance to watch the unaired pilot for The Dark Tower series and here are my thoughts about it.
This pilot has a lot that I missed from the movie version. The cast looks like they would have pulled it off and the plans Mazzara had for it could have, if done correctly, made this series the Dark Tower adaptation we all wanted and wished for when the movie was done.
2016 Minnesota Opera performed an opera version of The Shining that they are now streaming an audio recording of. Its two-week run at St. Paul’s Ordway Theater was sold out but now you have the chance to listen to it. It will be available through July 5.
The Kingcast has done an episode where they talk to Glen Mazzara about his visions for The Dark Tower TV show that was supposed to air on Amazon (they later decided not to go ahead with it). Here is Glen’s vision for the first three seasons SPOILERS:
"Season One ended with the death of Susan ... In WIZARD AND GLASS very quickly you go from the death of Susan to the death of Gabrielle, [Roland's] mother. I felt that I needed a season to give me real estate so that Gabrielle's death didn't step on Susan's, and that it felt like an escalation. Roland fails to save Susan, but he actually shoots and kills his mother. In the book, Gabrielle is not really a detailed character in a way that, say, Susan is, or even Rhea is. Gabrielle is really not fleshed out. She just doesn't have as many pages attributed to her. I love that character. The actress we had for her was Elaine Cassidy, a fantastic Irish actress, and she did a really great job.
So for Season 2, the war with Farson was building. I was maybe going to use the shapeshifter story [from WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE] as part of season 2, and get to the death of Gabrielle and either the fall of Gilead there or the fall of Gilead would be the season three premiere. Very quickly, there would be a last stand at Jericho Hill and by episode 3.03 or 3.04 I was going to have Roland stumble out into the desert, follow him into the desert and then I was going to do a time-lapse so that maybe you actually age Roland and switch actors. Then you have a new Roland reset the show at the top of season three, then go into THE GUNSLINGER and by the end of that season go into THE DRAWING OF THE THREE."
For more info head over to The Kingcast and listen to the full episode!
Now Shining in the Dark is out as an eBook in Bulgaria through Storytel. You can listen to an excerpt of the introduction here and hear my Bulgarian voice…or the narrator who reads my introduction if you want to be picky…
Vanity Fair has a big update on The Stand TV series that include some new info as well as some very interesting photos.
Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abagail
We learn that the show will shuffle the chronology of King’s book, meaning it won’t play out the same linear way as the 1994 mini-series. When the new show begins, the plague has already struck.
Jovan Adepo as Larry Underwood and Heather Graham as Rita Blakemoor.
The first episode, written and directed by The Fault In Our Stars filmmaker Josh Boone, opens with survivors in masks and protective gear cleaning up a neighborhood full of the dead in Boulder, Colo. These men and women are among the last the remnants of humanity, trying to restart society again. Each of them is immune to the Captain Trips virus that wiped out everyone else they knew. They’re wearing masks and gear because removing endless decaying bodies is grim, messy work. As we meet all the major characters, we’ll see flashbacks to their old lives at the time the pandemic hit.
Owen Teague as Harold Lauder and Odessa Young as Frannie Goldsmith.
It’s also good to hear that, as of now, CBS All Access plans to proceed with the release later this year.
Alexander Skarsgård as Randall Flagg and Nat Wolff as Lloyd Henreid
For more, including photos head over to Vanity Fair
Yahoo! reports that HBO Max is in the early development stage of a feature adaptation of Throttle co-written by King and his son Joe Hill. , Leigh Dana Jackson will write the screenplay, which will be produced by David S. Goyer and Keith Levine through their Phantom Four label. No release date has been announced yet.
Word is that Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy is doing Revival next for Warner Bros. It will be Flanagan’s third King movie after Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. Flanagan is writing the script with an option to direct and both will produce via the pair’s Intrepid Pictures.
This is one news item I didn’t expect to write. Are you ready? OK, here we go...
We have a new Children of the Corn being made.
New news came from an article in Daily Mail where they report that filmmaker Lucas Foster’s set was closed on Friday in Sidney due concerns over social distancing breaches. And the set? Yeah, you guessed it, it was the set of a remake of…Children of the Corn.
A Hollywood producer has denied flouting social distancing laws as he filmed a Stephen King horror film.
Police were called to Lucas Foster's set on Friday on the outskirts of Sydney over claims crew were ignoring government-mandated distancing laws to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Footage showed officers questioning crew as they took a break from filming the movie the Children of the Corn.
On the outskirts of Sydney, producer Lucas Foster (Ford v Ferrari) and director Kurt Wimmer have managed to quietly continue their shoot on The Children of the Corn, a remake of the 1984 horror classic, despite lockdown measures imposed across Australia on March 23.
Foster secured an exemption to the general quarantine rules, which limit public gatherings to two people, by working closely with state film board Screen NSW and regional health-and-safety body Safework NSW to design the production's protocols. The film's outdoor locations, its local cast and crew, and its status as an independent production have meant it was not subject to studio-based furloughs and shutdowns that have hit other film shoots across the country.
Screen NSW said Children of the Corn "significantly reduced its cast and crew size and is implementing health and safety protocols in line with government restrictions for workplaces … and is keeping local police informed on their operation."
This one came a bit under the radar and that makes me think (and hope) that it’s a so called Dollar Baby and not another big screen version of King’s story.
What do you think? Do you want another Children of the Corn movie.
According to the official site for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert King was supposed to be a guest at on April 28. That didn't happen but yesterday it did and you can see King's apperance here:
Deadline reports that the movie version of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon seems to be back on track.
Village Roadshow Pictures has optioned Stephen King’s psychological horror novel, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, which will be adapted for the screen by Christy Hall, the co-creator and executive producer of the Netflix series, I Am Not Okay With This.
Jon Berg of Stampede Ventures is producing the project alongside It Chapter Two and Doctor Sleep producer Roy Lee of Vertigo, Christine Romero, the former wife of the late George Romero who is best known for the Living Dead films, and Origin Story’s Ryan Silbert.
Bored out of your mind with all this lockdown and Corona virus? Well, here is something for you to do.
As you might have seen I have created one page for each King book since Mr Mercedes where you can post photos of yourself with the book. I got a lot of photos from the early titles but now it’s been a bit slow.
But guess what! Now you have no excuse not sending a photo. Being in lockdown with nothing to do and not being able to go out. So, start taking photos and send to me (it will only take a minute). I want those photos to and you can use any edition of the book you want!
Binc
Join two of the biggest authors of all time as they catch up and discuss their latest books, John Grisham's Camino Winds and Stephen King's If It Bleeds.
Send us your questions by using #AskKingandGrisham.
The event is free but the authors hope attendees will consider making a donation to Binc, the Bookseller Industry Charitable Foundation: https://secure.donationpay.org/bincfoundation/
This event will be broadcast live on Stephen King's YouTube channel - register to receive a direct link to watch.
Today If it Bleeds is released and here are my thoughts about it.
Again, Steve has given us a collection of four very well written stories with well-developed characters that you root for. Some are old acquaintances, and some are new but they all have one thing in common. I like them.
I enjoy King’s shorter work as much as his longer, but it really felt it was time for a collection now. Thanks Steve!
If it Bleeds is released tomorrow so if you haven't ordered your copy yet, do it now! By using the links below you'll also support Lilja's Library! Thanks!
Scott Teems talked about the Firestarter remake with Movie Web
"I'm still the writer. We just got a new director named Keith Thomas and he made a great film called The Vigil coming up this year, and Universal and Blumhouse, they want to make Firestarter. It has always been an important project to them. I think we're making active steps toward that happening this year. You know, the industry shut down notwithstanding, and that may change things, but right now, I'm really hopeful that it might happen this year."
About a week ago the word was that the Shining prequel was as good as dead. Now we hear that HBO Max together with J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot will develop it into a one-hour/episode show.
The show’s title will be Overlook and it’s described as a horror-thriller series that explores the untold stories of the Overlook Hotel. The project reunites Bad Robot, King and WBTV, who previously collaborated on Castle Rock for Hulu.
In an interview with Collider Mark Romanek says that the prequel to The Shining is probably dead.
Is The Overlook Hotel something that still might be happening? Is that a project that’s gone away now?
ROMANEK: It seems so. I mean, it’s a great script I think, it was based on a prologue to the novel that Stephen King wrote and then that prologue was cut for length. And so it’s based on Stephen King. It’s not just some thing somebody made up, and it’s more of an origin story on the, almost like a Western or a wilderness story, going back to the construction and the desecration of the Indian burial grounds, and the construction of the Overlook Hotel and to its meaning to its opening night.
Actually we wrote the script, it’s a really great script. The problem is it’s really expensive, it kind of reads like The Revenant or Heaven’s Gate or something and I think they wanted to try Doctor Sleep to see if—my impression is they wanted to see if there was this sort of Shining universe that would have financial life through them, or artistic life with the audience. And I think Doctor Sleep did just sort of okay, and given that our script is so costly, it’s a little dead in the water right now. But you never know, it’s a weird business. It’s a very good script. I’m proud of the script.
That sounds incredible.
ROMANEK: I was stupidly undaunted by its relationship to The Shining, because it takes place decades and decades before and there’s very little specific visual crossover. It was just, I thought, a really great story, based on Stephen King.
According to the Hollywood Reporter Gary Dauberman (who’s already been tapped to write the sript) has now also closed a deal to direct New Line’s remake of Salem’s Lot. James Wan is producing with Roy Lee and Mark Wolper.
This will be the third time Salem’s Lot is filmed.
Good news for all Greek fans of Shining in the Dark. Today I’m very happy to announce that Klidarithmos will publish a Greek edition of the book in early 2021! More info will be available here and, on their website, soon.
In the NPR interview King says he’s been working on a novel since April last year and because of the Corona Virus he felt he had to change some things...
I set the book I'm working on in the year 2020 because I thought, "OK, when I publish it, if it's in 2021, it will be like in the past, safely in the past." And then this thing came along, and I immediately looked back through the copy that I'd written and I saw that one of the things that was going on was that two of my characters had gone on a cruise. ... And I thought, "Well, no, I don't think anybody's going on cruise ships this year." And so I looked at everything and I immediately set the book in 2019, where people could congregate and be together and the story would work because of that.
There is no more information about the novel yet but I’m already looking forward to it.
The Outsider was a big success for HBO and now co-star and director Jason Bateman commented on it.
“I know that they’re talking about it and Richard Price is playing with some ideas and taking some first steps as to what that second year might and feel like,” Bateman told Collider. “Obviously, it’s a complete free-ball because the first season exhausted 100% of [Stephen King’s] book, the IP. So, it’s really all up to him. I never like to step on the lawn of the writers. It’s something that I’ve always stuck with on Ozark. I leave Chris Mundy completely alone and I do my job as a director once I get the script. I chime in every once in a while and offer my opinion, but it’s always for the writer to take if they want and discard if they want.”
HBO has not officially weighed in on whether or not The Outsider will continue.
I’m looking for new publishers for my anthology SHINING IN THE DARK. Big or small doesn’t really matter. I want publishers that are excited about the book and that do everything in their power to create a beautiful edition of the book.
So, if you are a publisher and think you can do an outstanding edition of SHINING IN THE DARK, let me know. If you know of a publisher that you think can do an outstanding edition of SHINING IN THE DARK, let them or me know. In other words, help me spread the word so anyone who wants can read the book in their native language
Here are some info about the book. More can be found here.
SHINING IN THE DARK has been published in 8 languages (Bulgarian, English, Italian, Czech, German, Swedish, Serbian and Portuguese)
SHINING IN THE DARK has been released in 9 countries (Bulgaria, US, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, UK, Serbia and Brazil)
SHINING IN THE DARK has been released in 15 different editions.
SHINING IN THE DARK will be released in 8 new editions (at least) in 2020 and 2021.
SHINING IN THE DARK will be released in France and two more (so far unannounced) countries (at least) during 2020 and 2021.
I just got confirmation that the US and UK edition of If it Bleeds will be out on April 21! That is just 18 days from now!
Here is the release dates we know for other countries:
US – April 21 -NEW-
UK – April 21 -NEW-
Poland – April 28
Italy – April 28
Australia - April 28
Spain - May 21
Sweden – June 5
The Netherlands – June 16
Germany – August 10