The Secretary of Dreams by King is now in the hands of the author so he can approve the design. The book came in over the 250 pages Cemetery Dance expected, and they will announce the official page count later on.
Issue #100 of Insomnia is now online. Besides being a nice fan magazine this issue has a short interview (scroll down a bit) with yours truly. You have to understand Spanish to read it though…
I just got an email from Mick Garris in which he told me that ABC has moved the airdate
for Desperation to Tuesday, May 23rd. They are getting wonderful feedback to the film, and apparently that would be a stronger night for it.
Marvel has selected writer Peter David to script the first seven issues of The Dark Tower Comic.
The comics will work in conjunction with the novels, further supplementing and defining the saga’s mythology under the direction of the acclaimed author himself.
The first issue is set for February 2007. Here is the full press release.
Fangoria is running a feature article about The Secretary of Dreams. You can check it out here. They forgot to mention that Glenn created Marv – The Library Police Man though…
ComingSoon.net reports...
Samuel L. Jackson has checked into 1408, the Dimension Films adaptation of the Stephen King short story. Variety says that shooting begins in the summer.
Mikael Håfström (Derailed) will direct and John Cusack stars as a debunker of paranormal occurrences who encounters real terror when he checks into the notorious Room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel. Jackson plays the hotel manager.
Matt Greenberg wrote the original script and Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski did the rewrite. Lorenzo Di Bonaventura is producing.
The short story was originally published in the collection Blood and Smoke.
The moderator of King's official message board had the following to say about the plot of Lisey's Story.
I’m only about 1/2 way through so far. It will be horror with mystery, ghosts, monsters, and Dark Tower related. :-)
OK, I bet there are a lot of you out there waiting for the right answers and the winner of the contest, right? First I want to thank you all for entering. Some of you sent in a lot, and I mean a lot of errors (mostly broken links) and for that I’m very grateful! All in all 848 entries dropped in and that is a very good number.
A new Dollar Baby has surfaced. It’s called Suppr. and is a French version of The Word Processor of the Gods. It was made by Nicolas Heurtel, Charles E. Lacroix, Nicolas Geffroy, Julien Munoz and David Marques in 2005 at the University of Marne-la-Vallée, with music by Agnès Vincent.
Here is what the article says:
As for his long-in-the-works collaboration with author Stephen King on the musical "The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County," Mellencamp says a director is still being sought for the project.
"What we will do is take it to Chicago or the equivalent and workshop it -- get the kinks out before we try to take it to Broadway," Mellencamp told the Herald-Times. "Elton John opened his musical in San Francisco, and it lasted all of seven days before they closed it down and decided to rework it. When we hit Broadway, we want it ready from day one."
To celebrate the new look of Lilja’s Library I’m having a contest where the prize is something really nice. And, this time you can actually control how many times you get to enter the contest... Just click on the link to the right for more info.
In the future you should keep an eye on the right hand side of the site. Right now you can see an ad for The Dead Zone contest there and that is how every contest will be announced from now on. So keep checking for contest info so you don’t miss out…or you can subscribe to my update mail and keep yourself updated on what happen at Lilja’s Library.
I also want to ask you all to change any bookmarks or links you have to my site. Since the site is completely redone all the old url’s don’t work any more. All your links should go to www.Liljas-Library.com, that way you’ll always end up in the right place.
Welcome to a new Lilja’s Library…well, at least one that looks new. All the things you have come to expect are still here, and more.
As I have told you earlier this is the 10th year of Lilja’s Library’s existence and the celebration will go on throughout 2006. This new look is part of those celebrations.
Because so many readers have been unhappy with the ending of Cell King posted the following message on his official site:
CELL SPOILER: "Based on the information given in the final third of Cell—I’m thinking about the reversion back toward the norm of the later phone crazies—it seems pretty obvious to me that things turned out well for Clay’s son, Johnny. I don’t need to tell you this, do I?”
Nightmares & Dreamscapes will air with two episodes/week for four weeks in July. On their official site you can now sign up for an update mail so you get to know all the news right as it happens.
The movie version of Cell might get done in mid-2007. Here is what Eli Roth said in an interview in Playing Magazine.
I was kind of the horror guy of the moment," Roth told Now Playing Magazine in an exclusive interview, "so we knew that we could set it up at a studio But with several different producers in contention, it was Stephen King's decision, and he said, `Let's give these guys a shot.' So we had it for a window and set it up right away with the Weinstein Company."
Essentially the project became available, Roth's producer Mike Fleiss heard about it, and made sure that Roth's name was one of the first ones mentioned "He asked what I thought of it, and said he thought we'd have a pretty good chance to get it because Stephen King really liked Hostel, which definitely helped."
It's going to be a while before much happens with Cell. He's got to write and direct Hostel 2 within the next few months, and said maybe he'll get to Cell in mid-2007.
Reports say that the first trailer for Desperation has started to air on ABC. I haven't seen it (I do live in Sweden) but word is that it's looking good.
Today I have some really cool news for you. I have no less then 8 pictures and the logo for TNT's Nightmares & Dreamscapes and let me tell you, if the episodes is as good as these images indicate we'll all have a great time this summer! More info can be found on TNT's official site.
Logo for the series
Steven Weber (Clark Rivingham) and Kim Delaney (Mary Rivingham) in You Know They Have a Hell of a Band
Steven Weber (Clark Rivingham) and Kim Delaney (Mary Rivingham) in You Know They Have a Hell of a Band
William H Macy (Clyde Umney) and William H Macy (Samuel Landry) in Umney's Last Case
William H Macy (Clyde Umney) in Umney's Last Case
Kim Delaney (Mary Rivingham) and Steven Weber (Clark Rivingham) in You Know They Have a Hell of a Band
Ron Livingston (Howard Fornoy) and Henry Thomas (Robert Fornoy) in End of the Whole Mess
Tom Berenger (Richard Kinnell) in The Road Virus Heads North
Jeremy Sisto (Mr Keenan) and Samantha Mathis (?) in The Fifth Quarter
John Cusack will star in the big screen adaptation of Stephen King's short story "1408" for helmer Mikael Hafstrom, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Dimension Films.
Penned by "The People vs. Larry Flynt" scribes Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, pic centers on a debunker of paranormal occurrences who encounters real terror when he checks into notorious Room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel.
Pic will lense this summer. Location is yet to be determined.
"This film is so much a one-man show," Hafstrom told Daily Variety. "It's quite a contained drama. It is a horror film if you want to put a label on it, but the way I see it, it's much more an inner-journey of this character."
Hafstrom previously helmed the Weinstein Co.'s "Derailed."
"1408" originally appeared as a King audio book, called "Blood and Smoke," and was subsequently included in King's 2002 short story collection "Everything's Eventual."
Cusack's casting comes on the heels of Dimension buying rights to King's latest novel "Cell" for Eli Roth to direct. Thanks to Bev Vincent.
Dimension Films has acquired rights to Stephen King's latest novel "Cell" and has set "Hostel" helmer Eli Roth to direct it.
Rights deal followed King's usual movie rate, $1 against a seven-figure purchase price with enhancements built in.
King's novel is a throwback to his early apocalyptic horror novels. In a single moment, a pulse sent out through cell phones around the world turns every phone user into a crazed, murderous zombie. Read the complete text
The Dead Zone, will there be a season 6? Well, there have been some rumors flying around so I checked with a source I have that is close to the show and here is what’s happening:
The show is not cancelled, not yet. It's officially on hiatus, and the final word on its pick-up or cancellation likely won't come until Season Five (11 new episodes) finishes its run this summer. USA Network, which airs the show (which is produced by Lionsgate and Paramount), is still holding onto its option for a sixth season and will likely make its final decision then.
The situation came about by shooting all 23 episodes of Seasons Four and Five continuously last year. Normally, the show and the actors would've gone back into production about five months later. But the decision to wait to air the Season Five episodes this summer pushed back the timeframe that USA Network wanted to back its decision -- after all the new episodes have aired. Season Four's ratings were fantastic -- the show was the number five show on all of cable and, along with The 4400, helped USA Network dominate Sunday evenings. There is every reason to believe that this tandem will succeed again this summer, and that they could both be renewed again. The overall tightening at NBC Universal won't last -- they'll be back on top in no time. They've got a lot of great stuff in the pipeline, from NBC to USA and Sci-Fi.
But this means that, for the moment, the show's actors are not under contract and can join new series pilots or anything else they choose. But nothing is certain yet, and even if an actor were to take another job it wouldn't preclude them from still appearing on the show. Jennifer Finnigan did this last season, and many actors do it all the time.
But rumors of The Dead Zone's demise are far from true at this point in time. Everything will depend on how the show performs this summer.
So, there you have it. Don't give up on The Dead Zone just yet, OK?
Today I have the promised interview with Robin Furth for you. Robin is the author of The Dark Tower Concordance volume 1 and 2 but she is also providing scene-by-scene plotting and maintaining the continuity and consistency of each story arc in the upcoming Dark Tower comics. In the interview she reveals some very interesting things about the comics…and other things as well. Check it out!
Some reports about King's reading in Florida has now appeared online. Here are some of them:
He read a short story called "Memory" to us - 40 minutes. The audience was quieter than I ever remember - quiet enough that one could nap. Read more here (this one has pictures).
The story was called "Memory" and dealt with a man who's been in an accident and has memory problems when he recovers. Read more here
Mr. King read an upcoming piece, based (loosely) on his experience of being hit by a van. The story wasn't the usual physical horror associated with King's classic reads. There weren't any possessed girls or debilitating diseases, but an internal horror - the agony and challenge one experiences when their life is forever altered. Read more here
I talked to Robin Furth about the upcoming Dark Tower Comic and she had really interesting things to tell me about it. Among the things she told me was that the plan is that Marvel will do five batches of Dark Tower comics. The first one will be released next year and contain seven issues (later published collected in a hardcover). Of the other four batched one will contain five issues and the other three six issues. However, this may change as the comics evolve. Check back tomorrow for the full interview with Robin.
At his appearance at FSU in Florida King read a new short story called Memory:
On Sunday night, King gave his first public reading of a new short story called "Memory" that was inspired by what he termed his "nasty accident." He delivered the fictional account in front of a capacity crowd at Florida State University's Ruby Diamond Auditorium as part of the Seven Days of Opening Nights arts festival.
"I had seven minutes permanently burned out of my memory (when the van hit)," King said. "I did get one back of the guy coming over the hill heading toward me. It's like a coral islet in the sea. ... I have no idea if (the story) is any good, but what the h--l, I like it."
He then launched into the first-person narrative about a wealthy building contractor who is almost crushed to death when he's run over by a construction crane on a job site. The builder grapples regaining speech, thoughts of suicide, a deep hatred for a song by Reba McEntire and exactly what he may have done to his wife while recovering from his coma.
The Seven Days audience rewarded "Memory" with a standing ovation.
You can read the entire article from Tallahassee Democrat here.
Today Cell is released in the UK and in The Times there is a 16 page extract (similar vein to the Australian Sword In The Darkness) from the book (see image).
Production of Nightmares and Dreamscapes has officially ended on all eight episodes, and editing for the eighth episode Autopsy Room Four began Monday...all eight episodes are still going through the three month post production process.
Battleground has been given the "no commercial" nod from TNT, so that episode will be commercial free along with Umney’s Last Case.