On Tuesday TNT made it official that they will make the limited series Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories by Stephen King. The series is set to premiere on TNT in summer 2006.
Mick Garris told the people at World Horror that he's inserted a scene in Home Delivery where George W. Bush gets attacked by a zombie!
Lighthouse Media One are currently working on LIGHTHOUSE V, their second Stephen King Special Edition which is scheduled to go to press in July/August 2005.
They are seeking non-fiction articles/essays, concerning any aspect of the legend that is Stephen King, be it the books, the short stories, or the movies, for inclusion in the book.
Lighthouse V will be issued as:
A HARDBACK - 119 copies to pre-order.
PAPERBACK - 500 copies to pre-order.
Here is more info about King and Mellencamp's collaboration, The Ghosts of Darkland County.
Once his mostly-Midwestern tour is done in mid-April, Mellencamp will be making a trip to a different center stage. For the past several years, he’s been collaborating with horror author Stephen King on a stage musical, “The Ghosts of Darkland County.”
Mellencamp has 17 songs
written for the show. King has a 110-page script penned.
Combine, he said, it should come out to be about a 5 1/2-hour show.
“No matter how damn entertaining you think Steve is or I am, that’s long,” he said with a laugh, realizing second and third drafts and edits are in order. “Steve and I are making this up as we go along. Neither of us have done anything like this before.”
Mellencamp’s written songs styles for the musical in styles ranging from jazz to blues to bluegrass to country to zydeco, many of which he thinks are out of character for him.
“I’m able to write songs that wouldn’t be expected of me if I put it on one of my records,” he said. “In a musical, it’s a whole different base, different situation. They aren’t rock songs, they aren’t pop songs.”
New WKIT (King's radio station) merchandise is now available. Now you can get a t-shirt, mouse pad, Coffey mug or a bag through his radio station. The new merchandise features the artwork of Maine artist Glenn Chadbourne (a regular contributor to Cemetery Dance magazine and artist for The Stephen King Trivia Book, with much more to come!). You can order here.
King will appear as himself in a movie called Fever Pitch. The movie stars Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon.
Good news for all Dutch King fans. The Stephen King Fan club in Netherlands is presenting a Fan club-day on Saturday April 16th. That event will also mark the world premier for The Road Virus Heads North.
Really Scary has a report from the exclusive sneak peek at the first 15 minutes of Desperation that was shown at the World Horror Con in NYC. And judging from their description of the 15 minutes it seams to be very true to the book.
Some info about King and Mellencamp's collaboration has been released. The projects last title is Ghost Brothers of Darkland County but it seams to change quite a lot...
The rocker's next project is a theater piece, "Ghost Brothers of Darkland County," with novelist and screenwriter King.
"It's our dramatic play with music; I don't want to call it a musical," he said of the vehicle that has been four years in the making. "He's got a hundred pages of dialogue, and I've got 15 songs. Add all that up and, 'So far, Steve, we've got about five hours worth of play.' We have to figure how to cut it all down. We're having our first run-through in New York with actors and actresses to see what the hell it looks like."
Much of the play takes place in the 1940s in Louisiana and Mississippi, so Mellencamp has been writing blues, Cajun, zydeco and jazz tunes -- but no rock.
"If anyone's got the crazy idea that this is 'Jack and Diane' meets 'Cujo,' they're nuts," the Indiana rocker said.
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah is now out. Order your copy here.
Steve Earle's The Revolution Starts Now program on Air America aired on April 3rd and King presented his favorite music (30 minutes, mp3 file). Download it here.
Stephen King had a new article in the April 3rd issue of New York Times. Read it here.
Thanks to Juan.
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower, Lisey and the Madman, The Road to the Dark Tower and The Devil's Wine have all been nominated for this year's Bram Stoker Awards.
The third season of The Dead Zone will be released on June 7th and here is a list of the extra material you will find on it:
* Audio commentary on all 12 episodes by the cast, the crew, and even guest stars Richard Lewis and Greg Grunberg.
* Gag Reel
* Deleted Scenes
* Three exclusive behind-the-scenes featurettes:
- Making the Leap to HD: shows the artistic and technical struggle the Dead Zone team faced when deciding to switch from shooting 35mm film to Hi-Def camera technology.
- Cooking Verite: Takes fans into the Dead Zone traveling kitchen and exposes the secrets of cooking for an entire film crew.
- Quiet Confidence: Shows how actor Chris Bruno stays in shape.
* Five Minutes 'Til Mitch (a five-minute comedic short that was written and directed by actor John L. Adams).
The video is Anamorphic Widescreen and audio is English 5.1 Dolby Surround. Below is the art:
Thanks to DVD-Guru Terry Warrick.
Here is the cover for Quicksilver Highway (that is being released on DVD on May 17) and a list of the extra material:
* Original Full-Frame Presentation
* Matt Frewer Interview
* Audio Commentary with Producer/Director Mick Garris and Actress Cynthia Garris
* Trailer
* Storyboard Gallery
* Teleplay (DVD-ROM)
Thanks to DVD-Guru Terry Warrick.
Children Of The Corn was read aloud on the digital radio channel BBC Radio 7 in three parts during this month. If you see this before Sunday, you can listen to the last part here. It was produced by Gemma Jenkins and read by Brian Lavelle.
King reads the word of Abraham Lincoln on the audio version of Sarah Vowell's new book Assassination Vacation that's being released by Simon & Schuster Audio on April 4. You can order you copy here.
Thanks to Frederick Holliday.
Clips from Prime Time LIVE(8/23/1990), Larry King LIVE(1994) and Jeopardy Games Show(11/6/1995) is now online at Stephen King Short Movies.
A new replica of Christine is in the making. This one seams to be quite similar to the one I reviewed but bigger. This one is in the scale 1:24;8 3/4" in length. More info to come.
Thanks to Cheryl-Ann.
Here are two pictures from the set of Manger Reborn, the second sequel to The Mangler.
In the first pic, is Reggie Bannister (from Phantasm) on the stairs with the director Matt Cunningham also in the pic at the bottom left hand corner. The second one is a shot of Weston Blakesly getting makeup applied for a scene.
Here are the five different covers for the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly with a King column (No Stars, Sorry) in it.
Ehren Kruger hopes that The Talisman will get back underway later this year. Here is what he said in an interview:
"It looked like it was going to happen with a couple different directors, but creative differences intervened for the moment," says Kruger. "Hopefully, it will get back underway later this year. It was quite difficult to adapt as my mandate was to craft a two-hour movie from an 800-page book. A miniseries might be more faithful, but you’d miss the feature-film scale. So there was a constant struggle to determine what could be kept and what had to go. Some other writers have since worked on it and hopefully it’ll all get solved. There’s a wonderful story and characters at its core."
Lighthouse IV goes to the presses at the end of March and this issue is a Stephen King special edition paperback. There will only be 300 numbered copies of the book and they are available to pre-order now. Read more and place your order at www.lighthousemediaone.co.uk.
Here is King's latest Entertainment Weekly column entitled No Stars, Sorry.
The following was reported in the message board on King's official site:
King will be doing a limited amount of publicity in the next couple of months before the paperback of Faithful is released. We'll put a notice on the website of those when we have more concrete information.
King will be interviewed about the Red Sox on NPR shortly:
Quote: Michele Norris talks with author and lifelong Red Sox fan Stephen King about spring training. King joins us from Fort Myers, Fla., to discuss the special joys of pre-season baseball and being a Sox fan. King and writer Stewart O'Nan chronicled the 2004 Red Sox season in the book Faithful.
Quicksilver Highway will be released on DVD in May and here is a list of extra material that will be on the DVD:
- A commentary track with Mick Garris and Cynthia Garris.
- An on-camera interview with Matt Frewer.
- Storyboards
- Garris script.
There will also be a few changes in the DVD from the original version, which was broadcast on the Fox network in 1997. In the early days of the director's cut, before the extensive special effects required for the Clive Barker story, the network insisted that they changed the order of the stories. For the DVD, it's in the order Garris intended, and there are a few language issues that were uncensored.
THE MIST is a very scary and memorable story, one of Steve's best "muscular" short pieces, with characters in the kind of pressure-cooker environment that nobody writes as well as King. I intend to be faithful to the material, so I think the movie will be good.
"Whether it's a studio picture or not, I want to go with a very gritty, low-budget indie approach. Big-budget gloss would work against the material, plus I'm excited about trying my hand at a more seat-of-the-pants filmmaking approach on this one than I've used in the past...I'll use whatever approach works best, I want to go as old-school as possible with the effects. It's a rather old-school story anyway; it feels like a movie that might have been made in the '50s. The thing to bear in mind about THE MIST is that you don't actually see that much as King wrote it; it's the stuff you don't see that scares you, sort of like in JAWS. I want to maintain the tension of King's story rather than overload the screen with CGI monsters".
King's UK publisher Hodder & Stoughton informed me today that at the moment there are no plans to release The Colorado Kid in the UK. It may change later on tough but that it the status today.
Hodder & Stoughton will release a CD with In the Deathroom and Lunch at the Gotham Café in August. Both will be read by King himself.
Mick Garris sent me an email today in witch he told me that he will be at the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film for the screening of Riding the Bullet 24 March.
He also told me that he would be the Filmmaker Guest of Honor at the World Horror Convention in New York City from 7-10 April. There he will be screening Riding the Bullet as well as showing a teaser for Master of Horrors and the opening several minutes of Desperation in rough-cut form.
How about that? You can also pre-order the DVD of Riding the Bullet if you can't be there.
Amazon is now shipping The Dark Tower concordance vol. 2 by Robin Furth.
The 2nd Annual Dollar Baby Fest will be held in Orono, Maine, October 2005 and they open the submissions in April. The plan at the moment is to divide the Dollar Babies into two screenings so they can show them all. Again, the money would be going to the Wavedancer Foundation. More news to come...
The DVD edition of Riding the Bullet will have a director commentary, cast and crew commentary, a "Shooting the Bullet" making of featurette, an Art of Riding the Bullet photo gallery, some storyboard to film comparisons and trailers. The release date is April 19 but you can pre order it here.
Fangoria.com reports that Desperation WON'T air in May. The good news is that Mick sent me this really cool photo from the set.
Despite what you may have read elsewhere, Mick Garris' ABC telemovie version of Stephen King’s DESPERATION won’t be airing during this May’s sweeps period. "We don’t deliver until June, and ABC has used up their promotional budget for the season, so it ain’t going to be pushed for May," Garris tells Fango. "It’s possibly going to be November. Or the following February…or May 2006."
Advance word on DESPERATION, which the author himself praised at www.stephenking.com, is running high. "Both King and the network got the finished cut, and both are extremely enthusiastic," adds Garris, who begins prepping his next dream project, the all-star MASTERS OF HORROR series, tomorrow in Vancouver. —Tony Timpone, Fangoria.com
Mick Garris reports the following about his part in the upcoming TV series based on Nightmares and Dreamscapes:
"I was one of the guys asked to write and direct an episode of 'Nightmares & Dreamscapes,' which TNT is doing. I've written the script based on 'Home Delivery.' They're waiting for a production order. I'm not otherwise involved: just a hired hand."
A TV series based on King's collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes is being produced by TNT. Here is what Broadcasting Cable wrote about it:
Bill Haber and his Ostar Enterprises are developing this limited series based on the book of short stories by Stephen King. The deal calls for Ostar to develop scripts for eight one-hour episodes. Mick Garris (The Stand, Sleepwalkers) and Mike Robe (News at Eleven, Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North), Peter Filardi (TNT’s Salem’s Lot, Flatliners), Larry Cohen (Phone Booth, Cellular), April Smith (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter) and Richard Christian Matheson (Mobius, Dean Koontz’s Sole Survivor) have signed to pen scripts for the series. NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES is based on Stephen King’s 1993 anthology of 20 short stories, whose subjects include murderous revenge, dead rock stars, zombies, an evil toy and a wicked stepfather, to name a few.
I talked to Mick Garris today about King's comments on Desperation and he said that they had gotten a reaction from the network, and that they absolutely love the film, and none of the violence that King mentions in his piece is going to be lost. How about that?
Here is an update from Frank Darabont about the status of The Mist. He gave the comment to the moderator of King's official message board:
"Tell all enquiring minds that I’m mere weeks out from finishing. Tell them also that the death of Norm the bag boy is the most appalling and outrageous screen death ever...bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
King put this comment about Desperation yesterday:
Comments on Desperation from Stephen King
I ordinarily don’t comment far in advance on films based on my work, especially TV films, but in the case of Desperation I am going to make an exception because my old partner in crime, Mick Garris, has produced an extraordinary piece of work, and the ensemble cast is outstanding. Ron Perlman as Collie Entragian will haunt your dreams. You might want to consider making time in May (tentative) for this one, which is when ABC plans to run it.
One word of warning: this is TV and it’s impossible to tell in advance how much of a given piece of work will be cut. The version of Desperation I saw was graphic and very frightening. This may make the network uneasy.
I just got confirmation from Jerad at Centipede Press that the trade edition of Salem's Lot (released by Doubleday on November 1) will have everything the Centipede Press has (except the King and Jerry Uelsmann's signatures). And yes, that includes the 50 pages with deleted scenes. Pre order today.
Here is an excerpt from The Dark Tower Concordance Vol. 2. You can pre order your copy here if you want it from Amazon.com and here if you want it from Amazon.co.uk.
Info about King's new book will be released on Monday February 28th. Be sure to check back then.
King will have a voice cameo in Stephen King's Gotham Cafe.
Even though John Mellencamp is prepping for his first tour in three years, he's managed to carve out a little time for Stephen King.
Not a Stephen King novel, mind you, but the man himself.
What started out as a conversation between old friends has morphed into plans for a full-blown musical theater production.
Mellencamp has known King since both men were first forging their respective careers. He pitched his story idea to his friend years ago. Mellencamp developed the story but knew it was too long for a song.
The tale, set in the 1940s, revolved around a family facing the residual effects of a long-ago murder between brothers.
King took the story idea and set to work.
What Mellencamp got back was a fully evolved tale of Americana with his own story now a mere portion of a greater vision.
"I had a short story, and he turned it into a novel. Now, it's very involved," he said. "Steve is a great storyteller."
Mellencamp says the story stays away from the horror genre, leaning more toward the mystical, not unlike King's "The Green Mile."
"It's not ‘Cujo' meets ‘Jack & Diane,'" Mellencamp jokes.
Set in Louisiana, the production has allowed Mellencamp to explore zydeco, folk and jazz musical styles. "It gives me a chance to not write John Mellencamp songs."
He sees the play as having a Tennessee Williams feel.
With a first official reading set for March, Mellencamp has expectations for his little side project — high expectations.
"We will have it on Broadway," he says.
Of course, before Mellencamp can bring his musical to Broadway's New York audiences, he'll bring his music to the masses with his "Words and Music" tour, kicking off March 23.
Mick Garris will be signing Riding the Bullet DVDs at Dark Delicacies bookstore in Burbank, CA, at 2 p.m, Saturday, April 23. Darl Delicacies is located at 4213 W. Burbank Blvd and can be reached online at http://www.darkdel.com or by phone at 1-888-DARKDEL.
Mick Garris will also be a special guest at the 2005 World Horror Convention (http://www.whc2005.org) to be held April 7-10 in New York City.
Thanks to Jonathan Reitan.
Centipede Press edition of Salem's Lot will be released in a trade version by Doubleday on November 1. You can pre order it today though.
King has a new column in the February 18 issue of Entertainment Weekly entitled The 14 Lessons of "24". Please be warned though. If you haven't seen all four episodes of 24 you DON'T want to read this one. Apparently it contains very BIG spoilers! Now you're warned, the decision is up to you.
King's office told me the despite what the publisher says it's not 100% certain that King will sign the limited ed of Transgressions. When asked about it the moderator of King's official message board gave the following reply:
When I asked Stephen he didn't recall having agreed to sign any and hasn't received any tip sheets but we would have to double-check the contract to be 100% sure. We want to have his agent also check with the publisher to make sure there isn't a misunderstanding about this. Typically, though, with a May publication date coming rightup, tip sheets would have been signed by now so they could be sent to the bindery.
I'm listening to the new audio edition of Carrie and according the Simon & Schuster Audio it has a new introduction that King reads himself.
After The Road Virus Heads North director Dave Brock does a new Dollar Baby. This time it's The Library Policeman. He is hoping to start shooting late this year/early 2006.
There is now some news about The Talisman. Not much but it's always something. In an article Coming Soon reports the following:
And finally, IGN Filmforce says Kennedy assured the press that David Fincher's Benjamin Button is moving forward this summer. She said they will eventually get around to making Stephen King's The Talisman, but right now there's no director or start date for production.
Thanks to .
Here is part of an interview with Kathleen Kennedy that Dark Horizons did and this is what she had to say about The Talisman. Dark Horizon: What's going on with Talisman? Is there a director attached? Kathleen Kennedy: I wish there was. Well eventually get around to doing that. We love that story. Dark Horizon: How long? Kathleen Kennedy: We couldn't speculate because its all about finding the right person.
Thanks to Johnny Flynn, David Sjödin, Rocky Wood and Joe.
King's office now confirms that King's story in the book New Beginnings is the same as in McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories. The title of it is Lisey and the Madman and it's an excerpt from the upcoming book Lisey's Story.
Now you can download Culture Pub, which is a French TV program that was broadcasted in 2001 on M6 (a French channel). This one from 2001 is about Stephen King's and there are few King's ads for interviews, and books. You can find it at stephenkingshortmovies.com.
As reported earlier the third part in The Mangler series is in the making. Its title is Mangler Reborn and here is an interview with the people doing it; Matt Cunningham and Erik Gardner.
To the right is the DVD cover for Riding the Bullet. The DVD will be released on April 19 and you can pre-order it here.
I have taken a look at the biggest King book ever released (to my knowledge), the limited edition of Salem's Lot released by Centipede Press. You can read my thoughts on it here.
I have a clarification to do. The Man Who Loved Flowers is not a Dollar Baby. Justin Zimmerman have the exclusive, commercial feature rights to adapt the short into a feature. He's on the 3rd draft now and the script will be turned in to King in March.
It seems that Faithful has been released in the UK after all. It's released by Orion Publishing Group and to the right you can see the UK cover. You can also order the book here: here.
I have just finished McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories that contains King's short story Lisey and the Madman. You can see what I thought about it here.
Stand By Me is being released on DVD in March. There will be a special edition and a deluxe edition. Read more over at IGN.
Thanks to Rocky Wood
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: Secondary Characters In The Dark Tower Series by Bev Vincent is a signed Limited Edition chapbook features material that does NOT appear in Bev Vincent's book, The Road to The Dark Tower. This chapbook will never be available for sale and can only be obtained by ordering from Cemetery Dance. Read more on their website.
Some info about King's contribution to the book New Beginnings has now been revealed on his official message board. Unfortunately it's not so good news if they are correct.
Question: Dear Moderator, I'm curious to know if Mr. King's short story Lisey and the Madman which was published in McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories, is the same one that will appear in New Beginnings collection for tsunami relief ?
Response from Moderator: That's my understanding.
So, that would mean that if you got McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories there isn't anything new in New Beginnings.
I have finished reading and listening to Faithful and if you want, you can see what I thought about it here.
Fangoria reports that Riding the Bullet will be released from Lions Gate Home Entertainment on April 19. Quicksilver Highway will be released by Anchor Bay in May.
Thanks to Mike Cahill.
The 3rd edition of The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King is now out. I have taken a look at it and here is what I think about it.
I got some update on the progress I Know What You Need. Here is what Shawn Lealos, the movies director told me:
Valerie Jobe (Alice) has finished all her ADR work and her contributions for the movie are now completed. She did an AMAZING job doing her voice work and I was very impressed with her work. I am still waiting on Megan (Elizabeth) and Kevin (Edward) to finish theirs.
You can hear a song from the movie online now. There is a link to Resident Funk's "Ultimate Possibility" HERE if you want to give it a listen.
Are you planning to buy a book signed by King? Do yourself a favour and visit this site, Stephen King Signatures - Fakes and the Real Thing, before you do. That way you may save yourself from buying a book with a fake signature.
As I reported earlier there will be a limited edition released of Transgressions (with King's story The Things They Left Behind in) by Ed McBain. I now have some additional info about it (directly from the publisher).
They will be doing a 100 copy-run of which only 74 will be available to the public. Each copy will be signed by the contributors who include Lawrence Block, Jeffrey Deaver, John Farris, Stephen King, Walter Mosley, Ed McBain, Sharyn McCrumb, Joyce Carol Oates, Anne Perry, and Donald Westlake.
The price is $200 but Amazon.com has it for $126 and you can pre-order it here.
A Special Message from Stephen
In addition to being Inauguration Day, January 20th is Not One Damn Dime Day. This is a chance for those who oppose what is happening in our name in Iraq to speak up with a 24-hour national boycott in all forms of consumer spending. Even if you are one of those who approve of our actions in Iraq, where the American death toll continues to rise to the number of Americans lost in the World Trade Center disaster, Not One Damn Dime Day is your chance to protest the bloated cost of President Bush's Inauguration ceremonies, which are now estimated in the $40 million range. I think even fiscal conservatives and die-hard Republicans would agree, this is a shameful amount of money to spend on a party when children are dying in Indonesia. I don't intend to spend a damn cent on January 20th, let alone a damn dime. I urge you to do the same and I urge you to pass this message along to everyone on your email list.
There will be a book released by Bloomsbury in the UK called New Beginnings. The book will contain the first chapters from thirteen unpublished work and published on World Book Day, 3rd March 2005! All proceeds of this unique venture will be going to charities working in the Tsunami hit countries. Authors who have already agreed to take part include:
Stephen King
Alexander McCall Smith
Ian McEwan
Maeve Binchy
Margaret Atwood
Marian Keyes
Mark Haddon
Nicholas Evans
Nick Hornby
Paulo Coelho
Scott Turow
Tracy Chevalier
Vikram Seth
Just to clarify. The book King will be publishing is the one with the working title Lisey's Story and an excerpt from that one can be found in McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories which you can order here.
Thanks to Rocky wood and Monday Lad.
There will be a limited edition of Transgressions (with King's story The Things They Left Behind in) by Ed McBain. I have no info on whether it'll be signed or not but the price is $200 and you can pre-order it here.