NEWS -

The Dark Tower: A Concordance

Posted: January 14, 2003, 00:00
_
As most of you already know it's just about 8 month until part 5 of The Dark Tower is released. Today when I was looking for it on Simon & Schuster's site I found something else that caught my attention. It's a book called Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Concordance, Volume I.

After some research I found out that this is a book done by King's research assistant, Robin Furth. The book is similar to Stephen Spignesi's encyclopedia but for The Dark Tower books. It will include lists of characters, places, maps, etc.

A second volume will be released around the same time as part 7.

The first volume will be released in June.

Pop-up book and Diary casting

Posted: January 9, 2003, 00:00
_
The Girl who loved Tom Gordon will be the first-ever pop-up book by King and The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer begins production on Wednesday at Thornewood Castle in Lakewood. It's also clear that Kate Burton, Tsai Chin and Dierdre Quinn will star alongside Steven Brand and Lisa Brenner. South African actress Tsidii Leloka will be reprises her role as Sukeena, the maid.

Mick and Cynthia Garris are doing a signing (for The Shining DVD) at the also-wonderful Dark Delicacies book and movie store on Saturday, 18 January, at 2:00 p.m. The address is:

DARK DELICACIES
4213 West Burbank Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91505
(818) 556-6660

The Shining DVD released in the US

Posted: January 7, 2003, 00:00
_
Today The Shining is released on DVD in the US. It has English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Bahasa, Thai and Korean subtitles, commentary by Stephen King, Steven Weber, Mick Garris, Cynthia Garris, Mark Carliner, Bill Corso, Boyd Shermis, Patrick McMahon and Shelly Johnson and additional/deleted scenes with optional director's commentary.

Get it here

Image from Dreamcatcher and more

Posted: January 5, 2003, 00:00
_
Here is an image from the movie version of Dreamcatcher.

In other news; Donald M. Grant reports that Rick Berry will be signing their 3,500 copy edition of The Talisman, that Rick Berry's original art for Black House is for sale and that they expect to have the final (proofed and copy edited) version of The Dark Tower V by the summer of 2003.

The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer casting

Posted: January 4, 2003, 00:00
_
Steven Brand (Scorpion King) and Lisa Brenner (The Patriot) have been cast in The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer as John and Ellen.

The Dead Zone titles

Posted: January 2, 2003, 00:00
_
With only 3 days left to the premier of the second season of The Dead Zone reviews are starting to pop-up. The first 5 episodes of season 2 are: Valley of the Shadow, Descent, Ascent, Misbegotten and The Outsider.

Desperation on ABC in 2004?

Posted: January 1, 2003, 23:30
_
In an interview with Lilja's Library Mick Garris says that he hopes Desperation will air on ABC in 2004. Yes, that is correct. Desperation will be a 3-hour movie for TV. It will air on ABC.

New layout and interview with Garris

Posted: January 1, 2003, 00:00
_
Today Lilja's Library premiered with its new layout. This means that we start January's festivities. Today that means an interview with no other then Mick Garris the man who did The Stand and The Shining and is currently working on Riding the Bullet and Desperation.

Garris on Desperation

Posted: December 22, 2002, 23:29
_
Mick Garris next movie is Riding the Bullet but after that it's Desperation's time. Here is a quote from Creature Corner:

After that project, Garris is said to be moving on to something I've wanted him to direct for a long time now, 'Desperation'. The King novel, in case you're unfamiliar, concerns a group of people that get stuck in a small Nevada town called Desperation and have to ban together to fight a manifestation of pure evil known as Tak. It's a great story, and the script was originally written by Stephen King himself (read my review of it here).

'Desperation' has been sitting over at New Line for countless years, but I guess it's been moved somewhere else since the movie that Garris will direct is set to be a 4-6 hour miniseries (on ABC, I'm sure). That also means the script I read many moons ago will probably not be used, but here's hoping we get something of the same quality.

No more Plant?

Posted: December 2, 2002, 15:53
_
It's now very unclear if King will finish The Plant since he has said he might not publish any more non Dark Tower books.

New short story

Posted: November 25, 2002, 00:00
_
McSweeney's magazine> is going to have a story by King in its 10th issue. It hasn't been confirmed whether this is something new or not though but I hope for something new. In an interview for Washington Post Glen David Gold said the following:

"For people who are waiting for another piece of work, I've got a story in the upcoming McSweeney's. Michael Chabon is editing an all genre issue. So I thought I'd write a ghost story, then Michael said that was great, and here's a list of other people contributing and it was "Stephen King -- Ghost Story." I wrote a serial killer elephant story."

As far as I have found out the issue of McSweeny's contains "all original material". In other words, everything indicates that King's story will be a new story, or rather a new ghost tale. No title yet though... More news to come so stay tuned!

The issue should be out for subscribers in January and in some bookstores in February. Other authors futured are; Nick Hornby, Michael Crichton, Neil Gaiman, Elmore Leonard, Harlan Ellison, Dan Chaon, Dave Eggers, Sherman Alexie,
Aimee Bender, Rick Moody, Jim Shepard, and others

Helmer Peter Care to directing Bag of Bones

Posted: October 28, 2002, 22:41
_
Coming soon reported the following today about the movie version of Bag of Bones:

Helmer Peter Care (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) will develop and direct MGM's Bag of Bones based on the 1998 Stephen King novel, says The Hollywood Reporter.

The deal -- closed pending approval from King -- will see Care directing the project, from the David Velos-adapted screenplay, centering on young novelist Mike Noonan, who is helped by the spirit of his dead wife from beyond the grave. Together, they excise the spirit of a murder victim, who has killed several children and now has her eyes on an innocent 3-year-old.

Bruce Willis and Arnold Rifkin's Cheyenne Enterprises is producing, and Care's wife, Lorraine, is co-producing.

Thanks to Bev Vincent.

Will The Talisman see the light?

Posted: October 22, 2002, 23:07
_
Dark Horizons reports that there may be a chance that The Talisman will se it's way to the silver screen after all. Here is what they say:

Skeleton Key & The Talisman: Variety reports that "The Ring" screenwriter Ehren Krueger has signed a two-picture deal with Universal including his New Orleans gothic thriller spec script "Skeleton Key" which Iain Softley ("K-Pax") is being sought after to direct. The other is an adaptation of Stephen King's "The Talisman" for Spielberg and Kennedy-Marshall.

Thanks to Jake Cox.

Susan Moldow comments on King's retirement

Posted: September 28, 2002, 00:00
_
In an article about King's retirement Susan Moldow, his publisher at Scribner, who is skeptical about King actually retiring commented the retirement with the following statement:

"That rumor is older than Methusaleh, and yet he keeps writing and publishing," she said in a phone interview Monday. "I've heard him describe a novel that I know he wants to write, that isn't a part of the 'Dark Tower' series and that doesn't seem to duplicate anything he's done before. And since he's described it to me, it would be harsh and cruel for him to withhold it from me."

Time for Children of the Corn 8

Posted: September 13, 2002, 20:30
_
Apparently there is a 7th sequel to Children of the Corn on the way. Miramax/Buena Vista is now planning to release Children of the Corn 8. No release date has been set and the movie is still in development.

Thanks to Anders and Dark Horizons.

Still hope for The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Posted: September 2, 2002, 23:17
_
There is still hope for The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon as a movie. Darkworlds talked with George A. Romero at the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors and here is what he had to say:

Darkworlds caught up with legendary horror director George Romero (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE DARK HALF, BRUISER) at the 2002 Fangoria Weekend of Horrors in LA. During a lengthy interview (video of which will soon be available on Darkworlds), talk turned to Romero’s upcoming collaboration with best-selling horror scribe Stephen King, as well as Romero’s experiences working with King in the past. (Interview for Darkworlds.com conducted by Greg Stacy.)

DW: What can you tell us about THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON? Is it a horror film?

Romero: Well, it’s got some scary elements in it. It’s about a little girl that gets lost in the woods. It’s (based on King’s) novel, it was a best-seller 2 or 3 years ago. Tom Gordon was at the time (of the story) a real pitcher, he was a guy they brought in to save the games for the Red Sox, and Steve’s really an avid Red Sox fan. So, Tom is this girl’s hero.

DW: How did you get involved with the project?

Romero: I just loved the book. I called Stephen, and he said cool.

DW: THE DARK HALF was (one of the best) Stephen King adaptations. How closely did you work with King on that?

Romero: Steve doesn’t sit over your shoulder. He lets you run with it. So, it was great. He had approval in the end… I guess he dug it, because he didn’t change a thing. He just let it wail. I love doing (King adaptations). I think (THE DARK HALF) is a pretty good adaptation, myself!

Thanks to Anders.

Lilja on the radio

Posted: August 28, 2002, 00:00
_
Meridian Writing (on BBC radio) airs a special King-program this week. Joining Harriett Gilbert to answer why King's books are so loved are the writers Neil Gaiman and Muriel Gray, and a fan from Sweden who runs his own Stephen King website. Yes, your right, the Swede is I, Lilja.

Paranoid is leaving the Internet

Posted: August 22, 2002, 00:00
_
PARANOID BOWS ONLINE

Los Angeles, CA (August 21, 2002) - The official limited release of Paranoid, the first Stephen King "Dollar-Baby" to receive permission to be released on the Internet, is about to come to an end. This marks the final week in which Paranoid will be able to be downloaded or viewed online.

The 8-minute adaptation has received rave reviews during it's limited, eight month engagement across the World Wide Web.

Paranoid made its World Wide Web debut January 25th on iFilm.com (a privately held company based in Hollywood, CA) and quickly gained popularity, amassing more than 21,000 views in its first week and climbing to the #7 slot for most popular short film on the entertainment network's vast website of more than 80,000 films. To date Paranoid has racked up more than 35,000 views from iFilm.com and more than 6,000 downloads of the official "hi-rez" version from www.paranoidthemovie.com.

Adakin Productions' most recent project The Night Before, is currently in post-production. A trailer of the film is now available online at www.adakin.com/nightbefore.html.

Stephen King's self-dubbed "Dollar-Deal" is a policy the writer established early in his career to grant young filmmaker's the permission to make a movie out of any of his short stories as long as the resulting film will not be exhibited commercially without his approval. For this one-time right, King asks only for a copy of the finished film and the grand total of one dollar. The most famous "Dollar-Baby" (as King dubs the finished products and the filmmakers who create them) is Frank Darabont's adaptation of The Woman in the Room (released in the early 1980s on Interglobal Home Video). Darabont later went on to adapt the multi-Academy Award nominated films The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

For more information on Paranoid, visit www.paranoidthemovie.com.

King signing

Posted: August 19, 2002, 00:00
_
King will be appearing at The Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York on Wednesday Sep. 25th. Tickets go on sale on the 20th, and are $20 each. He will be signing copies of From a Buick 8.

New DVDs details

Posted: August 11, 2002, 00:00
_
Cat's Eye release 10/1/02 English, French and Spanish subtitles, commentary by Lewis Teague, trailer

It release 10/1/02 English, French and Spanish subtitles, commentary by Tommy Lee Wallace,
Richard Thomas, John Ritter, Tim Reid and Dennis Christopher

The Shining release 1/7/03 English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Bahasa, Thai and Korean subtitles, commentary by Stephen King, Steven Weber, Mick Garris, Cynthia Garris, Mark Carliner, Bill Corso, Boyd Shermis, Patrick McMahon and Shelly Johnson and additional/deleted scenes with optional director's commentary.

Night Flier 2

Posted: August 8, 2002, 00:00
_
Fangoria reports that there are plans for The Night Flier 2.

"There's talk of NIGHT FLIER 2," Pavia reveals. "I would write and direct again, with [original author] Stephen King giving his blessing on the story. Miguel Ferrer's Richard Dees character won't be in it, though I did toy with the idea of bringing Dees back as a TERMINATOR-style servant to [lead vampire] Dwight Renfield. Renfield and Katherine Blair [played by Julie Entwisle, now Pavia's wife, in the original film] will be returning."

Tour dates

Posted: July 31, 2002, 00:00
_
The Rock Bottom Remainders has five tour dates scheduled.

November 22, 2002 - Scotty's Landing, Coconut Grove, FL
November 23, 2002 - Bayside Marketplace, Miami, FL
April 22, 2003 - Seattle, WA
April 24, 2003 - San Francisco, CA
April 25, 2003 - Los Angeles, CA (part of LA Book Festival)

Bag of Bones on King's official site

Posted: July 27, 2002, 22:40
_
Bag of Bones has now been listed on King's official site. Here is what they say:

Bag of Bones
Major Motion Picture Release
Film rights for Bag of Bones have been optioned. MGM will be distributing this as a theater release. Bruce Willis is the Producer.

John Mellencamp interview

Posted: July 15, 2002, 11:27
_
John Mellencamp recently did an interview and in the introduction the following can be read:

Mellencamp, who co-founded the Farm Aid benefit concerts with Willie Nelson and Neil Young in 1985, is now working on a project with best-selling author Stephen King. King is writing the book, Mellencamp the music for a theatre presentation about an American family.

This isn't 100% correct though. King is NOT writing a book, only the play. There aren't any plans for a book.

Here are the two questions that concerns King:

Q: Peaceful World took on a new resonance for listeners, obviously, after Sept. 11. Have the events affected your writing since then?

Mellencamp: I haven't written since then, except for a few small smatterings for a musical I'm working on with Steve King. As you may or may not know, Peaceful World was written a few years before Sept. 11. I think all songs that are not just pop throwaways would take on a new meaning after such a tragedy.

Q: What's it like collaborating with Stephen King? Can you tell us any more about the project? And I hear King has his own rock band -- you ever give him any lessons?

Mellencamp: Steve is an honest gentleman, a person of integrity, and has written a beautiful story. Hopefully, we can complete this project before this time next year. But he is busy and so am I. And as far as his rock band goes, well -- I tuned his guitar once and Steve certainly looks cool.

Stephen and Tabitha King donates

Posted: July 10, 2002, 00:00
_
Authors donate $1.1M for pool

BANGOR — On a steamy Monday afternoon, 6-year-old Keely Shorette and her visiting cousins piled out of the family car in hopes of escaping the heat at the city’s crowded west-side pool.

Across town, the city’s most famous literary couple offered a cool idea of their own.

Flanked by city officials in an air-conditioned City Hall on Monday afternoon, authors Stephen and Tabitha King announced they will donate $1.1 million to help build a new public pool more than three times the size of the current pool at Hayford Park.

It was a walk down Union Street on a steamy afternoon that convinced the couple a new facility was in order.

“All we saw was a lot of heads bobbing up and down,” said Stephen King of the scene at the popular swimming pool that serves hundreds of children on a typical summer day. “We thought maybe there was something we could do to remedy that situation.”

The new pool, expected to be completed by next spring, will be 12,000 square feet with a children’s area, a general swim area and four-lane lap and exercise pool. A separate pool will be constructed with water slides.

The current facility, which will be closed upon the completion of the new facility, is about 3,700 square feet.

Upon hearing the news of the larger pool, a squealing Keely Shorette jumped up and down as her two cousins, visiting from North Carolina, made a beeline across the parking lot to the already bustling pool.

“Fun! Fun! Fun!” she squealed.

At the Kings’ request, the new pool will be named in honor of Beth Pancoe, a Bangor High School graduate who died of leukemia in 1999.

Pancoe’s father, Michael Pancoe, held up an 8-by-10-inch portrait of his daughter, once a diver on the Bangor High School swim team who died during her sophomore year at Northwestern University.

“It was kind of her turf,” said Pancoe, a Bangor radiologist, of the park behind the family’s former home on West Broadway, where the Kings also reside. “This is a very magnanimous thing to do.”

Construction could begin this fall, said city officials, who praised the Kings’ latest gift.

“It is another example of the continuing commitment of Stephen and Tabitha King to support their community and to invest directly in our young citizens,” Bangor Mayor Michael Crowley said.

Over the years, the Kings have donated millions of dollars to various causes and projects in and around the city, including the Maine Discovery Museum, the Bangor Public Library and Cyr Family Field House at the Orono-Old Town YMCA.

The couple’s latest gift will pay for most of the $1.5 million project, with the rest coming from the city’s undesignated fund balance and possibly a $150,000 bond tentatively slated to repair the existing pool, according to city officials.

The new pool will be located down the hill from the existing facility, which will be removed and replaced with a picnic area, according to city officials.

The new complex will be located next to the Hayford Park playground just beyond the left-field fence at Mansfield Stadium, yet another gift from the Kings.

King and Ramones

Posted: June 25, 2002, 00:00
_
Rob Zombie, co producer of "We're a Happy Family," a tribute album for the Ramones, said that horror novelist/Ramones fan Stephen King has agreed to write the liner notes for the album, which will be released on September 17. Contributors to the album include: Eddie Vedder, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Marilyn Manson, U2, Garbage and Kiss. Full story: http://www.vh1.com/news/stories/1455318.jhtml.

King #14

Posted: June 25, 2002, 00:00
_
Stephen King ended up at number 14 (after scaring up $52.4 million in earnings) on Forbes' list of the world's most powerful celebrities.

1st ed.

Posted: June 7, 2002, 00:00
_
Finally there is a guide for all of you out there that wants to know how to spot a 1st ed. of King's books. Bev Vincent has put together a great list and you can now find it on King's official site.

The Shining finally released on DVD

Posted: June 6, 2002, 00:00
_
BIG NEWS!!! It has now been confirmed! King's miniseries version of The Shining is finally going to be released on DVD. King has done a commentary and the DVD will be through Warner Home Video. The DVD will also have interviews with Mick Garris, Steven Weber, and others. It is scheduled for either the end of this year or more likely early 2003. On Halloween 2002. Warner will also release the DVD versions of IT and Cat's Eye.

Strawberry Spring

Posted: May 8, 2002, 00:00
_
As reported earlier the short film Strawberry Spring will be shown at the International Cinematographers Guild 6th Annual Film Showcase. Screenings will take place in Loa Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago, Orlando, Miami, San Francisco, Dallas and at the Cannes International Film Festival. You can read my review of the movie here and see productions stills here.

Interview with Peter Straub

Posted: May 6, 2002, 23:03
_
Here is a recent interview with Peter Straub from www.scifi.com in which he talks about the future for The Talisman on the big screen.

There's been talk of turning The Talisman into a miniseries over the years. Any progress?

Straub: I have some very interesting news about that.

The Talisman was bought by Universal as a vehicle for Steven Spielberg. Universal bought it because Spielberg told them to. In 1984, Spielberg had tremendous clout. So they bought, gave it to him and he lost interest. It was no longer the sort of thing he felt he wanted to do. He wanted to do more mainstream, more worthy projects. It vanished.

The miniseries idea was floated. Spielberg liked the idea of having a miniseries. He had people in mind to direct it. It went through various revisions and that died.

Five or six years later, Kathleen Kennedy and Spielberg were back to being partners, decided once again to do it as a miniseries for ABC. That sounded like it would work (Mick Garris had written a screenplay and had planned to direct the project). They had a very good script and that died.

Now there's a friend of mine, who is a very, very good writer. I won't name him. But he told me he got a call from his agent, who asked if he would be interested in doing a screenplay for a movie of The Talisman. My friend said, "Who would direct it?" And his agent said, "Spielberg." My friend said, "Yeah, I'd like to give that a crack." Who knows, it might happen. I would be very, very pleased to see that particular combination.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Talisman was re-released shortly before Black House. Both novels ended up on the best-seller list at the same time. Were you surprised that there is still a lot of interest for The Talisman?

Straub: It was very gratifying to see that. Random House was especially gratified because they had sold a lot more copies of the new version of The Talisman then they had expected to, both in hardback and paperback. It was warming and rewarding the book would get a whole new audience all over again. I don't think that happens very much.

I had very mixed feelings about The Talisman for a long time. But when I read it in preparation for starting work again with Stephen King on Black House, I surprised myself on how much I liked it. I thought it was really, really a nice book.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did the Internet and electronic media make the collaboration of Black House easier?

Straub: Yeah, that's right. Though we had one of the first modems in the early '80s. The modems were big machines with telephones on top of them. You had to dial the number, we didn't have hard disks then. The floppys were like 78 records. This was before Windows, so you had to punch in a certain DOS code. Then you could hear your computer make these digesting sounds. Grumble, click, growl. It went on for half an hour while it sent a hundred pages.

When I got the pages from Steve [King] I could see them come onto the empty floppy. Line by line down the page of my monitor. They scrolled by past, but you could still read them.

There were all sorts of glitches in codes. He was using a Wang and I was using an IBM. They had different codes for italics, for bold, all that kind of thing. Even for paragraphing. We had to figure out little symbols to use in place of the ordinary symbols and inform the machine that those symbols were codes: italic, indent, etc.

After I wrote the whole thing, I'd then do a global search and replace for italic, quotation marks. And Steve would do a reverse global replace.

This time around, of course, it was much, much easier. It took seconds to send 100 pages through the Internet. It is vastly more convenient.

Thanks to Terry Warrick.