I’m going to try something new. It’s really not King related but it’ll fit right in over at my Non-King section. There are some TV series that I really enjoy and follow each week and I was thinking that it would be really fun to get your input on these shows. So, what I’m going to do is review each episode (it will be reviews that are shorter than normal) and hopefully you’ll add your comments about it in the commentary fields and we’ll get a nice discussion about each episode. I’m calling it Episode by Episode. Please join in!
First out is season 2 of the US version of Being Human. Episode 1 aired last week and is now reviewed and I’ll add my thoughts on episode 2 later today. I hope you all follow this series, it’s a good one.
Jonathan Demme recently spoke to MTV about his adaptation of King's 11/22/63.
"I'm adapting Stephen King's book," Demme told MTV News in Park City, UT over the weekend, where he was promoting the Slamdance debut of his "Neil Young Journeys" documentary. "I'm on the screenplay for it right now."
"It's a time travel story," he said of the plot. "Somebody from the 20th century gets a window back to the past and they go back with the goal of trying to prevent the assassination of JFK. It's an extraordinary thriller. It's a great love story, also. It's a fabulous book."
Demme doesn't have a time-table on when the movie might start shooting — "First I have to get the script finished," he said, "and it's going really well" — but he did say that he feels more than a little bit privileged to be working with King after working with another American icon in Young.
"Sitting here with Neil Young, and working with Stephen King — these are two great American storytellers who use different mediums," he said.
The second season of the US version of Being Human started this past Monday and today a trailer for the fourth season of the UK version was released. It'll be interesting to see how it does with the loss of two major characters...
And here is a press release for the season:
Being Human, BBC Three's award winning and critically-acclaimed drama, returns for a fourth series. Following the gripping series three finale in which viewers watched Mitchell fall victim to the wolf-shaped bullet, series four sees the aftermath as the housemates return to their home in Barry Island. There are also some new faces in town...
In an old B&B in a sleepy seaside town, we join Annie, her housemate George and their new friend. They’re reeling from the loss of their best friend Mitchell, Tom’s father-figure McNair and the tragic departure of George’s girlfriend, Nina. But with a newborn baby to look after, it’s never been more difficult to live life under-the-radar as a ghost and two werewolves.
There are also the vampires to deal with: lurking in every corner of society, waiting for the Old Ones to arrive and take over the world with brutal force. Can they fight them off? And at what cost? One thing becomes clear – the vampires believe that the child of two werewolves is important in their own mythology. Can this little baby really be the saviour of humanity? And what exactly are Cutler’s ‘alternative’ plans for world domination?
Starring Lenora Crichlow as Annie, Russell Tovey as George, Michael Socha as Tom, Damien Molony as Hal, Andrew Gower as Cutler, Alex Jennings as Griffin, Mark Williams as Regus, Louis Mahoney as Leo, Tamla Kari as Pearl, Darren Evans as Dewi, Anthony Flanagan as Fergus, Sean Francis as Lucas and Mali Harries as Lisa.
Being Human is also being simulcast on the award-winning BBC HD channel – the BBC’s High Definition channel available through Freesat channel 109, Freeview channel 54, Sky channel 169 and Virgin Media channel 187.
Remember my contest when Bag of Bones aired? The one where you could win the very limited book Dark Score Stories (limited to 250 copies and lately sold for $376 on eBay)?
Well, one of the winners from that contest has apparently moved and after 2 weeks of trying to track him down without success I have given up. So, here is what I will do with that extra copy:
I will draw a new winner on February 1st and since it was one of the facebook winners that couldn’t be reached I have decided that it’s most fair to draw a new one from my facebook followers. So, on February 1st I will draw the winner from everyone that follows Lilja’s Library on faceboook AND has "Shared" something I have posted in the Lilja’s Library facebook group (each "Share" is a chance to win).
Here is an interview with Frank Darabont in which he talks about his departure from The Walking Dead (first non Frank episode airs February 12 on AMC) for the first time and his new series .
This was reported by New York Magazine today:
Meanwhile, just as Damon survived a global influenza pandemic last year in Contagion, his Pearl Street partner Ben Affleck is making progress on his own viral blockbuster: Stephen King’s The Stand, about survivors of a chemically weaponized super-flu. We hear that Affleck has hired screenwriter David Kajganich to pen the script after Kajganich wowed Warner Bros. with another recent King adaptation of the 1986 horror classic It – which, like The Stand, is being produced by Roy Lee and Doug Davison. Let's hope this goes better than the last produced outbreak drama Kadjanich wrote for WB: 2007's underperforming Nicole Kidman vehicle The Invasion.
Salem's Lot has been nominated for a special Bram Stoker Vampire Novel of the Century Award, which's given out this year to mark the centenary of Bram Stoker's passing.
Mercury News reports that Dolores Claiborne is being turned into an opera for 2013.
If that last one were not enough to set the jaws dropping, the trippy, ripped-from-the-lit programming will continue into the following season, when a production of Stephen King's "Dolores Claiborne," starring power mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick, will have its world premiere.
These rather dramatic choices came to light Tuesday when David Gockley, the opera's general director, announced plans for his seventh season in the post, one that encompasses nine operas and a total of 73 performances from September through early July of 2013.
...
And projecting further still into the next new season, mezzo-soprano Zajick, Gockley said, is tailor-made for "Dolores Claiborne," the role that earned Kathy Bates an Oscar nomination for the 1995 film made from the Stephen King thriller.
"It's a movie of heavy passions and tragedy and survival, and we thought it had operatic qualities," Gockley said "And doing it for the indomitable Dolora Zajick made sense."
The opera, composed by Tobias Picker and well-known librettist J.D. McClatchy, will open Sept. 15, 2013.
It’s contest time here again at Lilja’s Library and this time I’m going to try something new. Most of you probably know Marv: The Library Policeman but few probably know who he was before he became Marv. Before Marv, his name was Marvin S and he was a normal human being like you and me…until that fateful night at the library that is… But what happened? Well, that is what I want you to tell me!
This just landed in my mailbox... Could You Find Your Face on Stephen King's New Book?
To celebrate the publication of The Wind through the Keyhole, the hotly anticipated new episode in Stephen King’s fantasy series The Dark Tower, we’re inviting you to help make literary history; lucky entrants will have their faces featured on the back of the jacket artwork.
Using mosaic design technologies, thousands of readers’ images will be incorporated in the illustration on the back cover of The Wind through the Keyhole.
One winner will also be selected at random to receive the entire STEPHEN KING backlist published by Hodder in the UK.
For your chance to be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, all you have to do is upload your photo via this facebook app https://www.facebook.com/stephenkingbooks. We can’t guarantee that everyone’s photo will make it on – but we’ll contact you when the jacket is ready so you can see if your face is featured, and if you’ve been lucky, you can share your pixels of fame with friends and family! The closing date for entries is 23rd January 2012. Terms and conditions apply, click here for more details.
The Wind through the Keyhole is published in April 2012.
Executive producer Manny Coto just did an interview for EW in which he had this to say:
Finally, while the series has been guaranteed two more seasons, Coto says that doesn't mean the creators are plotting Dexter's exit strategy. In fact, everyone's favorite serial killer may eventually migrate to the big screen. "We're not really looking at an end game right now," says Coto. "In a way, it's almost like every season is a form of an end game. This season could've been an end to Dexter, setting it up for the movies, for example. So every season kind of comes to it's own conclusion and can be a sort of end game."
Coto is quick to add that he's "just speculating" when it comes to movie plans. "I've heard nothing about it. I'm actually just projecting from my own experience on 24, where at the end we weren't going to kill Jack Bauer. We were going to leave him open because down the road there might be a movie. And sure enough, there's a movie coming."
AMC has announced that season 3 of The Walking Dead will have 13 episodes.
And, while we wait for that. Here are the key takeaways from the AMC drama’s Saturday afternoon session at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.
1 AMC screened for reporters a key scene from the midseason premiere that showed Rick giving an inebriated Hershel a pep talk when suddenly they’re interrupted by [SPOILER]!
2 Young Sophia’s death will strain Carol’s deepening bond with Daryl. “It really affects their relationship,” previews exec producer Glen Mazzara, “and forces Carol to really stand on her own.”
3 Despite chatter that the walkers appear to be moving faster this season, producers insisted that no conscious decision was made to speed them up. ”Some actors playing zombies make that choice,” said Mazzara. “They’re not getting faster on our end.”
4 Robert Kirkman would neither confirm nor deny that the pivotal comic book character of Michonne will turn up this season.
5 The escalating Shane/Rick rivalry “puts everybody else in a difficult position on that farm,” said Mazzara.
6 Mazzara said that, in keeping with the graphic-novel source material, there remain no plans to establish what caused the zombie outbreak: “This story is about our characters.”
7 Regarding the widely-circulated alterna-plan for Season 2 pitched by Frank Darabont before he and the show parted ways — one that, in flashback to the dawn of the outbreak, followed a band of Army rangers through Atlanta and ultimately planted that dead, grenade-clutching solider in the Season 1 tank — Mazzara confirmed that “that story was discussed internally,” but added, “It was under Frank’s stewardship that we moved off of that storyline. Frank moved off of that storyline.”
The Mile 81 contest is over and here are the way my clues where meant to guide you to the correct answer. And below that you can see who the five lucky winners where.
Hodder & Stoughton in the UK are publishing new editions of all The Dark Tower books and here are the new covers. What do you think? I thing they are really great and it will be interesting to see if the cover for Wind Through the Keyhole matches them.
The books are released on February 16th and you can order them here:
Here are the latest news from Donald M. Grant:
Welcome to issue #76 of the Donald M. Grant Newsletter
11 January 2012
We hope you all had a good Holiday Season and a Happy New Year. May 2012 be better for all of us.
-----------------------------------------
THE DARK TOWER: THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE
1. WEB ORDER PAGE
2. TRADE EDITION SLIPCASE
3. PRINTED FLYER
4. ORDER CONFIRMATION
5. LITTLE SISTERS - MATCH YOUR NUMBER
------------------------------------------
DARK TOWER: THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE
1. WEB ORDER PAGE
We have added another of Jae Lee’s color illustrations to the web page.
Since we began accepting advance orders on December 19 we have received over 3,000 orders. We are accepting advance orders for both the Deluxe and Artist Editions of THE DARK TOWER: THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE at:
https://secure.grantbooks.com/z-sk-dt-twttk.html
Please read the rest of this Newsletter before placing your order.
2. TRADE EDITION SLIPCASE
We will be producing a slipcase for the Scribner Trade Edition which will match the three slipcases we produced for the first seven Dark Tower books:
This will not be shipped until 6-8 weeks after the Trade Edition is released so that we can be sure it will fit properly. Cost is $30.00 plus a $1.00 shipping charge. We will not be charging the $5.00 order fee on orders where the slipcase is shipping by itself.
3. ORDER CONFIRMATION
If you send a check and the check is cashed we have received your order. If you sent an order via our website you will receive as confirmation an email titled “RE WWW Form Submission”. We have received over 3,000 email orders but are now sending confirmations within 3 or 4 business days. If you call or email us this will only delay getting orders ready but if you sent in your order in December and did not receive an order confirmation please send us an email with the subject NO ORDER CONFIRMATION to karenf@grantbooks.com.
We have a small staff and will be hiring extra help but it will take time to process orders, especially for people expecting a specific numbered copy. We appreciate your patience.
Please do not call or email us for further details as we will just refer you to our web site and suggest you remain subscribed to our email newsletter.
4. PRINTED FLYER
Our usual full-color printed flyer will be in the mail next week.
5. LITTLE SISTERS - MATCH YOUR NUMBER
Due to financial considerations at the time many of our customers who bought the Deluxe Edition of LITTLE SISTERS OF ELURIA chose not to purchase the matching numbered Gift Edition. As we have been shipping copies from the higher number down we still have many of the Gift Editions up to number 690. If you would now like to match your Deluxe Edition with the same numbered Gift edition please email Karen French at karenf@grantbooks.com under the subject title “Little Sisters Gift Number” with your number and Karen will confirm if we still have that number.
We will send out another Newsletter when we know when shipping THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE will begin.
Thank you.
Robert K. Wiener, President
Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc
Talk Stephen King found out that MCC Theatre runs a contest where they ask you to do a video (and upload it to YouTube) in which you tell them why you are excited about the new stage adaptation of Carrie.
Interesting concept for a contest. Would you enter if I did a contest where you had to do a video telling me why you should win the prize? Might be fun...
Hear Being Human‘s Sam Witwer talk about a great idea Frank Darabont had for the first episode of season 2 of The Walking Dead. To bad it never happened.
OK, I don’t know about you but I love contests. And what can be better to do when you love contests than having one? And since the audio edition of Mile 81 happens to be released today, how about if I give five of you the chance to get a copy for free?
This time you will have to work for it though and here is how.
You will have to figure out what book by King I’m thinking of right now. Easy, isn’t it? Well, I will help you on your way. Between January 10 and 13 I will give you clues on Lilja’s Library’s facebook group. You can then decide when you want to submit your answer (you submit it here) and you can do it whenever you want between January 10 and 13 but be careful. You only get one chance and then you’re out of the game. But don’t wait too long either because it’s five that gives me the correct book title first that wins the five copies of Mile 81.
You don’t need to “Like” the Lilja’s Library group but if you do you’ll know faster when I have posted a clue. Because I won’t tell you in advance when or how many clues there will be. OK, I will say that the first clue is on the facebook site now, there will be at least one each day and I will tell you when I post the last one.
Stephen King to appear at electric car event
Best-selling novelist Stephen King is a big fan of electric cars (although we assume not ones named Christine) and is the owner of a Chevy Volt that he likes to say is great revenge on the oil cartel. As a part-time resident of Sarasota's Casey Key, the often reclusive King is scheduled to join in a panel discussion Thursday after the film Revenge of the Electric Car. From the director of the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?, the film delights in how auto companies are now racing to produce electric cars. The showing is at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at Burns Court Cinema, 506 Burns Lane, Sarasota. After the film, a discussion and audience question-and-answer session will be held with local government leaders and the King of Horror. Tickets can be purchased online at the Sarasota Film Society website, filmsociety.org.
All the winners in the Salem's Lot contest has been selected and notified. If someone don't get back to me with an address to send the book I will draw a runner up.
And those of you who didn't win, a new contest is coming. I have a fun idea I want to try but I will wait until Lilja's Library's facebook group get's 11,400 followers. So, stay tuned...
A new item has been added to Marv’s Museum. This time it’s stuff that was used in the photos on DarkScoreStories.com. The site that promoted the miniseries version of Bag of Bones.
On February 12 the second part of season 2 of The Walking Dead kicks off and here are three teasers. But don’t look at them if you haven’t seen the first seven episodes of season 2.
The UK version of Being Human is about to kick off its fourth season and in Toby's Blog you can read more about the upcoming episode and the new cast. And here are the episode titles:
1 “Eve Of The War”
2 “Being Human 1955”
3 “The Graveyard Shift”
4 “A Spectre Calls”
5 “Hold The Front Page”
6 “Puppy Love”
7 “Making History”
8 “The War Child”
Collider recently sat down to do an in-depth, on camera interview with Justin Ishmael, the creative director of Mondo, the increasingly popular and influential poster boutique of the Alamo Drafthouse. In the interview, tons of information was released, including that Drew Struzan is working hard on his Stephen King Dark Tower poster and they hope to release it at Comic-Con.
Check out the clip below (Dark Tower news start at 3:30) for more info. Sounds cool if you ask me.
This is from Chris Ryall’s (IDW Publishing's Publisher/Editor-in-Chief) blog
We approved to print issue #1 of ROAD RAGE today. That’s the miniseries that has me adapting both Throttle, the Stephen King/Joe Hill prose story, as well as Richard Matheson‘s Duel. The first two issues bring Throttle to life with Nelson Daniel handling full art and colors.
DUEL is being adapted by me and artist Rafa Garres. While I showed the above page 1 from “Throttle” on Twitter earlier today, the DUEL cover by Garres seen here hasn’t been shown anywhere else yet.
Issue 1 is in stores on February 15.
Here is my interview with special effects wizard Greg Nicotero. I have also reviewed a documentary called Nightmare Factory about Greg and his company KNB which you can find here.
Today it’s time to open Marv’s Museum! This is something I have been planning for a long time but not gotten around to and not really knowing how to present to make it look as good as it does now. But now it’s ready and I really, really hope you will like it as much as I do
Marv’s Museum is a museum where I will show you interesting items that I have collected over the years. Initially there will be props from King movies but as time goes on I hope to add other things, things that I think you will find interesting.
Before I let you check it out I have to take time to thank my friend Anders Jakobson who’s responsible for the design of Marv’s Museum. That is all his wonderful work you see. Thanks!
Now, go check it out (maximize the window for the best result) and please let me know what you think!
reports that Kimberly Peirce has been hired to direct a remake of Carrie.
Kimberly Peirce has been hired to direct a remake Stephen King‘s Carrie. Peirce made her name with the 1999 indie film Boys Don’t Cry which featured an Oscar-winning performance from Hilary Swank.
This summer, MGM and Screen Gems announced that they hired Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, a playwright who was recently brought onto the troubled Broadway production Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, to pen the new script based on King’s first published work. Aguirre-Sacasa also writes comics for Marvel including their graphic representation of Stephen King’s The Stand, so he’s certainly familiar with King’s work. He worked on several seasons of HBO’s Big Love, but his will be his first screenplay. Deadline reports that Aguirre-Sacasa’s take is “more faithful to the King book, and more grounded than the Brian De Palma-directed film.” This story definitely seems more within Peirce’s best abilities.
Mark Pavia (Night Flier) is doing a Stephen King anthology film.
“It’s a Stephen King anthology film (as yet untitled)”, Pavia explains. “One that consists of only horror stories and one that is incredibly dark and endlessly atmospheric. I want to make a film that represents exactly what you think of when you hear the name “Stephen King” — a celebration of the man and what he does best, which is scaring the living hell out of all of us! But also stories that are rich in character and that have an emotional weight to them, which, of course, is what he’s all about. That’s what sets him apart from everyone else. It will be the first Stephen King anthology film in 25 years.”
The moderator of King’s message board confirmed today that there won’t be any illustrations in Scribner’s edition of Wind Through the Keyhole. I have no idea why that is though since there have been illustrations in the previous seven Dark Tower books…
2011 is over and 2012 is here and as usual when we have a new year it's time for a look in the rearview mirror. Here are some of the headlines that topped the news in early January some years ago.
1 year ago everyone talked about who would be the best Roland Deschain; Javier Bardem or Viggo Mortensen
2 years ago King did some narrating on Shooter Jennings album Black Ribbons
3 years ago we looked forward to Road Rage, King and his son Joe Hill's first published collaboration.
4 years ago everyone was waiting for Duma Key to be released later on in January.
5 years ago The Mist was about to start shooting.
6 years ago we could read excerpts from Lisey's Story.
7 years ago we got this update about King's doings from the moderator of the official board.
Response from Moderator: Most recently he’s been working again on the project with John Mellencamp that had been put on the back burner while he was doing The Dark Tower, Kingdom Hospital and Faithful. He’s also written a couple of short stories and a novel.
8 years agoKingdom Hospital and TNT's remake of Salem's Lot was hot topics. Everyone guessed who wrote the tie-in (to Kingdom Hospital) book The Journals of Eleanor Druse.
9 years agowe got casting news for King's Rose Red miniseries.
10 years ago we could read reports about Frank Muller (narrator of many King books) horrible accident.
11 years agoDreamcatcher was being promoted for its March release.
12 years ago It was reported that King signed a 3 book deal with Scribner. This was big news by the time since we didn't know if King would write any more books after his accident.
13 years ago no one know that King 6 month later would come very close to die in a car accident. Thank God he didn't.
Remember I told you a few days ago about a upcoming book called Stephen King's Battleground? Well, today the cover for it has been released. For more info and to order, head over to Gauntlet Press.
Here is an interview with Frank Darabont in which he talks about his departure from The Walking Dead (first non Frank episode airs February 12 on AMC) for the first time and his new series .
It’s contest time here again at Lilja’s Library and this time I’m going to try something new. Most of you probably know Marv: The Library Policeman but few probably know who he was before he became Marv. Before Marv, his name was Marvin S and he was a normal human being like you and me…until that fateful night at the library that is… But what happened? Well, that is what I want you to tell me!
This just landed in my mailbox...
Here are the latest news from Donald M. Grant:
OK, I don’t know about you but I love contests. And what can be better to do when you love contests than having one? And since the audio edition of Mile 81 happens to be released today, how about if I give five of you the chance to get a copy for free? 
Acording to Talk Stephen King Bag of Bones will be out on DVD on march 13. It will cost around $26.99 and you can preorder your copy here.
Remember I told you a few days ago about a upcoming book called Stephen King's Battleground? Well, today the cover for it has been released. For more info and to order, head over to Gauntlet Press.
