News From The Dead Zone #85

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

Den of Geek has released part 1 of an interview that was conducted in 1983 and never published until now. Part 2 will be up tomorrow.

King’s review of Eric Clapton’s autobiography was published in the NY Times last weekend and is available online. Best American Short Stories 2007 was #10 on the Times paperback bestseller list in the same issue. The standalone paperback of The Mist was #13.

The October 27th podcast at The Imagination Station’s latest Hypa-Space has brief interviews with King, Frank Darabont, and Marcia Gay Harden. Numerologists will be interested to note that they start at the 14:08 mark of the audio file.

Cemetery Dance has released information and illustrations from Secretary of Dreams (Volume Two). This edition contains “The Monkey,” “Strawberry Spring,” and “In the Deathroom” as illustrated text and “Gray Matter,” “One for the Road,” and “Nona” in illustrated format. Glenn Chadbourne is the illustrator, once again.

Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks announced The Stephen King Collector’s Guide, a CD-ROM of PDFs, available here.

News From The Dead Zone #84

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

Paris Review is now accepting online orders for the Fall issue, which contains the new King story Ayana. Stay tuned, too, in the next few weeks for the December issue of Playboy containing “Mute.” F&SF magazine is tentatively scheduling the publication of a new 3100-word story for the October/November 2008 issue of their magazine. The title of this story is still under consideration.

Actors Judith Ivey and Kelli O’Hara will read short fiction from The Best American Short Stories 2007 on Tuesday, November 6 at 8PM at Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut. For more information or reservations visit www.westportplayhouse.org. Here’s a Harvard Crimson article about King’s visit to Cambridge to promote the anthology. Also check out this NPR radio interview.

Eli Roth recently told the folks at MTV that he hasn’t yet finished the script for Cell. “I’ve realized that I can’t multitask in the writing department; I can only kind of do one thing at a time. So right now I’m working on [a guest-director episode of] Heroes, and then I’ll work on Trailer Trash, and then we’ll see about Cell after that.”

Here’s an article in The Scientist by the authors of The Science of Stephen King: How now, Stephen King.

Mick Garris said the he hopes to include an adaptation of “Home Delivery” in the new NBC anthology series Fear Itself that he will be producing. Garris originally prepared this story for the Nightmares and Dreamscapes series but Masters of Horror obligations pulled him away.

News From The Dead Zone #83

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

Leonard Lopate interviewed King today about The Best American Short Stories 2007. A podcast of the interview is available here. There’s an article in The Harvard Crimson about his appearance in Cambridge earlier this week and one in the NYU News about his New York appearance.

Look for King to appear in an ESPN ad, preparing copy for anchor John Anderson. “I think it was the Red Sox’s clutch hitting, not that New York was possessed by demons,” Anderson deadpans as King rips the copy out of  Anderson’s hands, throws it in the garbage and begins typing again.

Eli Roth has this to say in an interview with MTV: “The latest with Cell is that the script is not finished. I’ve realized that I can’t multitask in the writing department; I can only kind of do one thing at a time. So right now I’m working on [a guest-director episode of] Heroes, and then I’ll work on Trailer Trash, and then we’ll see about Cell after that.

Frank Darabont will receive the Kodak Award for Excellence in Filmmaking at ShowEast’s closing gala. He will also screen The Mist tonight.

News From The Dead Zone #82

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

A second new King story will come out in November. In addition to “Mute” in the December issue of Playboy, “Ayana” will appear in the fall issue of The Paris Review. This is the story Susan Moldow mentioned that King gave her when he appeared in Toronto earlier this year. See the June 11 post below for more details.

In a brief interview at USA Today, King talks about what he’s working on: “It’s called A Very Tight Place. Not a novel but a long story. I’ve been writing lots of stories lately.” The paper also reviews The Best American Short Stories 2007: At a story a night, there’s enough variety and talent in the 20 selections here to keep readers entertained for nearly three weeks. Guest editor Stephen King’s lineup includes literary all-stars: Alice Munro’s “Dimension” is a chilling look at criminal insanity; Richard Russo’s “Horseman” explores how a professor’s encounter with student plagiarism triggers questions about her authenticity. But the real finds are the lesser-known writers. Beverly Jensen’s haunting “Wake,” about a rousing funeral in the midst of a nor’easter, is made even more poignant by the note that Jensen died at age 49.

In an interview posted at The Overlook Connection’s web site, Peter Straub says: “The Talisman has just been shelved for the hundredth time, now because of the budget. Steve and I have agreed to do the last book in the series, but it will have to wait until our desks are clear.”

Director Tobe Hooper says that From a Buick 8 will not be “your stock horror film by any means. There’s a really cool, layered quality to the story. The producers, writers and I shared the same sensibility about the project and responded to it in a similar way.”

Note: Links to two web sites that posted clips from The Mist were removed from this page because the producers advised me the clips were unauthorized.

News From The Dead Zone #81

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

According to an announcement at the back of the current issue (November), there will be a new King short story called “Mute” in the December 2007 Playboy. The story is described this way: “In a confession to a priest, a traveling salesman tells of his encounter on the Maine turnpike with a deaf-mute hitchhiker to whom he rants about his adulterous wife.” The street date for this issue should be early November.

The Best American Short Stories 2007 entered the NY Times paperback list at #14.

Because 4 isn’t enough: MovieWeb has 8 clips from The Mist.

With the hunt for the World Series under way, King’s appearances at Red Sox games have been announced in numerous sports articles, including this one: King shows why he’s Faithful to the Sox.

King discusses movie violence in his new EW essay: A History of Violence.

News From The Dead Zone #79

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

1408 comes out on DVD today. Here are reviews of the new Misery Collector’s Edition DVD and the 25th anniversary edition of Cujo.

Here’s a new behind-the-scenes video from the set of The Mist.

According to a new press release, the upcoming (November 7) 240-page hardcover edition of Gunslinger Born will “present fans with exciting bonus material. Leading the way is a series of all-new illustrations from Lee. Additional added-value features will be unveiled in the coming weeks.”

“They’re all gonna laugh at you.” A year after Jaws made audiences afraid to go in the water, Carrie raised similar fears about the high school prom. Schedule permitting, director Brian De Palma will participate in a post-screening discussion about the film when it hits the big screen at the Academy Theater at Lighthouse International in Manhattan (111 E 59th between Park & Lexington Ave) on October 15 as part of the Monday Nights with Oscar series. Tickets are $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with a valid ID, and may be reserved by calling 1-888-778-7575. Doors open at 7 p.m. All seating is unreserved. Featuring a new print from the Academy film archive.

King will be making two appearances in October to promote the Best American Short Stories (2007) which he edited. He will be at Symphony Space in New York on October 10th and in Cambridge, MA on October 16th. His introduction from the anthology was published on Sunday in the NY Times Book Review.

Here’s an interesting blog entry titled Stephen King’s Shoddy Cinematic Status.

News From The Dead Zone #76

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

The producers of The Talisman miniseries for TNT got together and looked at their scripts and realized something. This movie is going to cost a lot of money. Due to budgetary issues, the six-hour event has been put on hold, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Mick Garris is quoted in the article as saying that ABC couldn’t afford the four-hour version he wrote back in 2000. This doesn’t mean the project is dead, but 2008 looks like a big question mark right now.

Here is the first trailer for The Mist.

Here are a couple of good interviews/articles about The Long Road Home, the second cycle in the Marvel graphic novel series: Comic Book Resource and Newsarama. The series debuts in February 2008.

Jim Shepard will join Richard Russo and Karen Russell, author of St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves at an evening hosted by Stephen King and The Best American Short Stories 2007 series editor Heidi Pitlor on Oct 16 at 8pm at Memorial Church, 1 Harvard Yard, Cambridge. Admission is $15, which includes purchase of the book. Tickets will go on sale mid-September at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Ave., Cambridge.

Here is the Publishers Weekly review of The Best American Short Stories 2007 (October 10):

King admits in his introduction that he prefers “all-out emotionally assaultive” stories to those that might appeal to his “critical nose.” Yet King’s selections are right at home among those of recent BASS editors Lorrie Moore, Michael Chabon and Walter Mosley: John Barth’s darkly comic take on aging and mortality; a child’s unforgiving view of her alcoholic parent from T.C. Boyle; an exploration of the grief of a crystal meth addict by William Gay (a writer King notes is a relatively obscure “American talent”); Lauren Groff’s piece about a polio survivor learning to swim during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic (based loosely on real-life Olympian Ethelda Bleibtrey); Roy Kesey’s imagining of an airport terminal as microcosm of global politics; and Karen Russell’s halfway house for the human children of werewolves (“their condition skips a generation”). Stories drawing on horror and on Maine add a personal King touch to this year’s cull of 20, taken from among the 4,000 that series editor Pitlor read last year in periodicals. The book reflects the variety of substance and style and the consistent quality that readers have come to expect from the series, now in its 30th year.

Misery: Collector’s Edition (October 2) will retail for $19.98 and include the following extras: Feature commentary by Rob Reiner, Feature commentary by Screenwriter William Goldman, “Misery Loves Company” featurette, “Marc Shaiman’s Music Misery Tour” featurette,  “Diagnosing Annie Wilkes” featurette (new),  “Advice For The Stalked” featurette(new),  “Profile Of A Stalker” featurette(new),  “Celebrity Stalkers” featurette(new),  “Anti-Stalking Laws” featurette(new), Original Theatrical Trailer, Original Theatrical Teaser.

Winners in the creative arts categories of the 59th annual Primetime Emmy Awards from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences: Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic Score): “Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King: Battleground,” TNT. Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or Special: “Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King: Battleground,” TNT.

News From The Dead Zone #75

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

August 17, 2007: Fangoria reports that Mick Garris will be directing a feature film adaptation of Bag of Bones, written by Matt Venne and coproduced with Mark Sennet. Garris is also producing the film version of From a Buick 8, directed by Tobe Hooper and said the he would love to direct Gerald’s Game, his favorite King novel.

Read King’s thoughts about the ending of the Harry Potter series (J.K. Rowling’s Ministry of Magic) and another EW column: The Joy of Looking, or: What I learned from watching Ellen.

This slipped under some people’s radars, but The Gunslinger’s Guidebook is now out. It was delayed by a week due to some binding issues.

You can now read an excerpt from The Science of Stephen King at the publisher’s web site.

1408 will be released on DVD on October 2, with deleted scenes, featurettes and an alternate ending.

Best American Short Stories will be out on October 10. Edited by King, contributors include Richard Russo, John Barth, Jim Shepard, Alice Munro, William Gay, T.C. Boyle, Mary Gordon, Kate Walbert, Ann Beattie, and Louis Auchincloss.

“The Gingerbread Girl” will be released on Simon & Schuster audio next May.

The Shining: Special Edition DVD will be out from Warner Home Video on October 23. Disc One: Audio commentary by Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown and Kubrick biographer John Baxter. Disc Two: The Making of The Shining, with optional commentary by Vivian Kubrick (from the previous DVD),  new View from The Overlook: Crafting The Shining featurette, new The Visions of Stanley Kubrick featurette,  new Wendy Carlos, Composer featurette.

News From The Dead Zone #74

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

It’s been a couple of weeks since the last update, partly because I was away at NECON and partly because there hasn’t been a lot of news to warrant an update. Since today is the release day of the final installation of Gunslinger Born, I thought I’d catch you up on all the little things that have arisen in the interim.

King introduces three of the page-turners he selected for The Best American Short Stories 2007 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre in NY on October 10 at 7:30 pm. Each story delivers what King says he wants all stories to convey: a “sense of emotional involvement, of flipped-out amazement…like a big hot meteor screaming down from the Kansas sky.” Tickets available here.

John Mellencamp was in New York last week to attend workshop performances of The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, the musical play he’s written with King.

Here’s a new description of Duma Key, due out Jan 22, 2008:

Duma Key is the engaging, fascinating story of a man who discovers an incredible talent for painting after a freak accident in which he loses an arm. He moves to a ‘new life’ in Duma Key, off Florida’s West Coast; a deserted strip, part beach, part weed-tangled, owned by a patroness of the arts whose twin sisters went missing in the 1920s.Duma Key is where out-of-season hurricanes tears lives apart and a powerful undertow lures lost and tormented souls. Here Freemantle is inspired to paint the amazing sunsets. But soon the paintings become predictive, even dangerous. Freemantle knows the only way forward is to discover what happened to the twin sisters — and what is the secret of the strange old lady who holds the key?

The story is about friendship, about the bond between a father and his daughter. And about memory, truth and art. It is also is a metaphor for the life and inspiration of a writer, and an exploration of the nature, power and influence of fiction.

If you haven’t had a chance to get to the comic shop yet, here’s a preview of Issue 7 of Gunslinger Born. The Gunslinger’s Guidebook is also supposed to come out today, but I’ve heard rumors that a binding error might delay its delivery. Lilja reports that the title of the second story arc is The Long Road Home. The first issue in that arc will be released in February 2008.

Here is an audio recording of The Mist presentation done at Comic-Con last week. Director Frank Darabont revealed that he plans to adapt The Long Walk once he has completed Fahrenheit 451. Since he doesn’t have a script for The Long Walk yet, I think it’s a safe bet we’re a couple of years away from production on that movie.

Eli Roth told Comic-Con that his adaptation of Cell is on hold. The script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski has yet to be completed and he is currently at work on a movie full of fake movie trailers. Roth hopes to enlist King’s help in a cameo role when he finally gets around to making Cell.

Ghost Hunters: Live From the Shining Hotel, which originally aired on SciFi last May, will be released on DVD on October 9, 2007 and is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com. Jason, Grant and the Ghost Hunters team revisit the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado for a live Halloween-night investigation.

Yet another King movie is getting the “special edition” DVD treatment. On October 2, a new Collector’s Edition DVD of Misery is coming from MGM Home Video through Fox Home Video. The disc will include a new audio commentary by director Rob Reiner and scripter William Goldman, plus additional behind-the-scenes material.

Rocky Wood warns about a new book showing up that is written by Stephen King…just not that Stephen King. The book is A Master Class in Brand Planning.

Have you been keeping up with The Dead Zone on USA? Season 6 has taken a number of interesting twists and I’m enjoying it. The new sheriff is a handful and Johnny and Sarah are finally getting to pick up where they left off over a decade earlier. Production moved to Montreal, and I’m seeing some influences from that move in the scenery and guest actors.

News From The Dead Zone #66

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

For the first time in many years, Stephen King will be playing with the Rock Bottom Remainders again. The show takes place on Friday, June 1st at Webster Hall in New York City. The show is being billed as their 15th anniversary “Still Younger Than Keith” concert. Other band members and guests include Dave Barry, Amy Tan, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Mitch Albom, Frank McCourt, Andy Borowitz and Roger McGuinn from the Byrds. The concert is a benefit for 826NYC, the New York affiliate of the organization Dave Eggers founded to get kids writing; the AAP’s Get Caught Reading program; and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression. On May 31, some of the RBR band members will be appearing on Good Morning America to talk up the charities the band is supporting.

Among those paying tribute to King at the gala in Toronto on June 8th will be Margaret Atwood and Clive Barker, and former Spin editor Chuck Klosterman is handling the evening’s on-stage interview.

King’s newest story, “The Gingerbread Girl,” will appear in Esquire’s July issue, on stands June 15. Here’s how it’s described on King’s web site: “In the emotional aftermath of her baby’s sudden death, Em starts running. Soon she runs from her husband, to the airport, down to the Florida Gulf and out to the loneliest stretch of Vermillion Key, where her father has offered the use of a conch shack he has kept there for years. Em keeps up her running—barefoot on the beach, sneakers on the road—and sees virtually no one. This is doing her all kinds of good, until one day she makes the mistake of looking into the driveway of a man named Pickering. Pickering also enjoys the privacy of Vermillion Key, but the young women he brings there suffer the consequences…”

The Publishers Weekly review of Blaze is now up at Amazon. The Booklist review is available at Lilja’s Library. Publication date is June 12th.

The King-edited 2007 Best American Short Stories is now up for pre-order at Amazon. It features 20 stories selected from over 400 King read last year, along with a list of 100 others worthy of mention that didn’t make the final cut.

On July 28, The Stand by Me Celebration and Rolling Roadshow invites fans to re-live the classic coming-of-age film in Brownsville, Oregon where it was filmed. Fans can re-live the film during a 1-day celebration that includes viewing the film on a giant outdoor screen, a blueberry pie eating contest, 1950s vintage car cruise-in, sock hop, and a scavenger hunt for the dead body. There will be guest appearances by cast members.

Issue 5 of The Gunslinger Born comes out on June 6th. Lilja has the sketch and variant covers on his web site.

The Dead Zone launches its sixth season on USA Network Sunday, June 17 at 10:00PM/9:00 Central.

News From The Dead Zone #61

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

Rich Chizmar and I got to visit the set of The Mist in Shreveport, Louisiana on Thursday and Friday last week. I posted a lengthy “travelogue” of the trip on my Live Journal. While I was in Shreveport, this article was published in the local newspaper: A bad day at the market’ is fun for creators of The Mist I’m writing a set visit report for Rue Morgue magazine, which will probably be in their next issue. Set videographer Constantine Nasr put together a video blog (a webisode) from day 10 of filming that premiered at Ain’t It Cool News and later appeared at Jo-Blo.

I was interviewed recently for this article about the Dark Tower in the LSU Reveille. It seemed apropos that I was in Louisiana when it appeared. Also apropos that I took exit 19 from the highway to get to The Mist set every morning.

Amazon has a page up for The Science of Stephen King: From Carrie to Cell, The Terrifying Truth Behind the Horror Masters Fiction by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg, due out from Wiley at the end of August. I had a chance to read this book in manuscript a few weeks ago, and my lengthy blurb is available on the Amazon page, along with comments from Peter Straub, Stephen Spignesi and F. Paul Wilson.

Postscripts 10 should be shipping soon, with the new King story “Graduation Afternoon.” I strongly recommend that you skip King’s introductory paragraph until after you read the story itself, because it reveals an image that is best left undiscovered until you get to that part of the story.

King is the editor for the new edition of The Best American Short Stories, an anthology that is organized by a well-known guest editor each year. King said he picked 20 stories to be featured in the 2007 edition, which will be out in October, after reading more than 400. King also said the book will contain a list of 100 short stories that weren’t chosen for the collection but made the “honor roll.” He wrote in the introduction to the collection: “There isn’t a single one … that didn’t delight me, that didn’t make me want to crow ‘Oh man, you gotta read this!’ to someone. I knew it would be that way. That’s why I took the job. Talent does more than come out; it bursts out, again and again, doing exuberant cartwheels while the band plays ‘Stars and Stripes Forever.'”

The Gunslinger’s Guidebook, a concordance for the Marvel graphic novel series, has been pushed back to August. Co-author Anthony Flamini posted this on the Marvel DT board: “Yeah, The Gunslinger’s Guidebook was originally envisioned as a handbook focusing on Roland’s Hambry adventure and everything that occurred prior to that. But as Robin Furth and I discussed things in greater detail, we decided that we also wanted to feature profiles on the all-new Mid-World characters who would be debuting for the first time in the comic adaptation following the Hambry story arc . . . characters such as the ferocious General Grissom (of the blue-faced barbarians). So that’s the primary reason for the book’s delay — but you’ll be getting a superior product packed with much more original content! The wait will be worth it!”

The first issue of The Gunslinger Born has been reprinted with a new Quesada cover. I don’t know how frequently this happens in comic-dom. Issue 3 will be released next Wednesday.

Eli Roth told SCI FI WIRE that King endorsed his version of Cell. “My first question when I adapted it was can I deviate from the book?” Roth said. “It’s Stephen King. Am I going to piss off Stephen King? He was mad at Stanley Kubrick, I don’t want him mad at me. And, finally, Stephen King was like, ‘Do whatever you want.'” Roth warned that he would be making changes to the story. “I love the opening [scene],” Roth said. “But I also want to keep, … not necessarily that same chaotic tone, but I want to keep the tension of the opening 40 pages of the book going throughout the whole film and introduce other elements. Because I think the book, for me, where it loses tension is where suddenly you don’t feel like the phone crazies are trying to kill them. … I find that it’s finding other ways to make it so you still feel the tension that any second you could get killed [and] carrying that throughout the whole film.” He hopes to get King to do a cameo. “There’s always room. That’s the good thing about Cell. Because it’s like crazy people running around trying to [kill you] It’s like everybody gets a cameo.” He hopes to shoot the movie in his native Boston, where the book is set.

News From The Dead Zone #10

Breaking News from the Dead Zone

Cell continues to do well, retaining its #1 position on the main bestseller lists.

People in Florida will have another chance to see King at a public event. He is filling in at the Seven Days of Opening Nights arts festival on February 26th at Florida State University after Richard Russo had to cancel because of a family medical crisis. Tickets purchased already for the Russo event will be honored. To purchase tickets, see this page. King has also agreed to conduct an informal masters class with graduate students from FSU’s film school and Creative Writing Program.

Locus magazine announced that King will edit The Best American Short Stories: 2007 for new series editor Heidi Pitlor at Houghton Mifflin. He will also write an introduction for a new edition of Dandelion Wine from PS Publishing.