The Science of Stephen King Archives

News From The Dead Zone #87

Cemetery Dance OnlineNovember 29, 2007July 12, 2016Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneBev Vincent, Duma Key, Fangoria, Featured, News from the Dead Zone, Stephen King, The Colorado Kid, The Dark Tower, The Dead Zone, The Mist, The Science of Stephen King, The TalismanLeave a comment

The New York Academy of Sciences is hosting the following presentation The Science of Stephen King: From Carrie to Cell, The Terrifying Truth Behind the Horror Master’s Fiction tonight.

This new Q&A has been getting a lot of press, mostly because of King’s “waterboarding” comments. King also talked to Nightline about his childhood, career and the secret to a successful horror film. ABC news has an interesting from book to screen photo essay.

The Mist took in $13 million dollars during the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It was a ninth place opening, but the film’s budget was only $18 million, so in five days they’ve earned back most of their money. Here’s a NY Times interview with Darabont and King, an interview with Marcia Gay Harden, an interview with the extras, pictures from the premiere and “Ms Mod’s” review — by the moderator of King’s message board, a USA Today article, and an MTV interview with King. My set visit report is a Cemetery Dance free read, but beware of the spoiler notice at the top of the page. I have interviews with Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden and Toby Jones. My interview with Frank Darabont in Rue Morgue #73 should be on stands for a few more days. For my thoughts on the film, visit my LiveJournal.

To see exclusive storyboards from The Mist, visit Fangoria.com. They also have an exclusive video interview with writer/director Darabont here, as well as some cool clips of Darabont and King talking together here. Star Thomas Jane sounds off here. Check out all the articles in Fearful Features too, and the cover story of the current issue of FANGORIA (on newsstands now).

CD’s very own Glenn Chadbourne said he spotted his t-shirt design featuring Doug Graves in The Mist. Glenn said he heard on King’s radio station WKIT that multiple t-shirts were used in the movie because of all the blood.

Fear.net has a nice interview with Peter, wherein he talks about T3, The Talisman movie and his next book. Note: this video is only available in North America.

Promotional bookmarks for The Long Road Home, the second Marvel graphic novel series, indicate that the launch will be in March 2008. The hardcover version of The Gunslinger Born was the #1 hardcover graphic novel on multiple sales charts and Amazon.com’s editors’ picked it as the #1 Comic & Graphic Novel of 2007.

“This is everything a hardcover collection of this type should be, and more,” gushed Joe Hartlaub of BookReporter.Com, who furthered described Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born HC as, “a beautiful hardcover edition that pays proper homage to the work within.”

According to Entertainment Weekly, ABC is planning a new drama series that’s loosely based on The Colorado Kid. King describes the script, from The Dead Zone‘s Sam Ernst and Jim Dunn, as “closer to The X-Files than Supernatural.” King will have a small stake in the show (currently dubbed Sanctuary) should it go to series, “but it’s not something that keeps me up nights, the way Kingdom Hospital did.”

When you read Duma Key in January, check out the epigraph, then back up to the copyright page and look at the acknowledgements for the song “Dig” by Shark Puppy. You’ll see some familiar names, I’m sure.

News From The Dead Zone #84

Cemetery Dance OnlineOctober 26, 2007July 12, 2016Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneAyana, Best American Short Stories 2007, Bev Vincent, Cell, Featured, Home Delivery, Mute, News from the Dead Zone, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Stephen King, The Science of Stephen KingLeave a comment

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 #75

Cemetery Dance OnlineAugust 17, 2007July 12, 2016Stephen King News from the Dead Zone1408, Bag of Bones, Best American Short Stories 2007, Bev Vincent, Entertainment Weekly Column, Fangoria, Featured, News from the Dead Zone, Stephen King, The Dark Tower, The Gingerbread Girl, The Science of Stephen King, The ShiningLeave a comment

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 #73

Cemetery Dance OnlineJuly 13, 2007July 12, 2016Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneBev Vincent, Carrie, Cujo, Duma Key, Entertainment Weekly Column, Featured, Golden Years, Misery, Needful Things, News from the Dead Zone, Stephen King, The Dark Half, The Langoliers, The Mist, The Science of Stephen King, The Shawshank Redemption, The StandLeave a comment

Happy Friday the 13^th! Someone posted a couple of deleted scenes from Shawshank Redemption on YouTube. They’re interesting, but their ultimate destination, the cutting room floor, was the best place for them, in my opinion.

On July 27th at San Diego Comic-Con, Frank Darabont will be showing clips from The Mist and holding a panel with stars Thomas Jane and Laurie Holden, along with special effects gurus Greg Nicotero (KNB) and Everett Burell (CafeFX). Other cast members may be along for the panel. Darabont is having 3000 teaser posters printed up for the event to hand out at the show.

Here’s the cover for The Science of Stephen King, which will be out at the end of August from Wiley.

Lilja reports that Duma Key will be approximately 592 pages long and that King will narrate the audio edition.

King’s most recent Entertainment Weekly column is about the end of the Harry Potter series: Goodbye, Harry

Here’s a review of the new special collector’s edition DVD of Cujo. A new DVD boxed set this month contains Carrie, The Dark Half, Misery and Needful Things. Three TV adaptations will be released in another boxed set on September 25, including The Stand, Golden Years and The Langoliers.

News From The Dead Zone #61

Cemetery Dance OnlineMarch 27, 2007July 12, 2016Stephen King News from the Dead ZoneBest American Short Stories 2007, Bev Vincent, Cell, Featured, Graduation Afternoon, News from the Dead Zone, Stephen King, The Dark Tower, The Mist, The Science of Stephen KingLeave a comment

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.

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