Bathroom Break

Remember the bathroom scene from that really crappy (pun intended) Stephen King adaptation DREAMCATCHER? Yeah, that's how I feel right now. Urggghhhh...

To cheer myself up, I read this spot-on review of the film over here:

mygeekblasphemy.com

DT 4.5

So how far out of the loop have I been when it comes to horror? How about this: I totally spaced off Stephen King's latest Dark Tower novel: THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE. My wife and I went out for my birthday - we happened to be browsing through a Barnes & Noble while waiting for restaurant reservations - when she says: "Do you have this book?" Pretty incredible, seeing as I'm as big of a Dark Tower fan as you're likely to find.

However, with that said - I'm not completely sold on this DT "4.5" concept. The series ended perfectly with the seventh and last book. Did we really need these two extra tales of Roland and his ka-tet? I guess I'm sort of looking at it like J.R.R. Tolkien's approach to Middle Earth, which he visited from several different perspectives (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Silmarillion, and others). While it's always nice see our old friends, Roland, Jake, Eddie, Susannah, and Oy - even though we already know their ultimate fate - the opening chapters kind of smack me as "Dark Tower Lite."

Strangely, I don't mind revisiting Roland and company once in awhile in short story format (as King did with "The Little Sisters of Eluria" in his book EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL.) Perhaps a full review is in order once I read the complete book. For now, check out Stephen King's newly revised Dark Tower website to learn all about THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE!

www.stephenking.com/darktower

11/22/63

I'm currently reading the latest book from horror scribe Stephen King: 11/22/63. While only half-way through it, I'm relieved to find that so far he only deals very briefly with Lee Harvey Oswald. Of course, I'm expecting that to change once I dive into the second act, which is frustrating when you see how embarrassingly naive King is about the events of that day, and with how thick a brush he paints Oswald as the one and only assassin - mentioning 'crack-pot conspiracy theories,' but then failing to talk about any of them save for one sentence about there possibly being an Oswald double in Dallas (one of the more far-fetched theories put out there). The fact that he based his conclusions off of Gerald Posner's cherry-picked JFK book CASE CLOSED pretty much says it all. King doesn't want to believe that something greater was behind that day than a deranged loner with a gun, so he simply writes history that way - even going so far as to say that he's 98% sure Oswald did it, maybe even 99%.

Okay Steve. Keep drinking the Cool-Aid.

For more information about the events of that day, might I direct you to just a few of the well researched books which ask the important questions that King ignores in his work of fiction:

CROSSFIRE by Jim Marrs
COUNTERPLOT by Jay Epstein
PLAUSIBLE DENIAL and RUSH TO JUDGEMENT, both by Mark Lane
JFK by L. Fletcher Prouty
THE TEXAS CONNECTION by Craig I. Zirbel

Barf-O-Rama

This has been my house for the past two days...

Radio King

Author Stephen King offers left-leaning talk show

Horror writer Stephen King offers left-leaning talk show for 2 Maine radio stations

BANGOR, Maine (AP) -- Stephen King is offering an antidote to what he sees as the biases of right-wing radio talk shows by hiring a former Green Party vice presidential candidate to co-host a morning talk show on two stations he owns. In a rare public appearance, the horror writer held a news conference Tuesday in Bangor, Maine, at the headquarters of his three-station Zone Radio network.

"The Pulse Morning Show" will be co-hosted by 50-year-old Pat LaMarche and 43-year-old Don Cookson, a former television reporter. LaMarche ran for vice president as a member of the Green Party in 2004. During the news conference King said, "We're a little to the left, but we're right." The show will begin airing on WZON-AM and WZON-FM at 6 a.m. on Sept. 12.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Author-Stephen-King-offers-apf-2302925734.html?x=0&.v=1

Plug Pulled

Word is coming out that the Ron Howard directed, Brian Grazer produced THE DARK TOWER movie/TV project has had its plug pulled by Universal. According to Deadline, the studio is passing on the Stephen King penned project for good - a huge setback for Howard and Grazer (and maybe what it takes to get them off the project...one can hope, no?) Said to be as huge in scope as THE LORD OF THE RINGS series, THE DARK TOWER was set to be a gi-normous multimedia endeavor unlike anything seen before.

The last news we had heard was that Javier Bardem had committed to the role (obviously a talented, award-winning actor - but not right for Roland in my eyes), but based on Akiva Goldsman's script and a steadily inflating budget, Universal hesitated on the massive scope of the project, cutting costs and only committing to one TV series and a single film.

As a die-hard fan of Roland and his ka-tet, THE DARK TOWER has a special place in my heart and the Howard/Grazer combination just never felt right to me. I would much rather a small, independent take on the books done with passion than a soulless, bloated, Hollywood movie that has forgotten the face of its father.

81

The incomparable Stephen King is set to road-trip to Crazyville with a new eBook from Simon and Schuster called MILE 81, which will be available to download on September 1st.

The Plot: At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop, a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It’s the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother, who’s supposed to be looking out for him, heads off to the gravel pit to play “paratroopers over the side.”

Pete, armed only with the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out. Not much later, a mud-covered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn’t been any rain in New England for over a week) veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that says “closed, no services.” The driver’s door opens but nobody gets out.

Doug Clayton, an insurance man from Bangor, is driving his Prius to a conference in Portland. On the backseat are his briefcase and suitcase and in the passenger bucket is a King James Bible, what Doug calls “the ultimate insurance manual,” but it isn’t going to save Doug when he decides to be the Good Samaritan and help the guy in the broken down wagon. He pulls up behind it, puts on his four-ways, and then notices that the wagon has no plates.

Ten minutes later, Julianne Vernon, pulling a horse trailer, spots the Prius and the wagon, and pulls over. Julianne finds Doug Clayton’s cracked cell phone near the wagon door – and gets too close herself. By the time Pete Simmons wakes up from his vodka nap, there are a half a dozen cars at the Mile 81 rest stop. Two kids – Rachel and Blake Lussier –and one horse named Deedee are the only living left. Unless you maybe count the wagon.

You'll be able to pre-order the eBook directly from Simon & Schuster soon for only $2.99. It will also contain an excerpt from King's upcoming novel 11/22/63.

Unhappy Birthday

Pennywise is back! How cool is this? Stephen King's awesome novel IT is celebrating its 25th anniversary. In honor of the occasion Cemetery Dance Publications has put together a limited, special edition of the novel.

While the rarest editions have already sold out (of course!), there are still copies of the deluxe oversized hardcover gift edition to be had if you've got an extra wad of cash laying around. The cover art is pictured above. It's limited to only 2,750 copies and will cost you dearly at $125 a pop, but it has some pretty nifty features to make it worth your hard earned deneros. They include:

• New afterword by Stephen King detailing why he wrote the book
• Deluxe oversized design (7" x 10") featuring two color interior printing
• Wrap-around full color cover artwork by Glen Orbik
• Nearly thirty pieces of interior artwork by Alan M. Clark and Erin Wells
• High-quality embossed endpapers and fine bindings

FYI...This version of the book will NOT be available at retailers like Barnes & Noble, Borders, etc., but you can pick up a copy directly from Cemetery Dance!

http://www.cemeterydance.com/

11.22.63

This doesn't come out until November of this year, but the dust jacket was revealed for Stephen King's latest: 11/22/63. As a student of the assassination, I've read dozens of books on the subject and studied the case very closely. Along with the majority of Americans, I know without a shadow of a doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald was the patsy he claimed to be. Let's hope King gets this right and doesn't succumb to what our 'history books' claim: that Oswald acted alone with an impossible shot on a faulty rifle (and a magic bullet). After reading the official synopsis, I'm having serious doubts. Here's the lowdown:

The synopsis: Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

Zombie King

I think this news falls under the 'pretty cool' category: genius horror scribe Stephen King is in talks to pen a script for Frank Darabont's THE WALKING DEAD series on AMC. I think this is just what the show needs, for as great as the first season was, the final episode seemed like kind of a let-down to me. I think King is the man to give this program the shot in the arm it needs. Here is the official story:

Stephen King in talks to write an episode of AMC's zombie series
by Darren Franich

AMC’s zombie sensation The Walking Dead might be getting a serious scare injection on its writing staff for next season. Iconic horror novelist (and former EW columnist) Stephen King has confirmed with EW that he’s currently in talks to write an episode of the post-apocalyptic series. Dead is executive-produced by Frank Darabont, who has directed three films based on King’s work — four, if you count his 1983 short film The Woman in the Room — and King tells EW exclusively that Darabont “has expressed enthusiastic interest for season 2 or possibly 3.”

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/03/21/stephen-king-walking-dead-amc/

All Work And No Play

Our first real snowstorm of the season blew through yesterday and buried us in 10 inches of that cursed white stuff. For those who wonder about the likes and dislikes of Hallowzing, here's a little morsel of unusual information that you may not know about me: I HATE SNOW! Yes, I know I live in Minnesota - The Northstar Star - but that doesn't change the depth of my contempt for winter. Hide the axe someplace safe - this season can't end soon enough...

Bring on Spring!

The Man In Black Fled Across The Desert...

Huge news - looks like Stephen King's monumental work THE DARK TOWER is finally coming to the big screen! As a huge fan of King's masterwork, I'm thrilled - however, I can't say as I'm sold on Ron Howard directing. I realize this is too big of a job for someone like, say, Christopher Nolan or Peter Jackson to commit to, but... Ron Howard? Bleh. That does nothing for me. Sure, he's an oscar-winning director, but he just does not feel right to me. Too studio - too slick - too smiley. We need someone who can get gritty, down and dirty, just like the character of Roland. I'm hoping for the best, but my excitement is definitely tempered by the Howard/Grazer revelation.

The Dark Tower is a huge and epic series of books – so perhaps it's appropriate that it's getting a huge and epic adaptation. Deadline is reporting that Universal Pictures and NBC Universal Television Entertainment have closed a deal to adapt the famous Stephen King book series as both a movie trilogy and a TV series, which will be developed and produced together.

As reported back in April, the team behind A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code – Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman and Brian Grazer – are behind the adaptation, but it is only now being 100 percent confirmed that the rumored TV series is part of the deal.

Read more here:

http://movies.ign.com/articles/111/1119038p1.html

Billy vs. Morality

Just finished reading Stephen King's latest: 'Blockade Billy' (with the bonus story 'Morality.') It's a quite small book that you can easily read in one sitting - I enjoyed this national past-time tale, but had a few problems with the ending. First off - for something that is basically a long short story, King throws in A LOT of swear words - even for him. I know this isn't Shakespeare and you have to expect some degree of vulgarity with Mr. King's works, but this entry was particularly crass with f-bombs being dropped in every other paragraph. A small point - but one worth mentioning if you think this is going to be a nostalgic baseball tome like King's Faithful - or even his little league short story Head Down.

The other problem I had with the book was the ending. King develops a marvelous build-up which I expected to pay off in one of two ways: the supernatural or espionage (I was wrong on both counts). Instead, we get a more mundane finale that, while violent, failed to really answer the question of WHY, exactly, the team was completely erased from the history books - a plot point used to great effect in the promotion of the book. The team actually gets to finish the season - but no explanation is ever put forth as to why this major league baseball team was disbanded at the end of the 1957 season.

Still, I found Blockade Billy to be an engrossing tale - one that lover's of King and/or the great game of baseball should enjoy. Morality, on the other hand, was a brutal little story that truly shocked me (something King hasn't done often in recent years). Violent, edgy, full of tension - Morality reads like one of King's darker tales from his early days. Again avoiding the leap into the paranormal - something I think King does all to easily anymore - this grim tale is grounded in a perverse reality that you might not expect. Not to be read by those with a sensitive stomach, Morality comes out the real winner in the pages of Blockade Billy.