Stephen King

Back in October, we brought you word of another twist in the tangled and lengthy vampire legend, American Vampire. Written Scott Snyder, with art by Rafael Albuquerque, American Vampire is a new monthly comic. Oh, and they're getting some help from Stephen King. Since it's tough to find any water in that well, Snyder and King are going in a different direction and introducing new strain of vampire-a more brutish and violent type, without the trappings of Eastern European vampire lore, hence the title.

The first story arc will play out over 5 issues with 2 different tales. Snyder helms one, while King himself does his first bit of written (not adapted) work for a comic. After King eventually departs, they'll work their way through the first American vampire's various blood drinking shenanigans throughout various decades. I can only hope this means we'll get a nod to Hammer's Dracula AD 1972.

While Snyder's storyline is one set against the backdrop of the roaring 20's, it's King's that I'm looking forward to - a murderous cowboy by the name of Skinner Sweet. How can you not be intrigued by that?

But here's the best part - Jim Lee just released a preview of a variant cover he's worked up. King and Lee? And vampire cowboys? Yes, please. A thousand times, yes. Get a taste of it here. American Vampire is right around the corner. Grab one at your local comic shop on March 17th.

Let me be clear by saying that if you put shades of HP Lovecraft in anything, you have my complete attention. Horrors from beyond time and space? Let's see it. Stephen King dipping his toes into something so blatantly Lovecraftian? Hell yes. Cthulu plushies? Want one. All of this amounts to me being seriously peeved at myself for not discovering this until now. You see, I fell off of the Stephen King train a while back. I still like the guy's work and know that he's produced some of the best bits of fiction in history.

That said, since what I will refer to as 'the Dreamcatcher Incident' transpired, I haven't been his biggest fan. Still, the guy keeps on turning out work of varying qualities. I haven't paid too much attention to most of it, but back in 2008, he released a short story collection entitled Just After Sunset. Within was a previously unpublished work called N. It was adapted into an illustrated webseries even before the book's publication (a webseries I will be devouring moments after this article).

Now, Marvel is bringing the story into comics form in the shape of a 4 issue limited series written by Marc Guggenheim, one of the bigger writing names in the industry. What's more is that they're using artwork from Alex Maleev who, after his stretch on Daredevil, can really do no wrong.

It's an epistolary tale (again, Lovecraft) of a psychiatrist who falls into the same trap of madness and obsession as one of his patients. They discover an assortment of mysterious stones in the desolate Ackerman's field that may be a portal holding back a creature of unrefined evil.

It appears as though things are moving forward on a planned remake of Mary Lambert's Pet Sematary. THR is reporting that Matthew Greenberg has been hired to craft a new screenplay for the project, making this the scribe's second foray into Stephen King territory. Geenberg previously brought 1408 to the big screen.

The 1989 film was an adaptation of a novel that author Stephen King refused to publish for a number of years--saying that he felt it crossed lines better left alone--about a family who discovers that a nearby pet cemetery has the ability to bring the dead back to life. When the family's youngest child is killed, the father takes the corpse to the graveyard and the kid comes back from the dead--only it's not the same kid who died, but something much darker and malevolent.

News of plans to remake Pet Sematary leave me feeling largely indifferent. Lambert's original is a fun, if ultimately average, horror film that never really lives up to the novel that inspired it. It's a middle of the pack King adaptation, and I certainly feel as though a remake has the potential to improve upon the first filmed version of the story. That being said, do we really need a retelling of this tale? All I know is that whoever winds up directing it better leave the "Gage slashes the neighbor's Achilles Tendon" scene in--because that's what everyone remembers when the topic of this film comes up.

You probably recognize Peter Straub as 'the guy who wrote 'the Talisman with Stephen King'. That's a fair assessment. You're not alone. That's his big claim to fame, although he does have a storied career in fiction of all sorts dating back to the early 70's. If the Talisman ever makes it to the big screen and is done any sort of justice, expect rapturous shouts from many of the folks here on Horror Squad, myself included. It's been in and out of the Hollywood grinder for a while, so don't hold your breath. Aside from that, film adaptations of Straub's work have been slim. His first dip into the horror pool, Julia, was adapted in the late 70's as Full Circle. One horror fans are likely more familiar with, however, is Ghost Story, starring a dance-free Fred Astaire.

Now, the Pangea Film Group has announced that they're bringing his 1980 novel, Shadowland, to theaters. Shadowland lies in the gray area between horror and fantasy. It's a story of two young teens, Tom and Del, who go to stay with an odd uncle. Oh, and the uncle is a sorceror. PFG describes it as a cross between Dead Poet's Society and the Shining, which is probably the elevator pitch that got some studio exec to fund it.

At the helm is a fellow by the name of Erik Canuel, whom you all know from his work on the eleven episodes of Big Wolf on Campus. And who can forget the fine work of screenwriter Larry Leahy, from those groundbreaking Transformers episodes in the mid 1980s. If that's not enough to sell you, it should be noted that the full title is 'Shadowland 3D'. Now that you've gagged on my snark, discuss. . .

I'm not sure if it qualifies as a trend (and if so, who started it), but I feel as though I've been seeing more and more fan made minimalist posters cropping up online. Recently, Ibraheem Youssef's Quentin Tarantino tribute posters made their way around the webs and into my heart for their stylish and succinct summation of Tarantino's filmography (my favorite is the Kill Bill Volume 1 tribute). But just when I thought fan made posters couldn't get any better, along comes Flickr user Bee Combs with his set of Stephen King minimalist movie posters.

His Flickr page says he's planning on making prints of these available in the future, causing me to desperately hope such a promise doesn't end up being a tease. I would gladly own the entire set, but if I had to pick favorites... I'm going with Pet Sematary and It, the latter of which has a subtle brilliance to it that makes me want to stand up and give it the '80s movie slow clap.

Head on over here to check out the goods.

While it seems unlikely that anyone will ever place Stephen King's 2009 short story collection Just After Sunset on the same lofty pedestal as his earlier classics Skeleton Crew and Night Shift, that doesn't mean that his latest didn't feature some very good stories (stories that reminded me of why I loved King in the first place). My favorite of the bunch was easily his Lovecraftian nightmare, N.

News broke yesterday that Marvel will be adapting N. as a four part miniseries beginning in March of 2010. You can check out the announcement over at King's Official Site.

If you've not read the story (you should...) here's what it's about:

N. "tell the story of something terrifying hidden in Ackerman's Field. A bizarre arrangement of eight stones keeps a nightmare contained, but when--in the eye of an unfortunate beholder--the eight stones become seven, the fabric of what we think is real begins to shred, and an unbearable doom seizes the mind."

Marc Guggenheim and Alex Maleev will handle the adaptation duties--which should be a good fit since they created a motion comic version of the same story that appeared for Marvel online.

Gotta love the book tour Stephen King is currently on to promote Under the Dome. First he tells a crowd in Maryland that he has written a draft of the television screenplay for Cell, that HBO wants to do an Under the Dome miniseries, and that he is working on new Talisman and The Dark Tower novels. And now an even bigger bombshell comes: he's got a plan for a sequel to The Shining brewing in the back of his always-working mind.

But before getting to the news, I'd like to address the means by which it leaked out, which is equally interesting. While in Toronto, King followed up a 15-minute reading from Under the Dome with an hour long Q&A in a packed theater. The interviewer? David Cronenberg. Thinking about that taking place makes my heart hurt. My favorite director interviewing my favorite writer? What kind of cruel world hides such an event from me?

Fortunately the books portion of the Torontoist was there to cover the event and they've got all the details surrounding The Shining sequel Cronenberg and King talked about, tentatively titled Doctor Sleep. King explained that he had spent the last summer wondering what Danny Torrance would be like as a grown up and how the emotional scars carved into his psyche by the Overlook Hotel would have impacted the path of his otherwise happy life. The author charts the basic premise thusly:

I came home last night expecting to find a package at my front door containing the new Stephen King book Under the Dome. Now I think I'm going to have to request Amazon not leave new King books outside as their heft could easily be used by a burglar to knock my door of its hinges; even after his alleged 'retirement', King is still pumping out thousand page books. I love him for it, but man, I had to start a second To Read pile on my desk out of fear the first one would topple over with the added girth of this new behemoth and kill a cat.

But with a new King book comes new King happenings and the author was recently on hand for an Under the Dome signing in MD, which resulted in three juicy nuggets of info winding up on Lilja's Library. First up, when asked if his new novel about a small town in Maine that finds itself trapped within its city limits by a forcefield would be made into a movie, King said no, but that HBO was planning on turning it into a miniseries. Unfortunately there are no details beyond that.

He did however mention that he will be writing a new Dark Tower novel that will follow a few of his series' supporting players somewhere between the events of books 5 and 6. King, however, won't even begin writing the new entry, titled The Wind Through the Key Hole, for another eight months, so if you haven't read The Dark Tower, you've still got time to catch up.

The third major bit of news concerns the Talisman. King confirmed that the recent film adaptation attempt has died, but that Peter Straub and he are definitely teaming up together for a third Talisman novel. Some minor news beyond that, such as where the TV adaptation of Cell stands, slipped out as well, so click on to watch the full Q&A session.

For years, I've been reading stories about Stephen King proclaiming that he's retiring. These are invariably followed by a story trumpeting his latest project. King, in his quasi-retirement state, writes more than most of us do as full time scribblers. Say what you will about the quality of his body of work (I still believe King's writing can be divided into two distinct eras--Early King, which comprises the books he wrote up to and including It--and Later King, which is everything after. Early King is the best by far...) but it's amazing that he's stayed as prolific as he has, particularly in the wake of his near fatal author-vs-vehicle encounter.

I don't know that the release of a new King novel is quite the event it used to be, but the horror community still takes note of it. To celebrate the arrival of his latest novel, Under the Dome (which hits shelves on November 10th and weighs in at a massive 1,088 pages), Entertainment Weekly has posted a video of the master himself reading an excerpt from his newest tale of terror. Dread Central shared it with the masses recently, but we've got you covered in case you missed it.

Dread Central has also alerted us (thanks to the folks at King super-site Lilja's Library) that the author's short story "Premium Harmony" can be read in its entirety online (and for free!) over at The New Yorker. That's a lot of King for one week, but I'm a firm believer that too much of a good thing is better than too little.

Click the handy "read more" button to jump to the video of King reading from Under the Dome.

(Old-school reprint from Cinematical. Happy Halloween!)


Wow, this is going to be hard for two reasons. On one hand I'll find it tough to rank my very favorite Stephen King movies because the ones I love ... I really love. On the other hand there's been a whole LOT of rotten King flicks churned out over the years -- and I actually like some of those, too! But as a lifelong King kook I think I'm able to separate the wheat from the chaff -- even if, yes it's true, I actually sort of enjoyed Tobe Hooper's The Mangler. (It's just so enjoyably stupid!) So with that I bring you my own personal picks for the best Stephen King adaptations yet (not counting TV shows, mini-series or short films).

Christine (1983) -- Yes, the book is better and sure, a few important things were monkeyed with on the way from page to screen, but there's so much I do like about John Carpenter's adaptation that it makes the speed bumps a lot easier to handle. From the filmmaker's creepy score to an excellent lead performance by Keith Gordon, the flick's just got an admirably bad-ass attitude. Stripped down to its essence, Christine is not much more than another "geek fights back" revenge-centric horror flick, but Carpenter makes the movie his own with a solid production design, a few excellent set pieces and a pace that moves at an appreciable clip. Plus that car is just so damn cool.

Pet Sematary (1989) -- Just about every hardcore horror geek I know holds Pet Sematary in pretty high regard, and just one visit with this bleak and unflinching piece of pulp horror will explain why. It's a remarkably grim and unapologetic tale of dead cats, cute kids and a patch of land that, well, it resurrects dead tissue is what it does. And if you've read even one "back from the dead" story, then you know they never end well. (Pet Sematary, both the book and the movie, packs one doozy of a dark denouement.) OK, so maybe Dale Midkiff and Denise Crosby aren't exactly the rock-solid thespians you'd want for a screenplay this devilishly mean-spirited, but the pair do what they can, plus they've got good ol' Fred Gwynne supplying background color by the bucketful. (And don't forget about poor sickly Zelda! Yuck.)

Carrie (1976) -- The very first (and arguably one of the very best) of the Stephen King movies, Carrie hit the screens courtesy of a young Brian De Palma, and the director pulled out a big bag of Hitchcockian tricks to bring the story to the silver screen. It's about a socially bankrupt young girl who tries to cobble together a normal social life ... much to the chagrin of some snotty she-bullies and a resoundingly devout lunatic of a mother. Some might say the flick takes a long while to get where it's going, but between the prom night finale and the graveside stinger, Carrie more than delivers its share of grisly goods. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie make it watchable all by themselves, but De Palma is the real star here. (OK, De Palma and a young, evil John Travolta.)