Mike Fleming at Deadline posted news Thursday that Stephen King has granted Tate Taylor an option to adapt and direct his novel, Joyland. Interesting, since the novel is not yet published. Tate Taylor and John Norris will produce through the Wyolah Films banner.
Fleming includes this summery:
Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of a college student who moonlights as a carnival worker. There, he confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will forever change his life. It’s got all the makings of a King potboiler, with crime, mystery, ghosts and a creepy carnival setting. The book is being published through Hard Case Crime, the line of pulp-styled crime paperbacks published by Titan Books.The deadline article is HERE.
A bit off topic...
ReplyDeletekinda...
I can't say for sure why, but I haven't followed ANY Joyland news to this point. I've always been a hound for SK stuff. I still type 'the dark tower' into Google news almost daily JUST IN CASE! So I know nothing other than the Amazon book description about Joyland.
Other than the obvious hard case crime connection and the similar cover art is there any connection between Joyland and The Colorado Kid? I think The Colorado Kid has ruined Joyland for me simply with the two weak connections I listed above. The Colorado Kid is the only SK book I've never been able to finish. I've tried several times. I just can't get by the opening scene inside the restaurant and the entire 100 pages (ok, so I’m exaggerating?) dedicated to the waitress and her tip—ugh! It’s so. darn. borrrrrring. I see the Joyland cover, connect it to the other cover, and it's like food placed in front of me that once made me very sick.
I think my point is this: I wish Joyland had its own identity. I get why it is how it is, the hard case crime, etc., etc. However, in this instance, the freight-train-wreck that is The Colorado Kid has ultimately ruined Joyland for me.
Well, to be fair, a lot of what little I've heard about Joyland convinces me that it's really a straight up ghost story rather than a noir crime novel.
DeleteIt's just a ghost story that utilizes elements of noir in order to tell itself. So I don't give much credence to either the cover or publisher that's printing it.
Quite frankly i look forward to it. It's been a while since we've had a ghost story from King, and it'd be nice to get back into a familiar groove.
ChrisC
I look forward to anything King writes. Why not? I could not make it through Colorado Kid -- but I did give it several fair shots!
ReplyDeleteThere is no connection between JOYLAND and THE COLORADO KID. None whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteNot reading one because you didn't like the other would be like not watching STAR WARS in 1977 because you didn't like AMERICAN GRAFFITI 4 years earlier. (Or vice versa.)
Regards,
Charles Ardai
Editor, Hard Case Crime
I don’t see it as being so odd, connections or no. People/consumers base their expectations of one future thing off of something they’ve already seen/read/heard all the time. What if I watched The Last Airbender before watching The Sixth Sense? There’s no connection to those two films other than the writer, but if hate Airbender, why would I bother with The Sixth Sense? I’m saying I didn’t enjoy the first SK/HCC book. It’s not my job to give SK/HCC the benefit of the doubt—there’s no mulligans in literature—but yours to convince me why I SHOULD after being disappointed the first time.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I like everything else SK has written, so odds are I will enjoy Joyland. I admitted I knew nothing about Joyland, which is why I asked … and what I would do with The Sixth Sense had I been unfortunate enough to watch Airbender first—listen to word of mouth before diving in headfirst. I’m sorry, I take your point, but my first SK-Hard Case Crime venture wasn’t very pleasant, so I’ll keep the bad taste in my mouth for now.
"It’s not my job to give SK/HCC the benefit of the doubt—there’s no mulligans in literature—but yours to convince me why I SHOULD after being disappointed the first time."
ReplyDeleteHmmm. Well, when it comes doubts about authors, or the giving of the benefit of, I think the important factor is I guess the literary principles one uses to judge any book or author.
For instance, I was raised on a steady diet of Duck, Wabbit, Cat and Mouse and Stooges plus a lot of old classic Hollywood films; and the few contemporary examples I can recall were Amadeus, the final Star Wars film in the original trilogy, Stand by Me and the first Back to the Future (my favorite sci-fi movie).
I think if all those elements are put together, one would arrive at some idea of a personal criterion of what makes a book or film work.
All of which is to say it’s good to have clear idea of what value books are judged by before deciding whether it’s success of failure. That said, I think Colorado Kid could have used some work, but I don’t hold it against him.
P.S. It was a pleasure to hear from you, Mr. Ardai!
ChrisC
Thank you Charles Ardai
ReplyDelete