Stephen King Cameos

This is a fantastic colladge by Dan Garcia of Stephen King cameos.

Dan writes, "I love how Stephen King is like Hitchcock, in that he frequently has cameos in his movies! This is not all of them, but what role of his is your favorite?"

The Stephen King Cinematic Universe!

This is fun: consequenceofsound.net has an article that "flirts" with the work of Stephen King.  In particular, it look at the Stephen King "Cinematic Universe."  From suggested scenes, actors for upcoming movies and soundtracks, this article is great.

The authors explain: "For this installment of the Producer’s Chair, we opted to do all the legwork for the studios and pieced together a proper cinematic universe of King’s bibliography, all based around Boone’s upcoming production of The Stand. We parsed out the release dates, cast its characters, and targeted 19 essential films and/or television properties that would do justice to the man’s reign in modern literature. Sadly, this probably won’t happen, but this was far more enjoyable than it was taxing."

To build this universe, the authors include actors and places that connect from one movie to the next.  What's cool is that this is all possible -- assuming you think Matthew McConaughey is a great Flagg.  (Yep.)

Their discussion brings them right to the upcoming movie version of THE STAND.  They rightly identify the pivotal scene as the Lincoln Tunnel.  And then they tackle the bigger problem: How is that thing going to be broken into four movies?  With a nod to the miniseries, they suggest the theatrical film will be "similar."

However, not only are there aspects of the book that should be expanded upon (e.g., Trashcan Man), but those four sections, especially the first two, could benefit from bleeding details into one another. However, the cliffhangers that the mini-series employed would do wonders on the silver screen, especially the ending of “The Plague”, which sees Stu escape a desolate and corpse-laden CDC facility into the night. There’s no way that doesn’t guarantee sales for the sequel.

After THE STAND,  Dan Caffrey takes a turn discussing THE DARK tower.  I like his cast of characters suggestions: Roland Deschain (Viggo Mortensen), Jake Chambers (Nolan Lyons), Cort (Michael Rooker), Brown (Ray McKinnon), Allie (Esmé Bianco), Young Roland Deschain (Tye Sheridan), Cuthbert Allgood (Michael Zegen), Alain Johns (John Robinson), and The Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey)

For the movie IT, they suggest Crispin Glover.



I know, you're still going, "Who?"  Crispin Hellion Glover (born April 20, 1964) is an American film actor, director and screenwriter, avant-garde musician, publisher and author. Glover is known for portraying eccentric people on screen such as George McFly in Back to the Future, Layne in River's Edge, unfriendly recluse Rubin Farr in Rubin and Ed, the "Creepy Thin Man" in the big screen adaptation of Charlie's Angels and its sequel, Willard Stiles in the Willard remake, and The Knave of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. (osmovies)

I appreciate this comment from the article:

How Do You Replace Tim Curry?: You don’t. All you can do is press ahead. The 1991 adaptation had its flaws, to be sure, but Tim Curry was perfectly cast as the clown Pennywise. His interpretation was as scary to see from across a swamp as he was up close with fangs drawn in the Derry sewers. It’s hard to imagine anyone else saying, “They all float…” with that same detached menace, but I will be mighty curious to see what Crispin Glover could do with that material.

And here's a big question: When we get to Song of Susannah, who would play Stephen King?  Well, there is a brilliant - BRILLIANT -- idea: Joe Hill.  (YES!)

Also sketched is The Eyes of the Dragon, The Stand 2, The Drawing of the Three, IT, The Wastelands, The Stand III, Salem's Lot, The Stand IV, Wizard and Glass, Wind Through the Keyhole, Wolves of the Calla, From a Buick 8 (I want the movie just so I can stop trying to read it), Low Men in Yellow Coats, Song of Susannah, Everything's Eventual, Insomnia, The Dark Tower.

If you want to read the whole article, instead of clicking movie by movie, here's the link: consequenceofsound.net

The Mist The Novella Cut

This is what happened. . . 

I'm watching my copy of The Mist, The Novella Cut.  And, of course, I'm liking it a lot.  I haven't seen the end yet, but I'm liking the film more because I'm not dreading the end.  The movie is broken up with headers, much the way the novella was.  There is an opening note that assures us that this is only a fan film, not meant to in any way disparage Mr. Darabont's work.

Another difference; not only am I not dreading the end, I'm watching it with my daughters.  Why is that different?  Because I previously was hesitant to let them see a dad blow his kids brains out.

This movie really does have the feel that the novella had.

Some quick notes:
1. Mother Carmody is no Bible scholar.  She quotes Revelations, which is a common mistake.  But the Biblical book is titled Revelation, no S.  Why?  Because it is the singular Revelation of Jesus, more than it is a series of revelations of end time events.\\

2. I like almost all the scenes with the monsters.  I think they are truly horrifying.  Fromm the attack in the loading dock to the fight in the store with the flying things -- it's great stuff!  What's more, trips to the grocery store are not nearly as boring, as I can now imagine an attack by prehistoric creatures.

3.Few movies (at least in the world of Stephen King) manage to capture the feel of a novel quite as well as The Mist.  Stand By Me, Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile all do a great job bringing the book to screen.  But King's really scary stuff usually remains locked in the pages of his books, because you just can't make it happen on screen.  I think The Mist accomplishes some real scares.  This is no B-movie, as Darabont joked.

4. I don't think there is any way a crazy like Carmody would gete that many people to follow her.  I do understand there are religious nuts who gather a crowd; but she goes from being a total outcast in the community, to gaining complete trust in a few moments of crisis.

5. This is easily my favorite version of The Mist.  I LOVE IT!  I feel like something has been redeemed.  That is, it was good all along, but deeply marred by the ending.

6. The Durabont film brings resolution to two issues: Will the mist go away?  And what happened to David Drayton?  The re-cut. . .

I won't give away the ending to the novella cut, but I will say:
THERE IS HOPE.

Is A Good Marriage Set To Scare?

Clark Collis Entertainment Weekly article proclaims, "'We went in fearlessly': Stephen King on adapting 'A Good Marriage' for film."

Based on a short novel in King's collection, Full Dark,  No Stars; A Good Marriage is one of my favorites.  Probably because it discusses something truly horrifying!  What if you discovered someone you love is actually a serial killer?

A Good Marriage stars Joan Allen, Anthony LaPaglia, Stephen Lang, and House of Cards actress Kristen Connolly.  Most important, the screenplay was written by none other than Stephen King.

King explained why he wanted to writ the script: “I’ve seen enough movies adapted from my work to know that the things that work the best are the things that aren’t too long and aren’t too short."

Revealing he was  never on set (so don't expect a cameo), King promised not to take the story in the "wrong direction." King said the script was about the length  of Shawshank Redemption.  Actually,  the  novel moved pretty quickly until the end, when the detective tried  to figure out what really happened.

This is from my book, "Stephen King, A Face Among The Masters":

Another tough woman appears in the short story, A Good Marriage, in which Darcy Anderson lays a clever trap of her own to knock off her serial killer husband. How does she kill a man who has made a habit of killing  women? And how does she accomplish it without getting caught herself? It is interesting to watch the change in Darcy. She goes from being a “normal” 1950s-ish housewife, to a woman ready to send her beloved husband to the pit.

Even  better, King notes that he likes it because the story is from a woman's point of view.

Stephen King Goes To HOLLYWOOD

This article was originally published 8/6/2012 at Talk Stephen King.

I love books about Stephen King!  Of course, not all books about King are equal.  There are some stinkers in the mix, but most are a joy.  My favorite book about King's movie's is Jones' "Creepshows."

Some of my favorites are old stuff.  Among those, Stephen King goes to HOLLYWOOD is great!  With a copyright date of 1987, it covers King movies from Carrie to Stand by Me.  The book has a lot of photo’s, both color and black and white.  It is written with attention to detail a journalist would be proud of, while maintaining the energy of a fan.

Written by Jeff Conner, this is the kind of book that is just fun to thumb through.  There are articles on each movie (up to 1987), and sprinkled throughout are boxes with little facts and quotes.  For a small book, it’s actually pretty meaty.

Highlights From The Interview

image credit: HERE

Stephen King goes to Hollywood begins with an interview with Stephen King. The focus of their talk is primarily Maximum Overdrive, which King directed.  King, always humble and fun at the same time, begins by discussing his weaknesses as a director.

What’s neat about this is that it is not King reflecting on the film years later – he is discussing it right on the heels of its completion.  In the interview, King is still in love with his movie.  Kinda refreshing!  You can sense his hope and energy and passion for this film, even though he would later be good humored about it’s failings.

Asked what effect he was aiming for in Maximum Overdrive, King says, “I wanted it to move fast.  It’s a wonderful moron picture, in that sense.  It’s a really illiterate picture in a lot of ways.  There isn’t a lot of dialogue in it.  It’s fast.  A lot of things explode.”

When he was asked If he paid attention to character relations in the story, King said,

I’m interested in my people.  One of the few really sensible things that anybody said at the story conference that we had at MGM in L.A. – those people, what an alien mentality! – But somebody did say that if the characters don’t stand out and this is just a movie about machines, it’ll be a bad picture.  Their solution was to suggest that a lot of dialogue and scenes between the major characters be added fr character and texture.  I was always calling them the jumbo “John!  Oh Martha!” scenes, because they’re like soap operas.  We shot ‘em.  We just cut ‘em all out in the editing room, every single one.”

King indicates that he prefer’s Hitchcock, because the characters that are most interesting in his pictures are the ones in the supporting roles.

King also reveals what he thinks is the scariest moment in one of his films. . . he says it is when the hand comes from the grave in Carrie.  Asked if he had any idea it was going to happen, he says yes, but it still scared him.  He says his first screening of Carrie was in Boston, and that the theater was entirely full of black people.  King began to wonder how the audience was going to react to little Carrie withher “menstrual problems”!

And that’s the way it started, and then, little by little, they got on her side, you know, and when she started doing her shtick, I mean, they’re going, “Tear it up!”  “Go for it!” and all this other stuff.  These two guys were talking behind us, and we were listening to them, and at the end they’re putting on their coats and getting ready to leave.  Suddenly this hand comes up, and these two big guys screamed along with everyone else, and one of them goes, “That’s it!  That’s it!  She ain’t never gonna be right!”  And I new it was going to be a hit.

Captions

I don’t think I’ve ever noted picture captions. . . but the book is full of not only great pictures, but all out funny captions.

Here’s a few favorites:

• Picture: Knife wielding Piper Laurie: “Shades of Norman Bates and Lizzie Borden: piper Laurie cuts a fine figure as Carrie’s mommie dearest.”
• Picture of destruction at the prom: “Curfew time is no problem at the prom as Carrie uses her telekinetic powers to wish everyone a safe drive home.”
• Picture: Barlow choking Mark, “Free dental floss or the kid gets it!  Reggie Naldr does his Nosferatu imitation as Barlow in Salem’s Lot.”
• Picture: Cujo licking the bloody window of the car: “Cujo washes Wallace’s windows with his tongue, but she’s not appreciative in the least.”
• Picture of Nielsen holding a pistol: “The time for marriage counseling has passed as Nielsen plots revenge on his unfaithful wife.”
• Picture of corpses: “The corpses come home to roost when Dansen and Gaylen Ross return from a quick dip in the ocean.”
• Picture of Neilsen talking to Ted Danson, who is buried in sand:  “Leslie Nielsen discusses his favorite band, The Talking Heads, with sandman Ted Danson.”
• Picture of an axe cutting through the door as Wendy screams he brains out:  “Axe and ye shall receive: Wendy should have remembered to put out the ‘No Peddlers’ sign.”
• Picture of fire raging in a bedroom: “Johnny accurately predicts that he should have worn flame-retardant pajamas to bed.”
• Picture of teens destroying Christine: “Hell hath no Fury like Christine scorned.  Arnie’s pals will soon receive a nasty lesson in body work.”
• Picture of corn stalks coming from car: “Not event he auto club can lend a hand when the Children of the Corn stalk their victims cars.”
• Picture of Charlie setting fire to good: “Young Charlie shows her budget-minded parents how to avoid the expense of a new microwave.”
• Picture of Drew Barrymore listening to George C. Scott: “Drew Barrymore listens attentively but still has trouble figuring out how Scott ever managed to win an Oscar.”

Boxes Of  Quotes!

The book is filled with little boxes that make it fun to dig through.  Here are some of my favorite box notes:

– Speaking of The Shining with Christopher Evans

“Somebody said, ‘What do you think Kubrick wants from THE SHINING?’  And I said, ‘I think he wants to hurt people.’”

–Speaking of The Shing with Bhob Stewart

“The idea for the hedge maze is Kubrick’sand not mine.  I had considered it, but then I realized it hadbeen done inthe movie THEMAZE (1953, directed in 3D by William Cameron Menzie the same year he did INVADERS FROM MARS] with Richard Carlson, and I rejected the maze idea for that reason.  I have no knowledge as to whether or not Kubrick has ever seen that movie or if it happens to be coincidence.”

 –Speaking of The Shining at Bellerica Library.

“When Stanley Kubrick was gonna do THE SHINING, we were living in a little town in western Maine, and I was up one morning shaving my face and my wife came in.  The phone had rung and she said, ‘It’s for ou.’  And I said, ‘Well, who is it?’ She said, ‘Stanley Kubrick from London.’  I had shaving cream over half my face and I just sort of picked up the phone and said, ‘Stanley, how are you!’  He wanted to talk about ghosts, and wasn’t the horror story or the story of ghosts always fundamentally optimistic because it suggested that we went on afterward?  And I said, ‘Well it is, Stanley, but what if a person died insande and came back?’  There was a long silence.  And I also said, ‘What about hell?  What if there really is hell?’ And Stanley said, ‘I don’t believe in that.’  So I said, ‘Well good, cool, do what you want.’”

– speaking of Stand By Me at Bellerica Library.

“One day at their summer camp, or whatever it was, a story circulated that a dog had been hit by a train and the dead body was on the tracks.  These guys are saying, ‘And you should see it man, it’s all swelled up and its guts are fallingo ut and it’s real dead.  I mean it’s just as dead as you ever dreamed o anyting being dead.’  Andyou could see it yourself, just walk down these tracks and take a look at it, which they did.   George said, ‘Someday I’d like to write a story about that,’ but he never did.  He’s running a restaurant now, a great restaurant.”

 –Speaking of Children of the Corn with Tim Hewitt

“And then, the second, very moral question is: do you have any right, just because you’re a big shot, to steal screen credit from somebody who’s an unknown.  What if it’s a great film?  So, I thought about that one very very hard for about three days, then Id ecided that essentially I couldn’t trust new World Pictures.  I sent a telegram to the screenwriters guild and said that I didn’t want to respond to Clayton’s petition to have sole screen credit on the picture, so he was granted sole screen credit.  I’m delight that he was on both counts.  Number one, the picture was a dog: it was a shuck-and-jive situation.  What they had sent me and represented as the final screenplay had nothing in common at all with what finally mad it to the screen.  It was basically, I think, and effort into accepting a screen credit that didn’t belong to me.”

–Speaking of Creepshow with Edwin Pouncey

“The comic, that was my idea.  They wanted a novelization, they wanted to farm it out, and I told them I’ve never allowed anything to be novelized and I said that if we’re going to do this then let’s do it in the spirit of the movie itself, which is of the EC comics, the horror pups, let’s go ahead and do a comic book. 

So we hired a guy called Berni Wrightson to do the panels and I just did the continuity.  It was kinda fun.”

About The Shining's Alternate Ending, discussed in Stephen king Goes To Hollywood, see my article HERE.

Listed under Coming Attractions:
The Running Man, Creepshow II, Pet Sematary, The Stand, The Talisman, Graveyard Shift, Return to Salem’s Lot, Apt Pupil, The Cat From Hell, IT, The Mist, Sorry, Right number.

You can buy Stephen King Goes To HOLLYWOOD at amazon.com

Skowhegan Drive In Theater Offers A Special STEPHEN KING MARATHON

The event is past, but it struck me as something wonderful I wish I could have attended.

centralmaine.com ran an announcement that The Skowhengan Drive would have a "Stephen King movie marathon" this past Friday and Saturday.  Now that sounds awesome!  Our small town as a drive in, and the truth is, they are fun.  The drive in theater is a bit of America that is quickly disappearing.  And think about it -- a Stephen King marathon, how cool is that?

The movies slated are pretty good:

FRIDAY: “Christine,” “The Shining” and “Pet Sematary”
SATRUDAY: “Creepshow, “Christine” and “The Shining."

Those are great picks!  And who  wouldn't want to see them again on the big screen?

Tickets for the “Stephen King Movie Marathon” went for $50 per car for general admission, $150 for V.I.P. Spots up front.

Oh, the funny parts: "Friday at approximately 6:30 p.m" -- what theater runs on the "approximately" schedule?  I also like this line, "We also have a no pet policy due to complaints last year." Makes  ya  kinda wonder what happened last year, doesn't it?

The marathon is a fundraiser "to replace equipment in order to continue new releases."  Translation: You get  to watch old Stephen King films at a drive in theater on old movie equipment.  I dunno, sounds kinda retro and fun in our overly high teach world that values spotless images and intense resolution.

The theater is in the process of conversion to Digital Projection.  i96rocks.com says, "Digital projectors run for about $80,000, far more than the seasonal drive-in can afford. The Skowhegan drive-in hopes to raise the cash it needs to make to conversion, and stay open, with the movie marathon."

wabi.tv quoted theater operator, Donald Brown, “This is a cultural asset not just for Skowhegan, but for all of central Maine.  It’s an element of the communities cultural heritage that once it’s gone, because of the changes in this industry, will never come back.”

The theater's website notes that "without this conversion, when 35mm film is no longer being produced, there will be no movies at the Skowhegan Drive-In Theatre.

The town itself looks like something out of a Stephen King novel.  It was seen in the 2005 HBO mini-series Empire Falls.

The Night Flier: Tone

Fan Poster by fan Juan Hugo Martinez
source: FlyTheDeadlySkies

updated.

I like this movie. A lot. Since it's not a flick you're likely to just jump right into, let me sell this one a little bit!

Night Flyer is based on a Stephen King short story. The movie is straight horror. That doesn't mean there isn't character development, or some good drama -- but this baby is really about a very nasty vamp. Not the kind you'll meet in Twilight, I mean the real kind of vampire. The breed you should be scared of -- not the type you'd ever want to smooch with.

What I really like is the tone. That's really hard to explain isn't it? But I just like the feeling this movie gives me. A reporter chasing a murderer who owns a plane. Lots of rainy scenes. Smoke filled bars. Low life reporters.

There is one particularly wonderful scene that stands out above -- well, most anything I've seen! When Stephen King wrote Dreamcatcher, he noted that we make some pretty terrible discoveries in the bathroom. Well, it's in the potty that we get to see an invisible vampire taking a potty break. So how do we SEE that? He's peeing blood. And that's all you see! I thought that was worth the entire movie!

A rare shot of KNB EFX adding the special effects make-up to Dwight Renfield!
SOURCE: facebook.com/FlyTheDeadlySkies 

Check out their facebook page at: www.facebook.com, which has this interesting "Fright Fact":

NIGHT FLIER FRIGHT FACT: In the scene where Katherine is looking at Richard's bylines, the framed copies of "Inside View" contain many references to other stories by Stephen King: "Springhill Jack Strikes Again!" - Strawberry Spring. "Headless Lamaze Leads To Successful Birth!" - The Breathing Method. "Kiddie Cultists in Kansas Worship Creepy Voodoo God!" - Children of the Corn "Satanic Shopkeeper Sells Gory Goodies!" - Needful Things. "Naked Demons Levelled My Lawn!" - The Lawnmower Man "The Ultimate Killer Diet! Gypsy Curse Flays Fat Lawyer's Flesh" - Thinner.

Behind the scenes footage:

Jeremy Wheeler Gives Us A Unique Stephen King Movie Guide

I like this 2013 "Everything You Need to Know About Stephen King Movies and Shows, A-Z" by Jeremy Wheeler at esquire.com 

(yes, I did find it as I was trying to find out more about the new Stephen King story in the August edition of Esquire)

Does Mr. Mercedes Have A Flat Tire?

I saw the first review of Mr. Mercedes today -- and it made my heart sag a little. Chuck Bowen of Slant magazine, posted his thoughts today.  Bowen previously wrote an interesting article titled, Five Tips on How to Make a Good Stephen King Movie Adaptation.  It was an interesting article, but since I don't plan on making a Stephen King movie adaptation, and I do plan to read Mr. Mercedes, I dived into the review.

Bowen's review isn't very pretty.  Bowen is just flat out cruel; accusing King of not taking the craft itself seriously.  At the heart of the review if the idea that the novel is undeveloped, underwritten and reads like a screen play.  He praises King for working "outside the horror genre."  But his praise is short lived and he quickly moves to throwing eggs at Mr. King.  In fact, he not only gets his digs in at the book he is reviewing, but takes a few cheap shots at Doctor Sleep while he's at it.  Here's the bullet points:

• Bowen whines that King is publishing too quickly and not rewriting his work enough.
• The book, Bowen reports, moves too quickly.  It is too action packed.  "The pace is numbing, relentless."  (yeah, that's the kind of book I like Chucky!)
• He doesn't like King's use of emphasizing things in the text by bolding, capitalizing and italicizing.
• Bowen accuses King over using clichés and "absurd, unsatisfying plotting." 
• Sound tough?  He's not done!  "The dialogue is appallingly tone deaf," Bowen accuses the author. He goes on to say King is dishing out "crass obviousness." 

And he goes on and on.  

I get the sense that Bowen is a bit stuffy in his approach to reading.  Don't have fun with it.  Don't say a building looks like a UFO; or make the dialogue fun.  Bowen is the teacher at the front of the room demanding you use proper English and don't bold so much!  He wants that paper nice and clean, no italicizing or capitalizing.  

Bowen's greatest complaint seems to be that King drives the story hard, pushing it ever forward with energetic writing.  We can't have that, ya know?  No energetic writing!  Writing should be slow, careful and keep the reader a little sleepy.  Bowen would enjoy John Knolls A Seperate Peace or Olive Anne Burns' Cold Sassy Tree.  I want to italicize those book titles, but I won't because I wouldn't want anyone to think I'm italicizing too much.

A clue that Bowen doesn't really know his Stephen King jumps out in his previous article about adapting a Stephen King novel for screen.  He says that King should not be allowed to write the script for his movies, and then says that Pet Sematary is one of the "very worst adaptations of his work."  PET SEMATARY?  One of the worst? Maybe he didn't see Langoliers.  On the Pet Sematary rant, Bowen calls the movie a "flat, impersonal spectacle."

But it's not just Pet Sematary he doesn't like.  He's also not a fan of The Green Mile. Discussing the problem of bringing King's dialogue to screen, Bowen wrote, "But even at its best, King's dialogue is usually too stylized to be spoken out loud, and actors often sound silly in their attempts to imbue it with tossed-off spontaneity, a problem that sinks the already problematic The Green Mile."  I did not realize the Green Mile sank or that it was "problematic."  

Also note that Bowen does not like Frank Darabont's adaptations of Stephen King's work.  So his credibility is about zilch at this point.

Best and Worst Stephen King Movies

My choices:
I'm writing my list BEFORE watching the television segment.  This is not really a ranking, just a list.

BEST:
1. The Green Mile
2. Stand By Me
3. Carrie (DePalma)
4. Salem's Lot (mini-series)
5. Cujo
6. The Dead Zone
7. The Shawshank Redemption
8. Pet Sematary
9. Christine
10. Misery
11. The Shining (Kubrick)
12. The Dark Half
13. Creepshow
14. IT, episode 1 (mini-series)
15. The Stand (min-series)
16. Silver Bullet (mini-series)
17. The Night Flier
18. The Shining (mini-series)

WORST:
1. Sleepwalkers
2. Children of the Corn.  (all of them.  ALL)
3. The Lawnmower Man
4. Maximum Overdrive
5. Graveyard Shift
6. IT, episode 2 (mini-series)
7. Cat's Eye
8. The Running Man
9. Needful things.
10. The Mangler
11. Desperation (I so wanted it to work)

Your turn. . . 

Netflix Loves Stephen King

I hate commercials.  Thus, I love netflix.  And netflix loves Stephen King.  Recent offerings have included The Stand, Bag Of Bones and more.

What's strange is that I have all these on DVD, minus Haven, but I still prefer netflix.  Because who really wants to mess with a disk?

This month includes:

• Haven, based on Stephen King's The Colorado Kid.  It might be time for me to come back to this great show!

• Maximum Overdirve.  Ya, I'll be watching that one again, too.  Actually, I love this film!  It's not a good film -- it's a great film.  A great bad film; which is the best.  Why is this not a Mystery Science Theater 3000? WHY!  It takes a special kind of movie to be worthy of that gangs razzing.

• The Running Man.  One of those movies I watch over and over, thinking, "it's got to get better."

• Bag of Bones.  This is actually a show I liked more the first time than I have on subsequent viewings.  

• The Langoliers.  Trying watching it with the fast forward button on.

• Children of the Corn.  The original that started it all, which is the real horror.

• Thinner.  Which could be easily titled, "Misery" -- except a better movie already has that name.

• Golden Years.  If you haven't watched it, you should.

CELL filming

Dread Central posted pictures today from the filming of CELL.  Where did they get the pictures?  Via my favorite King website,  Lilja's Library

The Dread Central article notes,

Paranormal Activity 2's Tod “Kip” Williams is directing; John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson star in the film, which recently began shooting in Atlanta. Producers are Richard Saperstein, Michael Benaroya, Brian Witten, and Shara Kay. The screenplay was written by Stephen King with revisions by Adam Alleca. 

Fuhrman plays a teenage neighbor of Cusack’s character who joins him and Jackson on their journey to safety after a mysterious pulse spreads like a virus through the human population. Keach will play the headmaster of a prep school where the survivors stop along their way.

Classic Movies That Still Make You Jump

Picture credit: pigswithcrayons.com

Cheat Sheet posted 6 Classic Movies That Still Make Jump.  What's interesting about the list?  It's headed up by King's 1984 film, Children of the Corn.  And, what's more, Pet Sematary also made the list.  Now this is pretty cool, since there are only 6 films listed.  For King films to find their way to a list like that twice is pretty awesome.

Athea Mitchell writes about one of my favorites, Pet Sematary,

What do you get when you combine Cujo and The Omen? You guessed it — Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, which is misspelled, for those who are wondering, to imitate the mistakes of a child. It’s very much the type of horror movie that has you shouting at the characters, “Don’t do that!” as they proceed to make every possible wrong move. Don’t play with the powers of life and death, don’t bring your cat back from the dead, don’t bring your son back, and don’t get stabbed with that scalpel. The list goes on. 

Ultimately, feeling that helpless — combined with the corruption of everyone’s childhood memories of dead cats, dogs, birds, and turtles — leads viewers to a pretty fantastic horror experience. The Creeds move into a new house with a dangerous expressway going right by it. You’re already frustrated, right? Don’t let your pet so close to the road! Cue strange neighbor who shows Mr. Creed where to bury the family cat so that extra Fancy Feast doesn’t go to waste. Eventually, the power of this odd little cemetery gets out of hand, and the resurrected cat — who is of course evil — is just the start.

So what movies still pack a punch?  Mitchell suggests these:
1. Children of the Corn, 1984
2. Rosemary's Baby, 1968
3. The Omen, 1976
4. The Exorcist, 1973
5. Pet Sematary, 1989
6. What Ever Happened To Baby Jane, 1962

The full article is HERE.

Stephen King by the Box Office

Sky Movies has an interesting slide slow titled "Stephen King By The Box Office."  It looks at 34 of King's movies, and tells us how it did at the box office.  Each movie not only lists what it took in at the box office, but tries to adjust for inflation.

The site notes, "Box office figures from BoxOfficeMojo.com. Inflation calculated with the USInflationCalculator.com."

Here's the breakdown:

• $134,711 , Riding The Bullet. The article notes, "The film bombed at the box office after receiving a deserved critical panning and holds the unenviable record of the lowest grossing Stephen King adaptation to date"
• $125,397 , The Night Flier.  (Sky Movies adjusts for inflation, giving it $182,467)
• $1,781,383 , The Mangler
•  $8,863,193 , Apt Pupil
• $7,433,663 , Maximum Overdrive.  I like this from the article, "Picking up two Razzie nominations for King and the film’s star, Emilio Estevez, the film was universally panned. However, despite even King writing it off as “the worst adaptation of his work”, it managed to reclaim $7,433,663 of its $9 million budget- just under $16 million in today’s money."
• $10,611,160 , The Dark Half
• $11,582,891, Graveyard Shift
• $15,315,484, Thinner.  WAIT. . . Thinner made it this far up on the list?  "Thinner performed reasonably upon release, helped by the fact that it was attached to Michael Jackson’s short film, Ghosts, also co-written by King."  Oh, that explains it.
• $15,185,672, Needful Things
• $12,361,866, Silver Bullet "Silver Bullet divided opinion at the time but has slowly gained something of a cult following over the years."  count me in the cult.
• $13,086,297, Cats Eyes
• $14,568,989, Children of the Corn.  Don't we wish that had been the last dollar that franchise would make?
• $24,361,867, Dolores Claiborne.
• $17,080,167, Fire Starter
• $30,919,415, Hearts in Atlantis
• $28,341,469, The Shawhank Redemption
• $20,766,616, The Dead Zone
• $21,017,849, Christine
• £30,524,763, Sleepwalkers (say it ain't so!)
• $21,156,152, Cujo
• $21,028,755, Creepshow
• $32,100,816, The Lawnmower Man  "This sci-fi horror baffled audiences and divided critics at the time, but it still opened at number two in the box office behind Wayne’s World and spawned a sequel in the form of 1996’s Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace."  For the record, I really hated  this film.  I feel good about that.
• $38,122,105, The Running Man
• $59,006,619, Carrie 2013 "the film has already done decent business in the US and looks set to easily clear the $60 million mark."
• $57,293,715, The Mist
• $75, 715,436, Dreamcatcher.  No, I can't explain that.  "Even with a cast of names including Morgan Freeman, Damian Lewis and Jason Lee, the film dive-bombed at the American box office, although it did break even upon worldwide release."
• $57,469,467, Pet Sematary.
• $33,800,000, Carrie 1979
•  £61,276,872, Misery.
• $52,287,414, Stand By Me
• $92,913,171, Secret Window
• $44,017,374, The Shining
• $131,998,242, 1408.  This surprised me, since it's a film I really didn't think was very strong.  However,  it sure did make  strong showing at the box officer.
• $286,801,374, The Green Mile.

The full article is at skymovies.sky.com

Which King Film Actually Scares?

art credit: Glenn Chadbourne

I enjoyed Giles Hardie looks at Stephen King's most famous screen adaptations posted at The Sydney Morning Herald.  He suggests that all King movies don't work, citing Dreamcatcher and Secret Window.  Sigh -- I liked Secret Window because I thought it actually enhanced  the novel quite a bit.

So what King films does Hardie think are worth mentioning?  Well, Carrie, of course, and The Shining.
Hardie's note on Stand By Me is interesting.  He writes, "This movie would deserve a mention just for featuring probably the best example of future star casting ever to grace one movie - Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Gerry O'Connell and Corey Feldman (pictured) are the four heroes, Kiefer Sutherland their nemesis and John Cusack the dead brother in this tale of four boys' journey to see a dead body."

Oddly enough, Hardie then cites The Running Man.  Huh?  Seriously?  I think this movie is getting more attention these days because of the Hunger Games, which Hardie cites.

Pet Sematary and Misery make Hardie's list, as does -- drum roll -- The Lawnmower Man.  In fact, it makes Hardie's list just because it's so bad!

This film is, to be fair, schlockingly awful in many ways. For a brief moment in the early '90s virtual reality was going to take over the world, and this film gave us Jobe, a man who cuts the lawn who has an unspecified learning disability. Through the magic of virtual reality, Jobe is transformed into a genius, then an evil telekinetic, and then a megalomaniac computer virus. It gets a spot here because it is so amusingly awful and also because King won multiple lawsuits to have his name removed from the title, which was the only thing that the film and his short story had in common.

Hardie rounds out his list with The Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil and The Green Mile before giving special mention to a Stephen King mini-seires -- IT!  Hardie writes, "Tim Curry's Pennywise the Clown is arguably King's most terrifying screen-based character, yet as a mini-series It doesn't qualify for this list."  I would agree with that thought.

The article leads me to a question -- what Stephen King films do you actually find scary?  

My list:
1. Pet Sematary.
2. The Shining.
3. The Mist.
4. Christine.
5. Bag of Bones had moments.

The Movies I Wish They'd Make

Kinda sad, isn't it -- no one asks constant reader what King books we'd like to see brought to the big screen.  Instead we have to stomach a parade of remakes.  News of a Pet Sematary remake is alive once again, and an IT remake, and a trilogy promised of The Stand, and a Running man remake, and there was that recent Carrie remake, and let's not forget the Salem's Lot remake and then there was that dreadful Children of the Corn remake (shiver.)

We cringe at a lot of these remakes because they are just so unnecessary.  I'll watch them, and probably enjoy them, all the while wondering what happened to Cell, From a Buick 8, Rose Madder, and all those gems in Four Past Midnight.  It seems someone buys the rights, and then they disappear into a dark hole.

So, here's  my top 10 list of Stephen King adaptations I'd actually like to see:

• The Dark Tower
• 11/22/63
• Eyes of the Dragon
• Duma Key
• Cell
• The Talisman
• A Good Marriage
• 1922
• Doctor Sleep
• The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

Yes, I do know some of those are actually being made right now.

Remakes I would be just fine with:
IT (ONE season series)
Needful Things (as a mini-series please)
The Running Man
The Tommyknockers

When A Movie About A Book You Haven't Read Is Announced

Josh Boone announced that his next project will be an adaptation of the Stephen King novel Lisey's Story.

Boone shared this sweet story at thehollywoodnews.com:

“I wasn’t allowed to read Stephen King.  I had to rip the covers off of Christian books and glue them to Stephen King books, so that I could read them.  I remember reading The Stand under my bed when I was 12, and I hid the book in the box springs under my bed, and my mom found it and burned it in the fireplace.  I wrote him a letter when I was 12, just to tell him how much I loved his books and how much I wanted to be a writer when I grew up and that he was my idol.  I sent him a couple books, hoping that he’d sign them.  I came home from school one day and my dad said, “There’s a box here from Stephen King.”  He had written me this beautiful letter in the front covers of each of the books.  My parents were just so moved by the generosity, that he was willing to take the time to do that, that they lifted the Stephen King ban." 

I smile a bit when I hear parents who don't let their kids read Stephen King.  First, because as a parent, I understand!  But, what hooked me on reading was -- Stephen King.  In fact, I'm a little saddened that none of my kids have gotten very into the King books I've offered up (The Body, Eyes  of the Dragon and The Mist.)  But, Stephen King is my thing, so my kids chase after Twilight and Hunger Games.

The news that Lisey's Story will be adapted to the big screen leaves me reflecting on the fact that this is a big King novel that I just haven't read!  Why?  I dunno.  I tried, more than once.  I have the CD's, and the hardback first edition.  But, it just hasn't grabbed me yet.  Part of me is excited, because previously seeing a book adapted well has sent me right to the source.  In High School, I saw the mini-series IT before I read the book.  I also saw Christine, Cujo, The Shining, Pet Sematary, Thinner, The Dark Half, The Tommyknockers, The Green Mile and The Dead Zone before reading the books.  I think even the weak adaptations have the advantage of helping me know and follow the literary path ahead.  In other words -- I'm really happy this is coming to screen.  It might help me fall in love with a novel I want to love, but just haven't found the beauty yet.

On the other hand, I'm glad I read Needful Things and Dolores Claiborne before seeing them on screen.  With Claiborne, I was draw into every page, not knowing what would happen next.  The suspense was awesome!  The same is true of The Stand, which is the first King book I read.  I stayed up many a summer night in 1990 reading anxiously as the men traveled toward Vegas.

Tell me, how does seeing a movie before you read the book affect you?  And have you read  Lisey's Story?  What did you think? 

The Dark Stephen King Movie Truth

Bob Grimm has a great article discussing his own listing of the best and worst Stephen King adaptations.  But, as Grimm compiled his lists, he came to a somewhat troubling realization -- he dislikes more King movies than he likes!

Grimm also observes that the really good Stephen King movies are over 30 years old.  Go figure.

Topping Grimm's list is Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining.  Noting King's personal distaste for the film, Grimm chastises, "Are you kidding, Stephen?" (I guess  they're on first name basis) "You should be forever grateful that a maestro like Kubrick spent time on any of your work, and he improved upon your novel. I hated all of that business with the stupid boiler."

It's when we get to what Grimm considers really bad movies -- the worst -- that I start to really question his judgment.  Christine?  CHRISTINE?!  It may not be an instant classic, but I thought that was a pretty good movie.  However, he does make a good point that the really scary stuff from the book got left out of the movie.  So true.

But, also on Grimms naughty list is Cujo.  "This movie feels like it’s 10 hours long. E.T.’s mom stuck in a car with some dopey kid as a Saint Bernard drools on the windows."

I'm not going to take the time to defend Cujo.  The rabid dog is smarter than this guys list.

www.newsreview.com

Crave Gives Us STEPHEN KING Movie Reviews

October gave us a web-series called "Kings of Horror" in which CraveOnline and ShockTillYouDrop got together to review Stephen King films. 

The playlist is here: www.youtube.com

Here are the CARRIE reviews:

J's Top 10: Stephen King Horror Movies