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.

MSN Looks At Stephen King TV The Good And The Really Bad

MSN Entertainment reports that  Under The Dome came out swinging, coming out as the second-highest rated drama debut this year (per Nielsen).  

The article, by Barbara Card Atkinson, goes on to discuss the good and the bad of Stephen King TV.

I found this note on The Dead Zone series interesting:

They did this one right, too -- at least for a while. The series starred Anthony Michael Hall as a psychic loner, and the series premiere broke records for the USA Network at the time, attracting 6.4 million viewers. The series ran six seasons, but viewer numbers had dropped enough that a seventh season was abandoned with no series finale. 

Reading the lists of Good and Worst -- I found out I like a lot of Stephen King TV that no one else does.  I thought both the Tommyknockers  and The Shining were great.  The Tommyknockers felt a bit soap operish at times and too closed in -- things Under  The Dome has avoided thus far -- but I still  like the story.  Oh, and the spaceship in Tommyknockers was a disappointment.  But that moment when the kid does a magic trick and makes his brother disappear. . . and then can't bring him back! -- that was great television.

I also liked the 2002 Carrie a lot. I thought it managed to bring new ideas to the story while remaining pretty faithful to the book.

I do think this note  on Bag of Bones was insightful on Atkinson's part:

"This miniseries ran three hours, which might have been an hour too long, or several hours too short. More time would have allowed for better character development; less time might have forced a much-needed pace tightening."

And also Atkinson gives this interesting explanation to the mediocre  response to The Shining miniseries, "it was another case where the novel was so dense with backstory and internal experiences (and audiences missing those creepy twins and bloody elevators) that it couldn't be roundly brought to the screen."

When it comes to The Shining, I've hoped for a directors cut that would restore some scenes that Garris cut out.

Even with a love  for bad Stephen King television -- I cannot offer and defense for The Langoliers.

THE GOOD:
IT
THE STAND
SALEM'S LOT
THE DEAD ZONE

THE WORST:
THE SHINING.
THE TOMMYKNOCKERS
STORM OF THE CENTURY
CARRIE
SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK
ROSE RED
THE LANGOLIERS
NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES
BAG OF BONES

TALK the TALK

This is great news from titanbooks.com

Roll up! Roll up! Talk “the Talk” @Titan Books to Win Money-can’t-buy Prizes!
Best-selling author Stephen King returns with a breath-taking tale of love – and loss – set in a 1970s North Carolina amusement park. 

Celebrating the release of this bittersweet coming-of-age novel, Titan Books and Hard Case Crime are teaming up with a series of digital partners to host competitions to win a free copies of Joyland and ONE-OF-A-KIND Joyland canvas prints of the Robert McGinnis art designed especially for the limited edition of the book. 

Who dares enter the world of Joyland to win these unique prizes? 

Playing the game is simple. Follow the carnival as it tours across websites… Each website will post two definitions of carny “Talk” used in Joyland or Stephen King trivia each day for three weeks.  

To be entered into a competition to win copies of the book (hosted by each site) as well as THREE EXCLUSIVE CANVASES copy and paste the right answer to a tweet @titanbooks 

eg. BANG SHY means a shooting gallery…I think. Find out in Stephen King’s #JOYLAND @titanbooks 

The more unique carny terms that you share with the world, the more likely that you are to win books and prizes. There’s three canvases in total.
Roll up! Roll up! Talk “the Talk” @Titan Books.

Check it out at  titanbooks.com

Just for fun, I just learned what "DOG HOUSE" means. Anyone. . .

Needful Rings

www.funnyordie.com