Thread: All Things:Stephen King(including DarkTower news)

Unlike good sheets, we need to keep the thread count down(yes, I was in fact, up all night working on that) so here goes...

Stephen King's CARRIE Is Being Re-Adapted Again

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Comic author/playwright Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa - who was recently recruited to salvage the legendarily challenged SPIDER-MAN: TURN OFF THE DARK Broadway musical - will next turn his sight on a re-adaptation of Stephen King's CARRIE.

Ron Howard Explains THE DARK TOWER Delay; Javier Bardem Not Yet Confirmed to Star

I admire Ron Howard’s for his incredible ambition in trying to adapt Steven King’s The Dark Tower series into a trilogy of films with a TV series as the connective tissue between movies. I don’t think he’ll be able to pull it off because he’s a bland director who thoughts that The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons needed to be humorless messes that retained all of the stupidity of the novels.

But earlier in May, Universal considered pulling out of The Dark Tower due to budget concerns. The following week, we reported that Universal was working to bring down the budget and had pushed back the film’s start date. Howard has now provided an update on the project’s status. According to Howard, they’re now eyeing a spring 2012 start date but they’re stilling waiting for the green light. Hit the jump for the full quote from Howard where he also casts doubt on the involvement of Javier Bardem.


Howard tells EW:

“We had to pull back to our September start date due to budget delays and ongoing story development and logistical issues, but Dark Tower is moving forward. We’re thinking of starting in early spring now…We’ll know by the end of the summer, when our flashing green light goes solid.”

Javier Bardem had been heavily tipped to play the lead role of gunslinger Roland Deschain, but Howard has now cast doubt on that casting:

I can’t really say who’ll be in it yet, but Javier Bardem has shown a great deal of interest.

So while that positions Bardem as the frontrunner for the role, he’s not officially on board yet. While Universal had scheduled the first part of the trilogy for May 17, 2013, the rescheduling of the film’s start date likely means the release date will also be pushed back.

Stephen King's Bag of Bones Begins Filming in July | Horror Movie, DVD, & Book Reviews, News, Interviews at Dread Central

Another adaptation of a Stephen King tale is gearing up to go in front of cameras with Mick Garris at the helm, and we've got the first few details ready to rock for you right here. Dig it!

According to Sea and Be Scene, a mini-series based on Stephen King’s award-winning novel Bag of Bones will begin shooting in Nova Scotia July 6th, 2011, continuing through to August 31st, 2011.

The 'haunted vacation house' novel will be directed by Mick Garris, the writer/director on three previous Stephen King TV films including The Shining, The Stand and Desperation. Pre-poduction started today in the province.

Thanks to DC reader J. Swinimer.

Book Synopsis:
Several years after his wife's death, novelist Mike Noonan still suffers writer's block. A dream inspires him to return to the couple's summer retreat in western Maine, a lakeside house called Sara Laughs. Shortly after arriving, Noonan is caught in the middle of a custody battle involving the daughter of an attractive young widow and the child's enormously wealthy grandfather. He also discovers that Sara Laughs is haunted and that his late wife, Joanna, still has something to tell him.

Read an Excerpt from Stephen King's 11/22/63 | Horror Movie, DVD, & Book Reviews, News, Interviews at Dread Central

Ron Howard and Brian Grazer Talk THE DARK TOWER

Ugh. If you read between the lines here you can tell they were told to bring it in cheaper. So, it's already compromised even before they get a cast together.

I don't know if this is actually going to get done... I fear delays and re-writes and budget cuts and actor's schedules wreaking havoc until they just cut their losses and scrap it all.

I'd like to see it, but I'd like to see it done well and not screwed with.

HARRY POTTER Director David Yates to Take on Stephen King

While Yates is obviously eager to take some time off after releasing two ginormous films back-to-back, Vulture reports that the director is flying into town tomorrow to meet with Warner Bros. to discuss an adaption of King’s supernatural novel The Stand. Yates has apparently been re-reading King’s epic, and will decide in the next two weeks whether he wants to make the picture. Warner Bros. is hoping to split the massive book into three parts, from which the material will benefit monetarily creatively.

The director is certainly familiar with multi-film adaptations of beloved novels, but is he ready to jump into another one right away? Only time will tell, but if he’s got an interesting take on King’s saga, I’m all for it.

Lest you think Yates only has one big-budget film on his plate, the director is also apparently developing an Al Capone origin story called Cicero that Tom Hardy just attached himself to. The project was initially written as a TV pilot in the 1970’s, but has now been readapted for film. Again, Warner Bros. is eyeing a possible franchise or trilogy of films, with the first documenting the gangster’s rise to fame. While it’s extremely weird to think that a biopic trilogy could be a thing that exists, the prospect of Yates taking on a straight-up drama with no supernatural qualities is highly intriguing.

Vulture’s report states that Yates will be discussing the possibility of filming Cicero before Hardy moves on to shoot George Miller’s Mad Max reboot Fury Road next spring. However, Yates told Steve that he plans on filming his smaller movie sometime next year, so it’s unknown whether he’s simply considering the possibility, or would be willing to move his smaller project back to fit in with Hardy’s schedule.

But that’s not all, folks! Yates is also being courted by Warner Bros. to direct an adaptation of the comic book series Fables. That series follows the comings and goings of your favorite fairy tale characters going about their everyday lives in Manhattan’s Upper West Side (not unlike NBC’s new series Once Upon a Time). The Big-Bad-Wolf is the sheriff, who is investigating the death of Snow White’s party-girl sister (everyone knows the Whites cannot hold their liquor). The prime suspect is, of course, her ex-boyfriend Jack of Jack and the Beanstalk fame.

wow...that's a helluva nice dilemma to have.

Was that Stand series that came out years ago worth watching? It was on my to-watch list for a good long while, but I forgot about it.

A couple of things.

First Bardem as Roland would be incredible.

Second I liked The Stand series (and I am probably in the minority here) that was on ABC. The only channel that could truly do that story justice is SciFi but they won't do it as they are fighting for their proverbial lives from what I hear. The casting was good as Gary Sinise was great as Stu, Molly Ringwald was very good as Frannie and Rob Lowe was good as Nick. For made for TV I thought it was pretty good. I don't know that would go as far as to own it but I would rewatch on Netflix.