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escargot1 said:
I've just started Lisey's Story. I hardly ever read fiction so when I do it has to come with a guarantee. ;)

What's this I read? It's crap? :(

Still haven't read that one, but it doesn't have a good reputation. It was supposed to be Steve getting all literary. But it might be OK, make up your own mind, I say.
 
davidplankton said:
Anyone been following this blog on the Guardian site?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/ ... ephen-king

It's quite a task he's set himself, some of those books have a very high page count.
Anyway it's inspired me to go and get The Stand from the library.

Thanks for the link! Looks interesting, I've read most of King's books but not all, he's so darn prolific. Watch out which version of The Stand you get, they're both good but the longer one has lots of attempts to update the cultural references which er, stand out like a sore thumb.
 
It's the longer version I've ended up with. Both libraries and a Waterstones in my vicinity had most King books apart from The Stand, finally got one from Smiths.
 
In preparation for the Guardian blog reaching it, I've just read Eyes of the Dragon. Just your basic tale of false accusation and the long road to justice, except it's a fantasy novel, and I'd never have read one of those if the King name hadn't been attached. As it was, economically plotted, nicely told in storybook fashion, and perfectly fine - but not really my favourite, though I know some people love it.
 
It suprised me to read that King's next, or one of the next, book(s) - a sequel to The Shining - called Doctor Sleep, features a bunch of psychic vampires. Vampires that may or may not be able to tell the future (!) but feed on people's energy.

It strikes me as being a bit strange, considering that Dan Simmons already pretty much tied down the 'psychic vampire' story in the seminal horror Carrion Comfort - a book referenced by King as one of the best horror books of the Century'.
 
Yeah, Carrion Comfort is a fantastic book. But I'd say there was more to psychic vampires than just that story, so I'll be interested to wait and see.
 
Yeah, possibly - it just struck me as strange that a writer of King's standing - a visionary and innovator of the modern horror story - is writing something that has really already been done. It's as if Charles Dickens woke up one day and thought 'Oh, maybe I'll write a story about a guy chasing a big white whale.'
 
Room 237 is out on DVD now, the documentary about Kubrick's The Shining, and if you like a great weirdo theory (and I know you do) there's a feast of them in this film. According to the interviewees The Shining contains messages about anything from the genocide of the American Indian to the Nazi Holocaust to the faked Moon landings. All illustrated with loads and loads of clips, some really funny.

Highly recommended if you like "out there" filmmaking and ideas in combination, you don't even have to believe it to enjoy it. Fantastic trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khPPlvMnaV0

Though it helps if you know the original classic trailer to see how clever they are:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piQFD4gz9l8
 
Video interview with King, on his Shining sequel, and on the Kubrick movie...

Stephen King returns to The Shining with Doctor Sleep

The best-selling author behind The Shining has returned to its central character, 36 years after the book was first published, for his latest novel.

Doctor Sleep begins a year after the events at the end of The Shining, and follows Danny Torrance to adulthood.

He spoke to the BBC's arts editor Will Gompertz about why Jack Torrance is his most autobiographical character and why he hated Stanley Kubrick's film version.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24151957
 
Whaaat? Stephen King hated Kubrick's The Shining? Why has he never mentioned this before?
 
I've been reading the movie of Cell is now going ahead with John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson but without Eli Roth. The book gets a lot of stick, but I really enjoyed it, especially the controversial ending which apparently nobody else liked. I bet they don't keep it.
 
There's already a movie called Doctor Sleep: about ten years old, British, with that Croatian actor who was in ER.

It sank without trace, but I seem to remember quite enjoying it - creepy atmosphere, quite spooky.

I remember it because in the film the creepy people tap their finger tips very rapidly on their thumb as if they're counting, which is a habit I have - usually when I'm trying to calm myself down, or remember something - and it freaked my then girlfriend out.
 
Spookdaddy said:
I remember it because in the film the creepy people tap their finger tips very rapidly on their thumb as if they're counting, which is a habit I have - usually when I'm trying to calm myself down, or remember something - and it freaked my then girlfriend out.

I used to work with an annoying fellow who did that all the time. He claimed he was practising the fingering on his bagpipes. Sounded plausible enough at the time.
 
gncxx said:
I've been reading the movie of Cell is now going ahead with John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson but without Eli Roth. The book gets a lot of stick, but I really enjoyed it, especially the controversial ending which apparently nobody else liked. I bet they don't keep it.

I read Cell when it first came out, but I honestly can't remember the ending. It seemed like it would make a great movie at the time.

I'm not sure how they'll get around the change in the way we use our phones. People text, surf, play games, check emails - our phones are in our laps or held at chest height. If the signal is loud enough to reach the user, it would probably infect the poor Luddite sitting next to him.
 
News on the new adaptation of The Stand:
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=119209

Basically, current hit sad film director Josh Boone is doing a three hour, all-star version and it'll be R rated so all the sex 'n' violence will be intact (OK, mostly violence). Has to be better than the 90s miniseries, right?

Casting will be very interesting, weird thing when I read the book as a teen I saw Nick as a black guy, only learned later there's no evidence for that when Rob Lowe played him on TV.

The most important casting question of course remains, who plays the Monster Shouter?
 
gncxx said:
The most important casting question of course remains, who plays the Monster Shouter?

Bruce Dern? He normally gets such parts these days.
 
When I was at school, me and a friend used to fantasy plan making a film of Stephen King's 'The Long Walk' .... think 'Stand By Me' (aka 'The Body'), TLK is quite literally a 'road movie' but each time these kids slow down under 4 miles per hour they get a warning. On the third warning, they're shot on the spot. If they need to have a shit, they have to do it moving or lose a warning point. It they collapse through exhaustion, they are shot.

King wrote both stories under the name Richard Bachman ... The Long Walk pre-empted today's reality TV shows: In the future, America's ruler sets up a contest that anyone can enter to win anything they want for life ... walk a stated few hundred miles without sleeping resting/stopping or slowing down too often. In the story, you learn the reasons why each contestant is doing this, get to care about some and dislike others, the idea is so incredibly simple and wouldn't need a huge budget, limited CGI etc. I was exhausted for them every time I put the book down.

I can only imagine director Frank Darabont doing this story justice and probably as a mini series paced in a similar way to 'The Walking Dead'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk

take you your pick on the fan films and book reviews

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... walk+movie
 
I've never really understood the popularity of Stephen King, myself. But, there's no doubt about it, he seems to be the natural successor to the great writers of the American Gothic, like Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson and Robert Bloch.
 
Mythopoeika said:
gncxx said:
The most important casting question of course remains, who plays the Monster Shouter?

Bruce Dern? He normally gets such parts these days.

Remember when he was always cast as a loon, especially a loony military officer?
 
I can only imagine director Frank Darabont doing this story justice and probably as a mini series paced in a similar way to 'The Walking Dead'.

The Long Walk is my favourite Stephen King story, he's a much better writer when he focuses on mostly psychological horror than the usual 'grosseries'

Also there's not much if anything in it that's actually impossible, which makes it much worse.

It definitely needs to be done in a way that's completely and utterly unrelenting. :lol:
 
Hey Swifty, what's with the spoilers? :lol:

If I remember right, in the book the penalties aren't spelled out right away so each comes as a shock. I may be wrong on this.

Yup, King is more interesting when he sticks to the horror inside us all aspect. There's one line from Salem's Lot that stuck with me, about nobody ever knowing how it was with them when a couple experienced some serious but mundane domestic violence when all around them the vampires're sacking the place. That would've made such a good story in itself.

Came across a story on Kindle by King and his son Joe Hill - 'In the Tall Grass'. I could pick out which bits were by King père and fils: the long grass was Dad and the horrible, terrible denouement must've been Joe's as even Dad never wrote anything so crass. :lol:
 
escargot1 said:
Hey Swifty, what's with the spoilers? :lol:

If I remember right, in the book the penalties aren't spelled out right away so each comes as a shock. I may be wrong on this ....

Watchoo talkin about Willis? :lol: ... Someone is executed at the start of the story at the starting line for flips sake! .. each different following sequence of 3 fatal penalties come as a shock anyway in my memory of reading it.
 
ramonmercado said:
Mythopoeika said:
gncxx said:
The most important casting question of course remains, who plays the Monster Shouter?

Bruce Dern? He normally gets such parts these days.

Remember when he was always cast as a loon, especially a loony military officer?

He was Oscar nominated for a non-crazy role in Nebraska this year, so they might be looking for something more substantial for him, if he's being considered. All the Monster Shouter does is shout "Monsters coming!" in the distance, then is found stabbed to death some time afterwards. Who could fill a demanding part like that? OK, probably Bruce.
 
If not Bruce Dern, probably somebody who'll do any part for food (e.g. Rob Schneider). :)
 
Well, I was only joking about who will play the Monster Shouter anyway, the pressing question is really, who will play Randall Flagg? I can see Matthew McConaughey in Killer Joe mode making a good fist of it. Anyone's better than miniseries guy.
 
I've now read Doctor Sleep, and if it's not up there with The Shining (not my favourite of his early books, but a damn good read) he spun a decent yarn that wasn't really like Carrion Comfort and more like a meditation on mortality as both the heroes and villains are worrying about their extinction.

Sounds obvious for a horror novel to be about death, but it seemed a lot more serious this time, as if King is pondering his own demise and the fate of his body of work. It's still a story about serial killing psychics chasing after a little girl, but there's another level to it as well. A solid 7/10.

He has another book out already, Mr Mercedes, so he's not slowing down at all.
 
I'm shoehorning this in here as there's bound to be a fillum. ;)

Having just read Doctor Sleep, I am disappointed to find little mention in the text of the cat who predicts death. especially as he is featured on the cover of my Special Limited Edition copy. :(
 
escargot1 said:
I'm shoehorning this in here as there's bound to be a fillum. ;)

Having just read Doctor Sleep, I am disappointed to find little mention in the text of the cat who predicts death. especially as he is featured on the cover of my Special Limited Edition copy. :(

Schrödinger's Cat style you don't know if the cat is going to be in that particular copy until you read it.
 
That's a good point! :lol:

However, I solved Schrödinger's problem last year. You can hear about it in a CERN video. 8)
 
escargot1 said:
That's a good point! :lol:

However, I solved Schrödinger's problem last year. You can hear about it in a CERN video. 8)

Digging up his bones and feeding them to dogs is hardly solving the problem no matter how satisfying cats might find it.
 
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