I spent a large chunk of my childhood reading, nay, devouring Stephen King's novels and stories. In fact, I recall being fascinated by the cover art to the paperback edition of It at a Costco sometime in the mid-1980s, and I've been a fan ever since (and as an extra aside: my just-before-I-shut-my-eyes Kindle app read these days is Under the Dome).
So it's always of interest whenever a Stephen King work is to be adapted for either the big or small screen. For example, I don't think I'm ever more in TV fan boy (or geek army if you like) mode when there's talk of translating the fabulous Dark Tower series into both a television series and film franchise.
Bag of Bones is one of King's most elegant thrillers, a tale about writer's block, loss, ghosts, and secrets set in western Maine. The miniseries version – starring Pierce Brosnan as lead character Mike Noonan (which feels like great casting), Melissa George as Mattie, and Jason Priestley as Noonan's literary agent – is set to air on A&E on December 11th and 12th. Miniseries based on Stephen King's fiction have had varying degrees of success with some (The Stand, The Langoliers) better than others (Rose Red, Kingdom Hospital), so fingers crossed on this latest effort.
A&E has produced an elegantly creepy promotional website called Dark Score Stories, which includes some of the most deceptively scary imagery that I've ever seen.
Take a nice and close look. See anything… interesting?
King is slowly reclaiming his namesake both on and off the screen, and i couldn't be more excited - remakes of Pet Semetary and IT are coming to theatres in the relatively near future, Spielberg is attached to the Under the Dome miniseries that is being shopped around, and The Dark Tower television series is being seriously considered - if not already signed - by HBO.
On paper, I just picked up his newest 11/22/63 about a history teacher who travels back in time to the assassination of JFK. He's also got a sequel to The Shining planned, and another Dark Tower book meant to fill the gap between books four and five.
*Happy dance*
Wow, I didn't hear about the new Dark Tower book Mark, that's very cool.
For some reason I'm reminded of the years between the publishing of books three and four, which felt like forever. I think the really long gap though was between the fourth and fifth books, in between which King got hit by the pickup truck, recovered, and hurried back to work on finishing the series.
Anyway, there's obviously so much background and so much back story that can be fleshed out in the series, and that's to say nothing of the connections that the dark tower has to so much of king's other stories!
Stephen King translates so well to the screen (most of the time). I seriously can't listen to that Carpenters song without getting chills thanks to 1408.
There's so much King that needs to be added to my reading list. The Dark Tower series chiefly among them. Unpopular opinion time, but I loved Hearts in Atlantis (the book, not the movie) and I flailed like a tween when I was informed that Dark Tower has ties to Hearts.
Also? Those pictures are awesomely creepy.
Hearts in Atlantis the novel is freaking great stuff, MaryAnn, and I too thought it was awesome when I learned of its Dark Tower ties.
The Gunslinger (first novel in the DT series) is one of very most favorite books of all time.