What the heck is up with Stephen King? It feels like most of the writing I do lately concerns some new Stephen King announcement. Is it a change in management? Viagra? Satan? Whatever the reason, there's no denying he's all over the place these days.
Although I expected — nay, hoped — my next Stephen King item would involve a cookbook (In the Kitchen with King) or duet album (King Sings With…), it seems the ol' firestarter has other plans.
Last weekend during an appearance at George Mason University, King revealed his intention to pen a sequel to his 1977 classic, The Shining. This new book, to be titled Dr. Sleep, will catch up with terrorized little Overlook survivor Danny Torrance, who is now 40 years old and working as a nurse at a hospice, where he uses his psychic gifts to comfort the terminally ill. Oh, and there're also vampires with pirate names, because why not, right?
Seeing as how he read an excerpt to the George Mason audience, King has obviously taken this past the planning stage. But he's been talking about this idea for a while now, so I guess that's no surprise.
While this new project is definitely less interesting than a collection of recipes or a CD of collaborations with Bono or Kenny G, I'm sure you'll agree that Dr. Sleep is likely to be more profitable than either.
This better be bloody good. THE SHINING is probably his most personal and, arguably, most famous book.
I immediately think back to an extremely shitty sequel to a great book that came out over a decade ago: SON OF ROSEMARY by Ira Levin. God, that was fucking terrible. I hope King aims higher than that.
But on a personal note I'm more interested about his new Dark Tower book THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE.
This better be bloody good. THE SHINING is probably his most personal and, arguably, most famous book.
I immediately think back to an extremely shitty sequel to a great book that came out over a decade ago: SON OF ROSEMARY by Ira Levin. God, that was fucking terrible. I hope King aims higher than that.
Ugh, I forgot about that one. See? I'd rather have a Stephen King and Nat King Cole duet than The Shining 2: Bright Yet a Dim Glow of the Original.
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I think we can expect the Michael Bay produced SHINING 2, with Sam Jackson playing the ghost of Scatman Crothers- "I'M TIRED OF THESE MUTHAFUCKIN AXES IN MY MUTHAFUCKIN CHEST"
I think we can expect the Michael Bay produced SHINING 2, with Sam Jackson playing the ghost of Scatman Crothers- "I'M TIRED OF THESE MUTHAFUCKIN AXES IN MY MUTHAFUCKIN CHEST"
I'm ashamed to say it, but I'd pay good money for any movie with Jackson shouting out that line.
Stephen King really loves that Danny Torrance character. I just watched the screener for that documentary called King on Horror (which is excellent, especially if you are a Jaws fan) but King still speaks bitterly about Kubrick's the Shining mainly because Danny Torrance was a very important character to King and Kubrick ruined the dynamic. King's story was about the ghosts wanting to get at Danny for his power and they destroyed his father to get at him. Kubrick changed it to make it more like the dad's insanity and bad nature led to the events of the novel.
In King's story the father was a decent but troubled man, he would not have become murderous without the supernatural intervention of the bad spooky ghosts.
What the heck is up with Stephen King? It feels like most of the writing I do lately concerns some new Stephen King announcement. Is it a change in management? Viagra? Satan? Whatever the reason, there's no denying he's all over the place these days. 
This better be bloody good. THE SHINING is probably his most personal and, arguably, most famous book.
I immediately think back to an extremely shitty sequel to a great book that came out over a decade ago: SON OF ROSEMARY by Ira Levin. God, that was fucking terrible. I hope King aims higher than that.
But on a personal note I'm more interested about his new Dark Tower book THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE.