As promised, here is my interview with Frank Darabont. I’m glad to tell you that it’s very long and that he talks about everything from The Mist and The Long Walk to The Monkey and even The Dark Tower. Read and enjoy!
More Dark Tower covers coming:
The midnight release of Stephen King’s Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #1 at nearly 150 retailers across the country is almost here and Marvel wishes all of the retailers participating the best of luck. Marvel is equally as excited as all the retailers and fans across the country and wants to wish unqualified success to every store participating.
"The response we have received from retailers participating in the midnight opening has been overwhelmingly positive. The mainstream attention it has drawn to the direct market and to this first issue is unrivaled in the recent history of the industry. Should this prove as successful as it appears it will be, I think we'll see more of this type of mainstream event happening in the future," said Marvel Senior VP of Sales David Gabriel.
The night of Tuesday, February 6th, comic stores across the United States will be opening their doors for a midnight release for the first time in comics’ history. In a landmark moment for comics, Stephen King fans and comic fans will ring in Wednesday (also known as New Comics Day to comic fans) at 12:01 to get the premiere issue of Stephen King’s Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born.
Marvel also wishes to announce that due to the tremendous popularity of the variant cover program, each issue of Stephen King’s Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born will feature a sketch cover, as chosen by Jae Lee, and an all-new variant cover by one of the top artists in the industry. Issue #2 will feature a variant cover by superstar artist David Finch (New Avengers, Moon Knight) and the sketch cover by Jae Lee seen for the first time here. Stay tuned to Marvel.com for more on who the other variant cover artists will be.
In an interview I have done with Frank Darabont he reveals that Frances Sternhagen (Misery), Alexa Davalos, Sam Witwer, Bill Sadler (The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile), Jeff DeMunn (The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile) and Brian Libby (the prisoner in The Woman in the Room) will join Thomas Jane, Andre Braugher and Laurie Holden in The Mist. The full interview will be online tomorrow.
Here is some indications that The Dark Tower comic will be released in other languages then English. This is from a mail sent out from King's official site:
The foreign translated version deals are being worked through now and when we have more information we will let you know in which languages and territories they will available.
Darkhorizons reports that Andre Braugher and Laurie Holden has joined the cast for The Mist.
Andre Braugher and Laurie Holden will join Thomas Jane in Dimension Films' adaptation of the Stephen King novella "The Mist".
The script, written by Darabont, is set after a strange storm blows through a Maine town and its citizens are attacked by deadly creatures. A group of townfolks barricade themselves in a supermarket and struggle for survival.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Holden will play the female lead and Braugher a high-powered attorney who is a neighbour of Thomas Jane's leading character. Shooting is slated to begin in mid-to-late February in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Bev Vincent had the following to report on his message board today:
There's supposed to be a sneak peek about 1408 on Entertainment Tonight today. I've also heard that the movie will preview at Fangoria's Weekend Of Horrors in Chicago the weekend of Feb 23rd.
Every week comic book fans look forward to Wednesdays, the day new issues go on sale. On Feb. 7, one of those comics will be the first issue of a new seven-part series based on the Stephen King novel “The Dark Tower,” from Marvel Entertainment. To commemorate the event, almost 150 comic book retailers across the country will begin selling the issue at the stroke of midnight. A list of participating stores can be found at www.marvel.com/news/comicstories. Fans who flock to Midtown Comics in Manhattan will see a couple of special guests: Peter David, who writes the dialogue for the series, and Jae Lee, the book’s artist. The store will open for one hour.
Mellencamp talks about The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County:
Mellencamp will also spend time with author Stephen King polishing "The Ghost Brothers of Darkland County," the "play with music" that they've been working on for the past several years. The two got together in November to continue putting it together, and Mellencamp says "that's really another reason why I'm not gonna be on tour this summer, 'cause I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be ... working on this musical," including meeting with potential producers and investors.
"Steve is the sweetest guy you could ever meet; there's nothing weird about him or demonic or anything like that," Mellencamp says. "I remember once we were playing in Green Bay, Wisc., and he came out and played acoustic guitar on a song. I went back to get him, and his hands were shaking. I said, 'You gotta be sh*tting me -- the man who scared the world is scared to walk out in front of 10,000 people?!' He said, 'Yeah, I'm f*cking afraid!' I said, 'Get your ass out there!' He's just the sweetest guy, and he's great to work with."
Ehren Kruger discusses The Talisman: CS: How have things been going on "The Talisman"? Have you actually been working with Stephen King or Peter Straub on that at all? Kruger: I haven't worked with those guys, the authors. I've worked heavily with Steven Spielberg and Katherine Kennedy, who are the producers on the project, so we've had years of creative meetings on it. Now it's moving ahead in a mini-series version, since we're having trouble getting the feature off the ground. So I'm working on that now, and the good news about having six hours to tell the story instead of two is there's a lot more of the book that can now be part of the movie.
CS: Did you have a script for a two-hour movie at one point that you're embellishing with four more hours of story? Kruger: We're using some of the elements of the feature script and then, there's a lot to add and expand. The core structure of the feature was always that of the novel, but there was just no way we could include a lot of what's in the novel, so now we're able to go back and cherry-pick the best sequences and plotlines and subplots of the novel again.
CS: Have you found a director for that and will it be the same director for the whole thing? Kruger: I don't know. Probably will be one director for the whole thing, but we'll have more of a sense of that later in the spring.
As reported earlier King will be at Comic Con in NY this February. The moderator on King's board has now confirmed that he will be there on February 24th and probably at 12 or 1 PM.
The Dark Tower comic is on the front cover of Marvel's "Daily Bugle".
Inside, there's a full page story with some quotes and some basic info on
the series. It's the Wednesday, January 24, 2007 edition and it's $.25 and
available at most comic book stores.
The third and last part of my interview with Stephen King is now available. I call it PART 3 – Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, books in cellphones and limited editions and you can read it here.
The second part of my interview with Stephen King is now available. I call it PART 2 – Duma Key, Jack Sawyer and The Gingerbread Girl and you can
read
it here.
The first part of my interview with Stephen King is now available. I call it PART 1 - Fan sites, Blaze and The Haven Foundation and you can read
it here.
Part 2 will follow tomorrow and part 3 the day after that.
King has a new story in PS Publishing’s upcoming 10th issue of Postscripts that’s being released in the spring. The title is Graduation Afternoon and you can find more info here.
Here are some info about my interview with King from his official site Interview for Lilja's Library fan site
Lilja at Lilja’s Library will be posting a 3-part interview with Stephen on his site beginning Tuesday, January 16th. Among the many topics in the interview, they will be discussing DUMA KEY and BLAZE as well as plans for the follow up with Peter Straub to BLACK HOUSE.
Update about The Mist from King's site:
We have received news from Frank Darabont's office that Dimension will be producing The Mist along with Darkwood Productions. Shooting is scheduled to begin February 20th in Shreveport, LA. Casting choices will be announced soon.
I just got of the phone with Stephen King after a 45 minute long chat. The interview will be published here on the site as soon as I have typed it out and then probably in several parts since it’s so long. So, keep checking back…
I must admit it was very exiting to pick up the phone and hear "Hello Hans? Steve King...".
This report is from King's official site:
The Haven Foundation will be offering a very limited supply of signed books by Stephen King each month. The January selection is Secret Window. This was published as an exclusive Book-of-the-Month Club anthology of hard-to-find non-fiction pieces, little-known interviews, short stories, and articles, with an Introduction by Peter Straub. It was intended as a companion to Stephen’s book On Writing.
Copies will go on sale at 12 PM on Monday, January 15th and will be on an “as supplies last” basis. They may be purchased at: http://www.thehavenfdn.org/store
Unsigned hardcover copies of other Stephen King titles will also be available for purchase at the original cover price plus shipping. Many of these are now out-of-print in the hardcover edition. New titles will be added as they become available, so check back often for current inventory.
Richard Isanove, the digital painter and colorist on The Gunslinger Born comic has offered to sign a limited amount of all seven issues for fans who visit The Signed Page. The price is $11 + shipping for each issue.
According to this report Frank Darabont will start filming The Mist on February 20, with a tentative Nov 21 release date. Lets hope that the dates are correct this time.
Subterranean Press reports that their edition of The Green Mile (limited and trade) are finished, and that they're just waiting on the slipcases (which they should have in about three weeks). At that point, the shipping marathon will commence.
Here is an interview with Thomas Jane in which he is talking about The Mist and that shooting is planed to start in late February. Thomas plays David Drayton.
King gives ut the first two chapters from Blaze. Blaze excerpt now available
Dear Constant Readers,
I have found a novel by the late Richard Bachman written in 1972/73, that I thought was lost. I found it—or rather, Ms. Mod found it—and I am hoping to publish it in 2007, with royalties going to The Haven Foundation. To whet your appetite, here are the first two chapters.