Stephen King, on writing:

Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about.

It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.

- Stephen King

On this day in television and book history - The Stand

 

The Stand

 

9-episode mini-series.

Directed by Josh Boone, Bridget Savage Cole, Danielle Krudy, Chris Fisher, Vincenzo Natali and Tucker Gates.

Written by Stephen King, Josh Boone, Benjamin Cavell, Jill Killington, Owen King, Knate Lee, Eric Dickinson, Taylor Elmore.

Based on the novel by Stephen King.

Released in the United States on December 17, 2020 – February 11, 2021.

Music by Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott.

 
Cast:

James Marsden, Odessa Young, Alexander Skarsgård, Whoopi Goldberg, Gordon Cormier, Amber Heard, Jovan Adepo, Owen Teague, Irene Bedard, Brad William Henke, Nat Wolff, Henrique Zaga, Greg Kinnear, Nicholas Lea, Eion Bailey, Katherine McNamara, Olivia Cheng, Fiona Dourif, Tarun Keram, Ezra Miller, Gabrielle Rose, Natalie Martinez, Jason Burkart, Paul Jarrett, Mark Gibbon, Sunita Prasad, Seth Whittaker, Hamish Linklater, Kendall Joy Hall, Daniel Sunjata, Cameron McDonald, Luis Javier, J.K. Simmons, Kristy Dawn Dinsmore, Jennifer-Juniper Angeli, Curtiss Cook Jr., Angus Sampson, Heather Graham, Spencer Drever, Reese Alexander, M.J. Kokolis, Primo Allon, Harrison MacDonald, Nyla Alleyne, Clifton Collins Jr., Ariana Nica, Todd Matthews, Isla Crerar, Peter Anderson, Rob McEachern, Troy Mundle, Jagua Arneja, Briar Diallo, Tim Carlson, Tebo Nzeku, Alexis Paige Dixon, Shadi Janho, Bruce Blain, David Parent, Miles Chalmers, Brandyn Eddy, Lisa Chandler, Arkie Kandola, Darren Dolynski, TJ Kayama, Mariessa Portelance, Angela Moore, Joe Costa, Fletcher Donovan, Donald Sales, Liza Huget, Lissa Neptuno, Veena Sood, Kim Kondrashoff, Eddie Flake, Hugo Raymundo, Jesse Stanley, Camden Filtness, Jasmine Lukuku, Mike Wasko, J. Douglas Stewart, Shishy Gebru, Myles McCarthy, Leah Hennessey, Jeremy Jones, Richard Meen, Sean Millington, Jenny Mitchell, Iris Paluly, Luvia Petersen, Lisa Renee Pitts, Michel Issa Rubio, Eric Ruggieri, Carolyn Tinglin, Danny Wattley, Bryan Cranston, Steve Ellis, Stephen King, Mick Garris, Jeremy Angel.

Recommended reading:  The Stand

The Stand

by Stephen King.
 
First published 1978.
Published by Doubleday.
Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0385199570
ISBN-13: 978-0385199575
 
Description:
 

Stephen King’s apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and tangled in an elemental struggle between good and evil remains as riveting – and eerily plausible – as when it was first published.

 

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years! This edition includes all of the new and restored material first published in The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition.

 

A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world’s population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge – Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious “Dark Man,” who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them – and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity.

The Telephone Box (1972) - it’s enough to give you phone phobia!

Review by Jack Kost

Shortly before New Year, we watched Phone Booth (2002) again, a great thriller starring Colin Farrell, Forest Whitaker, Katie Holmes, Radha Mitchell, and Kiefer Sutherland.

Farrell plays an unscrupulous New York publicist who answers a ringing phone in a booth he’s standing next to.

The caller warns him he’ll be killed if he attempts to leave the booth … and … the story develops from there.

The claustrophobic atmosphere of Phone Booth reminded me of a 1972 Spanish short movie I saw on TV during the mid-‘80’s called La Cabina (aka The Telephone Box).

A unfortunate guy (José Luis López Vázquez), in a world long before the invention of the cell phone, attempts to make a call in a street booth.

The door closes on him as he discovers the phone doesn’t work.

He tries to leave, but the door is locked tight.

He’s trapped in there a long time as a crowd of onlookers gather … and … the story develops from there.

La Cabina is quirky and dated, but still worth the half-hour to watch, with an original story that delivers a surreal and scary twist.

Although street booths have mostly disappeared, La Cabina is a great reason to own a cell phone … but then you have to consider what happened in Stephen King’s novel: Cell.

Yikes!

I read that folks in Spain, shortly after La Cabina was released on December 13, 1972, took to preventing the door in phone booths from shutting completely by keeping their foot in the gap.

I can’t imagine why.

On this day in movie and book history - Christine (1983)

Christine

directed by John Carpenter,

written by Bill Phillips,

based on the novel by Stephen King,

was released in the United States on December 9, 1983.

Music by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth.

Cast:

Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Harry Dean Stanton, Christine Belford, Robert Darnell, Roberts Blossom, Kelly Preston, William Ostrander, Steven Tash, Stuart Charno, Malcolm Danare, David Spielberg.

Recommended reading - Christine

Christine

by Stephen King.

Published by Viking Press.

First published 1983.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0670220264

ISBN-13: 978-0670220267

 

Description:

It was love at first sight. From the moment seventeen-year-old Arnie Cunningham saw Christine, he knew he would do anything to possess her.

Arnie’s best friend, Dennis, distrusts her – immediately.

Arnie’s teen-queen girlfriend, Leigh, fears her the moment she senses her power.

Arnie’s parents, teachers, and enemies soon learn what happens when you cross her.

Because Christine is no lady. She is Stephen King’s ultimate, blackly evil vehicle of terror…

Christine, blood-red, fat and finned, was twenty. Her promise lay all in her past. Greedy and big, she was Arnie’s obsession, a ’58 Plymouth Fury. Broken down but not finished. There was still power in her – a frightening power that leaked like sump oil, staining and corrupting. A malign power that corroded the mind and turned ownership into Possession.

Stephen King, on books:

Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. 

What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.

- Stephen King.

On this day in movie history - Misery (1990)

Misery

directed by Rob Reiner,

written by William Goldman,

based on the novel by Stephen King,

was released in the United States on November 30, 1990.

Music by Marc Shaiman.

Cast:

James Caan, Kathy Bates, Richard Farnsworth, Frances Sternhagen, Lauren Bacall, Graham Jarvis, Jerry Potter, J. T. Walsh, Rob Reiner.

On this day in movie history - The Mist (2007)

The Mist

directed and written by Frank Darabont,

based on the novella by Stephen King,

was released in the United States on November 12, 2007.

Music by Mark Isham.

Cast:

Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, Frances Sternhagen, Nathan Gamble, Alexa Davalos, Chris Owen, Sam Witwer, Robert C. Treveiler, David Jensen, Melissa McBride, Andy Stahl, Buck Taylor, Brandon O'Dell, Jackson Hurst, Brian Libby, Susan Malerstein-Watkins, Mathew Greer, Juan Gabriel Pareja, Walter Fauntleroy, Amin Joseph, Kelly Collins Lintz, Ginnie Randall, Tiffany Morgan, Kim Wall, Julio Cesar Cedillo, Ron Clinton Smith, Gregg Brazzel, Sonny Franks, Dodie Brown, Taylor E. Brown, Jay Amor, Kristin Barnhart, Kevin Beard, Derek Cox-Berg, Kip Cummings, John F. Daniel, Tammy Eaton, Ron Fagan, Ted Ferguson, Travis Fontenot, Cherie Gierhart, Louis Herthum, Walt Hollis, Brian Scott Hunt, R. Todd Jones, Jimmy Lee Jr., Cherami Leigh, Mike Martindale, Cindy McBride, Eric Kelly McFarland, Amy McGee-Harrell, Ritchie Montgomery, Michaela Morgan, Darrick Mosley, James Paul, Mark Robin Price, Charles Sutherland, Chuck Vail, Steven E. Williams.