I used to be a big Stephen King fan, I mean huge. I read everything he did without fail and was never disappointed. That is, until he moved from his traditional horror and started down the road of psychological horror, and then beginning to write people stories, it stopped working for me, so I stopped reading his books. Sad, because some of them are actually quite good. Now and then though I would pop back and read the odd book, and some of them were okay, a few were astounding.
One I picked up was called The Talisman co-written with Peter Straub, it’s an excellent story that really goes to the roots of storytelling, mixing a teenagers journey with fantasy and quite adult themes (not in that way!). It’s the prequel to The Black House, written by the same authors, and a step towards the world of The Dark Tower, an awesome seven book story by King.
Anyway. It’s enough to say that The Talisman is an excellent book, and now it looks like it’s getting a movie treatment.
For some reason there are a number of King films in production at the moment:
Salem’s Lot – Rob Lowe, Donald Sutherland, Rutger Hauer
Riding the Bullet – Ermmm…ermm…next.
Bag of Bones – No one on board.
Desperation – As above…well, no one well known!
Eyes of the Dragon – A french animation
Many have the usual TV movie plastered all over them, although I have heard interesting things about the Salems Lot remake – you guys can maybe put me right if you’ve already seen it.
This looks like it will be different though, Spielberg has become involved and Dreamworks are onboard, with Ehren Kruger (Arlington Road, Ring 1 and 2) writing the screenplay. It all sounds excellent, and on track to be another excellent King adaptation. I can only hope that The Dark Tower is next.
