stephen king c/d?

They're doing Dark Tower as both a movie AND a TV series. I think the series is going to be set in the past (adapting Wizard and Glass, I believe).

Isn't the TV series vaporware?

I dunno, I thought it was just a forgotten artifact from when Ron Howard was planning to direct, but I read something about it in a recent news item about the movie.

IT really, really calls for like a ten- or twelve-episode streaming season. Suspect a lot of King would really work in that format since he writes so long that movies tend to boil out so much of what makes them feel King-like, or spend so much time cramming in plot points that actually building up the suspense and creepiness of any given scene, or the sense of wrongness about a bend in the path in the woods or whatever, is just impossible.

Dark Tower is probably unfilmable in any format as written since it just careens around so much in terms of genre and tone, and huge portions of it need a profound rethink (almost everything to do with Susannah IIRC). I mean how do you make a series where the first act is a lone silent Clint Eastwood spooky postapocalyptic western plus succubi, then it becomes a merry group adventure on the road from genre exercise to genre exercise, doubles back to Clint Eastwood for a book-length flashback of the olden days, and then turns abruptly into a barrage of fanservice and shoutouts alternating with the characters saving Stephen King from a car crash, and on and on... I mean you could massage some of that out I guess? It's just, like, barely a 'story,' it's not really about anything, just he told some stories and built up affection for the characters so people wanted to see the journey through.

(That said the idea of doing just a single film that's a reinterpretation or heavily altered retelling of some portion or episode of Dark Tower seems like a totally fine idea, just another parallel narrative intersecting King's sprawling metaverse. Plus I love the casting of Elba as Roland so who am I kidding I'll go and see this for sure.)

And here ya go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjwfqXTebIY

omg what should the first s king book i read be

All of them at once.

! if you had to pick ONE tho

xpost Pretty orange & teal-y.

I think I read the first book when it came out but don't remember a thing about it. Is this like "The Neverending Story" with guns?

Read Salem's Lot first, I'd say, or The Dead Zone. Something from the initial star-making run but before he started churning out the verging-on-self-parody material like Christine and Firestarter. Of course, I can't vouch for the last two decades' worth of stuff. I think Dolores Claiborne is the most recent I've read.

Salem's Lot!

Start with Night Shift/short stories.

Night Shift is a great place to start. Varies wildly in style, but some of those stories are absolute classics and everything in there is at least super-readable. I'd do Salem's Lot first though since there are two stories related to it in that collection.

MISERY

one of his best, not very supernatural, the one that got me back into him

this is very exciting. SUMMER OF STEPHEN

Easy there cowboy - save your excitement for the first time you read one of his descriptions of breasts.

Night Shift is my automatic go-to recommendation for a King newbie. If you aren't feeling it with that one, you can safely stop there and say you tried.

Salems Lot is a good pick. Gets you into his pulpy style

verging-on-self-parody material like Christine

Certainly not his best book, but I totally loved Christine.

Yeah, I just read it for the first time last year. I dig the movie but the novel had a whole lot more going on.

! if you had to pick ONE tho

It, hands down

Nonono, stay the hell away from IT!

That was my first King and it really soured me on King.

imo IT is his masterpiece, might as well start there if you have some time on your hands... not that it really takes that long to read, took me a month of leisurely reading

It taken me eternity

You never It.

I agree with 'Salem's Lot and Night Shift as the obvious "first King" contenders. My first was Firestarter, which was fine but in retrospect not his best work.

that trailer.

peter jackson directing or something?

roland deschain is not a fucking power ranger.

That's debatable.

i like Elba there but McConaughey looks spot on

how have people not realised Idris Elba (one career-making performance aside) is a terrible actor at this point

I second 'Salem's Lot and Night Shift as the ideal entry points, with the original version of The Stand another solid contender.

he was good in Zootopia xp

ah hes great i mean i dunno if he acts i dont be looking but hes so fucking cool

but even without the matrix shite there i dunno if hes roland. hes not near wasted enough for starters

king entry point.... eye of the dragon, nightmares and dreamscapes

i feel like you can kind of start anywhere and if you dig his style, it doesn't matter if the book is a lesser work... like the first thing I read was Dreamcatcher (fwiw I was 10), and i've been a fan ever since.

i will say CUJO is one you absolutely have to check out, not to be overlooked... just finished it last night, it's batshit insane (infamously the novel he doesn't remember writing at all bc of his drug addiction), really fucking dark, the prose is just vicious.

It is his best book and although it's on the longer side it goes down really easy and is in a lot of ways his most representative book, so might as well start there.

Salem's Lot was the first one I read and although it was genuinely scary at times, the characters weren't very fun and the writing wasn't all that lively and memorable. Go with It.

I really enjoyed The Dark Zone, too, which was also one of the first ones I read, but it doesn't have the epic sweep of some of his better books

Dead Zone? Or Dark Tower?

or the Dark Half?

lol

lol he's written too many books. Dead Zone was the one.

The Dark Half sucked. Like, really sucked.

roland deschain is not a fucking power ranger.

― s'rong, unstable (darraghmac), Wednesday, May 3, 2017 3:58 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sweet jesus it just occurred to me, is roland's last name a reference to renowned Maine weatherproofer Dave Deschain, of the wacky self-produced commercials???

"Keep out the rain, call Dave Deschain"

"Raindrop I thought I got ridda yoo!"

how do you get "Power Ranger" from that trailer

Read Salem's Lot first, I'd say, or The Dead Zone. Something from the initial star-making run but before he started churning out the verging-on-self-parody material like Christine and Firestarter. Of course, I can't vouch for the last two decades' worth of stuff. I think Dolores Claiborne is the most recent I've read.

― insidious assymetrical weapons (Eric H.)

christine and firestarter are prime cocaine era stephen king. is "christine" the one he doesn't even remember writing?

No, that's Cujo.

It's Cujo! Someone asks that every 50 posts or so despite it being mentioned every 50 posts or so, it's weird xpost