There is always something going on in the world of Stephen King. Whether it’s news about a new book, developments regarding an upcoming adaptation, special anniversaries, or exciting events, a week never goes by without some significance for Constant Readers. It’s a special and fascinating element of modern pop culture to track – and it’s the inspiration behind my new Thursday column for CinemaBlend: The King Beat.
This week, we got news that one of the best Stephen King adaptations of all time is getting a big screen re-release; King wrote a piece about the current state of artificial intelligence; and a brand new and very special collectable has arrived following pre-orders placed in early spring. Let’s dig in!
John Carpenter’s Christine Is Returning To The Big Screen In September
With The Boogeyman having arrived in theaters this past June and Salem’s Lot still without a release date, big screen opportunities for Stephen King movies will be seldom in what remains of 2023… but they do exist. In fact, you can check out one of the best King films of all time at your local cinema next month, as it has been announced that John Carpenter’s Christine will be getting some specialty screenings in September thanks to Fathom Events.
The 40th anniversary of Christine is coming up later this year (the film was initially released on December 9, 1983), and the milestone birthday is being celebrated early. A total of three screenings will be hosted nationwide: at 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm local time on Sunday, September 10 and at 7:00 pm local time on Wednesday, September 13. Each showing will be preceded by a special introduction from John Carpenter.
Adapted from the 1983 Stephen King novel of the same name (yes, the book and the movie came out the same year), Christine is a sinister coming of age story about Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham (Keith Gordon), a nerdy high school student who sees his whole life change when he purchases a rundown 1958 Plymouth Fury. More than just a standard teen obsession, it turns out that the car is pure evil, and not only is it slowly corrupting Arnie, but it becomes violent towards anyone who dares interfere with their relationship.
The film takes some pretty considerable liberties with the source material, changing the nature of the titular vehicle’s evil and adding a bit more dark comedy into the tone, but it’s one of Carpenter’s greatest works, and the experience it delivers is only going to be enhanced by a theatrical presentation – from the eye-opening car-centric carnage to the auditory bliss of tires squealing and engines roaring. It’s not every day that classics like this get special engagements , so it’s best to take advantage when you can.
Stephen King Writes A Piece In The Atlantic About Artificial Intelligence
There are few hot button issues among creatives right now that are hotter than the debate about artificial intelligence. It’s a serious point of contention in the on-going WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and has raised some important questions. Can A.I. produce a piece of writing that is as good as a human's, and what is the creative value of that writing if it’s wholly based on pre-existing material fed to a computer as data? This week, Stephen King let his thoughts on the topic be known with a guest article in The Atlantic.
Last week, The Atlantic published a report saying that the books of Stephen King were among the 170,000 tomes used to train a Meta-owned algorithm called LLaMA, and King has now expressed his thoughts on the situation. Paraphrasing himself from the 2000 non-fiction book On Writing, the author notes that learning to write means doing a lot of reading, and while the creation of A.I. reflects that idea, what’s coming out is not on the same level of quality as what’s going in.
He writes that the material doesn’t successfully pass close inspection, and it lacks a necessary part of the creative process: inspiration. Says King,
AI poems in the style of William Blake or William Carlos Williams (I’ve seen both) are a lot like movie money: good at first glance, not so good upon close inspection. I wrote a scene in a forthcoming book that may illustrate this point. A character creeps up on another character and shoots him in the back of the head with a small revolver. When the shooter rolls the dead man over, he sees a small bulge in the man’s forehead. The bullet did not quite come out, you see. When I sat down that day, I knew the murder was going to happen, and I knew it was going to be murder by gun. I did not know about that bulge, which becomes an image that haunts the shooter going forward. That was a genuine creative moment, one that came from being in the story and seeing what the murderer was seeing. It was a complete surprise.
But just because existing technology can’t quite achieve what human writers do doesn’t mean that they won’t in the future. King evidently isn’t made nervous by potential advances (something he credits in part to having “reached a fairly advanced age”), but he warns against the idea of “never.”
My 1:64 Maximum Overdrive Happy Toyz Green Goblin Truck Arrived, And It’s Fantastic
When it comes to expressing appreciation for pop culture, collecting is one of my favorite hobbies, and it’s very much a part of my Stephen King fan-hood. In addition to having all of the author’s books, I also have every film and television adaptation that is available on physical media and an assortment of other ephemera including action figures and prop replicas. I get a kick out of adding new pieces to my collection, and this week saw the arrival of a great one: a 1:64 diecast model of the Happy Toyz Green Goblin Truck from the movie Maximum Overdrive.
While toy car collectors have long been able to easily find models based on the key vehicles from John Carpenter’s Christine, this is the first time the Happy Toyz truck has been produced, and it’s fantastic. I pre-ordered it back in March from First Gear, Inc., and it’s a perfect representation of the Maximum Overdrive antagonist – from the Green Goblin head in the front to the creepy clown on the back. The hood of the truck can be opened to expose the engine, and the doors of the container open up (it’s hollow but detailed on the inside). My only concern now is that it’s so well made that it might come to life in the middle of the night and try to kill me.
The Maximum Overdrive truck is no longer available for purchase directly from First Gear, Inc., but fans who want to get one for their own Stephen King collection should keep an eye on eBay.
Recommendation Of The Week: “If It Bleeds”
About a year-and-a-half after it was first announced, Holly is almost here. The newest book from Stephen King will be available in stores starting on September 5, and it’s his latest to center on Holly Gibney – the lovable, neurotic detective whom Constant Readers first got to meet in the 2014 novel Mr. Mercedes. It’s an exciting time full of anticipation… and now is a perfect opportunity to either read or re-read her most recent adventure.
While there probably isn’t time to read/re-read all of the Holly novels (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, End Of Watch, and The Outsider) between now and September 5, there certainly is enough time to check out the relatively short novella “If It Bleeds.” Published as part of the 2020 collection of the same name, the mystery finds Holly investigating a reporter who seems to have a knack for showing up at places where great tragedy has occurred. Without giving too much away, the stones she overturns result in serious danger and confrontation with a new form of supernatural evil. Through the story, you get to learn about who Holly is and who exists in her world, and it should serve as a proper primer to get you ready for King’s next novel.
Be on the lookout for the next installment of The King Beat here on CinemaBlend next Thursday, and in the meantime you can check out all 90+ installments of my Adapting Stephen King column – chronicling the full history of King on screen.
