This week, Mike Flanagan’s upcoming adaptation of The Life Of Chuck announced a full cast of excellent stars (many Flanagan veterans and many newcomers), and David Cronenberg’s underrated The Dead Zone celebrated its special 40th anniversary… and yet that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to exciting news from the world of Stephen King. Fortunately, this edition of The King Beat is here to bring you up to speed with everything that’s happening.
From a special spinoff of The Stand being in the works, to writer/director Joe Lynch developing a Stephen King adaptation, to the new release of Cujo on 4K UHD from Kino Lorber, there is a great deal to discuss, so let’s dive in, shall we?
A Stephen King-Approved Collection Of Spinoffs Based On The Stand Is Now In The Works
There is an argument to be made that Stephen King’s The Stand is a living document. The novel was first published in 1978, but King’s preferred version, The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition, was released in 1990, and the author further added to the story in 2020 by writing the teleplay for the finale of the miniseries adaptation that was released on Paramount+. The epic has continued to grow, and that expansion is now set to continue in an intriguing way with The End Of The World As We Know It: Tales Of Stephen King's The Stand.
The new project has been announced on Twitter by writer/editor Brian Keene, who revealed that The End Of The World As We Know It is a large collection of short stories set in the world of The Stand and written by a variety of authors. Some of the names announced for the book include Paul Tremblay, Richard Chizmar, Joe R. Lansdale, Scott Ian, Alma Katsu, Josh Malerman, Wayne Brady and Maurice Broaddus.
The endeavor has been approved by Stephen King, who is not only going to be contributing an introduction to the tome, but voiced his support for the project on Twitter shortly after it was first announced. He wrote,
You can alwys [sic] tell when an artist—writer, singer, songwriter—is running on fumes, because the tribute albums start to show up! That said, I’m delighted with this project and can’t wait to see how people handle THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.
Whether or not the short stories in The End Of The World As We Know It: Tales Of Stephen King's The Stand will be considered canon will be up to the opinion of every Constant Reader who picks up a copy – but it should be a fascinating read nonetheless. A release date has not yet been announced, but stay tuned for news on that front.
Following His H.P. Lovecraft Movie, Suitable Flesh Director Joe Lynch Is Working To Develop A Stephen King Adaptation
If you’re not already aware of director Joe Lynch’s Suitable Flesh, it’s time to rectify that error. Set to be released on VOD and in limited theaters this weekend, the film is based on the H. P. Lovecraft short story "The Thing On The Doorstep," and with a screenplay by Dennis Paoli and legendary scream queen Barbara Crampton producing and starring, it’s a wonderful sister sequel to director Stuart Gordon’s classic Lovecraft adaptations Re-Animator and From Beyond. Lynch’s love for the source material is apparent on screen – and if the filmmaker has his druthers, he’ll soon be able to express a similar passion for the works of Stephen King.
I interviewed Joe Lynch earlier this month, and while the bulk of our wonderful conversation was about Suitable Flesh (look out for more stories about the movie here on CinemaBlend), the very end of our talk veered into Stephen King territory. I asked if he had intentions to bring a King story to the big screen, and he not only revealed an intense desire to do so, but that it’s something he has discussed with the author himself and is actively working on. Said Lynch,
Look, I have been wanting... I even told Mr. King – because he had seen one of my movies, Mayhem, and also episodes of the show Creepshow that I did and reached out to me and talked about it on Twitter. So we've started a bit of a relationship; when you get emails from Steve, it blows your mind, right? But yeah, I told him, 'I will not quit until I get the chance to tell one of your stories.' And there's a bunch that I have... There's one in particular, I don't know if I can say it now because I'm working on it right now, but I will not quit.
Continuing, he told me the amazing story about how he first got into Stephen King’s books – and it involved his house being burglarized when he was a child. The thief apparently got away, but they left one item behind that caught the future filmmaker’s eye:
Seriously, Eric: I will not give up until I get the chance to at least get my version of what Stephen King has contributed to me. He is one of the people that got me into the genre. When my house was robbed when I was like six, the robber took everything in our house except for the hardcover copy of Christine. And when my mom was on the phone calling 9-1-1, I sat there and started reading it. It's the first time that I read Stephen King or anything, and it changed my life.
Beginning with a haunting prologue teasing the terrible love triangle the book is about, Christine is certainly a novel that hooks the reader fast – and apparently the hooks that it first got into Joe Lynch have remained there for decades.
The director credits Stephen King as a major inspiration, and apparently we may not have to wait all that long to see his affection for the author expressed on screen:
So many of his movies and his books and everything have really shaped who I am as a storyteller. So, someday it's gonna happen – maybe sooner than you think.
That’s a remarkable tease, and hopefully we won’t have to wait too long before we learn more about what he’s developing.
Released This Week, Kino Lorber's Cujo 4K UHD Is A Must-Buy For Stephen King Fans
I am certainly an obsessive when it comes to the works of Stephen King and their adaptations, and that’s particularly well-illustrated when it comes to director Lewis Teague’s Cujo (one of the best King movies of all time). On Blu-ray and DVD, the various special features available have been scattered across multiple releases both domestic and foreign, including multiple filmmaker commentary tracks as well as featurettes and documentaries. As a result, I’ve had far too many discs jammed into my Cujo Steelbook for far too long… but Kino Lorber’s amazing new 4K UHD has finally arrived to relieve that stress by being the perfect home video release for the film.
Kino Lorber has previously done brilliant work for Stephen King fans – recently putting out wonderful 4K packages for Misery and Needful Things – but Cujo is their finest product yet for Constant Readers, and it's available in stores and from online retailers now. Including both 4K UHD and Blu-ray discs, the release includes all three existing commentary tracks, the 43-minute documentary Dog Days: The Making of Cujo, a 2014 roundtable interview titled Cujo Revisited, and extensive interviews with star Dee Wallace and more.
Thanks to work from the phenomenal boutique label, which has created a new master from a scan of the original negative, the movie has never looked better on home video. If you’re like me and ever-building the Ultimate Stephen King collection, it’s a must.
Recommendation Of The Week: “Crouch End”
A few weeks ago, I used my Recommendation Of The Week to highlight a story that I think would be a good fit for director Rob Savage, who told me in an interview that he has been discussing a second Stephen King adaptation after The Boogeyman – and this week’s suggestion comes from a similar place. Taking into consideration Joe Lynch’s desire to make a King movie and his fantastic work on Suitable Flesh, I’m highlighting a tale where the works of King and Lovecraft intersect: “Crouch End”.
King originally wrote the short story for 1980’s New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos – a collection of different authors’ tributes to H.P. Lovecraft – and it was eventually collected in the 1993 omnibus Nightmares & Dreamscapes. One of the few titles in the author’s bibliography set outside the United States, “Crouch End” recounts the terrifying journey of an American couple who get desperately lost while traveling in the eponymous district of North London. Searching for the home of the husband’s boss, the protagonists find themselves in a thin spot between our reality and dimension of eldritch horrors.
“Crouch End” was adapted in 2006 for an episode of the TNT anthology series Nightmares And Dreamscapes: From The Stories Of Stephen King, but it doesn’t do full justice to the excellent, frightening source material. Perhaps Joe Lynch could be the one to showcase everything that’s great about it.
That does it for this week’s edition of The King Beat, but I’ll be back next Thursday here on CinemaBlend with a fresh roundup of Stephen King news, and meanwhile, you can learn about the full history of King’s work in film and television with my Adapting Stephen King column.
