If you need any more reason to be excited by the fact that Mike Flanagan is adapting The Dark Tower, I recommend that you check out his comments on the scene that he is most excited to bring to life (spoiler alert: it’s a scene from late in the series that brought him to tears). But that wasn’t the only exciting development in the world of Stephen King this past week; in addition to a new Blu-ray review and a first reaction to the author’s latest book, I also have a new King Beat exclusive to entice Constant Readers.
This week’s column features an update from David Dastmalchian about the King project he is working on with director Rob Savage, a close look at Scream Factory’s new Blu-ray release of Stephen King’s The Shining, and early buzz about the upcoming short story collection You Like It Darker. Let’s dig in!
David Dastmalchian Isn’t Spilling The Beans About His Mystery Stephen King Project, But He And Rob Savage Are Hard At Work
A few months ago, The King Beat led off with an exciting update regarding the ever-expanding slate of upcoming Stephen King movie and TV projects. Fresh off his experience making his film The Boogeyman starring Sophie Thatcher, Rob Savage shared that he was already developing a second King adaptation – one that would reunite him with David Dastmalchian. There hasn’t been any news about the project since then, but I had the opportunity to check in on its process this past week.
Dastmalchian’s latest movie, Late Night With The Devil, will be arriving in theaters later this month, and when I had the chance to talk with him about it last Thursday, I used part of my time to ask about his new collaboration with the Host director. The actor couldn’t reveal any specifics about what they are cooking up, but it is something that is still in the works, and he noted that he has developed a friendship with Savage since their time working together:
I cannot talk about it. All I can say is that Rob and I are definitely going back into the mad laboratory together. He is not only brilliant, but he's a wonderful friend and just a great guy. We get together regularly at my house in Los Angeles and play Werewolf together, and he is a horror kid just like me and monster kid just like all of us who love this stuff. And he and I are planning something really cool.
What’s particularly frustrating here is just how hard it is to even speculate about what it is that Rob Savage and David Dastmalchian are working on. Based on the acknowledged shared sensibilities between the two men, it seems fair to guess that they are planning on adapting one of Stephen King’s horror stories… but that hardly narrows it down. We don’t know if it’s a short story, a novella or a novel they are targeting, or even if it’s something that’s been adapted before.
It does feel appropriate that Savage would work with Dastmalchian again on another King project given that the latter’s role in The Boogeyman has the deepest ties to the story that inspired it. While the film is more of an expansion of the short story than a straight adaptation (the primary focus being on original characters), the actor notably portrays Lester Billings – the haunted protagonist of King’s source material. Audiences certainly won’t be seeing the further adventures of Lester, as he is one of many Dastmalchian’s characters who have died on screen, but any Constant Reader should be excited about what they are putting together.
While we wait for the next Stephen King adaptation from Savage and Dastmalchian, the author’s fans can either check out or revisit The Boogeyman – which is available to stream with a Hulu subscription. If you’re a physical media fan, you can pick up a copy of the movie on Blu-ray, which is a must-buy for anyone building the Ultimate Stephen King Collection. And on that note…
Scream Factory’s New Stephen King’s The Shining Blu-ray Features A Beautiful Restoration Of The Network Miniseries
Need proof that 2024 is already flying by? It feels like it was just yesterday that I was publishing my second edition of The King Beat for the year featuring the news that Scream Factory was developing the first ever Blu-ray for Stephen King’s The Shining – the miniseries remake of the beloved novel that first aired on ABC back in 1997. Three months later, my pre-order of the home video release has arrived, and it’s pretty much everything for which I was hoping.
Because the Blu-ray isn’t one of Scream Factory’s Collector’s Editions (like those that they’ve made for Brian De Palma’s Carrie, David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone, Dan Attias’ Silver Bullet and more), the package put together for The Shining doesn’t include a slew of new and original special features… but it has the next best thing: it carries over all of the extras that were previously included on DVD releases – including a commentary track, deleted scenes (with optional commentary), and the original home video trailer – and it also has a restoration of the miniseries that has it looking better than ever.
Collectors will note that there has been a change in the presentation, with the 4:3 aspect ratio better representing what was show on television in the late 1990s compared to the widescreen version on the DVD – but the show looks beautiful and sharp. The experts at Scream Factory have created a 2K scan from the production’s interpositive (with the exception of some scenes that had to be upgraded from other sources), and it’s a wonderful thing to see The Shining arrive in the HD age.
I’ve included some side-by-side screenshots for comparison below, with the material from the DVD on the left and the Blu-ray on the right. In addition to the picture being sharper, the colors are richer and look much less washed out:
Scream Factory has once again proven to be a best friend to Stephen King collectors, and one can only hope that this will only be the first King miniseries they upgrade – as Storm Of The Century, The Langoliers, Rose Red and more still need to get a loving restoration treatment like this. I’ll continue to keep my fingers crossed in hope, and in the meantime, you can look forward to my next Scream Factory review in next week’s The King Beat, as pre-orders of their 4K UHD Collector’s Edition of the 2013 Carrie remake have begun shipping.
Author Linwood Barclay Has Read Stephen King’s New Book, And His Reaction Has Me Even More Psyched For The Collection
The countdown is on! In just a little over 10 weeks, the latest book from Stephen King, the collection You Like It Darker, will be available in stores for Constant Readers to try and instantly devour. We already know more than enough about the tome to be excited, including the fact that it will include a sequel to Cujo titled “Rattlesnakes,” but anticipation for the work has now reached even higher heights thanks to an early reaction to it from author Linwood Barclay.
It seems that galleys of You Like It Darker have been sent out to some lucky souls, and Barclay has evidently already gone through it cover-to-cover. He Tweeted his thoughts about the book on his personal social media page on Wednesday morning, and he was effusive in his praise:
This story collection will get you thinking about the nature of creativity, break your heart, make you laugh, and keep you awake at night. Wonderful stuff. May 21 release.
This, frankly, is exactly what I wanted to hear about You Like It Darker. There was never any doubt that the book would feature some notable chills and thrills (what has been revealed about the aforementioned “Rattlesnakes” makes it sound terrifying), but it’s exciting to know that Stephen King is keeping up the tradition in his collections of offering a wide variety of genres. It sounds like the material is going to feature wonderful surprises on every page, and it can’t get here soon enough.
As noted by Linwood Barclay, You Like It Darker will be available everywhere starting on May 21, and pre-orders are now open from major retailers. Be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more about the book as we get closer to its release date.
Recommendation Of The Week: “The Mangler”
Let’s do a bit of anniversary celebrating, shall we? It was 29 years ago this past week that audiences first got to see the film The Mangler, which notably delivers a team-up of three horror icons: Stephen King, director Tobe Hooper, and star Robert Englund. Unfortunately, the movie isn’t actually all that good, as it opts for being schlocky over being compelling, but the good news is that the short story on which it’s based remains a frightening and fun read.
Collected in the 1978 omnibus Night Shift after first being published in a 1972 issue of Cavalier magazine, “The Mangler” follows a criminal investigation being orchestrated by a police detective named John Hunton – who opens the story arriving at an industrial laundromat where a woman has died violently after being pulled into an ironing and folding machine (known colloquially as a “mangler”). It’s a baffling case due to the fact that the accidental death should have been impossible, and what John doesn’t know is that there are supernatural forces at work. As bad as it is for the eponymous equipment to kill a single person, things end up getting far worse before the end of the story.
That wraps up this week’s edition of The King Beat, but be sure to head back here to CinemaBlend every Thursday for my latest column, and while you wait, you can do a full deep dive into the history of Stephen King adaptations via my series Adapting Stephen King.
