Books

Stephen King’s ‘Dr. Sleep’ Adaptation Scheduled for January 2020 Release

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Warner Brothers Pictures announced today that Stephen King’s sequel to the Shining entitled Doctor Sleep will be released on January 24,  2020.

Doctor Sleep will be directed by Mike Flanagan, who is known for Oculus, Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and the recent King adaptation Gerald’s Game.

Horror News Network’s John Evans covered Doctor Sleep way back in January, and described the story as “Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep follows Danny Torrance, who is still suffering from his experiences as a young boy at the infamous Overlook Hotel. That’s where many of the most obvious connections to The Shining cease, as the majority of the novel is much more action-oriented and focused on Mr. Torrance’s conflict with a group of psychic vampires over the soul of young girl whose “shining” abilities are unparalleled. Whether Flanagan remains faithful to the text or decides to veer off in his own direction- like Kubrick did before him- remains to be seen. It’s worth noting, however, that Flanagan’s adaptation of Gerald’s Game is recognized by fans as being closest to the source text of all of the recent movies based on King’s work.” read more

Hulu to Develop Wattpad’s ‘Light as a Feather’ Into Series

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The streaming services continue to break new ground in this brave new world.  According to Deadline, Hulu will be developing the supernatural thriller Light as a Feather into a 10-episode straight-to-series project.  This continues the trend of media and television outlets discovering interesting content and projects from outside of the normal platforms of entertainment.

Light as a Feather is an adaptation of the online story Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board by writer Zoe Aarsen.  It was originally published on Wattpad, which is a social collaboration website that allows young and unknown writers to produce their own content.  Feather follows five teenagers attending a sleepover, where an innocent game of Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board turns into a nightmare in which one-by-one the girls begin dying exactly as the game dictates.  They are forced to question their own place in the scenario, and whether or not the evil actually lurks among them.  The series is a joint-venture between not only Wattpad and Hulu, but also Grammnet (Kelsey Grammar’s production company) and AwesomenessTV. read more

‘Sunglasses After Dark’ Author Nancy A. Collins: The Horror News Network Interview

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There aren’t many writers that one can say defined a genre for a period of time, but when it came to the late 1980’s and into the early 1990’s, Nancy A. Collins brand of urban fantasy and her goth-punk vampire Sonja Blue certainly did.

When Collins released Sunglasses After Dark in 1989, it brought a gritty realism and punk aesthetic to the previous staid and dignified vampire, and ushered in a whole new sub-culture of horror fiction.  The Bram Stoker Award Winner’s work influenced countless artists at the time, and her work is still admired by fans of horror novels and comic books worldwide. read more

Dark Sci-Fi Series Based on ‘Heart of Darkness’ to be Developed by Sony Crackle

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Just in from Variety, Sony Crackle, the brand’s digital streaming service, is developing a series that re-imagines the 1899 Joseph Conrad story Heart of Darkness as a Sci-Fi tale.

Set in the distant future when Earth is only a memory of the past, the project is described as a space odyssey where the survival of mankind is hanging in the balance. It is set to exploring themes of race, immigration and colonization similar to the novella.

HoD has been adapted in various forms, from radio and stage plays to television, film and video games. Most famously it was the inspiration for Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Academy Award-winning Vietnam war film starring Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando in the starring roles. read more

IFC Films Releases Trailer for Upcoming ‘Mary Shelley’ Movie Starring Elle Fanning

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The story of the summer of 1816 and the challenge which led Mary Shelley to write her classic novel, Frankenstein, is just as interesting and incredible as the novel itself. The fateful storm on Lake Geneva that spawned a writing competition between Shelley, her future husband Percy, and Lord Byron has inspired readers and storytellers alike (see Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted) for decades, and now IFC Films has a fresh new take on the legend in the form of a feature film.

Mary Shelley stars Elle Fanning (The Neon Demon, The Beguiled) as Shelley, and features Maisie Williams, Bel Powley, Douglas Booth, Joanne Froggatt and Stephen Dillane in key roles. The film will dramatize Shelley’s journey from creating the text to struggling to get it published in the sexist and censorship-happy world she lived in. IFC Films have just released a new trailer for the film today, and you can watch it below: read more

AMC To Produce Series Based on Joe Hill’s ‘NOS4A2’

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Horror writer Joe Hill has just received some very welcome news, only days after receiving some bad.  While Hulu ultimately decided to pass on a small-screen adaptation of his novel Locke and Key, AMC did agree to produce a series based on arguably Hill’s best novel, NOS4A2. Fear the Walking Dead show-runner Jami O’Brien will front the project and Tornante Television (Michael Eisner’s company) will co-produce along with AMC Studios.

The announcement is both a big win and a big gamble for AMC.  While the jury is still out on new show The Terror, the network has not seen many hits outside of the zombie genre.  Partnering with a hot name in the horror literary world like Joe Hill is sure to energize both camps and fuel the fire for another TV hit.  AMC will give NOS4A2 a 10-episode run, following on the heels of the show being one of their “scripts-to-series” developmental projects last summer.  Two current shows which followed the same model were The Son and Lodge 49.  The network hopes the combination of Hill and O’Brien will give this series more mainstream appeal and staying power. read more

‘The Meg’ Trailer Swims to the Surface

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Just when you thought the megaplex was safe from Jason Statham, the trailer for the prehistoric shark tale The Meg gets released!

The film features the aforementioned star of The Transporter series as a disgraced, yet knowledgeable U.S. Navy deep sea diver, along with Ruby Rose, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Bingbing Li, and Jessica McNamee.  The Meg is based on Steve Alten’s Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror (originally released in 1997).

The Meg (which will be released on August 10 and is surprisingly rated PG-13) has not had an easy road to the silver screen and the history of the property since the novel’s release rivals Amityville: The Awakening.   Originally, the film was slated for a 2008 release date and was to be made by New Line Cinema, which acquired the rights from Alten. Some of the diverse names connected to the project ranged from Jan deBont to Guillermo Del Toro, but New Line never made the film and the rights reverted back to Alten.  read more

‘Nocturnals’ Creator Dan Brereton: The Horror News Network Interview

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If you are a fan of monster comics and monster artwork , Dan Brereton should be no stranger to you.  Whether it is through his beloved creator-owned titles The Nocturnals and Doc Horror, his work on Batman and Superman mini-series, or his cover artwork for Rob Zombie albums, his distinct style is one that has captured fan interest for nearly 30 years.

While the artist continues to work in all aspects of the comics medium, in recent years, Brereton has taken his popular art books and comics directly to his fans through a number of wildly successful Kickstarter campaigns.  Brereton took some time from his busy illustrating schedule to speak to us about his latest Nocturnals Portfolio project as well as many aspects of his long career, and a number of exciting future projects. read more

James Wan and Roy Lee to Remake Stephen King’s ‘The Tommyknockers’

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In an exclusive report by The Hollywood Reporter, James Wan and Roy Lee (the producer of It, Bates Motel)  are poised to remake Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers.  Wan and Lee are also joined by Larry Sanitsky, who executive produced the original 1993 TV miniseries adaptation of The Tommyknockers.

Sanitsky described the story as “…an allegorical tale of addiction (Stephen was struggling with his own at the time), the threat of nuclear power, the danger of mass hysteria and the absurdity of technical evolution run amuck. All are as relevant today as the day the novel was written. It is also a tale about the eternal power of love and the grace of redemption.” read more

‘The Terror’ Episodes 1 + 2: The Horror News Network Review

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It seems like the 19th century is television’s era of choice these days with shows like TNT’s The Alienist and FX’s Taboo leading the way back into the bizarre past.  Fans of these programs (as well as naval dramas which also originated in the 19th century) will undoubtedly enjoy AMC’s adaptation of Dan Simmons The Terror, as the first two episodes of the series welcome viewers to a world of icy despair and desperation. 

The series is produced by Ridley Scott and based on the harrowing true-life account of the H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror, which disappeared without a trace on a mission to discover the Northwest Passage nearly two centuries ago (and if you are looking for more on the “true story”, Nova recently featured an examination of the discovery of the remains of one of the ships, which occurred in 2014).   read more