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The Stephen King news keeps on comin'! Check out who's going to adapt King's next book 11/22/63!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Stephen King news is always exciting to me. I've been a Constant Reader since I was in grade school (no kidding, I read Cujo at age 10) and despite some shaky entries to his catalogue these last few years, I still get excited when a massive King book is on its way.
Next up for King is a tale about a high school teacher given the opportunity to go back in time and thwart the JFK assassination. It's called 11/22/63, looks like a brick of a book (reports are that it runs around a thousand pages). I can't wait to read it as some of my favorite King writing centers around alternate timelines (Drawing of the Three and The Wastelands anyone?).
ShowBlitz/Variety's Jeff Sneider reports that preempting the release of the book comes news of an option from a man who directed one of the best horror movies of all time. Silence of the Lambs' Jonathan Demme is set to write, produce and direct 11/22/63 with King serving as exec producer.
No financing or distribution is in place, but Sneider says Demme wants to be shooting by Fall of 2012. If the book sales are strong enough and the reviews are strong enough (and the budget isn't astronomical) I can't imagine the studios will have much trouble with that duo bringing it to the screen.
Thoughts?
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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Readers Talkback
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Aug. 11, 2011, 7:48 p.m. CST
If Demme makes the movie they'll blame W. for the assasination.
by Artemis Webb
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Duh.
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...if he doesn't take the easy way out. Here's hoping he actually has the protagonist alter the timeline, consequences and all.
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Doubt it, he is too short...he may be tall enough to punch JFK in the nut bag though.
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Chris Isaak IS JFK!
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No...he is only tall enough to punch him in his nut bag.
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Aug. 11, 2011, 8:13 p.m. CST
After seeing the Zapruder film, I am convinced JFK shot himself
by Ricardo
He clearly has a pistol down his chin when he emerges from behind the street sign. The man was a time bomb, ticking day and night, waiting to go off. When he saw all the people cheering up, he knew it was time to go.
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Some centipede monster is JFK and the assassin was trying to kill him before he sujugate the world with his mind-altering chemical that he eminates from his hair. The protagonist realizes he is the centipede monsters illegitimate love child and he somehow alters reality where mankind is enslaved to the monster and used for food. Classic Stephen King premise!
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Rage the long walk the running man left quite an impression on this fifth grader.
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this is more "non-news" news that this site is specializing in now...just post a lot of speculation.
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As a longtime Constant Reader myself (read Pet Sematary and Night Shift in fifth grade), this seems like a scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel idea. And besides, wasn't this ground already sort of covered in The Dead Zone? What gives, man? This idea is creatively bankrupt. ... But, alas, I will still read it, because I read everything that m'f'er writes.
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what king book do you think will be tee'ed up next?
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... yeah, I won't finish that sentence. If I didn't want to fucking come here I wouldn't. Fuck, I hate the internet.
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From the 80s, in which the time traveler was only supposed to observe, and it turns out he was a descendant of JFK and decided to intervene at the last second, saving JFK. But, JFK living caused someone to assassinate the Russian premier, which was going to lead to war between the two nations. A Secret Service agent finds the time traveler's future silver dollar with JFK on it, and the traveler confesses about who he is. The end is kinda tricky, but I think they determine JFK should have died, but the time traveler offers himself up in JFK's place. So they all go back in time again, the traveler is killed, and JFK is somehow transported to the time traveler's period and is last seen giving a lecture to a future history class about what bravery and courage and heroism meant in the 20th century.
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But this is going to be my first. I pre ordered it a month ago.
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As a constant reader going on 35 years of following King, I thought Under The Dome and Duma Key were both pretty goddamn great. Full Dark, No Stars WAS problematic, but even that had it's moments.
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Can't say that I am thrilled with hearing about a new Stephen King novel coming out...didn't once state that he was retiring from writing? I have been less than impressed with Kings recently works...I had an extremely anger filled and violent reaction to his "novel" "The Cell"....it made me actually want to storm the village and hold a good old fashion book burning session and use the paper to hold a campfire and cook weenies and s'mores with it as the fuel for the fire (I say "book burning" very tongue in cheek here...I am just trying to make a point at how disgusted I was with what could have been a really GOOD story) And his novel "Under The Dome"? It was such a huge, monumentally thick book of crap, I couldn't even get through it...I even tried to force myself to finish it thinking it would get better at some point...I gave up after 200 hundred pages. Maybe this new novel of his will be a return to the days of "old" Stephen King....the days back when he wrote such terrific works as "The Shinning", "The Stand", "IT", "Christine", "Pet Cemetary" & "Night Shift" (just to name a few). Maybe I am being overly hopeful here...I think Mr. King should have retired long ago and took up teaching something like "Horror Writing: 666" at the local College Just my 75 cents worth here :)
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I love the alternative newspaper on the back!
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It didn't work.
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With the legendary Lane Smith as the time traveler and Jerry "Deep Throat" Hardin as LBJ.
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And also a Robert Hayes television movie I saw on the USA Network 20 years ago (Catherine Hicks was also in it)......sorry.....this just doesn't sound original enough
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_J6iJuv9zc
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Aug. 11, 2011, 10:01 p.m. CST
He saves JFK, but it may not be for the better (possible spoilers)....
by spire_walk
He's been wanting to do this story for a long time, and has mentioned the synopsis on more than one occasion. The protagonist saves JFK, but when he travels back to the future, he finds the world a radioactive wasteland where a nuclear war had happened at some point between saving JFK and the alternate present timeline. The protagonist takes a fatal dose of radiation poisoning, and begins to slowly die of the sickness. He finds a way to travel back to the past, and ends up assassinating JFK himself in order to avert the nuclear war. So the timeline in which we live in is the result of another gunman. It's a ballsy story to be sure, so we'll have to wait and see if it actually plays out the way he envisioned it.
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Can we please get a time traveler with some fucking priorities? Jesus F. Khrist!
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The Bachman Books was my first exposure to his work. Rage blew my hair back and The Running Man was a hell of a story as well.
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King: "My next novel is about..." he looks around, grabs a lamp of the publisher's desk, "...a LAMP MONSTER! Oooooh!!" Publisher: "You're not even trying anymore, are you?" King: Waves lamp menacingly. Publisher: *sigh* "When can i have it?" i love Family Guy.
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then the tree of us would travel around time saving other cool people.
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And the equally legendary Andy Robinson (Dirty Harry, Hellraiser) as JFK--and doing a really great vocal imitation doing it !!
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Aug. 11, 2011, 10:16 p.m. CST
I'd rather see Terrence Malick reinterpret THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON.
by THE_CHOPPAH
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Stephen King mentions JFK in a lot of his books... calls him a "gunslinger" in the gunslinger novels, which is a high token of esteem indeed for King. Also, King says that "it takes a great man to make a great mistake..." So, I can see King having JFK live and then having the world be worse for it. Could be a cool book. I agree, Under the Dome, was not his best work. Cool premise, but it got pretty muddy there in the middle, and I can't say I really even remember the end or have any inclination to ever pick it up again. Cell, started off pretty cool, but King should have kept it more scientific for once. The hive mind Zombies was oh-so predictable if you've ready any of his books... shame, I kinda dug the first half of Cell. Not sure if Steve does rewrites anymore. Maybe he just goes. "Ah, this'll sell, I'm finished! Next book, coming up."
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...aside from thinking he's Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe combined, is that he doesn't know how to end a book. Cell, The Stand, the fucking Dark Tower, just to name three. In Book 7 of DT, he was outright defensive about it. "It's the journey and not the end of the story that matters, blah blah... and if you try to complain about the ending I'm just going to ignore you." The Journey is the most important, but when you just throw some shit together at the end, like Mordred, Flagg's retarded death, etc., that isn't a good ending. It's also the sign of an editor who's too afraid to call you out on your bullshit.
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Aug. 11, 2011, 11:18 p.m. CST
Red Dwarf's take is better: JFK assassinated himself
by Julius Dithers
That episode will end up having more creativity than King's novel. Write a book about the aborted Greg Stillson presidency and Public enemy number one John Smith, if you must, Joe Hill's dad.
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The ending to DT was great, imo - exactly as it should have been. Not every story has to end in an over the top show down. Sometimes quiet thoughtful endings are the best (e.g. No Country for Old Men).
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The narcissistic little bastards.
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2000AD did something along those lines where JFK in the future ordered a hit on himself, because he'd started a nuclear war (side effects of his Addison's disease made him irrational). So from their bunker where the remnants of America had survived, a hit team was assembled and sent back in time ...
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SCOP is doing his job. He has spoken to President Kennedy, warning him to leave Dallas immediately; spoken to Zapruder, asking him not to take pictures. He has pleaded with Elaine Kozciouskos, begging her only to scream, has even slept with her - part of the job. In spite of the pain, he has witnessed, on location, the last minutes of Jack Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Robert Kennedy - all for the fate of manking. But bitterly, he knows he is a failure. For Scop, in trying to alter the future, has merely reinforced it.
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Aug. 11, 2011, 11:50 p.m. CST
GENE RODDENBERRY PITCHED THIS IDEA SEVERAL TIMES FOR THE CLASSIC TREK SEQUELS!!!FACT!!!
by CreepyThinMan
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Aug. 11, 2011, 11:50 p.m. CST
WHAT'S THE TWIST? DID JACKIE O GIVE JFK A SATANIC HANDJOB CAUSING HIS HEAD TO EXPLODE?!?
by CreepyThinMan
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Great read, folks. Great stories. Cell and Under the Dome were OK, but FULL DARK is the best King since Bag of Bones. Word.
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I love King, but the guy who commented about the Robert Hay's USA Network movie had it right. This idea has been done...alot! Under the Dome was also pretty much the same as the Simpson's movie. While I'm sure it was a coincidence...it was sad that the Simpsons' came up with a more plausible idea and ending. Hopefully King has a few original gems still in his cap. I'd love to read those.
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I like his novels, the ones I've read, but uberman is right -- King's short fiction has never been better. I love both those books. I think he just excels at the short form. When a book gets big enough, it seems to get away from him -- and I can dig it, because he's a great writer, but sometimes fails a bit as a storyteller. But not in his short fiction. Demme is an incredible director. I feel like BELOVED never gets it's due. I'm cool with him getting in on this King love fest. I hope the book is good. I've been on a reading kick again -- THE MAGICIAN KING now, which I feel is probably going to be a film trilogy sooner rather than later.
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or it is no fucking Stephen King book. That's a deal breaker.
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Aug. 12, 2011, 1:54 a.m. CST
Shouldn't meddle with major events in history. A better use of a time
by Dennis_Moore
machine to the sixties would be to try to have sex with Julie Newmar in her Catwoman costume. I imagine you could impress her enough with the fact you have a TIME MACHINE!
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OK, now I'm suddenly interested in this project.
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Or maybe it was twilight zone. Either way, I mean the late 80s / early 90s syndicated snooze-fest version. But the point is, its not that original of an idea. I guess it is all about how well he executes it (err, no pun intended).
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Aug. 12, 2011, 2:30 a.m. CST
and that's how I learned to always actually read TBs before commenting
by WickedJacob
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Aug. 12, 2011, 3:44 a.m. CST
Eo everyone who doesn't realize general themes in stories have been repeated for thousands of years
by aleph_null
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bubble_%281966_film%29
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JFK ends up being impeached as he cant keep it in his pants, and the Cold War gets very hot. So he shoots himself (from the grassy knoll) and all is good in the world. I miss Red Dwarf. Best theme tune ever :)
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It's still his best work. Roland lovers can shag it.
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When under the Dixie Pig, there were doorways for the Lowmen and their ilk to travel back in time as spectators to historic tragedies. I beleive 9/11 and Kennedy assassination were included...
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Aug. 12, 2011, 5:45 a.m. CST
I'M A HORROR FAN BUT I PREFER SHORT HORROR FICTION OR NOVELLA'S.....
by CreepyThinMan
Very few Horror novels do it for me. I can't tell you how many times I've read a novel length book and thought "that didn't need to be 300 (or more) pages" and felt that the book was padded out because the author had to deliver so many pages. This is probably why H.P. Lovecraft is my favorite Horror writer. He dealt mostly in short form with only a few stories that would qualify as a novella. Phillip K. Dick is the same. Incredible short story writer while I found most of his novels a bit meh.
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Y'know, for the nations that mark dates in the correct sequential order.
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He's very active in his retirement.
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Aug. 12, 2011, 6:46 a.m. CST
with short stories, he always knocks it out of the park
by IWasInJuniorHighDickhead
same with his fiction up until 'It', a great example of a long book that can hold it together until the end. After this, there were still some OK novels but they suffer from shaky plots and/or padding, and a complete inability to tie up an ending. Dreamcatcher was fucking abysmal, as was Under The Dome. The latter is a textbook case of how to pad a short story out to interminable length. Cell I enjoyed, mostly because of the 'zombie' fix and the awesome premise, but he managed to scuttle that one too. Now I scan the synopsis on wiki before I decide whether to jump in or not. When he's good, he's great.
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You non- Americans are supposed to be the smart ones, you can figure it out. Can't you?
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The cliché of going back in time to change history for the better (but the future ending up fucked anyway) has been done a million times before. Killing Hitler …bang … America is run my loony red commies blah blah blah, Time travel is fun in movies, TV and books but King has to twist the story in an unexpected direction otherwise we are going to be stuck with yet another predictable time paradox loop we’ve all seen before. <p> Changing the past that far back would effectively wipe everyone born after JFKs assassination out of existence anyway including the time traveller himself. The high school teacher must know that, then again he’s an American schoolteacher so he is probably a moron or just doesn’t give a fuck. Maybe he’s hoping to become unstuck in time so he alone is the only original person from “our” timeline to make it back and everyone he knows was never born including his family that he probably must hate (maybe he was fingered my a pervert uncle as a kid and hates the world) <p> <p> As my father told be the day of my wedding “If you ever travel back in time, don't step on anything. Because even the slightest change can alter the future in ways you can't imagine.” Good advice<br> I try to follow it .
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Starred the Professor from Gilligan's Island, who ended up back in 1865 and tried to prevent Lincoln's assassination. That was the first such "man goes back in time to prevent Presidential assassination" story I remember seeing on celluloid. So, no, it ain't exactly a groundbreaking plot, but neither was Salem's Lot. But King knows how to create great characters and build suspense, even if the tale is one we've heard a million times. I'm intrigued...
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Aug. 12, 2011, 8:33 a.m. CST
I'm a huge King fan too, but, the man did write his best stuff....
by Orbots Commander
....only up until the mid to late '80's, after that, I wasn't so impressed with his later works. I did like The Green Mile and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but aside from an excellent screenplay (Storm of the Century) I'm not that high on his recent stuff. So, yeah, King peaked somewhere around the time he wrote 'It', 'Misery', 'Eyes of the Dragon' and the re-release of 'The Gunslinger'. What was that, '86-'88-ish? I remember, I was still in Junior High...
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I hope it doesn't happen like that, because if it does you're a dick for spoiling the entire book
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You said possible spoilers, my bad
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Under the Dome was outstanding...one of my favorite books ever
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I refuse to read this book unless they correct its title for worldwide consumption.
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Hope it can get done because you release it in 2013 which is the 50th anniversary of the assassination.
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Poorly written full of cliched language, and bloated in every sense. Horrible paper thin characters, with no sense of reality or believability. King, just all around sucks. And this sounds even worse.
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largest to smallest, like any other number pedantry aside, this is rehashed bullshit, just like everything King has done for the last 25 years
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can a mere high school teacher stop the Comedian from killing JFK? It was in Watchman's opening credits you know. Damn you Snyder!
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Just a heads up to anyone who says this is original.
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..especially the old stuff (was a freak back in the day and joined his library, have all the original hardcovers up to 'Insomnia', etc) but I agree with the general consensus that he's lost his narratives on the longer stuff. "Insomnia" was ok if a little boring but his short-story stuff (last I read was 'Dreamscapes & Nightmares") is still very good. I tried to read Black House and got bored and didn't finish (which is sad cause 'The Talisman' is fucking amazingly good), and I got thru the first few chapters of "Wastelands" but couldn't get any further (something about the "mean" train "Blaine" just sounded so ridiculous to me I couldn't get past it) but yet the first 3 Gunslinger books (to me the actual story) are excellent (the first book being the best). Haven't been willing to invest the time into his latest stuff - I can't help thinking it all sucks now except his short story stuff. He's done excellent 'tomes' before ("It" being my favorite 'brick' King book, and much of "The Stand" of course), but I don't think he can carry them anymore but who needs them anyway? Even back when he did great long form work, his short stories were still better! Short-form horror writing really seems to be the appropriate literary context for these stories - from Matheson to Lovecraft to Serling, etc, etc...Barker might be one of few exceptions (his short story work is superb as is his longer form stuff as well) but the more recent Barker stuff has been pretty bad unfortunately.
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Aug. 12, 2011, 11:40 a.m. CST
When the teacher goes back to stop Oswald, will he run into Dave Lister and Arnold Rimmer?
by DoctorTom
We know from Red Dwarf that they're the ones responsible.
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The first draft of "Under the Dome" was written back in the 1980s while Stephen King was working on Creepshow, so well before The Simpsons Movie.
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I was thinking about that Red Dwarf episode as well!
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which apparently dealt with similar themes with more brevity. How much for a bet that the protagonist finds out killing JFK, while preventing a murder, destroys something else equally important? Or affects the world in some other negative way. This temporal-causality vs morality theme has been dealt with before on the "Time & Punishment" segment of a Simpsons treehouse of horror episode, numerous episodes of STAR TREK and, as another astute poster remarked, more directly in an episode of RED DWARF.
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Maybe the teacher character will run into the CIA/rogue network operatives responsible for whacking the last guy that really tried to be President. I wonder of E. Howard Hunt is in the book and exposed Oswald as the patsy.
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He's mentioned this synopsis several times. He wanted it to be a graphic novel at first. I think wikipedia has a list of unfinished King works and it's mentioned. Under the Dome was also listed as an unfinished for a long time, but it turned out somewhat different than how he originally intended.
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Aug. 12, 2011, 5:39 p.m. CST
Stephen King: The most successful plagiarist in history
by SmokingRobot
Has he EVER come out with an original story?
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...sometimes he's transparent politically and it's overwrought and just plain bad. He's at his best when it comes to setting mood and scaring the bejesus out of people. Here by contrast, will no doubt be a heavy handed finger wagging warning about U.S. "interventionism"...again.
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Shouldn’t they see if anyone likes the book first? Aren’t there some other King books that could be made into films first? Under the Dome is a recent long book of his that could be a good film, I think. I will definitely read this new one, but it seems sort of premature to be planning the adaptation already. Also I liked the ending of Cell, and I wasn’t as enraged about the Dark Tower ending as most people seem to be (though yeah, there are some definite issues with it).
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I look forward to reading the book, but sometimes king's books don't do well when made into films. Still, I think it would interesting to see what would have happened if JFK had not been killed. I would like to see a movie of 'Roadwork', it's my favorite Bachman book.
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I look forward to reading the book, but sometimes king's books don't do well when made into films. Still, I think it would interesting to see what would have happened if JFK had not been killed. I would like to see a movie of 'Roadwork', it's my favorite Bachman book.
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A better idea would be to have a high school teacher go back in time and stop Oliver Stone from making JFK. This would lead to an alternate time line where movies like Crusade with Arnold and Nottingham were actually made.
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