The Kingcast

James Wan is famous for Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring, and Aquaman, but he's also produced a few Stephen King adaptations, including The Monkey, which is being released February 21st. We talk a lot about working with Osgood Perkins, how perfectly horror and comedy can work together if crafted correctly, his version of The Tommyknockers which never made it off the ground, and his love of Stephen King's It.

King drops some news about his current novel, The Talisman 3, and fields a variety of questions ranging from the adaptations of his work (stuff like the upcoming The Life of Chuck, The Long Walk, and The Monkey, and classics like Cujo and Maximum Overdrive) to nerdy deep dives into his craft, his relationship with Tabby, the new Holly Gibney novel coming this May called Never Flinch, Mike Flanagan, and just what the hell is up with all the corn in his work. This episode is sponsored by Neon's The Monkey, an adaptation of King's short story of the same name directed by Osgood Perkins (Longlegs), and starring Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, and Elijah Wood, coming to theaters February 21st.

The Kingcast returns from hiatus next Wednesday, January 29th, with a brand new permanent co-host. Anthony Breznican has signed up for this new tour of duty for the show and before we hit the ground running next week I figured I would post this episode where you can get to know Brez a little bit.  This episode was previously only available on The Kingcast Patreon (www.patreon.com/thekingcast, sign up now!).

Chaos reigns as Bill Skarsgard and Willem Dafoe talk with Vespe about their current flick Nosferatu as well as all their favorite Stephen King things. Both actors have King connections. Bill's is obvious, Willem will be a deep cut for King nerds. 

Stephen King's The Mist is a novella about the residents of a small Maine town stuck in a grocery store as an unnatural mist rolls into town concealing all sorts of Lovecraftian horrors. Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) made a very divisive, but hugely effective, adaptation in 2007.

Originally published by Cavalier in 1972 and re-published in King's 1993 short story collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Suffer the Little Children is one of his nastier tales about an old schoolmarm who is becoming convinced her 3rd grade class is slowly being taken over by mischievous dopplegangers. 

Silver Bullet focuses on young Marty Coslaw (Corey Haim), a boy in a wheelchair who is the first to figure out that the mysterious deaths in his small town are the work of a rogue werewolf. Based on a novella by King, illustrated by the late, great Bernie Wrightson, this '80s movie is one that holds up more than a lot of its contemporaries.

This one is a little more of a nerdy deep dive into King's overall body of work, but we do talk a bit about Different Seasons, Cycle of the Werewolf, One for the Road, Dreamcatcher, Storm of the Century, If It Bleeds, The Stand, Dark Tower, and The Shining, all of which give some kind of passing nod to widely celebrated holidays or at least the bone-chilling horror of New England winters.

Young George is left alone with his ailing Gramma and starts to piece together that she's may be a legit danger to him. What's up with all those occult books, Gramma? This creepy King short story was published in Skeleton Crew and has been on the minds of King readers ever since.

Based on King's novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont's adaptation is commonly thought of as one of the all-time great movies. It focuses on a wrongfully imprisoned man and his decades long bid for freedom and all the folks he impacts along the way.