All of the Stephen King News You Missed in September, From Oscar Buzz to The Dark Tower [Derry Monthly]
Welcome, Constant Readers, to another edition of Derry Monthly with me, Lilja, Dread Central’s mysterious Stephen King correspondent. This time, I even say foreign correspondent since I’m giving you a report from my promotional tour to Paris, France, where I met many great King fans while promoting my book Stephen King: Not Just Horror. But more on that later.
First, we need to recognize that we finally have moving images from the new Salem’s Lot movie, and we have a release date. For two years, there was silence … and now we get it all. Since last month, we have received a clip from the movie (showing the inside of the Marsten House) and the trailer, which looks surprisingly good. They have changed some things, and whether that is good or bad remains to be seen, but I’m optimistic so far. Next month, I’ll be talking more about it. By then, everyone who wants to see it will have had a chance to see it, and I will have spoken to the cast and director, so we won’t have to keep it entirely spoiler-free. But that’s for next month’s column. For now, I’m just happy things are finally happening with this two-year-old new movie. I almost forgot that the release date is October 3rd, and the streaming service is Max.
As we learned last month, a lot is happening with movie adaptations of King’s books and stories. On September 6th, The Life of Chuck had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, where it also won the People’s Choice Award, which often indicates where the Oscars might go. How cool would it be if a Stephen King movie won an Oscar this year? The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile were nominated in 1995 and 2000, and Kathy Bates won Best Actress in a Leading Role in 1991 for her role in Misery. But that’s it. So it’s about time King gets gold.
The reviews so far have been good—you can see what Dread Central’s Josh Korngut thought about below. He also got a short interview with King during his Red Carpet walk. Before the premiere, some promotional photos from the movie showed up online, and I must say it looks good. And speaking of photos, the days following the premiere of the movie were covered with photos and clips. Photos of Tom Hiddleston dancing, photos of King with the cast, and best of all, a picture of Mark Hamill looking really excited to be seated next to King during the film—it just exploded online. Everything indicates that we have a success coming, and the only thing missing is a date for when the rest of us can see it.
Check out Dread Central’s review of The Life of Chuck:
Besides attending the screening of The Life of Chuck and interviewing King, Dread Central also got to ask King and Flanagan about King’s Dark Tower posts on X. I’m unsure if we got any wiser from his answers. Still, you can check them out here and decide for yourself. I’d love another Dark Tower book.
Check out the Dark Tower interview here:
And in even more excellent news for The Life of Chuck, Neon Pictures has officially picked up the movie and has announced it will receive a wide 2025 summertime release. This is exciting, of course, but it does make me wonder how this affects the movie’s odds of sweeping an award season. Time will tell.
In different film adaptation news, The Institute began filming last month. Actor Ben Barnes posted a picture of the script for the pilot and seemed very excited about getting started. And The Running Man will begin filming in November. It looks like 2025 will be King’s year at the cinema and on TV. But not everything is about the films. Something quite unusual happened last month. In a series of posts on X, King mentioned that there were still copies left of the book Hearts in Suspension (published by the University of Maine) and that he was considering signing a few of them. A few days later, it happened. The university offered 400 copies of the book, all signed by King, and they were sold for the original price of $30. You read that correctly—$30 for a signed Stephen King book. That hasn’t happened in a loooong time! Once the word got out, the books sold out within minutes, and 400 people were lucky, myself being one of them.
And now, to Paris, France:
As mentioned at the beginning, I was in Paris this past month, and I want to take a brief moment to tell you about it and thank all the wonderful Stephen King fans I met there. If I had the ability, I would, like King did after visiting Paris back in 2013, write a unique story to say thanks, but I’ll settle for a simple “Thank you!” My publisher, ActuSF, invited me to meet readers of my book Stephen King: Not Just Horror (you can get a copy here, or a copy of the US edition here if you prefer) and fans of King’s books.
We talked about everything related to King. Despite the language barriers, I talked a lot about King over the weekend. We discussed our favorite King books and movies and how much we look forward to Salem’s Lot, The Long Walk, The Life of Chuck, and The Running Man when they are finally released. We also talked about the possibility of King returning to Europe again. Unfortunately, we concluded it was unlikely. I sure hope we’re wrong.
With that, we’re done for this month. Next time, I’ll speak more about Salem’s Lot, so ensure you all see it ASAP when it’s out. We’ve been waiting far too long already.
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