In the world of Stephen King this past week, writer/director Mike Flanagan has remained busy down in Alabama shooting the upcoming adaptation of The Life Of Chuck, and some notable anniversaries were celebrated – with the novel Dolores Claiborne having been released 31 years ago this month and the short 2018 novel Elevation turning five.
There are other headlines to focus on for this week’s edition of The King Beat, however, including a long-awaited update about Gary Dauberman’s Salem’s Lot (which Stephen King has seen and praised), exciting new home video release announcements, and a special tour of Stephen King’s personal library. Let’s dig in!
Amid Streaming Talks, It’s Unfortunate That Salem’s Lot Didn’t Drop As A Surprise Max Exclusive On Halloween
It has been more than a year since the original release date for writer/director Gary Dauberman’s Salem’s Lot, and what has made the wait for the film all the more interminable has been the lack of updates. Warner Bros. took the anticipated Stephen King adaptation off the release schedule in the middle of 2022, and the first update we got about the project in nearly a year only came this past week when it was announced that the studio was considering a pivot in distribution strategy: instead of going to the big screen, it’s possible that a drought in Max exclusive projects may see the movie become a streaming-only release.
I’d personally be disappointed to see Salem’s Lot not get a shot in theaters – partially because it would further make it a totally different experience than the previous two adaptations of Stephen King’s book – but if it does end up only going to streaming, it’s a shame that Warner Bros. didn’t just opt to give it a surprise release in time for Halloween 2023.
This line of thinking is in part brought to you by fond memories of the Super Bowl in 2018 that have nothing to do with football. While watching the NFL championship game five years ago, it came as a big shock to cinephiles not only that Paramount Pictures had made a deal with Netflix to release The Cloverfield Paradox, but that the movie would be available to stream on the subscription platform that very night. The film didn’t turn out to be very good, but the surprise factor in its distribution certainly makes it memorable.
It feels like Warner Bros. missed out on doing something similar with Salem’s Lot for Spooky Season 2023. One obviously can’t ignore the impact of the Super Bowl on the decisions behind The Cloverfield Paradox, as the broadcast of the game provided the release with one hell of a bullhorn to make up for otherwise nonexistent advertising and marketing, but the strategy for the Stephen King movie didn’t have to match up exactly. If the studio had made an unexpected announcement on October 15 that Salem’s Lot was getting an exclusive release on Max timed for Halloween, enough word of mouth could have spread to try and turn it into must-watch viewing during the holiday.
Instead, Halloween was merely the day that we got the trade report about Salem’s Lot potentially moving from theaters to streaming – with word from the studio saying that no final decisions have been made. It’s nice that hope is being kept alive for a theatrical release (again, this is definitely the most preferred outcome), but now I just find myself cynically anticipating the film hitting Max at some point in mid-winter with minimal fanfare. If the movie does end up only getting a digital release in the coming months, it will be frustrating to know that the studio could have attempted something special and failed to even try.
Shout! Factory Announces Thinner As The Latest Stephen King Movie To Get A Special Collector’s Edition And New Special Features For Silver Bullet On 4K UHD
In the home video market, no boutique label has been a better friend to Constant Readers. In the last few years, the company has acquired rights to a number of major Stephen King adaptations and put together some major releases – including not only beautiful restorations of the films themselves, but also excellent assortments of special features. There are a number of cool 4K UHD releases in the works, including David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone, John Harrison’s Tales From The Darkside: The Movie, and Daniel Attias’ Silver Bullet, and it was announced this week that there is now a new Blu-ray edition in the works for Tom Holland’s Thinner.
It should be noted that this doesn’t mark the first time that Thinner will be made available in HD, as Olive Films put out a Blu-ray in 2012, but that release had no extras and doesn’t even have a surround sound audio mix. The specs have not yet been announced for what Shout! Factory is putting together, but their prior history and the use of the “Collector’s Edition” designation suggests that the package will be much more substantial.
Pre-orders for Thinner are open now on the official website, and 18”x24” posters will be mailed with orders as long as supplies last. The Blu-ray’s street date is January 23, 2024.
Set to arrive much sooner than that is the aforementioned 4K UHD Collector’s Edition of Silver Bullet. The new Shout! Factory release will be on store shelves in just a little over a month (on December 5), and the full specs have been announced. If you’re like me and purchased the Blu-ray version of the movie that the company released in December 2019, you’ll be pleased to learn that this new packaging is packed with plenty of new in addition to everything old.
In addition to the existing multiple commentary tracks and interviews with cast and filmmakers, there is also a new commentary with Kingcast hosts Eric Vespe and Scott Wampler, and there is an original transfer of the feature film included that is restored from the original camera negative. Needless to say, I definitely plan to make it a part of my ever-growing Ultimate Stephen King collection.
Stephen King Has Provided The World With An Inside Look At His Personal Library
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
That’s one of the many, many memorable insights that Stephen King offers readers in his 2000 non-fiction book On Writing, and the author is the antithesis of a hypocrite when it comes to taking that message personally. King is known as an endless well of imagination and for being advanced levels of productive when putting words on a page, but he is also a voracious reader. He finds time to watch a lot of movies and TV shows, but his personal library is massive, and The Washington Post recently got a special inside look at his shelves.
As part of a series for the newspaper called Book Tour, writer John Williams and photographer Tristan Spinski recently visited Stephen King’s former home in Bangor, Maine – now the Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation – to take a look at his collection of books. It’s spellbinding.
Many of the tomes on the shelves were gifts to Stephen King from Tabitha King (his wife and fellow author), and the library is a special home for the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ed McBain (a.k.a. Evan Hunter), H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, Cormac McCarthy and members of his family – including Tabitha and King’s two sons, Joe Hill and Owen King. He remarks that he isn’t big on original editions and signed copies (“They’re not prized possessions or anything like that”), but he makes a point of collecting hardcovers in response to his childhood experience:
When I was a kid and I was poor. The idea that you could buy a hardcover for the astronomical price of $6, when you could get a paperback for 35 cents? No.
Recommendation Of The Week: Cycle Of The Werewolf
In addition to Dolores Claiborne and Elevation, another memorable title celebrating an anniversary in November 2023 is “Cycle Of The Werewolf” – which was actually the source material for the aforementioned film Silver Bullet. The novella first arrived in store shelves in November 1983, making it now 40 years old, and it’s the subject of my Recommendation Of the Week in recognition of that significant birthday.
Originally commissioned to be a short story that would be included with a special calendar, “Cycle Of The Werewolf” is an example of Stephen King’s imagination running away from him, as what he wrote ended up being far too long. The tale – featuring original artwork from the great Bernie Wrightson – takes place over the course of a year and recounts what occurs during the full moon in the fictional town of Tarker’s Mills, Maine. During this time, a werewolf runs rampant and kills innocent civilians, and it ends up being the responsibility of 10-year-old boy named Marty Coslaw to stop the monster.
The quick read isn’t published as part of any collection, but it’s available in paperback and as an eBook.
That does it for this week’s edition of The King Beat, but I’ll be back with a new Stephen King news roundup next Thursday here on CinemaBlend, and for more reading in the meantime, check out our Upcoming Stephen King Movies and TV guide as well as my previous King column, Adapting Stephen King.