Stephen King is regarded as the greatest author in the horror genre of all-time. Over the years King has written some of the greatest books of our time, and has created iconic characters from Randall Flagg, to Pennywise. With hundreds of books to his name, or his occasional Richard Bachman pseudonym, King has created quite the amazing universe of stories.
The mast of horror has a whopping 29 movies and TV shows that are in some stage of development at the moment! Not all of them are scary and tell the tale of someone whose bound to die by the end, but some of these projects, such as The Eye of the Dragon and Sleeping Beauties, provide a perspective on life that needs to be read… Or in this case, seen.
Movies:
The Jaunt: In the future, humans have developed a form of instantaneous teleportation called "the Jaunt", enabling colonization of the Solar System. Mark Oates and his family are transferred from their home in Schenectady to a new posting on the Mars colony of Whitehead City with Texaco Water.
Revival: A dark and electrifying story about addiction, fanaticism, and what might exist on the other side of life. In a small New England town, Jamie Morton is given God-like powers, including the ability to heal people of anything.
The Long Walk: One hundred teenage boys join an annual walking contest called "The Long Walk" or just "The Walk". Each contestant, called a "Walker", must maintain a speed of at least four miles per hour; if he drops below that speed for 30 seconds, he receives a verbal warning. After three warnings, the Walker is shot dead by soldiers riding along the roadside.
Salem’s Lot: Writer Ben Mears who returns to the town of Jerusalem's Lot (or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine, where he lived at as a young boy, only to discover that the residents are becoming Vampires.
The Boogeyman: The story takes place in the office of Dr. Harper, a psychiatrist, where a man named Lester Billings talks to the doctor about the "murders" of his three young children, describing the events of the past several years.
The Tommyknockers: While maintaining a horror style, the story is an excursion into the realm of science fiction, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods.
The Dark Half: Thad Beaumont is an author and recovering alcoholic who lives in the town of Ludlow, Maine. Thad's own books, cerebral literary fiction, are not very successful. However, under the pen name "George Stark", he writes highly successful crime novels about a violent killer named Alexis Machine.
My Pretty Pony: don’t let the title confuse you, this story tells the tale of a dying old man who gives his young grandson his pocket-watch and instructs him on the nature of time. It's a fairly docile story when compared to some of King's more famous and scarier tales.
Firestarter: the plot centers around a young girl who develops pyrokinesis, and a secret government agency known as “The Shop” sets out to control her power.
Drunken Fireworks: when Alden's holiday-weekend sparklers and firecrackers set off what over the next few years comes to be known as the Fourth of July Arms Race, he learns how far he and the Massimos will go to win an annual neighborly rivalry; one that lands Alden in the Castle County jail.
From A Buick 8: the novel is a series of recollections by the members of Troop D, a Pennsylvania State Police barracks in western Pennsylvania. After Curtis Wilcox, a well-liked member of Troop D, is killed by a drunk driver, his son Ned begins to visit the barracks.
Mile 81: at Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded-up rest stop, a place where high school kids drink and get into trouble. Pete Simmons sneaks away from his older brother and arrives there, where he finds a bottle of vodka and pornographic magazines. He drinks enough to pass out. When Pete wakes up, he’s terrorized by an evil car.
Hearts in Atlantis: a young boy named Bobby Garfield lives in Harwich, Connecticut, with his mother, Liz, a widow. He befriends a man named Ted Brautigan, who possesses psychic abilities. He confesses to Bobby that he is being stalked by "low men" who wear yellow coats and drive garish cars. It’s unlike any Stephen King story before, as it’s just about a neglected boy who falls in love and tries to have a happier life.
Throttle: taking its inspiration from the classic Richard Matheson short story “Duel,” Throttle tells the story of a motorcycle gang riding across a Nevada desert, after a deal gone bad, who become pursued by a faceless trucker hell-bent on revenge. The main thrust of the story is the relationship between a father and son.
Suffer The Little Children: miss Emily Sidley is a third grade teacher. On one particular day, while she's teaching spelling, Sidley gets the disconcerting feeling that one of her students is staring at her. She turns around and notices that Robert, the quietest student, has his gaze fixed on her. As Sidley looks at him through her glasses more closely, she sees that he isn’t quite human. In fact he begins to change into a monster and she believes there to be others. And that she must get rid of them.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: this story tells the surprisingly uplifting story of a nine-year-old girl named Trisha who is lost in the woods after straying from her mother and brother during a hiking trip. Forced to survive on her own, Trisha is inspired by her favorite baseball player, former Red Sox pitcher Tom Gordon, to face off against the God of the Lost, an evil entity she believes is hunting her.
Rest Stop: a tale about a chance meeting between a male writer and a woman in need at a rest stop in Florida and the dark secret they have to keep after their encounter.
TV Shows:
The Dark Tower: the Dark Tower series tells the story of Roland Deschain, Mid-World's last gunslinger, who is traveling southeast across Mid-World's post-apocalyptic landscape, searching for the powerful but elusive magical edifice known as The Dark Tower. The first book, “The Gunslinger” from 1982, introduced readers to the idea of the multiverse within the King-verse.
The Eye of the Dragon: a tale of chivalry and heroes that could easily fit with the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The novel follows the story of Flagg, the King's magician, and his plan to bring ruin to the kingdom of Delain. Flagg is King’s most used villain who goes by many names: Flagg, Randall Flagg, the Dark Man, the Man in Black, and Walter. Flagg is also the main villain in The Dark Tower series and most famously, The Stand.
Sleeping Beauties: the story of a nightmare near future where women suffer from a horrific sleeping disease and how this affects the men of a small Appalachian town and a woman who is mysteriously immune to the disease. Women begin to wake up and are, not so human anymore.
The Talisman: the book charts the adventure of twelve year old Jack Sawyer who travels across the country to save his mother, who is dying from cancer, by finding a crystal called "the Talisman." Jack soon realizes, he got more than he bargained for.
Overlook: Overlook is set to be the origin of the infamous Overlook Hotel from The Shining.
Revelations: The book is actually called, The Revelations of Becka Paulson. After accidentally shooting herself in the brain with a nail gun, a Pollyanna-ish Becca Paulson is recruited by an over-it Jesus to be his “chosen one” in stopping the apocalypse.
The Bone Church: the story is told from the point of view of a disheveled survivor of a harrowing ordeal who is demanding to be bought drinks for his tales. The story depicts, in a poetic manner, a terrifying jungle expedition to locate a forbidden mythical site, called the Bone Church.
The Institute: is about a brilliant and sensitive boy named Luke who is kidnapped and taken to a compound in the Maine woods where kids with special talents, telekinesis and telepathy, are imprisoned and put to dark geopolitical uses.
N: the show will be called “8” instead. It follows a man who has been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder. But in true King fashion, something way more sinister might be behind the man’s suffering, as he becomes increasingly obsessed with a Stonehenge-like formation of stones in Maine that may or may not be a secret portal to a dimension full of monsters. Soon, his “delusions” begin to affect those he tells of the portal, including his psychiatrist. If that doesn’t scream Lovecraftian, I don’t know what will!
Joyland: set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.
Lisey’s Story: Lisey Landon, who is the widow of a famous and wildly successful novelist, Scott Landon. The book tells two stories: Lisey's story in the present, and the story of her dead husband's life, as remembered by Lisey during the course of the novel.
Chapelwaite: set in the 1850s, the series follows Captain Charles Boone (Brody), who relocates his family of three children to his ancestral home in the small, seemingly sleepy town of Preacher's Corners, Maine after his wife dies at sea.
Needless to say, we are in for quite the treat when these hit the small and big screens.