The official King Facebook page gives the scoop: “Using mosaic design technologies, thousands of readers’ images will be incorporated in the illustration on the back cover of THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE. One winner will also be selected at random to receive the entire Stephen King backlist published by Hodder in the UK.”

Enter by uploading your photo over at their Facebook page. The closing date for entries is 23^rd January 2012.

THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE comes out in April of this year.

According to Icons of Fright, King and Pavia worked closely together on the project, each of them choosing two King shorts, reportedly a mix of new and old stories. While exact story details are not yet available, Pavia’s Facebook update on New Year’s day reveals he is, “…writing about churning storm clouds, Derry, Maine and the Grim Reaper.” Count us in!

Stephen King (image courtesy StephenKing.com)

Below you’ll find several frames from the series, and here is a link to a PDF of art (sans color or text) from the first eleven pages of issue #1 to whet your appetite. (PDF courtesy IDW Publishing and StephenKing.com)

Synopsis from StephenKing.com:
Several years after his wife’s death, novelist Mike Noonan still suffers writer’s block. A dream inspires him to return to the couple’s summer retreat in western Maine, a lakeside house called Sara Laughs. Shortly after arriving, Noonan is caught in the middle of a custody battle involving the daughter of an attractive young widow and the child’s enormously wealthy grandfather. He also discovers that Sara Laughs is haunted and that his late wife, Joanna, still has something to tell him.

Watch the film in its entirety HERE and share your thoughts below…

In addition to the release of the author’s 11/22/63 and A & E’s sneak peek at the adaptation of BAG OF BONES, another King property, UNDER THE DOME, is moving forward at Showtime, with LOST writer Brian K. Vaughan set to adapt the epic story for Dreamworks, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Vaughan certainly has his science fiction credentials in order.  Not only does he have LOST on his resume, but he is also the creator of Y: THE LAST MAN and THE RUNAWAYS and has worked on a slew of other comics project.

UNDER THE DOME focuses on the residents of a small Maine town who become trapped when an invisible barrier suddenly appears around the town’s perimeter.  Featuring a sprawling cast of characters, DOME shows the lengths people are willing to go to maintain their power and the base instincts that come out in all of us when cut off from safety.  The premise seems ideally suited for a successful television run, and with Vaughan signing on, this show just gets more and more promising.  Let’s hope casting news isn’t too far behind.

The plot, as King novels are wont to do, focuses on a Maine author whose reality begins to unravel.  Here’s the official synopsis:

“Bag of Bones” is a ghost story of grief and lost love’s enduring bonds, about an innocent child caught in a terrible crossfire and a new love haunted by past secrets. Melissa George (“In Treatment”), Annabeth Gish (“Brotherhood”), Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls), William Schallert (“The Patty Duke Show”), Jason Priestley (“Beverly Hills, 90210”) and Caitlin Carmichael (“True Blood”) also star. 

In “Bag of Bones,” bestselling novelist Mike Noonan (Brosnan) is unable to stop grieving after the sudden death of his wife Jo (Gish). Suffering from writer’s block, a dream inspires him to return to the couple’s lakeside retreat in western Maine. While there, Mike befriends an attractive young widow, Mattie (George) and her daughter Kyra (Carmichael), and becomes involved in a custody battle with the child’s enormously wealthy grandfather, Max (Schallert). Though his ability to write suddenly returns, Mike is plagued by ever-escalating nightmares and mysterious ghostly visitations from Sara Tidwell (Rose), a blues singer whose spirit lingers in the house. As he is haunted by the many secrets at the lake, Mike comes to realize that his late wife still has something to tell him.

BAG OF BONES airs December 11 and 12 on A & E.  You can check out the images below.

NEXT IMAGE

The other type of King novel, actually the more prolific of the two, is the type that focuses on one character, usually a writer or an English teacher from Maine, and his or her battle against insanity or some supernatural entity or a combination of the two.  These include recent stories such as LISEY’S STORY and DUMA KEY.

11/22/63 is the latter type of novel.  For those fans of King’s sprawling narratives that focus on a variety of characters, this book isn’t like that.  But don’t be disheartened.  Even though King focuses on one character, he infuses that character with a number of admirable traits and sets him on a journey with the potential to change the universe.

The novel revolves around a well-worn science fiction premise:  what if you could go back and change history?  How would that affect the future?  Would it even be possible?  In trying to change the past, are you just moving it along more swiftly?  King answers those questions, and then some.

In this case, Jake Epping, a mild mannered English teacher from Maine, must go back to November 22, 1963, the fateful day when Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President John F. Kennedy.  An acquaintance who runs a local diner shows Epping a portal to the past that connects to the bygone era of 1958 and explains all the lives that could be saved by stopping Oswald.

The first couple hundred pages serve as exposition before the real meat of the story.  Although this exposition takes awhile, it did an effective job of pulling the reader’s head into the constraints of this universe.  Jake’s friend, Al, explains the rules of time travel, and Jake travels to the past to correct a certain wrong that befell a GED student of his many years ago.  In so doing, he learns the intricacies of his jump to the past, how it affects the future, and how the past affects him.  You see, the past is the real antagonist of the story, not Oswald.  It doesn’t want to be changed, and it’s going to fight tooth and nail to stop Jake.

After this “test mission” is concluded, the proper story can begin.  But that story is not what you think.  Those expecting Jake to rush out and immediately set to work killing Oswald will be sorely disappointed.  The portal takes Jake to 1958, five years before the assassination.  In those five years, Jake has to make sure that Oswald really is the one responsible for the murder of the President, since numerous conspiracy theorists suggest otherwise.  So Jake must wait.  And wait.  And in that waiting lies the beating heart of the story.

Previous King stories have gone for the jugular, but here he goes for the heart.  Jake meets the love of his life in an idyllic Texas town called Jodie, and this is where the majority of the novel takes place.  A stranger in a strange land, Jake is taken in by a colorful cast of characters who treat him like one of their own.  He becomes an integral part of their lives and vice versa.  And as he falls deeper and deeper in love with both the town and the school librarian, Sadie, he has second thoughts about his mission and his capacity to go back to the present.

Although well-regarded as the most popular writer in horror, many of King’s works blend the sentimental with the horrific.  Here the sentimental takes over, but that’s not a bad thing at all.  It’s a different kind of King book, but his touches are still there:  The way he’s able to puncture the facade of a friendly face to dig at the insanity that lies just beneath the surface.  The preternatural ability of a character to develop a kind of ESP that goes beyond simple intuition.  Ties to other King novels, including a particularly awesome callback to the classic IT.

Even though the love story is front and center, that story is broken up by pain, tragedy, and regret.  The past doesn’t want to be changed, remember?  As Jake attempts to fulfill his mission, the fabric of the universe itself conspires against him, sometimes with horrific consequences.  It doesn’t give much away to say that it all leads up to an extended action sequence on the fateful day of 11/22/63, and here King doesn’t disappoint.  I won’t give anything away, but the ending of the novel is pitch perfect.  There’s not a false beat to be found.

There are no glaring flaws with 11/22/63, but fans of King’s books know that he has a tendency to overly foreshadow upcoming events.  In THE DARK TOWER series and some of his other novels, the narrator will often talk ad nauseum about what we’re about to witness, especially as it concerns the deaths of characters.  That over-foreshadowing is in abundance here.  Even though the past is doing its darnedest to stop him, it takes away some of the tension to have the narrator come right out ahead of time and tell us who is going to act as the past’s weapon of choice.  And although it says on the front flap of the book that Jake is going to fall in love, he himself doesn’t have to tell us a page or two before it happens.  This narrative tic takes away some of the shock of what happens, if not necessarily the impact certain events have on the protagonist.

But shock really isn’t the point here, is it?  This is a character study about a man torn between love and duty, selfishness and honor.  And in that way, it succeeds on all fronts.  At the beginning of the book, Jakes says that he’s never been a crying man.  It’s a theme that carries throughout the book.  Even if you share that sentiment, there’s a good chance you’ll be bawling your eyes out by the story’s absolutely beautiful conclusion.

Product Information:

11/22/63 by Stephen KIng

Release Date:  November 8, 2011

Scribner

$35.00

So said Stephen King at the very beginning of THE DARK TOWER saga.  And with Universal putting a screeching halt on the DARK TOWER recently, fans must feel somewhat like Roland Deschain chasing down that illusive Man in Black.  After slogging through obstacle after obstacle, every time it looks like Martin Flagg is just around the next corner, some new threat presents itself to impede the film/television adaptation of King’s universe-spanning adventure.

Well, fans lost in the wastelands on the path of the beam are finally being offered sustenance, albeit a very small morsel.  Director Ron Howard, who has long been attached to the project, provided The Hollywood Reporter with an update.  Nothing too earth shattering, but’s it’s good to know that the TOWER is still very much standing:

We are continuing to work on the script to find ways to make the budget more manageable and still deliver the work in a way that the project deserves. We were always racing and fast-tracking the project, so I always wince when I see something written about it and there’s a release date in there. These kinds of projects often take years to come together in the right ways. But I am in love with the material, and the minute it can come together in the right way, I am fully committed to it.

Until THE DARK TOWER rises, fans of King will have to sate their appetites with 11/22/63, out November 8.

With only two weeks left to visit Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights, our thoughts are already turning to next year, wondering what the creators of the annual fright-fest will dream up next.  To help them out, we’ve come up with a handy list of suggestions.  Now, we understand that many movies might be tied up with copyright issues and various bureaucratic bric-a-brac, but setting those aside, these are scare zones that could be both inventive and absolutely terrifying.  Some might be movies, others games, others just suggested people whose works one could draw from.  But the one thing they all have in common is the ability to scare your eyes out your butt.

TRICK ‘R TREAT

First off, let me just say for the record that it’s an absolute shame Trick ‘R Treat never received a true theatrical release.  There is more intelligence in any one of its four short stories than the entirety of most horror movies that are released.  That each vignette blends seamlessly with the others to serve a greater whole makes it that much better.

One could do any number of things with a Trick ‘R Treat haunted house.  Sam, the “kid” wearing a sack on his head from the movie poster, would clearly be the mascot of the attraction.  He would be used to carry the overarching theme, possibly as a transitional scare between the various sections of the haunted house.  In one section a visitor traverses the house of serial killer Steven Wilkins, and Universal could use creative license to explore some more of Wilkins’ dark side that the viewers of the film didn’t get to see.  From there, we step into the costume party gone horribly wrong in the woods, with limbs strewn about everywhere and werewolves attacking from all sides.  A landfill section comes next, with the vengeful spirits of the deceased children from the school bus preying on innocent passers-by.  Lots of cool effects provide a half-submerged, trash-heap feel to everything.  The final section would be the coup-de-grace, Sackhead in all its glory, going beyond what we saw in the film to show the childlike being transform into a hideout beast as we progress through the final room.

Seriously, if Universal makes one haunted house from this list, it ought to be TRICK ‘R TREAT.  But if they make two…

SILENT HILL

Either the videogame or the movie series, it matters not.  SILENT HILL, especially for those who have played the games, is one of the most terrifying universes ever created.  Survival horror taken to its extremes, the game thrusts the player into the role of some schmuck who finds him or herself in the most terrifying place on the planet.  Many-limbed monstrosities chase you down without remorse, faceless nurses twitch after your helpless body with anything but healing on their mind, and skinless creatures descend from all corners to turn you into a whimpering mess.

SILENT HILL worked as well as it did because of the way it lured you into a false sense of security and then without warning tore that safety blanket away.  The movie emulated this clever game technique, showing a city that, while not exactly a vacation destination, was still a city.  When sirens pierce the quite of the ash-filled sky, though, hell literally breaks loose.  The confines of a school, of a church, of a hospital, are suddenly burned away, leaving a festering pit of industrial decay behind, blood and viscera on the walls and abominations emerging from all angles to rip off your skin.

This could be put to great effect in a haunted house.  Imagine traversing the corridors of a typical abandoned hospital scare zone, then you’re ushered into a large room, say a morgue.  The sirens blare, the lights go off.  Through some clever mechanical effects (currently available at many theme parks), when the lights come on your surroundings are converted into a hellish wasteland, perfect to usher you into the truly scary areas of the maze.  This kind of haunted house would be hell itself come to life, and by basing a property off a game that has a movie adaptation, it opens the floodgates to other terrifying games in the horror genre just ripe for conversion into a haunted house.

Plus, Pyramid Head!  The dude is tailor-made for a haunted house.

If he can fit that big honkin' noggin in the door

HELLBOY

Whether it be HELLBOY or one of his other directorial efforts, Guillermo del Toro is a filmmaker Universal needs to get to help create a scare zone that would be truly spectacular.  The man is a horror visionary, and he and Universal have worked together in the past.  HELLBOY, to me, seems to be the perfect fit.  Del Toro has made it known that he could see the franchise continuing with Ron Perlman’s charming demon taking on the classic Universal Monsters, but until that happens, the universe is vivid enough to make a lighter, yet no less scary haunted house.

The whole thing could take place as an expo for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, with stuff popping out at you while Hellboy’s makes clever japes from overhead speakers.  It would all be very tongue-in-cheek.  From the first movie, Universal could crib nothing less than the Chtuhlu mythos.  Tentacles reaching out at guests, galaxy size squid monsters seen from a healthy distance.  Rasputin pops up, as does that weird Nazi guy who requires a mechanical crank to get up and about to slaughter people.

From the second movie, any number of those twisted fairy tale creatures appear to scare visitors.  Seedlings of the giant plant elemental that attacks New York sprout up and squirt guests with goop.  The whole thing is capped off with a visit from The Golden Army itself.  The technology might be expensive, but given the next-gen techniques currently on display over at Universal’s Harry Potter attraction in Florida, I think it’s quite doable.

And if not HELLBOY, then at least give us Pan’s Labyrinth.  That thing with the eyes on its hands barreling down upon you?  Pants-poopingly incredible.

THE HILLS HAVE EYES

This year’s Halloween Horror Nights felt like something was missing.  In previous years, at least one haunted house was dedicated to some unstoppable slasher, be they of the Jason or the Freddy or the Leatherface or the Dave Coulier variety.  This year, the closest thing to that was Ghostface, but he lacks a certain inbred panache.

The Full House Haunted House: "Cut. It. Out-- Your Heart That Is!"

Instead of going back to one of the old standbys, why not try something new and give us a haunted house based off of THE HILLS HAVE EYES?  Both the original and the remake delivered gore and scares in equal abundance, and populated the rocky terrain of the American Southwest  with a panoply of wonderful characters that could easily be translated to a haunted house setting.Whether it be the hulking Pluto or the ringleader Papa Jupiter, every creature in this movie would scare the living daylights out of passersby.  On top of that, since the baddies are essentially human, you wouldn’t need state of the art technology to recreate some otherworldly monster, just a team of clever make-up designers.

Piece of cake!

The setting could also provide something we’ve yet to see at Horror Nights.  The arid Southwest could be brought to vivid life in a sort of three act structure.  The proceedings start near a broken down trailer in the desert night, and visitors watch the mutants prey on a helpless family.  From there, we are ushered into the irradiated mine shafts where the mutants live and breed.  The finale takes place in the Mutants’ atomic test grounds home, where the freakiest of the mutants take up residence and Pluto chases victims out into the rest of the attractions.

THE TWISTED WORLDS OF STEPHEN KING

Stephen King’s books are just begging to be co-opted into a haunted house format.  There’ve already been more movies based off of his works than any other author, so a haunted house mash-up would be a logical next step.  Considering that the Alice Cooper maze of this year was just a seemingly random collection of images from Cooper’s head, why not use a similar tactic with the works of King?

The possibilities are endless.  In one scene visitors run terrified from the Clown from IT.  The vampires from SALEM’S LOT swoop down from the rafters while the Slow Mutants from THE DARK TOWER emerge from the dark to claim you for their supper.  It all leads up to a finale with the Crimson King threatening to to tear apart the heads of guests on his way to tearing apart the fabric of the universe.  The whole thing would be overseen by the villainous Martin Flagg, the demonic presence who pops in and out of various King stories to orchestrate his horrific plans.

The prom scene from CARRIE, the beasts from THE MIST, even a scene where THE MANGLER has a victim in its jaws, King’s books are filled with any number of memorable moments that could be translated to scare zone form.  Such a move would certainly bring new readers to King’s books as well as draw King’s fans who otherwise wouldn’t be caught dead (HA!) in a haunted house.

No Halloween is complete without an evil laundry folding machine

BONUS RIDE:  SIMPSONS TREEHOUSE OF HORROR

Now that THE SIMPSONS RIDE has taken the place of BACK TO THE FUTURE, Universal has an E-ticket attraction they can run in tandem with Halloween Horror Nights.  Such an attraction gives visitors a break from the constant moments of terror, but the current film that plays doesn’t really jibe with the rest of the horror going on at the park.  For those that haven’t been on the attraction, THE SIMPSONS has guests board a ride simulator for a jaunt through Krustyland as Sideshow Bob tries to murder America’s favorite yellow family and you along with them.  Awesome ride, just doesn’t fit with the whole Halloween theme.

Good thing Famous Monsters has a solution.  The annual SIMPSONS TREEHOUSE OF HORROR episode is always a highlight of the the fall television season, and we think it provides the perfect opportunity for a Halloween time overlay of the ride, much like what Disney does with Space Mountain or the Haunted Mansion.  The whole attraction could be decorated with trademark Simpsons references to Treehouse of Horror episodes past.  Since the whole ride is a simulator, you wouldn’t even have to shut the ride down, just switch out the movie that plays.

Universal’s Krustyland queue already has posters for The Screamatorium of Dr. Frightmarestine, so why not let visitors explore that “ride” in the simulator and populate it with the Simpsons Halloween wit we’ve all come to know and love?  Homer going mad from THE SHINNING, Maggie as an alien, Bart and Lisa on the run from the cannibalistic Principal Skinner and Edna Krabapple, Mr. Burns as Dracula, Groundskeeper Willie as Freddy Krueger, dolphins attacking the world!  And to top it all off, the Zombie Flanders!

He was a zombie?

So there it is, a brief list of how Universal can blow all our minds in future incarnations of Halloween Horror Nights.  There are many and more we could think up, but we’ll save those for next year.  For now, this is all you’re gonna get.

You’re welcome, Universal.

THE DARK TOWER, Stephen King’s self-proclaimed magnum opus, is a seven-novel (going on eight) series with supplemental comic books and connected with some of King’s other works that combines the genres of science fiction, fantasy, horror and western about a mysterious gunslinger in search of the eponymous Dark Tower, said to be the nexus of all universes.

The huge story was being developed for an elaborate film adaptation alternating between a feature film trilogy and tie-in television series. The project was reported to be cancelled this past July, but word from producer Brian Grazer says the project is back on track:

“We found a way to cut out $45 million out of the budget without changing the scope and actually giving it a good ending,” he explains. “In the $140 million draft, the ending wasn’t quite as satisfying. Now, we’ve got $45 million, $50 million out of the way and a really satisfying ending. It’s gonna get made.”

Words of Ron Howard to direct and Javier Bardem to lead were the talk previously, but now with the shift in priorities and previous cancellation it’s anyone’s guess if they’d still be considered as part of the project.