Ahead of the highly anticipated Hulu adaptation of John Green‘s Looking for Alaska, it’s been announced that Wil Wheaton will be lending his voice for a new audiobook version of the bestseller.
Wheaton has always been very public with his love of all things nerd culture, much like Green. Looking for Alaska, follows the story of a young man who is based on a teenaged version of Green, making this project a perfect fit.
The original audiobook version of the novel was read by Jeff Woodman, a professional narrator. Though the update is probably being made for the purpose of promoting the Hulu series, it also seems like Wheaton may have more of a personal connection to the story that Looking for Alaska is telling.
One of the first looks at the Hulu adaptation/Image via TV Guide
The new audiobook will be coming out on September 24th, and the Hulu adaption will premiere on October 18th!
Last night, Riverdale creator and writer, Roberto Acquirre-Sacasa released the trailer for season four of the hit teenage drama. The cast soon starting sharing the trailer, each on their own social media profiles, as fans anxiously sift through the short video to try to figure out the fates of their favorite character. After the shocking and ambiguous end to season three, the trailer hints at a few plot lines we can look forward to when the angsty, beloved show returns on October 9th.
Image via we hear it
If you haven’t watched the trailer yet, watch it here now.
The trailer opens with a gaggle of characters walking through the woods screaming “Jughead!” This shouldn’t come as a surprise since the season finale wanted to make us believe that Jughead was dead and Betty, Archie and Veronica killed him. It appears now he has gone missing. Oh Jughead, always getting yourself into near-death situations. Nothing new.
The trailer then jumps back presumably to the core four looking ahead to their senior year of high school. The year promises to be filled with dark secrets, crime scenes, Betty getting hit in the head and Veronica dancing in lingerie. So far, everything appears just as it should. We get glimpses of Toni and Cheryl looking happy as normal (thank god!). The trailer hints at sex scenes between Archie and Veronica, which was to be expected despite no one asking for them. We even see Betty and Jughead getting it on a few times. At least Jughead hasn’t gone missing just yet. We also barely see any of Kevin. Again, nothing new.
Image Via tumblr
The trailer ends the same way as it begins- with a manhunt to find Jughead. This new season seems to remain true to the beloved Riverdale troupe of following one dark storyline while littering sex and relationships alongside. This new horror storyline seems to take a true crime approach with an unknown female gunmen stalking Betty at one moment.
The season promises a build-up to Jughead’s disappearance followed by that chilling scene that ended season three with Betty, Archie and Veronica burning their clothes and Jughead’s hat. In true Riverdale fashion, we have a lot more shocks, songs and sex to look forward to from the beloved comic book characters that writers and producers molded and mutilated. Whether you love to hate watch or truly just want to know what happens next, season four will struggle to set itself apart from past seasons of Riverdale, yet keep the same themes and drama that we cannot help but love to indulge in.
On November 8th we’re all going to see Doctor Sleep. Oh, wait, you’re not? Why? Because you don’t know the story? Well, let me fill you in…
Ewan McGregor, also known as young Obi-Wan Kenobi, will star as Danny in the film adaptation for Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep, a story which follows an adult Danny Torence, the child from The Shining, as he struggles to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence.
He goes to New Hampshire where he establishes a nursing home where he can use his shining power for good, comforting the dying before they go. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”
Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival.
In preparation for this movie, we’re going to go through eight Stephen King Books we gotta re-read or just read for the first time (no shame here!) before this movie hits a silver screen near you!
Yep, you knew this would be on this list. Even if you haven’t read It, you’ve heard of It. Loser’s Club, killer clown, weird orgy scene, a giant cosmic turtle, it’s all there. This gem has heart, has scares, has everything Steven King. The book is as big as a stone but it won’t weigh you down.
Juggling themes of adulthood, childhood, and trauma, this story has stuck with us throughout the ages for a reason.
Instead of a scary clown, we meet the the Cujo, the good-natured St. Bernard. Good dog! But he gets bit by a rabid bat. Then when Donna’s car breaks down, she and her young son Tad are trapped while a crazed Cujo tries to kill them. Bad dog!
In his book, On Writing, King notes that due to his alcoholism and cocaine addiction he can barely remember writing this book, and that might be for the best. It’s not bad or anything, far from it, in fact it’s so real, so visceral, so in-your-face-horrifying that it might have even scared Stephen King himself away from writing.
What can I say except thank God there’s only one evil animal in this story.
Louis Creed and his wife, Rachel, along with their two younger children move to Maine. Bad move, because in a Stephen King novel Maine is a terrible place. Their cat, Church, dies, so they bury it out in the woods.
Are you sad yet?
Well, things get worse when the cat comes back to life. Turns out that the woods are an ancient burial ground and anything buried there comes back to life with an intent to kill.
With two film adaptations, you’ll have to check out this book, “Darling.”
A post-apocalyptic horror/fantasy, The Standis Stephen King’s fourth novel (can you believe it?).
After a patient escapes from a biological testing facility, he unknowingly unleashes upon the world a mutated strain of super-flu that starts to wipe out 99% of the world’s population.
With the fate of humanity at stake, Mother Abigail—a benevolent one-hundred-eight-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community—and Randall Flagg—the nefarious “Dark Man” who delights in chaos and violence—rise up to lead humanity, and force the survivors to choose between them.
Let’s go back to 1974. Here we get the first novel published by Stephen King, Carrie.
Carrie is relentlessly bullied by her peers and tormented by her overly-religious mother who, after reaching puberty, discovers she has telekinetic powers.
A bloodbath, this novel is one of the most frequently on the banned books. Multiple adaptations have been made, from the stage to the silver screen, but the book proves to be the most terrifying. It’s a good thing that Tabitha King fished the first draft of the first chapter out of the garbage and convinced her husband to keep writing, otherwise Stephen King wouldn’t be the King of horror we know today.
Writer Paul Sheldon is injured in a car accident but is saved by nurse Annie Wilkes. However, Annie is a super-fan of Paul’s writing and is keeping him prisoner, refusing to let him go until he finishes another book in her favorite series.
The title comes from the feeling it evoked not only in Paul Sheldon, but within King himself.
The novel got a film adaptation in 1990, staring James Caan and Kathy Bates in a performance that won Bates an Oscar. Funny enough, the director of the film, Rob Reiner, only took the film on because he wanted to include the infamous ‘axe’ scene but, when it came time to shooting, decided to change the scene into an ‘ankle-breaking’ one instead.
You won’t be miserable when reading this novel, but it might just get under your skin and tear it right off.
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
Stephen King started the Dark Tower series with that line and, for the longest time, it seemed like he wouldn’t finish the series. Years went by, and then he was almost killed, run over by a drunk-driver while he was on the side street during his routine morning walk.
He survived, and afterwards flew through the rest of the series just to get to this ending. And trust me, you all, it’s Stephen King at his Stephen-King-est. If you want crazy insanity to the ninth degree, then this is the book for you.
Of course this would be number one, but let’s refresh your memory.
Jack Torrance has a new job at the Overlook Hotel. This is the perfect chance for a fresh start. He’ll have plenty of time reconnecting with his family and his writing his magnum opus. But as the harsh winter winds blow and snow falls, Jack Torrance falls back into his old vices as his young son, Danny Torrance, feels malicious spirits gather around him, attracted to his unique gift called ‘the shining.’
We all know that the iconic Stanley Kubrick adaptation was made and notoriously Stephen King hated it. I mean, he loathed it.
So what did he do? He wrote a sequel to The Shining called, you guessed it, Doctor Sleep.
How accurate will this newest Stephen-King-adaptation be? Will it take more cues from its source materials, or from the Kubrick film?
Adaptations galore is coming this fall season! What are the ones that you should look forward to most? Well, stay tuned!
It Chapter 2
Image Via Vanity Fair
A sequel to the horrifying film It, the ‘Loser’s Club’ is back twenty-seven years later (or two years later). The group returns to Derry, Maine, where the Losers must finish what they started: destroy Pennywise.
Who from our lovely ‘Loser’s Club’ will be lost in the ensuing bloodbath? How will these losers defeat Pennywise? Well, it’s based on a Stephen King novel that was released back in 1986, so the answers are out there and, um, it’s pretty wild. Remember to sing your praises to Maturin this September 6th!
Joker
Image Via Variety
An original standalone origin story for a character who infamously doesn’t have a definitive origin, this movie starring Joaquin Phoenix has clearly taken cues from Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke by making Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill man disregarded by society, into an up-and-coming comedian. In the iconic comic book, the unnamed man’s career in comedy ends in a chemical bath, but Arthur Fleck’s story might end on a different note entirely.
Is that scene, where Arthur Fleck, in full-fledged Joker makeup, goes on stage with Robert Di Niro a callback to The Dark Knight Returns scene when the Joker poisons the audience and the talk show host alike in a scene of ‘hilarious’ death?
We’ll find out this October 4th.
Nancy Drew
Having been around since 1930, Nancy Drew has been around longer than your parents (not judging) and she’s spent her time well: solving mysteries even when people told her she couldn’t.
This series has been around forever and if you haven’t read it, you’ve definitely heard of it. Well, we’re getting an adaptation of this series that’s set to debut on October 9, 2019 on the CW.
Looking for Alaska
The Fault in Our Starsbroke our hearts, and now John Green is at it again. Or has he already broken our hearts beyond repair? The Fault in Our Stars was Green’s sixth novel andLooking for Alaska was his first novel, but for all of you who haven’t read the book, you’re in for something special.
Miles Halter is our man and through his eyes we are introduced to Alaska Young. A new student meets a timid young girl? Sounds like a love story made in heaven, until Miles soon learns that her life isn’t as perfect as he originally thought.
We’ll get a chance for our spirits to rise and our hearts to grow and break and grow again this October 14th.
HBO’s Watchmen
Another (sort of) Alan Moore adaptation, this version of Watchmen will be, in the words of showrunner Damon Lindelof, “a remix.”
For those of you who need to be brought up to speed, an alien invasion took place which ended the Cold War, but it was all a fake-out. Rorschach, before his untimely demise, sent his journal to the press where he laid a bread crumb trail to the truth.
What is known about this HBO series is that it takes place thirty-four years after the original comic left off. Taking place in an alternative reality in 2019 where this is no internet or smartphones, we are introduced to a United States where Robert Redford is now the longest-serving president, having been elected in 1992, a feat accomplished thanks to President Nixon abolishing the two-term limit back before the original comic book. Things are in disarray. A white supremacist group calling itself “The Seventh Cavalry,” with members who all wear homemade Rorschach masks, commits simultaneous attacks on the houses of police officers. Because of this, the police start wearing masks themselves.
What is this leading up to? Where are the original characters? Tune in to HBO October 20th find out.
Doctor Sleep
Another Stephen King adaptation, this one is an adaptation ofDoctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining. While the movie won’t be based on the Stanley Kubrick version, since the movie departs too much from the source material, this standalone is clearly drawing on the imagery set forth by Kubrick. Will it be any good? What’s going to happen?
The film arrives in theaters this November 8th.
The Good Liar
Catherine McKenzie brought us The Good Liar, and Warner Bros is bringing us the film adaptation. Ian McKellen is going to grace the screens as seasoned conman Roy Courtnay.
After he meets Betty McLeish online, he decides to steal a glorious amount of cash from her. But Betty McLeish, played by Helen Mirren, is too much for the conman and he finds herself falling for him. How will this sinister love affair turn out? See it in threaten this November 15th.
Cats
First, T.S. Eliot brought us Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats in 1939. From there we got a play, and now we’re getting a movie. The plot is hard to describe, but it basically follows a tribe of cats known as the ‘Jellicles’ who gather together to make the ‘Jellicle choice.’ Those who get the ‘Jellicle choice’ mean they can now be killed so they can go to heaven and come back because, you know, cats have nine lives.
Don’t get it? Doesn’t matter! There’s singing and there’s dancing and there’s this purr-fect trailer! It comes out December 20th.
His Dark Materials
Image via Amazon
This series has never been adapted before (we don’t talk about that other thing) and so THIS will be the first adaptation of Phil Pullman’s epic book series, His Dark Materials, in our books. The first season will draw upon the first book in the trilogy, following the life of a young Lyra (Dafne Keen) who is an orphan living with the tutors at Jordan College, Oxford. It’s not the Oxford you and I know, however, it’s an Oxford in an alternative world where all humans have animal companions called dæmons, which are the manifestations of their souls.
Lyra’s search for her missing friend will lead to uncovering a massive conspiracy linked to a mysterious substance called Dust and secrets from these two mysterious people, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) and Marisa Coulter (Ruth Wilson).
If the first season is good (please let it be good), then we’ll be getting at least two more seasons! BBC One and HBO are teaming up, so hopefully they won’t disappoint us… In the meantime, however, I just want them to give a release date that’s more specific than “autumn.”
The Witcher
The Witcher is known as a great video game series, but did you know it started out a book series? In fact the saga is based on a series written by Andrzej Sapkowski that started in 1992 with Sword of Destiny. The last book in the series, Season of Storms came out in 2013.
The stories follow Geralt of Rivia, played by Henry Cavil, a solitary monster hunter who struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. What will become of Geralt?
Check out the series on Netflix this sometime “late 2019”.
Yesterday, the James Bond Twitter account announced the latest 007 film will be titled… No Time To Die. The latest installment in the movie franchise based on Ian Fleming’s classic stories has been generating quite the buzz in the cinema world.
Many fans are excited to see what excitement the newest addition in the Bond franchise will hold. Others are less enthused. Drew Schwartz, writing for Vice.com, mocked the new title:
Regardless of what you think about the title, there’s been a lot of buzz surrounding the film as it will likely be Daniel Craig’s last turn as Bond. Earlier this year, it was rumored Lashana Lynch will take up the 007 moniker as Craig leaves the franchise. Craig will still play Bond in this film, but his 007 codename at MI6 has been passed on to Lynch. Marvel fans may remember Lynch from her role as Maria Rambeau inCaptain Marvel.
Image Via TIme Magazine
Reportedly, Oscar-winning actor Rami Malek will be the villain in this newest installment. And Dali Benssalah, David Dencik and Ana de Armas will also join the cast. According toCNN, Craig has recently been spotted around London filming scenes for the April 2020 release!
While some Bond films are based on the classic books and short stories from Ian Fleming, No Time To Die will apparently be an original storyline!
Wil WHeaton/Image via Gazette
One of the first looks at the Hulu adaptation/Image via TV Guide
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