Authors: Hans-Ake Lilja
The book also includes an introduction by Bev Vincent and an afterword by SKEMERs founder Michelle L. Revelle. Her afterword, in which she tells the history of SKEMERs, is quite interesting. Even though I’ve been a member since sometime in 1995/96 I didn’t know all of its history. The members of SKEMERs contributed most of the questions for the book.
The book is released in trade paperback (the one with the blue cover), hardback (the one with the brown cover) and a limited edition. If you’re a collector you might want to go for the limited edition, in which you also get a piece of Glenn Chadbourne’s original artwork that was used in the book. Otherwise, one of the other editions will do you fine. The hardback will probably survive more readings, so it may be worth investing in that one…
Lilja’s final words about
The Illustrated Stephen King Trivia Book
If you like to test your knowledge of King, this is definitely
the
book to do it with. It covers most parts of King’s life and career, so you get a wide spectrum of questions in a wide range of difficulties. It’s the ultimate trivia book, if you ask me.
****
The Stephen King Collector’s Guide
Posted: November 23, 2007
The Stephen King Collector’s Guide
by Rocky Wood and Justin Brooks is a very special CD-ROM. If you’re a collector you’ll love it, and if you’re just a reader then you won’t.
The Stephen King Collector’s Guide
is, as I see it, purely for the collector who wants to keep track of his or her Stephen King items.
And in
The Stephen King Collector’s Guide
you can do just that. It has lists where you can mark what you have, and you can also put down what version you have, what it’s worth and if you have any extra that you want to trade or sell to other collectors.
What it doesn’t have is a lot of information about each item. That is not its purpose either, but if you want that kind of information,
The Stephen King Collector’s Guide
is connected to three other books that will have all the information you could ever want. Those books are:
A Primary Bibliography of the World’s Most Popular Author
,
Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished
and
Stephen King: The Nonfiction
, and in
The Stephen King Collector’s Guide
you can see what page in each of those books you can read more.
So,
The Stephen King Collector’s Guide
is the guide to use if you have a lot of different Stephen King items that you feel you want to keep track of. There are, however, a couple things that I hope will be changed in upcoming editions of the guide:
1) I would like a table of contents (with a link to a specific piece) on each index letter. That would give you a better overview of the index. If you know what you’re looking for it’s no problem, but if you want to browse…it’s not easy as it’s done today.
2) I don’t like the fact that you have to print out the pages to tick off what you have and what it’s worth. This makes you lose the search advantages. I’m not sure if it’s technically possible, but I would have preferred if I could tick it off in an electronic version and then save it…
Lilja’s final words about
The Stephen King Collector’s Guide
If you’re a serious collector you will benefit from using
The Stephen King Collector’s Guide
to keep track of your items. If you just have a few items and aren’t really into collecting, then this is not the thing for you.
Section 4—The Movies
Walking The Mile - The Making Of “The Green Mile”
Posted: September 14, 2000
A book about the filming of a movie—could that be something worth reading? The answer is
yes
, at least if the book is
Walking The Mile - The Making Of “The Green Mile,
” written by Tyson Blue.
When I first heard about this book I was a bit skeptical as to whether a book like this would be something special enough to grab my attention. I have, after all, read King’s book and seen Darabont’s movie several times. Could this book really add something?
Well, let me tell you. It can, and does, add a lot!
Tyson had been following Darabont and his crew when they shot
The Green Mile
. He was with them on location at Hollywood Studios, he was on location in North Carolina, he was with them everywhere…and all the time he was taking notes and interviewing people connected to the movie.
This book gives the reader a unique look behind the making of the movie; it gives the reader insight to how the actors in the movie are as people (did you know that Tom Hanks collects old typewriters?) and it gives the reader insight to how a movie is made.
One concern I had before I read the book was if I was going to understand all of the moviemaking terms that were destined to be in the book, not being a filmmaker myself. When I started to read the book I soon discovered that I had no reason to be worried. Tyson uses a minimum of those terms, and when he does, he does it so well that you understand them without any problem.
Tyson starts with telling us about all of the elements and people that are involved in the making of this film. He tells us how the company Castle Rock was founded, how Darabont got the rights to
The Green Mile
for $1 and how actor Barry Pepper first read for the role of Percy (he later got the part of Dean Stanton). He also has a big biography for everyone…and when I say everyone, I mean everyone—it goes through everyone from the film’s star, Tom Hanks, to Mr. Jingles to the crew.
Throughout the book Tyson feeds us anecdotes from the filming. For example, the owner of the house they used to record the scenes at the Hammersmiths is owned by a man named Coffey, things like that.
We also get a complete run through of how a movie is done. We get to see how the effects for the movie are done, how the set is carefully arranged, even down to the smallest detail, how the actors and actresses had to learn to speak with an accent, what happened in postproduction, how the sound was added and so on.
To give you an example, I can tell you that the sound you hear when the electricity flows through Old Sparky in some scenes is created with a mix of the following sounds: electricity, human screams, animal screams and vocalizations. How about that?
I was surprised to learn that a scene in the finished movie that might only be a minute long can take days to film, even with some scenes that didn’t make it into the finished version of the movie. Darabont did multiple versions of the same scenes.
After Tyson’s part of the book, which is about 370 manuscript pages, we get the story of another movie called
Wild Bill goes to Hollywood
. This is a movie made by Sam Rockwell and Constantine Nasr, which tells the story of how Wild Bill breaks out of
The Green Mile
and finds himself on a movie set in Hollywood. This was, of course, a joke, but apparently it was a good one. Tyson tried to convince Darabont to add it to the DVD version of the movie. Unfortunately, he didn’t succeed.
And, as if that isn’t enough to satisfy us, we also get to read an essay by James Cole (maker of the first movie version of
The Last Rung on the Ladder
) about how he spent four days on the set. James, like Tyson, is very good with words. It’s almost as if you were on the set with them.
To end this review, I will quote something Tyson says in the book. He explains, in a very insightful way, what makes an adaptation of a King book good or bad:
“Not ‘making a movie based on
The Green Mile
,’ but ‘bringing King’s novel to the screen.’ Therein lies the real difference between the great King films and all the others.”
Lilja’s final words about
Walking The Mile - The Making Of “The Green Mile”
This is a great book which everyone who enjoyed
The Green Mile
should read, and those of you who haven’t seen the movie yet should get this book anyway. You won’t regret it. One thing though—see the movie before you read the book! Otherwise, you will spoil a lot of great movie-watching moments.
Don’t forget to read the interview I did with Tyson after reading this book.
****
Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide
Posted: November 25, 2001
When I got
Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide
in the mail, I was first surprised that it was such a big (in its format) book. I was expecting a smaller one. Then, when I started reading it, I was also surprised that it was so rich with information.
Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide
is the best book about King’s movies that I have seen to date.
The book describes almost all of the movies based on King’s work. There are some of the more anonymous ones that it missed, but otherwise they are all included. And by all I mean all feature films, made-for-TV movies, TV series, miniseries (all the way up to
Rose Red
), short films, “Dollar Babies”, upcoming movies, unaccredited movies loosely based on King’s work and so on…
Every chapter begins with a short description of the movie. This part is short, and that is something I like. I mean, most readers have seen the movies and don’t need to be reminded of the plot, right? The space is better used if there is other information about the movie, and that is just what this book gives the reader. The author, Stephen Jones, has gone through what seems like a ton of interviews with King and others who have done movies based on his work. Jones presents loads of facts about the making of the movie, different scripts, fun stuff about the movie and its making, among other things.
To name a few, I can reveal that Christopher Reeve was considered for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s roll in
The Running Man,
and that there were a lot of other actors considered for the role of Paul Sheldon in
Misery
before it went to James Caan. This goes on throughout the book for all of the movies, and I can say that I just loved to read it! It was great!
This is not all, though. Besides a run through all of the movies, we also get information about what’s on its way when it comes to King movies, a look at the shorter movies done from King’s work, unproduced projects (including
The Machines
and
The Stephen King Playhouse
), movies King has been in, movies that appear to be based on King’s work, but not credited to King (this one even includes a XXX-movie supposedly based on
The Shining
…), TV things and plays, radio shows and computer games based on King’s work.
As if this wasn’t already enough, there is also an interview with King and a section with short descriptions of many of the people that have been involved in King’s movies throughout the years.
Author Stephen Jones has really put a lot of work into this book, and it really shows!
Lilja’s final words about
Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide
This is an extremely complete book (both when it comes to released movies and unreleased movies), but it’s also a very easy book to read and well-illustrated with pictures from the different movies.
Personally, I think this is
the
book when it comes to books about movies based on King’s work. Go out and get it
now
!
****
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red
Posted: January 6, 2002
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red
is a complement book to King’s miniseries
Rose Red
. It’s also a book that stands its ground all by itself. The book is supposed to be the diary of Ellen Rimbauer, who, together with her husband, built and lived in the house
Rose Red
. The diary is then supposed to have been edited by Joyce Reardon, who in the miniseries undertakes an expedition to
Rose Red
in order to awaken the house once again…