James Franco To Narrate Stephen King's THE DEAD ZONE Available For The First Time As An Audiobook:

News provided by

Simon & Schuster Audio

Mar 18, 2017

NEW YORK, March 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Academy Award nominee James Franco will narrate the audio edition of THE DEAD ZONE by bestselling author Stephen King.

Simon & Schuster Audio will publish the King classic, which has never been available as an audiobook, on April 25^th, 2017.

This isn't the first time the author and actor have collaborated; Franco recently starred as Jake Epping in Hulu's 2016 miniseries 11.22.63, based on King's novel of the same name.

"James is a terrific actor," said King. "I knew that he would perfectly capture the vibe and voice of THE DEAD ZONE."

Franco added, "I've been a fan of Stephen King's work for a while now. He's one of the most pleasurable authors to read or listen to. He just guides you along so well. Even though we're from different generations all his influences and things he references and subjects he's interested in seem to be all the things I'm interested in."

Set in the fictional Maine town of Castle Rock, THE DEAD ZONE was made into a 1983 film starring Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen.  The story follows Johnny Smith who awakens from a five-year coma to discover that he can see people's futures and pasts when he touches them. While many consider his talent a gift, Johnny feels cursed. When he encounters a ruthlessly ambitious and amoral man who promises a terrifying fate for all humanity, Johnny must find a way to prevent a harrowing predestination from becoming reality.

"We're thrilled to fill this black hole in Stephen King's audiobook universe," said Chris Lynch, President & Publisher of Simon & Schuster Audio. "James Franco's narration is simply superb."

ABOUT SIMON & SCHUSTER AUDIO:  Simon & Schuster Audio is a leading publisher of general interest audiobooks including bestselling fiction, nonfiction, business/finance, self-improvement, inspiration, language learning programs, original audiobook productions, and children's titles. In addition to a list that includes such unparalleled authors as Mary Higgins Clark, Vince Flynn, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, Michael Lewis, and David McCullough. Simon & Schuster Audio has produced audiobooks that have won eight Grammy Awards and earned forty-one Grammy nominations since 1989. For more information about Simon & Schuster Audio, visit our website at:

www.audio.simonandschuster.com

Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit our website at:

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SOURCE: Simon & Schuster Audio

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/james-franco-to-narrate-stephen-kings-the-dead-zone-available-for-the-first-time-as-an-audiobook-300425755.html

Gwendy’s Button Box, by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar:

Looking forward to taking another trip to Castle Rock, in the forthcoming novella:

Stephen King’s Works Are Already Connected in ‘Castle Rock’:

By Carli Velocci
February 23, 2017

Geek.com

Most Stephen King movie or TV adaptations have been just that: adaptations. Some have taken some liberties with the material, with the least faithful being reinterpretations of his writing.

So when a teaser trailer for something called Castle Rock appeared online, people were puzzled. Castle Rock doesn’t refer to the name of an existing book. If it comes from the “world of Stephen King,” then what past property is it based on?

Apparently a lot of them. Castle Rock is a fictional town in Maine that acts as the setting for many of King’s works, and the show, which has been picked up by Hulu for ten episodes and will be created in part with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, will apparently connect a bunch of them.

The teaser doesn’t reveal much–just dropping in the names of books, characters, and locales familiar to King readers–so it was unclear what the show would be about.

Hulu sent around a press release, which provided the synopsis and confirmed that many of King’s most famous works will be connected. Den of Geek posted the plot summary:

“A psychological horror series set in the Stephen King multiverse, Castle Rock combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland… Castle Rock is an original suspense/thriller — a first-of-its-kind reimagining that explores the themes and worlds uniting the entire King canon, while brushing up against some of his most iconic and beloved stories.”

The King “metaverse” features three Maine towns: Castle Rock, Derry, and Jerusalem’s Lot. And we know they all exist together because sometimes characters in one will reference another. In Shawshank Redemption, for instance, the narrator once lived in Castle Rock before getting incarcerated, but it’s never stated which town Shawshank is located in. Shawshank is then referenced in other King works, including The Body, which was adapted into the film Stand by Me.

Like many of the towns in the King metaverse, Castle Rock is a focal point for supernatural and demonic activity. Not all of King’s works are horror or fantasy based, but they do tend to skew in that direction. Why this occurs is unclear, but it’s been the setting for a lot of creepy events.

According to the Stephen King wiki (since I didn’t want to forget any), the books The Dead Zone, Cujo, Bag of Bones, The Dark Half, Needful Things, The Body, The Sun Dog, and Lisey’s Story take place there. This doesn’t include the number of short stories that also take place in part in Castle Rock, including the excellent “The Man in the Black Suit.”

The teaser trailer references other King works though, including Misery, IT, ‘Salem’s Lot, and The Shining. These stories don’t take place in Castle Rock (‘Salem’s Lot obviously takes place in Jerusalem’s Lot), so what is the connection for the show?

Since the three Maine towns are all in the same universe, they all reference each other. Under the Dome takes place in the neighboring town of Chester’s Mill. 11/22/63, which was recently adapted into a series by Hulu, also references the town.

Source: StephenKing.com

You can see how all the stories connect in an amazing flowchart created by tessiegirl.

So it’s possible that Hulu and Bad Robot will be using the town as a cross-section to visually connect all of King’s works. The books already connect them, so to create a series that does it in some fashion is just the next logical step, especially in a post-Marvel Cinematic Universe world.

This also comes before the release of The Dark Tower film, which is due out on July 28, 2017. The film is a sequel to the seven-book series, which provides a medium in which a lot of King’s stories are connected. Being able to travel through time and space will allow that. For example, Randall Flagg from The Stand is one of the main characters in the fourth Dark Tower book. It’s also theorized that the creatures from  The Mist (the novella not the film) came from another dimension via the Dark Tower.

So those with only cursory knowledge of King’s works, or who have only seen the film adaptations, may not know that most take place in the same universe already. To what extent that’ll be explored in Castle Rock, or how they’ll connect in the world of the show remains to be seen.

Regardless, I’d recommend exploring these connections. King has been writing for decades, so it goes more in-depth than what I can describe here. You can start with The Dark Tower series on Amazon, or from the beginning of Castle Rock’s history with The Dead Zone.

Carli Velocci:

Carli is an entertainment writer for Geek. When she's not burying herself in books, she's buying more books. You can see her work at Gizmodo, the Boston Globe, Polygon, ZAM, and Vice.

https://www.geek.com/television/stephen-kings-works-are-already-connected-in-castle-rock-1690055/