The Kingcast

Based on King's novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont's adaptation is commonly thought of as one of the all-time great movies. It focuses on a wrongfully imprisoned man and his decades long bid for freedom and all the folks he impacts along the way.

This live recording of The Kingcast was done last week in Las Vegas at KingCon in a room full of Stephen King super fans. Thankfully, Tom Jane proves his King credentials as this deep dive chat covers King's books, short stories, and the adaptations that Jane has had a chance to partake in. Yes, including Dreamcatcher. Maybe especially Dreamcatcher.

Revival is King's underappreciated masterpiece about seeking for the truth behind the afterlife. The story follows a young man from childhood into adulthood as a he keeps encountering his small town preacher who is becoming more and more obsessed with piercing the veil through his experiments with secret electricity.

The Mist is Stephen King's stab at Lord of the Flies as he explores the microcosms that form when a group of small town strangers are trapped in a small grocery store while a supernatural mist hides deadly creatures just outside the doors.

What if the distance between two points could be manipulated? How aggressive can a single person be about shaving a little driving time off her commute? Turns out anything is possible in Stephen King's brain as this small town, deeply Maine, story unfolds and includes possible folding of time and space.

Whelan is the recipient of 15 Hugo awards for his work illustrating for the most popular names in genre storytelling, including Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert A. Heinlein, Brandon Sanderson, and, of course, Stephen King.

What began as a weird short story with mythological overtones about an absurdly large man who eats a ton of lawn clippings ended up as a movie about a mentally challenged lawnmower who becomes VR Hitler thanks to Pierce Brosnan with an earring. This is the movie so radically different from the source material that it inspired not just one, but two different lawsuits from Stephen King.

Romance writer Paul Sheldon is in a catastrophic car accident and that's only the beginning of his troubles as his rescuer turns out to be a psychotic fan who has some very strong opinions on the direction of his recent work.

You can always count on Kate Siegel to keep things chaotic and Emily V. Gordon to bring her psychology degree to the table when analyzing King's work. Be prepared for lots of talk about "that scene" from IT and to desperately want a tee-shirt with the slogan "Stank Some Os" by the time this chat wraps up.

The Life of Chuck is a recent King novella published in If It Bleeds, a standout story about finding joy in life, even if that means dancing your ass off in front of complete strangers. The odd feel good story about a world falling apart that has been adapted into a wonderful new film from Mike Flanagan.

Revival is the story of a nice guy preacher who suffers great personal tragedy, loses his faith, and seeks for answers about the afterlife that he, and us, the constant readers, aren't ready to face. Released in 2014, this book still has yet to be adapted, even though folks like Mike Flanagan have tried.

1408 is about a skeptical writer who is in search of ghosts. He stays at all the most famous haunted places without ever stumbling across anything supernatural... until, that is, he stays in room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel in New York City.

Edgar Freemantle travels to Duma Key, Florida for a little R&R after a horrible accident took his right arm and permanently damaged his marriage. He picks up a paintbrush and starts churning out amazing paintings that might have a sinister supernatural side to them.

Based on the Richard Bachman book of the same name, 1987's The Running Man is a cheesy action spectacular with some of the all-timer Arnold Schwarzenegger one-liners. The movie bears very little resemblance to the book, however it remains one of the more prescient movies of the '80s.

Maximum Overdrive is King's one and only outing as director and is based on his short story "Trucks," a much bleaker and meaner tale of mankind's machines turning against their makers.

The Long Walk is set in an Authoritarian future where the masses are entertained by a competition where 100 of America's youth start in one spot and have to keep walking until there is only one walker remaining. Those who fall during the walk don't just lose out on the grand prize, but are executed right there in broad daylight. 100 boys enter and only one will win.

King's latest short story collection, You Like It Darker, is a showcase of the master hitting all his best notes, from crime fiction to straight horror. From angry alligators to creepy aliens that grant wishes to terrifying ghost toddlers and dream doorways that should absolutely, positively never be opened, this one's a banger.

The Shining was released in 1980 to tepid critical response and weak financial success, but it has aged like a fine wine and is now considered a genre masterpiece. It's hard to deny that the movie's iconography is even stronger today than it was upon release, and that's thanks in no small part to young Danny Lloyd's central performance.

Based on the novella Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont's adaptation has become one of the most beloved films ever made, thanks in no small part to the villainous performance of today's guest.

The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill is all about a lunkhead rural farmer who discovers a meteor that crashed on his land. He thinks he has hit the jackpot, his luck finally turning around, but all that happens is a strange moss grows out of the meteor and all over this poor guy. Based on King's previously published short story "Weeds."

Night Shift is King's first short story collection, published in 1978 and compiling a ton of his nudie magazine stories published before he hit fame and fortune. Night Surf is the standout for our guest and that one is more of a chill story about a group of friends hanging out on the beach as a super flu spreads across the world, taking humanity out person by person.

Pet Sematary follows a young doctor and his family who move into a small Maine town with a terribly busy road that likes to claim the lives of pets and small little boys chasing kites. Beyond the Pet Sematary is a deadfall that conceals a sour plot of land that might help you bring a loved one back, but at a cost.

Holly follows one of King's favorite characters, Holly Gibney, as she's faced with a monstrous duo who are snatching people for horrific reasons. It's up to Holly to honor their victims and stop them from hurting more as she slowly uncovers the truth behind these disappearances.And Creepshow is King and George A. Romero teaming up for a loving EC Comics tribute anthology film that contains pissed off undead father's wanting their damn cake, a man just itching to off his horrible wife, a dude that probably shouldn't have touched the meteor that fell into his backyard, and a jealous husband torturing his unfaithful wife and her lover.

Scott Wampler passed away Friday afternoon from natural causes. Aside from being the dedicated co-host of this show, he was a certifiable smart-ass on social media, a bully to bullies and those who abused power, and champion of all the people and art that touched him. This emotional conversation pulls back the curtain on Scott as a person and what's in store for the shows that he was so passionate about.

Tim Curry scarred a whole generation as Pennywise The Dancing Clown in Stephen King's IT and Brian De Palma's Carrie inspired a whole generation of genre filmmakers. Both are classics of the respective forms and both have proven to be hugely important in keeping King in the cultural zeitgeist.

One For Road is Stephen King's short story sequel to 'Salem's Lot in which a family man runs out of gas in the middle of a snowstorm, leaves his family in the car while he goes to look for help, and then wanders into a bar where the locals pretty much tell him he broke down in the wrong place and there are vampires around. Scary, tense, and with a final couple of pages that will stick with you long after reading.

The Shining is one of the most hotly debated Stephen King adaptations. Did Kubrick screw up King's book? Is all that talk overblown? It always serves as a good backdrop to a conversation, especially when your guest is as fun to talk to as our guest this week.

Stephen King's short story, Graveyard Shift, is about a Maine textile mill that has something of a rat problem. Like, a big rat problem. Literally. But are the rats the biggest problem facing these workers or the slave style conditions they have to work under? Both are bad news, but put them together and you have a creepy King corker that once again focuses on blue collar workers facing true evil.

The Running Man is one of the darker stories to escape the mind of Stephen King. Originally published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman, the story follows Ben Richards as he attempts to evade deadly stalkers in order to win a boatload of cash in order to save his sick family. The Arnold Schwarzenegger movie adaptation is pretty different, but both interpretations of the material ended up being strangely prescient.

What would you do if you fell asleep on a flight and woke up to find a damn near empty airplane was still chugging along? That's the premise of Stephen King's novella The Langoliers and it remains one of his most fun, pulpy stories, despite a rather sketchy TV mini-series from the mid-'90s.

We sometimes break the Kingcast's usual format and this episode is one of those. Hey, we've been at this for four years, we gotta stretch our legs from time to time. Thankfully the Kingcast boys love video games almost as much as they love Stephen King and with that a beautiful idea was born.

A young couple find themselves trapped in the middle of nowhere with a creepy old dude, his mail order Ukrianian wife, and a disturbing child locked up in a shed. This is, unbelievably, the eighth entry into the Children of the Corn franchise and there are still more to go after this one.

The Shining chronicles the slow descent into madness as one very troubled father succumbs to the ghosts (both literal and metaphorical) gnawing at his psyche while acting as the winter caretaker of the fancy Overlook hotel. The debate between the quality of Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of King's masterpiece has been raging for over 40 years and even spills into this very episode.

Sleepwalkers is a 1992 feature film directed by Mick Garris based on an original screenplay by our show's namesake about a mommy cat person and a son cat person who love each other a little too much while on the hunt for a human virgin to sustain their supernatural cat people powers.

Author Mike Noonan loses his wife and his ability to face a blank page in one sad moment. Through his grief, he's able to find himself again by helping a single mother in a difficult custody battle with her very rich, and kinda evil, in-laws. This late '90s King tale has a strong following even if it's not considered one of his classics.

1408 is a Stephen King short story that proves you don't need a whole hotel to be haunted to be scary, just one "evil fucking room." This is a banger of a short story and a really good movie that is often overlooked (ahem) in favor of his other haunted hotel story.

Stephen King's alter ego, Richard Bachman, wrote a bunch of dark, cynical, and strangely prescient short novels before it was revealed that King was behind the pen name. At that point, King released them all in a collection called The Bachman Books, which featured the stories Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and The Running Man. They're all fascinating looks into the darker corners of King's psyche and one of them was even allowed to fall out of circulation.

Popular podcast Screen Drafts invited the Kingcast boys onto their show to rank the top 13 Stephen King Adaptations, so it only seemed right that they journey over to The Kingcast and bring their ranking expertise for a wild curveball episode.

Dolan's Cadillac is about a man seeking revenge against a mobster after said mobster bumped her off. It's not a straight line to his revenge, though, and the man ultimately concocts an elaborate scheme to bury the mobster in his own Caddy with the help of a deserted stretch of highway and some borrowed construction equipment. This is King tackling Poe and... well, it works on the page. The movie... not so much.

Carrie is Stephen King's debut novel expertly adapted by the great Brian De Palma in an era when studio filmmaking could experiment in ways most modern studios will not allow. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie turn in Oscar-worthy (and nominated) performances in this film that still has the power to capture the attention of even iPad-addicted Gen Zers.

Cujo has become synonymous with big, scary dog, thanks to King's iconic novel and its popular 1983 film adaptation starring Dee Wallace. A mother and son get stuck in a crappy Ford Pinto and are tormented by a rabid St. Bernard. Will they escape or become a quick meal for the crazed animal?

Misery follows a popular writer who is rescued by a fan after a terrible car accident only to find himself in an even worse position: captured by an unbalanced lady who has a lot of notes about his recent work. Rob Reiner directed his second perfect Stephen King adaptation with 1990's Misery and lead star Kathy Bates to an Oscar win, the first and only Oscar won for any King adaptation.

The Stand, if you don't know, is Stephen King's epic story of the a deadly viral outbreak and the battle for humanity's future that happens after 99.9% of the world's population is wiped out. Good versus evil, light versus dark, this is a top to bottom banger from the master of horror.

The Life of Chuck is a novella that was published in the recent story collection If It Bleeds. It's a story told in reverse that begins with the end of every single life in the universe and only gets sadder from there. More heady drama than supernatural spook-a-blast, this material opens the door for some surprisingly deep responses from those who have read it.

True Detective Season 4 debuts on HBO and Max January 14th and takes place in a small Alaskan town where weird shit has a habit of going down, especially when the month-long night settles in. The chat about this upcoming season is very light on spoilers, so don't worry about diving in before you start watching the new season.

1922 was a novella originally published in Stephen King's story collection Full Dark, No Stars. It's all about a rural farmer who kills his wife for her family's land and talks his teen son into helping. Both men can't grapple with the enormity of what they've done and soon begin to spiral into guilt-driven madness despite getting away with the crime free and clear. It was adapted by Netflix into a feature film released in 2017.

Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy find themselves recruited to help a small town fight ferocious bad guys that look like humanoid wolves on horseback. They are after the town's children and our ka-tet must stop them or die trying.

Carla Gugino is a national treasure, having made numerous appearances in stuff like Brian DePalma's Snake Eyes, Sin City, Watchmen, The Haunting of Hill House, and, of course, one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made: Gerald's Game.

It is Stephen King's giant novel about a group of tween kids confronting their fears and persevering through the power of friendship all while facing down an eternal killer clown who calls himself Pennywise. It is one of King's most enduring novels and only seems to be getting more popular as each generation passes.

Ur was controversial upon release. It's King's short story all about a very special Amazon Kindle initially only available to read on Amazon Kindles! There was some outcry at the time of release about the story being nothing more than a thinly veiled commercial for Amazon, but a closer look shows something with a lot more meat on its bones. A Kindle that has access to all stories and authors across all known multiverses? Sign us up!