283: The Institute with Ben Barnes

Two of the stars of The Long Walk jump on the line with Brez and Vespe to talk about their Stephen King adaptation, their favorite King things, and so much more. Ben Wang plays Hank Olson, the motor-mouthed smartass of the group, and Garrett Wareing plays Stebbins, the odds on favorite to win the deadly game. Listen as Wang talks about an impactful viewing of The Shining on an airplane of all places, and as Wareing breaks down the process of shooting a film like The Long Walk and what kind of prep goes into such a physically demanding role.

The Lawnmower Man himself finally makes an appearance on The Kingcast. Jeff Fahey's career is impressive just by itself, but doubly impressive for us Stephen King nerds when you realize he's something of King royalty, popping up in adaptations of The Institute, Under the Dome, and, yes, The Lawnmower Man. We discuss all three, plus talk about his latest film, The Final Run, out in select theaters and on demand right now.

Not only is Ben Barnes well-spoken, professional, and ridiculously good-looking, he's also the star of a currently running TV adaptation of Stephen King's The Institute. We talk about his process working on that show, what he took from King's writing, his history with genre (from playing Prince Caspian in the Narnia films to appearances in Westworld and Black Mirror), and share a laugh over cat buttholes. In short, this is just the nerdy conversation you need this week.

Legendary writer/director Chuck Russell (The Blob, Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors, The Mask) joins The Kingcast boys to talk about his career and his new film, a reimagining of the '80s cheeseball classic Witchboard, and his early days working with Frank Darabont. Get the inside scoop on Chuck's front row seat to Darabont getting The Shawshank Redemption made as well as genre insights and lots of talk of the occult.

Celebrated novelist and comic book writer Benjamin Percy joins Breznican and Vespe to discuss Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf and its bonkers film adaptation, Silver Bullet. He has an ulterior motive showing up around these parts as well and that's to reveal that Stephen King himself is taking part in his next project, a post-apocalyptic story that will be released monthly in old school newspaper format.  Most of the material will be written by Percy, but King decided he wanted a column in "The End Times." To find out more about that and how to pre-order, visit https://badhandbooks.com/preorders/the-end-times-digital-subscription. We talk about the end of the world a little bit as well as monthly storytelling against the backdrop of Cycle of the Werewolf.

Model, actor, and former adult film performer Cam Damage joins Vespe and Breznican to nerd out about all manner of things, from VHS collections to notable Bangor locations to Stephen King's work on the whole. We do focus primarily on King's recent outing, Fairy Tale, a work that isn't exactly beloved by most of his constant readers, but a story that means a lot to Cam.

Writer/Director duo David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano (I Don't Understand You) join Vespe and Breznican to talk all about their new movie as well Stephen King's The Stand, with a focus on the 1994 Mick Garris mini-series adaptation.  Unexpected topics of conversation this episode: hilarious film commentaries, birds being a-holes, '90s footwear, the perfect choice for Randall Flagg being poo-poo'd by King, and questionable strip club stories from Miguel Ferrer. I Don't Understand You is available on digital platforms June 24th

Life of Chuck stars Karen Gillan and Tom Hiddleston sat down with us to talk about their Stephen King origin stories, the film adaptations that moved them, and everything that went into their roles in the most recent Stephen King adaptation.

The Life of Chuck is based on Stephen King's novella of the same name from the If It Bleeds collection and is a story told in reverse featuring dancing, death, a haunted cupola, and the end of the world. You know, the basics for a good yarn.

Mike Flanagan's adaptation of The Life of Chuck starts hitting screens this weekend. It's about a lot of things: the end of the world, the impact a single person can have on the universe, the importance of math, and the joy of dancing. It's hard to explain what this movie is, but it is large and, much like the title character, contains multitudes.