290: It: Welcome to Derry with Andy and Barbara Muschietti

The day is here! Andy and Barbara Muschietti, the creative duo behind the It films and the upcoming prequel series, have finally come on The Kingcast to talk all about dat boy, Pennywise. Or is it dat girl, Pennywise? This is one of many topics brought up as Andy and Barbara discuss their love of King's work, the challenges of adapting for both the big and small screen, and even share some never before revealed details about a massive scene cut from It: Chapter One.

Upcoming genre directors Chris Stuckmann (Shelby Oaks) and Mercedes Bryce Morgan (Bone Lake) join Vespe for a very special live recording from this year's Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX. This broad King conversation hones in on a couple of specific titles, including the recent The Long Walk adaptation, Mike Flanagan's Doctor Sleep adaptation, and someone insane tries to defend Secret Window starring Johnny Depp.

Clark Collis returns to The Kingcast to discuss a very specific moment in horror cinema: the '90s through the early 2010s. His new book, Screaming and Conjuring, takes us through that era of many hits, twice as many misses, and a genre that was feeling lost as it whiplashed between generic studio remakes, found footage ripoffs, and torture porn. King's genre work was getting some pretty bad adaptations in this era, too, and we discuss that, King's own film criticism work at Entertainment Weekly, and his support for the genre even when it was down and out.

You know him as young Ben Hanscom in the recent It films and now Jeremy Ray Taylor is all growed up. He's a married man and works with cars, but he still acts and has a new project out in theaters, an action comedy by the name of London Calling where he co-stars with Josh Duhamel as a nerdy kid forced to tag along with a lousy hitman by his mobster father in order to toughen him up some. We talk about that movie as well as his experiences working on It: Chapters 1 and 2, before we dive into his chosen topic: 2019's Pet Sematary remake. Why this one? Turns out, Jeremy is a bit of a horror scaredy cat and this is the movie that helped get him into the genre.

This past July, Vespe and Breznican moderated the San Diego Comic-Con panel for The Long Walk. Now you get to hear the audio from that panel as well as a post-panel discussion with Mark Hamill, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, screenwriter JT Mollner, and producer Roy Lee. You'll never guess the two very distinct connections between Star Wars and Stephen King that Hamill reveals, plus you get to hear everybody's Stephen King origin story.

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.