(PCM) Since the mid-70s Stephen King has been hammering out story after story and letting us know what goes bump in the night. He is has become the true “king” of the modern day horror tale. Which is a good and bad thing. The good thing is we all benefit from it. We can read a scary tale and have a fine time using our imaginations and playing it out. And then talk about it with our friends and family. Word of mouth is still the best marketing there is. King doesn’t need this marketing ploy. His talent and perseverance has helped him become one of the most successful writers today. Longevity at its finest.
The bad thing he has been branded a horror author. While a vast majority of his work is horror. There is still a lot of his work that isn’t horror at all and it’s beautiful written. He is simply a writer and he writes what he does and does a magnificent job at doing it. He is the “king” for a reason.
He has been in pretty much every form of media possible. Countless short stories, novels, movies, and even audio books. I think I even saw him in an American Express TV commercial once. A play that he worked on with John Mellencamp called Ghost Brothers of Darkland County. ( I haven’t seen this yet but I want to.) King has been playing off and on with the band The Rock Bottom Remainders. Playing the guitar and singing a song or two. He’s a busy guy. He has done been pretty much everything except make a videogame.
I’m not a huge videogame kind of guy. But videogames are a form of storytelling that a lot of people are into. I have a Playstation 2 and 3 and that’s about it. Still kind of mad that Mortal Kombat X won’t be out for the PS3 for a couple more months. Maybe Pennywise could be a playable character in the next Mortal Kombat. And if your kicking enough a** in the game Stephen King appears on the side of the game and yells REDRUM. ( I know that’s from 2 different stories but would be cool to see. Admit It.) Just like in the history of the Mortal Kombat games someone would suddenly appear and yell Toasty.
With the vast universes he has created over the years I’m a huge fan of the fictional town of Derry, Maine. This is the town of course where the murderous clown Pennywise dwells. I love the book and movie. I can still see Tim Curry under all that make up smiling at me from afar even as I write this and get goose bumps. And the book was beautifully written. I was kind of excited when I heard that IT was being remade. I know it will never beat the original, but the remake will give a new generation of people goosebumps. Because we all float down here. I read on the net the director dropped out of the project with New Line due to creative issues. And that stinks. I hope they get the issues fixed as soon as possible. And as an audience we don’t have to wait years for this remake.
Oh yeah, I was talking about a videogame. Imagine playing a character that looked like Stephen King in his younger days riding his Schwinn Bicycle into the woods at dusk. A paperback book in his back pocket poking out. He gets lost in the woods during the night and comes across a witch. The witch is a beautiful blonde but as he get closer to her she grows old and horrifying. The witch chases him through the woods to a lake. The lake of water plays out the visions in his head like a projector. The witch knows the young man before her has many ideas in his head he wants to be a writer. She tells the young man that he must fight her or all his horrifying ideas will come to life and effect this reality. Sounds like a pretty cool videogame idea to me!
A videogame based on something King has written I think would be very cool to see. Or even an original story for the videogame written by King would be great. I don’t think he will have a hard time coming up with something. He is after all the “king” of IT …