Stephen King and J.J. Abrams are bringing you one of the biggest events in the history of horror TV with the new series Castle Rock . What is unique about this is that not only do many of Stephen King’s stories take place in Castle Rock, but there are also some overlapping characters in major/minor roles in the books.
If history can tell us one thing, it is that J.J. Abrams knows how to make a good TV show and Stephen King knows how to write a good story. That is what happened when the two paired up for the Hulu TV mini-series 11/22/63 , according to TV Line .
The anthology is called #CastleRock , named after the fictional location in Stephen King’s books. More details: https://t.co/Je4KImlArB pic.twitter.com/VW7D9rERdx
— Lesley Goldberg (@Snoodit) February 18, 2017
That is why when news broke about Castle Rock today, which was also accompanied by a new trailer for the show, there was enough material and backlog of books to make it an event that is worthy of the title “super-team.”
Although the trailer is really more of a teaser for Castle Rock , it does feature some of Stephen King’s best lines, characters, and book titles in his celebrated backlog of best-selling novels. That includes all of Stephen King’s short stories, novellas, novels, and epic novels ( The Dark Tower, The Stand , etc.).
This whole story was actually revealed by J.J. Abrams himself on Twitter when he posted a picture of a note from his own desk that said, “What is the hoax in the forest?” That was also followed by a YouTube URL, which fans could only see the picture of and had to type into their browsers to see more. The tweet was cryptic to say the least, but when fans of the famed Star Wars and Star Trek director typed in the URL to see what was going on, they were greeted with the trailer for Castle Rock with a montage of titles that floated across the screen promoting the classic works of Stephen King, not to mention his fictional titular town.
— Bad Robot (@bad_robot) February 18, 2017
Fans of Stephen King should know right away just how many stories the horror maestro featured in the town of Castle Rock. The earliest incarnation of the town started with The Dead Zone , which was only featured as a side town at the time of the novel where Castle Rock was in Castle County and Sheriff Bannister visited Johnny Smith in another city to see if he could use his telekinetic powers to help him solve a series of murders. The Dead Zone actually took place in many different locations and Castle Rock was just one of them.
The next Stephen King novel that was set in Castle Rock was Cujo , followed by The Body ( Stand By Me on film), The Dark Half , and Needful Things . But Castle Rock was also referenced in dozens of his novels, novellas, and short stories, leading to an epic string of folklore associated with it in pop fiction spanning five decades now.
The trailer for Stephen King’s Castle Rock also references other books such as ‘Salems Lot , The Shining , Misery , and many others that did not have anything to do with the fictional town of Castle Rock, but it appears as though the name Castle Rock is only being used to represent a series of episodes that are exclusively about the Stephen King library.
Stephen King & J.J. Abrams’ CASTLE ROCK Series Coming to Hulu https://t.co/TjLxVTx1On pic.twitter.com/E94su6Iwmd
— Daily Dead (@DailyDeadNews) February 18, 2017
News of Stephen King and J.J. Abrams’ epic reunion on the small screen will be celebrated on the same streaming service that their former collaboration was on, Hulu. But it is unclear at this time if Hulu will follow an older business model on Castle Rock and only release the show one episode per week, as was done with many other shows on the streaming video platform.
There has been no word yet from Stephen King or J.J. Abrams as to when Castle Rock will premiere on Hulu.
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