Another Stephen King Story Is Getting The Small Screen Adaption This Summer...

I have never made any apologizes for my total allegiance to Stephen King... the man has made my childhood and early adult life wonderful with his writing, and whether you like his works or not it is hard to deny his success. Most people know him for his horror work... I get it, it makes up the majority of his work that people know. But the dude has so many other genres of writing that he has touched on it blows my mind. He is truly the quintessential American writer of the last 40 years, and my reasoning for that is just the sheer body of work he has created and how far reaching his stuff has grown. King has had his fair share of works adapted for film or TV... mostly horror projects (The Shining, Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Dead Zone, Etc), but also a lot of mainstream subject books (The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, Under The Dome, etc) have been adapted as well. Some have been great, some have been awful... but in this current state of TV (with the short order summer TV series dominating the market) it is ripe for some of King's works to shine. Under the Dome was one of the biggest hits of last summer (amazing TV...) and The Following was also a big fan fave last year (not one of King's works, but in the same vein), so ABC is trying to catch lightening in a bottle again, adapting King's short story 'The NY Times At A Special Bargain Rate' for a summer series in 2014. Check after the jump for more details...



King's short story 'The NY Times At A Special Bargain Rate' will be called Grand Central when it airs on ABC, and will be a 12 episode, short season summer series that provides viewers with something new to watch while their traditional network shows are on summer hiatus. Under the Dome was pretty great, and the way they did it was with a solid original work (thanks Stevie!) and a great cast. I am sure ABC will take a good hard look at what CBS did with UTD and look to do the same. Here is a synopsis of the original story:

As per Wikipedia: 

A widow answers a phone call from her husband who died two days earlier in an airplane crash. He is presumably in an afterlife. The husband predicts two tragedies which later came true and helps his wife avoid death herself.

 Sounds good to me... I will be tuned in this summer. Now it's time to knock out King's newest book Dr. Sleep (the sequel to The Shining) over the Christmas holiday! It's a King Christmas in the CCD Blog household!!!

Life of PSY

Jimmy Kimmel is set up pretty good over there at ABC, and he gets some killer lead ins to his shows thanks to his network affiliation. Take his post Oscar show, where he hosted in full on tuxedo and had star studded guests that took place right after the Hollywood award show. But my favorite moment of the night had to be the premiere of a trailer for the sequel to Life of Pi, this one being called Life of PSY. Yup... that PSY. Oppa Gangnam Style PSY. Hehehehe, this was pretty clever.... Check the video out after the jump...

OHC of the Day: Missy Peregrym

My name is Mike D, and I have a problem. I am addicted to gymnastics movies. Ever since I was a little kid I have been obsessed with films and TV shows that center around gymnastics. One of my older sister Oona's favorite movies was American Anthem, and I have a weak spot for these type of films ever since. Back in 2006 a movie called Stick It! came out, and I saw it. The lead actress was Missy Peregrym, who played Haley. I loved everything about this girl from the moment I laid eyes on her. She was gorgeous, she had an attitude, and she had that certain"It" quality that made you want to see her in other stuff. Even though that was the first time I remember seeing her, she had many TV credits dating back as far as 2000. Some of these included Dark Angel, Andromeda, The Chris Isaak Show, Smallville, and Tru Calling. She also may be familiar to fans of the show Heroes for portraying Candice Wilmer, who was a badass. After those roles she had a starring role on the very underrated Reaper (it's on Netflix Instant... watch it!!!) and is entering her second season as Andy on ABC's summer hit show Rookie Blue. The new season starts June 23rd... and I will be watching!!! Keep an eye on this beautiful young lady. She has plenty more starring roles to come.

***Please click Read more below to see more of the lovely Missy Peregrym***

For You Jeff!!!

I Have A New NetFlix Obsession, But This One Is Going To Take Awhile...

Everyone who knows me and has been following the blog knows that I am a huge fan of the NetFlix instant streaming feature on my Wii. Since I am a teacher and on summer vacation, I have found myself watching an inordinate amount of old television shows and movies using the service. I have long been interested in the 60's and early 70's classic soap opera/horrorfest known as Dark Shadows, but was always scared away by the sheer number of shows in the series. When I first saw the DVD's, there were 40 episodes on each one... and over 20 volumes!!! The show only aired for 5 years (form 1966-1971) but was on everyday, 5 days a week. The result is over 1,225 episodes. Talk about a job that I am undertaking... I must be f'n crazy!!!

The show always had a supernatural side to it, right from the beginning with ghosts and mythical creatures like the Phoenix playing integral parts of the story. But in episode 210, we are introduced to Barnabas Collins. Barnabas is a long lost relative of the Collins family, but he is a vampire. The character was greatly accepted and the shows popularity took off through the roof. The writers went on to throw the full gamut of horror characters into the mix. Werewolves, witches, sea monsters, time travel, zombies... you name it, Dark Shadows had it. They also used classics by H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe as inspiration for story lines. The DVD's of the show even start off at episode 210, basically ignoring the first 209 episodes and acknowledging that the show really start with the intro of Barnabas. What makes the show so appealing to me is that they were getting away with this type of content on DAYTIME TV IN THE 1960'S!!!! My girlfriends mom and my pops both told me how they used to race home from school to watch the show at 4pm everyday.

Now there is talk that Tim Burton is going to remake the classic show into a movie with Johnny Depp in the Barnabas role. They were both big fans of the show, and filming starts in a few months. So I decided to start the viewing... sheshhhhh!!!! All 20 volumes are on Netflix Instant Streaming, and I am 10 episodes into the 1,000 + episodes I am set to watch. (I started at episode 210 with Barnabas) They are roughly 20 minutes long... oh boy, this is sick. I'll keep you posted on my journey.... long live the night!!!!!!