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Alice McDermott, 70, writer There are three kinds of novels I’ve never taken to heart: science fiction, murder mysteries and novels about novelists. So I’ve decided to try my hand at each. If I fail, they’re probably not books I’d want to read anyway. Thurston Moore, 65, musician and author I’m putting the final touches […] More
A stage adaptation of the film featured an all-Western cast, was performed in Chinese and raised questions about translation, both linguistic and cultural.When a stage production of “The Shawshank Redemption” opened recently in China, it was cast entirely with Western actors speaking fluent Mandarin Chinese. But that may have been the least surprising part of the show.That the show — an adaptation of the Stephen King novella that became one of the most beloved movies of all time — was staged at all seemingly flew in the face of several trends in China’s cultural sphere.Chinese audiences’ interest in Hollywood films is fading, with moviegoers turning to homegrown productions. China’s authoritarian government has stoked nationalism and cast Western influence as a political pollutant. Censorship of the arts has tightened.Yet the production reflects how some artists are trying to navigate the changing landscape of both what is permissible and what is marketable in China. And its success shows the appetite that many Chinese still have for cultural exchange.A scene from the play.Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times“The Shawshank Redemption” — the story of a man wrongfully convicted of murder who defies prison officials’ tyranny and eventually pulls off a daring escape — has been a target for Chinese censors before. Mentions of it were briefly censored online in 2012, after a prominent Chinese dissident escaped house arrest and fled to the American Embassy. In general, the Chinese authorities have shown little tolerance for calls, artistic or otherwise, for freedom and resistance to injustice.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
In this thriller based on a Stephen King story, a lonely student and a lonelier old man make a connection that persists, even after death.With its curmudgeonly swipes at digital technology, there’s something mildly “get off my lawn!” about “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone.” Based on a Stephen King story, the John Lee Hancock movie tells the story of a teenager who appears to receive calls and texts from his mysterious former employer, Mr. Harrigan, who has recently died.Donald Sutherland portrays the reclusive billionaire who hires Craig (Jaeden Martell) to come to his mansion on the outskirts of their Maine town and read to him after school. Craig’s father (Joe Tippett), although not a fan of Harrigan, trusts his son’s moral compass. Whether it will maintain its true north is one of the movie’s intriguing tensions.There’s a bittersweetness to Craig and Harrigan’s friendship and good chemistry between the leads. It’s as if Mr. Potter from “It’s a Wonderful Life” found some nice local kid who had no idea about his mentor’s Bedford Falls history. The analog world, with its hard-bound literature and daily papers, is fundamental in this parable about the lure of digital technology.When Craig enters high school, he becomes the target of a bully, makes friends and finds a champion. The actor Kirby Howell-Baptiste provides a beam of light and the voice of caution as Craig’s science teacher, Ms. Hart. At the same time, the iPhone is making its debut as a must-have status object. With an unexpected windfall, Craig buys one for his old friend.When Harrigan suddenly dies, Craig is shaken. What happens next makes the movie less a chiller than a diverting drama about technology with things that go bump in the night, along with some nicely apt ethical quandaries for Craig — and for us.Mr. Harrigan’s PhoneRated PG-13 for thematic material, some strong language, violence and brief drug exchanges. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More
From co-stars of “The Wire” to musicians and authors, many took to social media on Monday to share their thoughts about the actor.Fans, actors and celebrities took to social media to share their condolences for Michael K. Williams, the actor best known for his role as Omar Little in the HBO series “The Wire,” who was found dead in his home on Monday.Mr. Williams, who was 54, starred in a number of movies and TV shows, including “Boardwalk Empire,” “Lovecraft Country” and “Bringing Out the Dead.” Many of his co-stars from “The Wire” were quick on Monday to share their thoughts about the actor.“The depth of my love for this brother, can only be matched by the depth of my pain learning of his loss,” Wendell Pierce, who starred on the show as Detective William (Bunk) Moreland, said on Twitter. “A immensely talented man with the ability to give voice to the human condition portraying the lives of those whose humanity is seldom elevated until he sings their truth.”If you don’t know, you better ask somebody. His name was Michael K. Williams. He shared with me his secret fears then stepped out into his acting with true courage, acting in the face of fear, not in the absence of it. It took me years to learn what Michael had in abundance. pic.twitter.com/BIkoPPrPzg— Wendell Pierce (@WendellPierce) September 6, 2021
In a series of posts on Twitter, Mr. Pierce described his relationship with the actor, adding that they had grown close through the show.“He shared with me his secret fears then stepped out into his acting with true courage, acting in the face of fear, not in the absence of it,” Mr. Pierce said. “It took me years to learn what Michael had in abundance.”Domenick Lombardozzi, who also starred on “The Wire,” described Mr. Williams on Twitter as kind, fair, gentle and talented.“I’ll cherish our talks and I’ll miss him tremendously,” he said. “Rest my friend.”Isiah Whitlock Jr., who also starred in “The Wire,” said on Twitter that he was “shocked and saddened” by the death of Mr. Williams.“One of the nicest brothers on the planet with the biggest heart,” he said. “An amazing actor and soul.”David Simon, the creator of the “The Wire,” initially chose not to share words about the actor, opting instead to post a portrait of Mr. Williams on Twitter.Later, Mr. Simon posted on Twitter that he was “too gutted right now to say all that ought to be said.”“Michael was a fine man and a rare talent and on our journey together he always deserved the best words,” he said. “And today those words won’t come.”HBO said on Twitter that the death of Mr. Williams is an “immeasurable loss.”“While the world knew of his immense talents, we knew Michael as a dear friend,” the network said.Ahmir Khalib Thompson, the musician known as Questlove, said on Twitter that he could not “take this pain.”“Please God No,” the musician said. “Death cannot be this normal.”The death of Mr. Williams also drew attention from others on social media, including the author Stephen King.“Horrible, sad, and unbelievable to think we’ve lost the fantastically talented Michael K. Williams at the age of 54,” the author said on Twitter.The Screen Actors Guild Awards said on Twitter that it mourned the loss of Mr. Williams.“We will always remember him and his ability to impact people’s lives through his powerful performances,” it said. More
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyMy TenJovan Adepo Pushes Through With Rachmaninoff and ‘Love Island’The actor, starring in the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Stand,” shared an eclectic list of what he is consuming to pass the time.Credit…David Livingston/Getty ImagesJan. 1, 2021, 10:00 a.m. ETJovan Adepo, known for his breakout turn in “Watchmen,” wasn’t familiar with “The Stand,” Stephen King’s dark fantasy novel about the survivors of an apocalyptic pandemic, before filming the TV adaptation that premiered as a mini-series in December on CBS All Access — and had no idea how close to home it would hit.Filming in Vancouver wrapped up in March, shortly before some parts of North America went into lockdown because of Covid-19. “To look back now, and comparing some of the imagery that we have in ‘The Stand,’ if you see some of the stills of guys in hazmat suits and how it kind of mirrors some of the actual photos we’re seeing in the world now — it’s eerie,” he said.Since returning to Los Angeles, Adepo said, the pandemic has forced him, like many others, to try and embrace different routines and hobbies. He shared the highlights of what he has read, watched and listened to this year. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1. “Ishmael” by Daniel Quinn I read through it once, and I’m actually passing through it again because there were some topics that I didn’t grasp as strongly as I wanted to. It gives an interesting take on our purpose as humans on this planet and how it relates to animals and other beings. It’s been an interesting eye-opener for me.2. “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius I guess you would consider it a collection of anecdotes or sayings from Marcus Aurelius about leadership, courage, fear; about all things that we experience as people and the best way to handle obstacles that present themselves in your life.3. Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G minor There’s a darkness to it. I was listening to this a lot when I was filming “The Stand.” A lot of classical pieces tell stories, and as you know, there’s no lyrics in these pieces. But if you’re careful and you’re quiet, you can really sense the story that the composer is telling. That’s just one particular song, of many songs, that I’ve always been attracted to because even though it is very dark, it still has a sweetness and a tenderness to it that I was really attracted to. In certain seasons, for whatever reasons, you come back to a song. When it resurfaced in my playlist, I was like, yeah, this is something that’s going to sit in a different way.4. “Contagion”The things that creep me out the most are the movies where whatever is going on in the film could actually happen. If it’s super fantastical or whimsical, then you’re like, OK, this is obviously not real. But with anything that has to do with the plague, those stay with me when the credits are done. When I turned it off, I was like, I hope we’re not in this lockdown forever! But it’s all good. Movies are movies.5. “Love Island”I ended up knocking out four seasons in like a weekend. It was bad; there was a period where I wasn’t watching anything but “Love Island.” And I’m usually not even a fan of reality TV.6. “It”I’m referring to the remake with Bill Skarsgard, who I thought was brilliant as [Pennywise]. The kids were all super funny and they all played off each other well, and their comedic timing was just like A-1.7. The “Evil Dead” seriesThe remake that came out in 2013 was also done really well. It’s just about imagery. It doesn’t always have to be super gory, but it’s how the images stick with you after the movie is done. I couldn’t stand them when I was younger, but then I was like, we’re in lockdown, whatever, I’m an adult, I’ll be fine. I won’t be scared. And then I rewatched it again, and I made it.8. “Jazz” by Ken BurnsA colleague of mine that I worked with on “Jack Ryan,” Wendell Pierce — we share a really strong love and respect for jazz music, and I get that from my father as well. That was a series that he asked me to look into just for further education and further awareness about the music.I think the documentary is probably most beneficial to people who just aren’t familiar with the genre and who are interested in the history. They highlight Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, all of the great artists and the inception of jazz into the American history of music.9. “Lush Life,” by John Coltrane and Johnny HartmanJohn Coltrane has his own version of that album, but this one is with the singer Johnny Hartman. There’s a few tracks on this album that I liked — there’s the titular song, which I think is worth the listen, but I have to warn you, it can be depressing if you listen to it in the wrong light. He’s almost talking about all of his unfulfilled dreams. He’s like, no matter what, I’m going to have this glass of whatever he’s drinking, and I’m going to live a lush life in one small dive.10. “Texas Sun,” by Khruangbin and Leon BridgesI got it right when I got home from Vancouver. My favorite song on the vinyl is called “Conversion.” It can play as a spiritual or religious song, but it can also play as just whatever it is. It’s a beautiful song. It’s just a funky album. “Conversion” is a slower tune and the other tracks on there are kind of upbeat and seaside.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘The Stand’: Tracing the Stephen King Epic Through Its Many MutationsKing’s post-apocalyptic novel about the aftermath of a deadly pandemic has been adapted into a new mini-series for CBS All Access. But the story has a complex history of its own.Jovan Adepo and Heather Graham star in the new CBS All Access adaptation of “The Stand,” the second time the Stephen King novel has been made into a TV mini-series.Credit…CBSDec. 17, 2020Take a pandemic. Add the paranormal. Make it a uniquely American story of survival horror. The result: “The Stand,” Stephen King’s epic post-apocalyptic novel from 1978, a new mini-series adaptation of which debuted Thursday on CBS All Access.Conceived in the pre-Covid era, the show has taken on new resonance since, telling the story of a weaponized virus that wipes out 99 percent of the population. But that’s only the beginning. The real battle happens afterward as supernatural forces of darkness and light — embodied by the demonic dictator Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgard) and the holy woman Mother Abagail (Whoopi Goldberg) — duel for the souls of the plague’s survivors.Since the original novel’s original release, King’s saga has entered the pop-culture consciousness in many different incarnations, including an expanded edition of the book and an earlier mini-series adaptation. In anticipation of the show’s arrival, we’re tracing the story from its point of origin to its latest mutation.The AllegoryThe opening act of King’s novel is an eerily plausible account of the complete collapse of human society after the “Captain Trips” superflu is unleashed upon the world. That aspect has found relevance across the decades since the novel’s publication, in the Cold War nuclear arms race, through the peak of the AIDS epidemic in the United States, to the events of 2020.But that’s only the first part. Flagg is presented as an even worse plague upon the living — a grinning dictator who builds a new society based on human drivers like greed, pride, lust and wrath and who exploits the virus for the sake of his own power. Are there lessons to be applied in the real world? Successive generations have thought so.Alexander Skarsgard as the villain Randall Flagg, who was originally inspired in part by the Symbionese Liberation Army leader Donald DeFreeze. Credit…Robert Falconer/CBSThe InspirationKing has written extensively about the inspiration behind “The Stand” and its evolution over time, namely in his 1981 nonfiction book on horror writing, “Danse Macabre”; in the preface to the expanded 1990 edition of “The Stand”; and in a post about the novel on his website.“The Stand,” as he has explained it, arose from two disappointments. The first was an unfinished novel about the kidnapping and brainwashing of the heiress Patty Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army and its leader Donald DeFreeze. The second was a longstanding desire to write an American answer to “The Lord of the Rings” — a desire he had never found a way to fulfill. “The Stand” is, in part, a synthesis of these divergent ideas.Two news stories jump-started the book for King, one a “60 Minutes” segment on chemical and biological warfare and the other a report he recalled about a chemical spill in Utah that had killed a flock of sheep. Had the wind blown the other way, King has written, “the good people of Salt Lake City might have gotten a very nasty surprise.”Thinking about what the earth might be like after humanity, King, who was living in Boulder, Colo. (where much of the novel is set), pulled inspiration from George R. Stewart’s post-apocalyptic novel “Earth Abides” and from the fire-and-brimstone intonations of a preacher on a local radio station, who spoke ominously of plagues. King became fascinated, meanwhile, with a ghostly F.B.I. photo of DeFreeze taken in the middle of a bank robbery, in which the ringleader’s face was blurred. He wrote down the lines that would serve as the foundation of the novel: “A season of rest,” “A dark man with no face” and, quoting the preacher, “Once in every generation a plague will fall among them.”“And that was that,” King recalls in “Danse Macabre.” “I spent the next two years writing an apparently endless book called ‘The Stand.’”The EvolutionThe roots of “The Stand” run even deeper than the novel’s two-year writing time would suggest. His 1969 story “Night Surf” (a revised version of which was published in early 1978 as part of the short story collection “Night Shift”) had introduced the concept of the flulike virus nicknamed Captain Trips, in dubious homage to the Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia. King’s 1969 poem “The Dark Man” has been seen as an anticipatory exploration of the character traits that would be poured into Flagg, himself nicknamed “The Dark Man,” in the novel.King spent two years writing “The Stand,” published in 1978, but its earliest seeds can be traced back to a story from 1969. Credit…DoubledayWhen “The Stand” finally arrived in October 1978, it was 400 pages shy of the version King originally turned in to his publisher. The edits were a consequence of publishing logistics rather than of quality control, King writes in the preface to the 1990 version of the novel: Based on his sales history, his publisher arrived at a price for the book that necessitated heavy edits to reduce the page count and make the book financially feasible. King made the cuts himself.By the ’90s, however, King was, well, the king of horror. In response to popular demand, a new expanded edition hit the stands, restoring much of what King had previously taken out and updating the material for the new decade. This is the most widely read version, and it’s the version upon which the new television adaptation is based.The AdaptationsMatt Frewer played the Trashcan Man in the 1994 TV mini-series on ABC, adapted by King himself and regarded by many fans as one of the better King adaptations. Credit…CBS, via Getty ImagesThis isn’t the first time “The Stand” has been adapted for another medium. In 1994, ABC aired a four-part mini-series based on the 1990 edition of the book, written by King and directed by his frequent collaborator Mick Garris. With a strong cast led by Gary Sinise as the Texas everyman Stu Redman and Jamey Sheridan as the denim-clad demon Flagg, it stands out as one of the better King adaptations — not at the level of “The Shining” (which King famously hated), “Carrie” and “The Dead Zone,” but well worth a weekend binge. (Unlike the 1994 version, which showed the apocalypse unfolding, the new version will begin after the superflu has already struck, with flashbacks to the pre-plague lives of its characters.)And from 2008 to 2012, Marvel Comics serialized a 31-issue comic-book adaptation, written by the future “Riverdale” showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and illustrated by Mike Perkins. The comics have been collected in a series of hardcovers and a huge, now out-of-print omnibus edition.King has also adapted some of the characters and concepts from “The Stand” into other novels. Most notably, the arch-villain Flagg appears, in various guises and interdimensional iterations, as the heavy in other King works, from the fantasy novel “The Eyes of the Dragon” to the epic “Dark Tower” series, which ties much of King’s oeuvre into a single expanded universe. It’s this latter incarnation that Matthew McConaughey portrayed (though the character is named Walter Padick) in the 2017 feature film “The Dark Tower.”Matthew McConaughey (left, with Idris Elba) in “The Dark Tower” as the character Walter Padick, a later incarnation of the arch-villain Randall Flagg. Credit…Columbia PicturesAdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
#masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘The Stand’ Review: Stephen King’s Pandemic Story Hits TV AgainA mini-series from CBS All Access adapts the sprawling novel about opposing camps of survivors in a post-apocalyptic America.Whoopi Goldberg plays a gifted centenarian in “The Stand,” a new mini-series adaptation of the Stephen King novel.Credit…Robert Falconer/CBSDec. 16, 2020, 1:45 p.m. ETStephen King’s slab of a novel, “The Stand” (originally 800-plus pages, later expanded to 1,100-plus), begins with a manufactured viral epidemic that wipes out most of the human race. That would seem to make it pretty relevant, or at least timely, in the year of Covid-19.The pandemic that King imagined in 1978 wasn’t like the one we’re experiencing now, though, and in the new mini-series “The Stand,” premiering Thursday on CBS All Access, the depiction of it doesn’t resonate in any strong way with our nerve-racking experiences of the last 10 months. It’s a Hollywood-style outbreak, racing past quarantines and leaving bodies dramatically splayed around the landscape. (Filming on the nine-episode series began in September 2019.) If there’s an incidental lesson, it’s that Covid-19 has changed the narrative when it comes to plagues, in ways that will show up onscreen in due course.It’s also true that while descriptions of “The Stand” always start with “virus wipes out billions,” the plague is really just a plot device — a way for King to distill the story into a confrontation between American good and American evil, represented by bands of survivors in a city on a hill (Boulder, Colo.) and a latter-day Sodom (Las Vegas).That also sounds pretty relevant to our current situation — red versus blue in a divided America, your choice which side is which. (King’s feelings are clear — the forces of good in Boulder are pretty snowflakey.) Here too, though, the mini-series doesn’t set off the vibrations that it might — not because the material isn’t engaging, but because the treatment of it is serviceable, workmanlike, maybe just good enough to keep you on the couch for nine hours.And isn’t that just about always the case with Stephen King adaptations, particularly on TV? Maybe creators assume that what the King audience wants isn’t adaptation but transcription. Or maybe, with rare exceptions — Brian De Palma and “Carrie,” Stanley Kubrick and “The Shining” — filmmakers with their own distinctive styles avoid the books because they don’t want to make what will most likely be called a Stephen King movie.This new version of “The Stand” (a four-episode mini-series written by King came out on ABC in 1994) was spearheaded by Josh Boone, who directed “The New Mutants,” one of the few big-studio popcorn movies to open in theaters during the pandemic. It’s a reasonably skilled and unobjectionable job of transcription and compression, stutter-stepping among time lines to keep track of King’s manifold plot strands and characters.The cast is large, evocative of a golden age of mini-series when you never knew who might show up in one. In the early episodes (six were available for review) we get the luxury of five minutes of J.K. Simmons, as a general presiding over the bioweapons facility from which the virus escapes. Lasting slightly longer are Heather Graham as a wealthy, suddenly widowed New Yorker and Hamish Linklater as a government epidemiologist, reprising his harried-company-man role from “Legion.”The main cast is led, capably, by James Marsden (“Dead to Me”) and Jovan Adepo as Stu and Larry, leaders of the peaceful camp in Boulder; Whoopi Goldberg plays the centenarian Mother Abagail, who drew them there by infiltrating their dreams. On the other side of the moral equation, Alexander Skarsgard is an insufficiently menacing Randall Flagg, the Vegas-based demon determined to destroy the Boulder group. (He isn’t helped by the cheesiness of the sets the production devised for Flagg’s own sessions of dream-walking.)If you’re looking for American-roots mythology on a large scale, there are other options available — Starz’s “American Gods,” for instance, and in the post-apocalyptic category, AMC’s “Walking Dead.” Both have their drawbacks, but “American Gods” gives you wild things to look at, and “The Walking Dead,” for all the aimlessness of its recent seasons, can still throw a good scare into you. “The Stand” doesn’t accomplish either of those through six episodes.The faithful may want to hang around until the finale, which King wrote, but as Stu tells himself as he heads to Las Vegas to confront Flagg in the novel, it might be a fool’s errand.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More
