Some promising signs of Stephen King movie magic to come

As a fan of Stephen King's work, when it comes to adaptations of his books, that often quoted Forrest Gump line about a box of chocolates rings true.

 You never can be quite sure what you're going to get-sometimes, it's a sweetly sinister treat but on many other cinematic occasions, the aftertaste is rather unsavory.

This does lead to being rather cautious upon hearing about a new King based film but after watching the first trailer for the big screen version of IT, I'm happily throwing caution to the wind.

 Unlike it's earlier small screen incarnation, the story will be split into two parts with one focusing solely on the younger versions of the main characters(Loser's Club) and the second on them as adults, forced to do battle against with the inhuman creature that feeds on their home town.

Having reread the book last year, I can safely say that this new take on IT seems to be blending the best elements of the story while adding a few original touches that work well here and already I'm looking forward to seeing this in the fall:

I know there's a lot of nostalgia over the TV mini-series adaption and yes, I enjoyed Tim Curry as Pennywise,too, however this pair of  no-doubt-about-that R rated movies will clearly allow the book to be fully represented on screen.

Also, the trailer shows a very Stranger Things vibe attached to the full film, from the overall look to the young actors, and that should help to attract a broader audience for IT. King himself is a Stranger Things fan and while I don't think that style was intentionally copied here, that pop culture connection is a strong plus in it's favor:

Meanwhile, there is good word about the upcoming summer release(which has been changed from July 28 to August 4) of The Dark Tower. At Cinema Con, footage from the film has been shown to audiences and the reactions have been incredibly positive, to say the least.

No word yet on when we'll see an official trailer but word of mouth is still a key player and could boost the anticipation levels of reluctant fans even higher than before. Granted, I haven't read all of the Dark Tower books(I got to book three,okay?) but this certainly could inspire a reread and a catch-up on the series for me and other fans as well:

The only thing that concerns me about the reception of The Dark Tower are those people who are still unhappy with Idris Elba being cast as the Gunslinger.

 Folks, you need to get over this right quick because Elba is an amazing actor who will make this role incredible and then some. Yes, in the book the character was white but this isn't the first Stephen King lead whose race was changed for the movie and those actors were excellent in those parts(are you really going to begrudge having Morgan Freeman and Andre Braugher in those films,seriously?).

Be a little more creative in your fantasy realms,people. This is a story that mixes genres,after all, and maybe if you open up your imagination to take a good look at a new take on an old theme, you might be pleasantly surprised to see something you've never seen before:

So, overall, I am thrilled to see some great looking Stephen King movies coming our way soon yet I have the feeling that some folks might not truly appreciate such splendid film fare due to not having been exposed to some of the less than entertaining SK adaptations that have come before this.

To that end, my theme for Bad Movie Month this August will be "The Worst of Stephen King", where I will try to manage finding only five awful examples of what happens when adaptations go terribly wrong.

The line-up is not yet set but it will include the recent remake of Carrie and most definitely, Maximum Overdrive, which hold the distinct honor of having been directed by the King of Horror himself. This should be quite the wild ride and I hope that you all join me in delighting in the depths of SK movie misery this summer: