Ask Dean: Which of your books do you get asked about most often?

November 30, 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsikbDRX1Fk

Ask Dean: What are you currently watching on television?

November 30, 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBUPeeD-RyY

Dark Harvest gallery

November 24, 2013

The top 25 underappreciated films of 1998

November 24, 2013

25. Phantoms

“Hundreds of thousands missing! No bodies, no graves, no witnesses” Peter O’Toole emotes in this unfairly overlooked mash-up of The Blob, The Thing, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and the cosmic terror of HP Lovecraft. Something evil has wiped out the occupants of Snowfield, Colorado, and whatever it is has designs on absorbing the rest of the planet, too.

The oddly-cast yet entirely welcome O’Toole leads an eclectic cast, including Ben Affleck, Rose McGowan and Liev Schreiber, who encounter something sentient and very oily in the deserted old town. There are few truly original ideas to be found in this adaptation of Dean Koontz’s novel (with a screenplay by the author himself), but it’s an entertaining, well-paced thrill ride, and genre fans will find much to enjoy in the gooey monsters and O’Toole’s deliciously ripe performance.

Read the full article @ Den Of Geek.

The Best Sci-fi/Horror Mash-ups, Part 2: The 80s

November 24, 2013

The Dean Koontz adaptation “Watchers,” about an escaped mutated monster and a hyper-intelligent dog, with former teen star Corey Haim and Michael Ironside (of “Scanners” fame), spawned three sequels of varying quality and is reasonably entertaining. Think “A Boy and His Dog” with a more action bent and you’ve almost got it.

Read more @ FilmEquals.com.

Ask Dean: What question do you get asked the most?

November 24, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=r5ffmMOaI3g

Ask Dean: What was your favorite book as a child and why?

November 24, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6Vi7r4rDjqM

Ask Dean: Have you seen any good movies lately?

November 24, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rF7365jozs

Ask Dean: Which authors do you read yourself?

November 24, 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIpfWwUuGkQ

Dead Low Tide cover art

November 24, 2013

For those unaware, Dean’s writing new introductions for the forthcoming re-issues of John D. MacDonald novels. The cover art for Dead Low Tide has recently been released. (Search this blog for macdonald for more information.)

Demon Seed screening tonight in New York City

November 15, 2013

Museum of the Moving Image: ‘Computer Age; Early Computer Movies, 1952-1987’ (Friday through Sunday)
A screening of Donald Cammell’s “Demon Seed,” a 1977 science-fiction thriller based on a novel by Dean Koontz, will open this mini-festival of films that focus on computers or utilize computer-generated technology. In “Demon Seed,” starring Julie Christie, a supercomputer seeks to reproduce with human assistance. The screening, on Friday at 7 p.m., will be preceded by the 1981 short feature “Let’s Groove,” a music video directed by Ron Hays. A program on Saturday devoted to digital technology will feature works by John Whitney, one of the pioneers of computer animation, and one of his collaborators, Larry Cuba, as well as works by his son John Whitney Jr. John Whitney died in 1995 at 78. Mr. Cuba will appear at the Saturday screening at 2 p.m. 35th Avenue at 37th Street, Astoria, Queens, (718) 784-0077, movingimage.us; $12, $9 for 65+, and students and $6 for children 3 to 12.
Via NY Times.

Innocence trailer

November 11, 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPiQXmBiZ68

Terror, Science and Faith from the Hand of Dean Koontz

November 9, 2013

Translated from Spanish:

Considered one of the main authors of the horror genre, his work stands out for its influence-Christian ethic that facilitates happy endings and hopeful compared to other authors conducive as Stephen King, darker and realistic.
In November this time the best thing is to talk about the genre par excellence, terror, and who best represents the genre is undoubtedly Dean Koontz. However, only one thing you can not blame this writer, that leaves unexplained end without hope that everything will be fine or maybe not? While it is true that the end of their stories just strict relatively well for its protagonists, at least for the survivors, and not less true that always leaves a door open to doubt whether it can replay the situation. Since either by an evil engendered by man as in “The cursed place” or by an entity as old as the world itself as happens in “Ghosts”, Koontz shows situations in which all evil has any type of remedy. But where that hope comes from a writer with the facility to display such dark situations?

Read the full article @ Vavel.com.

Remaining holdouts in burning town reach settlement; Tale of Centralia, Pa. noted in film and fiction

November 9, 2013

A handful of residents who have refused to leave Centralia, the central Pennsylvania town that has literally been burning for decades, will be allowed to remain in their homes until their respective deaths, according to a settlement reached in a civil case between the homeowners and state officials.
…
Throughout the years, the story of Centralia trickled into popular culture, with the town, in which smoke can still be seen rising from the asphalt, reportedly serving as the inspiration for the film adaptation of the video game Silent Hill.
Horror and suspense author Dean Koontz also has said that Centralia’s tale was the inspiration forStrange Highways, the title piece of a short-story collection of the same name that Koontz released in the mid-1990s.
A professional biography says that Koontz is a Pennsylvania native who previously worked as an English teacher in a suburban Harrisburg school district.

Read the full article @ The Pennsylvania Record.

Odd Thomas Film Picked up in Canada

November 9, 2013

Our friends up north in Canada are gonna become really close with Odd Thomas as Raven Banner Entertainment has swooped in and nabbed the Canadian rights! Read on for details.
From the Press Release
Hot Off The AFM Presses: Raven Banner Entertainment, Inc., has acquired all Canadian rights to the $30 million action thriller Odd Thomas, based on the original, critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling series by Dean Koontz under the same name.
The film was written and directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy franchise, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Van Helsing) and stars Anton Yelchin (Star Trek Into Darkness), Willem Dafoe (John Carter), Addison Timlin (“Californication”), and Patton Oswalt (Big Fan). The film was produced by Sommers, John Baldecchi and Howard Kaplan.
Raven Banner is set to release Odd Thomas in early 2014 through its Sinister Cinema series with partners Cineplex Entertainment.

Read the full article @ DreadCentral.com.

 

Odd sensibilities: Dean Koontz and Christian imagination

November 9, 2013

October 29, 2013 (BreakPoint) – A recent article in Touchstone magazine by Hunter Baker of Union University told readers about “a man who is probably the single best-selling Christian author on the planet.”
The author in question wasn’t anyone you’d suspect, such as Rick Warren. It was Dean Koontz, whose books are prominently displayed in supermarket checkout lines and in airport bookstores.

Koontz isn’t usually seen as a Christian writer and, for most of his career, understandably so. But around the turn of the new millennium his faith increasingly began to be reflected in his books. In his 2001 novel, “One Door Away From Heaven,” the villain is a serial killer who fully practices what people like Peter Singer, whom Koontz mentions in the novel, and other utilitarian ethicists only preach.

Are you dressing as a Koontz character this Halloween?

October 31, 2013

Well, the wife and I are going in western wear this year so I guess the closest I’m coming to a Koontz character is Sheriff Bryce Hammond from Phantoms. He wore a cowboy hat, didn’t he?

Wilderness is out today

October 29, 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aR18yYt2X3k
With this darkly intriguing original e-short story (available on October 29, 2013), #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz sets the stage for his masterly new novel of mystery, suspense, and strange wonder—INNOCENCE.
“The world is a machine that produces endless surprises and mysteries layered on mysteries.”
Addison Goodheart is a mystery even to himself. He was born in an isolated home surrounded by a deep forest, never known to his father, kept secret from everyone but his mother, who barely accepts him. She is haunted by private demons and keeps many secrets—none of which she dreads more than the young son who adores her.
Only in the woods, among the wildlife, is Addison truly welcome. Only there can he be at peace. Until the day he first knows terror, the day when his life changes radically and forever . .
 

Frankenstein: Prodigal Son digital comics on sale

October 27, 2013

Currently the digital versions of the Frankenstein: Prodigal Son comics are on sale on the Dark Horse Comics Web site for just $0.99 per issue. No word on how long this sale will last.

Where are they now?

October 27, 2013

Any chance you know who played Charlotte Stillwater in the TV movie version of Mr. Murder. That was one Kaley Cuoco, who currently stars as Penny in The Big Bang Theory. Don’t believe me, check IMDB.