Noted funnyman, writer, producer, and prankster Ben Mekler (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, Die Hart 2, and Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight) was tasked to surprise your beloved Kingcast hosts with a Stephen King title and see how well we could roll with his choice of topic. Would it be an obscure novella? A forgotten episode of some random '80s TV anthology, perhaps? Or would he pick one of the major titles? 

These are all questions Wampler and Vespe had rolling through their minds as they recorded this episode and we can safely say that what Mekler showed up with still knocked us for a loop. Come for the mystery of the King title and stay for the inordinate amount of Mac and Me talk. This is a wild one, y'all.

205: The Ben Mekler Ambush Episode

A Stephen King Podcast For Stephen King Obsessives

TV & Film

Writer/Director John Rosman (New Life) joins Vespe and Wampler to discuss his new film, how it is heavily influenced by Stephen King, and also break down what really works in both the novella and the feature film adaptation of The Running Man. How successful would The Running Man be in today's America? And which version would be more popular, the one portrayed in the book which spans the entirety of the country, or the one shown in the movie, which is more like American Gladiators made with even more cocaine. We may never know, but we have a few good guesses...

229: The Running Man with John Rosman

When you have a story featuring timeaters that may or may not resemble flying meatballs with metal teeth you have to bring in the best of the best to break it down. Lucky for us Elan Gale (The Bachelor, FBOY Island, and the upcoming Stephen King adaptation The Life of Chuck) answered the call to come chat The Langoliers with the Kingcast Boys. 

What was Elan's take on the mini-series? Why is Bronson Pinchot so damn cool? What would Wampler do if he found himself in the Langoliers's dimension and why is Elan pressing him on his empty world daydreams? All these questions and more will be answered in this episode!

228: The Langoliers with Elan Gale

Kotaku's Alyssa Mercante joins Wampler and Vespe for an interesting thought experiment: What would you do if you could design your own Stephen King video game? Would you make a AAA giant budget title or something smaller and more indie? You have the entire Stephen King oeuvre at your disposal, what do you do? Alyssa kicks things off with her pitch, Vespe follows, and Wampler closes the loop. All radically different, all something we'd actually play if it existed. Come play with us!

227: Design Your Own Stephen King Video Game with Alyssa Mercante

Writer, editor, and cartoonist K. Thor Jensen has been summoned onto The Kingcast to help cover the prestigious King-related title that is 2011's Children of the Corn: Genesis. We are deep into the Corn Boys catalogue now, my lovelies, and this particular installment is perhaps one of the more bizarre entries in the Dimension Films direct-to-video era, featuring Kelen Coleman's muddy feet, a psychic corn child, delightful character actors Billy Drago and Duane Whitaker, actual footage from Michael Bay's Bad Boys 2, and some of the most confounding writing to ever appear in a low budget genre sequel. Brace yourselves for this one, folks.

226: Children of the Corn: Genesis with K. Thor Jensen

You haven't really lived until you hear the acclaimed actor and director Keith Gordon (Christine, Back to School, Dressed to Kill, Mother Night) contemplate the blowjob dog ghost for a surprisingly long period of time. You get exactly that, plus a ton of talk about his work with John Carpenter in Christine, Brian De Palma in Dressed to Kill, as well as his early directorial outing Wild Palms. 

Keith is a cinephile and happened to be in the opening weekend audience when Stanley Kubrick's The Shining debuted, which means he saw the original ending before Kubrick cut it. He tells us about that as well as his thoughts on his first ever reading of King's original novel in this super-sized episode.

205: The Ben Mekler Ambush Episode

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