Wake Up Heavy

I love a good detective story (just think of all those Murder, She Wrote references on the show) and I love to hear behind the scenes tales about my favorite movies. When I discovered Simon Fitzjohn on Twitter I was immediately intrigued by the work he was doing to track down the rights for the film Full Circle (more commonly known in the States as The Haunting of Julia). After watching one particularly intriguing video on his YouTube channel (which mentioned Prince Charles of all people) I decided to ask Simon if he had done any podcasts so that I could have a listen and get more information on his quest. When he said he hadn't I immediately invited him to appear on Wake Up Heavy. After some months we finally got the chance to sit and have a talk and it was illuminating.

UPDATE: Parts 1 and 2 are now combined into this one, long episode.

I love a good detective story (just think of all those Murder, She Wrote references on the show) and I love to hear behind the scenes tales about my favorite movies. When I discovered Simon Fitzjohn on Twitter I was immediately intrigued by the work he was doing to track down the rights for the film FULL CIRCLE (more commonly known in the States as THE HAUNTING OF JULIA). After watching one particularly intriguing video on his YouTube channel... [For more please visit the show notes: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2019/09/wuh-special-report-on-full-circle-1977.html]

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Were there signs of King slowing down over the next four years? Heck no! Remember what I said about 1980-83 being over saturated? Well that may have been premature. Between 1984 and 1987 King published six novels, one novella, one collection of short stories, and the Bachman book Thinner. The previous four Bachman books were also re-released as an omnibus, which we will get to in time.

Eight movies were released during this time with many of them being adaptations of short stories, or novellas. I.e. Hollywood was really digging deep to provide movie goers with their King fix, but they were mining some of the lesser works.

For more info visit the show notes: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2019/09/wuh-stephen-king-1984-87.html

The years 1980 through 1983 might possibly be the most over-saturated in terms of Stephen King output. During this time five novels were published and five movies were released, and if you didn't know who King was you must have been living under a (Castle) rock. Ha ha. And lest we forget we also got the collection Different Seasons, as well as two novels published as Richard Bachman: Roadwork and The Running Man. That's EIGHT books in three years people!!

To one extent or another all of the books published in those years have been adapted to screen: Firestarter (1984), Cujo (1983), The Dark Tower (2017), Christine (1983), and Pet Sematary (1989).

For more check out the show notes: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2019/09/wuh-stephen-king-1980-83.html

Stephen King shot out of the gate with the publication of Carrie in 1974. Though the hardcover didn't sell all that well the paperback rights were acquired for a whopping $400,000.00, of which King received half plus royalties. The paperback went on to sell one million copies in its first year.

Over the next five years King followed up with 'Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Stand, and The Dead Zone in quick succession. That's six novels in six years, plus the short story collection Night Shift in 1978 AND the books Rage and The Long Walk written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Whew!

In 1976 Brian DePalma brought CARRIE to the big screen...
[For more see the show notes: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2019/09/wuh-stephen-king-1974-79.html]

The last WDIRT in Volume 3 is on Jack Sholder's quirky slasher-home-invasion hybrid Alone in the Dark. It's got Martin Landau as a pyromaniac ex-preacher, Jack Palance as a paranoid POW, Erlind van Lidth as a hulking child-molester, and the mysterious hockey-mask-wearing killer known as The Bleeder. Donald Pleasence rounds out the cast as the equally nutty psychiatrist Dr. Leo Bain.

Stephen King is one of America's most prolific writers whose books have sold roughly 350 million copies worldwide. The Master of Horror, as he's been known for quite some time now, knows how to scare people and sell books, and naturally Hollywood has mined his voluminous output in the hopes of putting butts in the seats and dollars in the bank. From his earliest novel, Carrie, which was put to film two years after publication, hardly a year has gone by without a King adaptation being released in one form or another. There have been big-budget prestige films, low-budget passion projects, TV movies, mini-series, television series, all those "dollar babies" and, more recently, a number of long-form shows and movie options on streaming platforms.

For more visit the show notes: https://www.wakeupheavy.com/2019/08/wuh-stephen-king.html

It's been a year (give or take a day or two) since I put out the first couple of episodes of Wake Up Heavy. 40 or so episodes, a handful of guests, a lot of learning and dozens of movies later, here we are.

In this episode I once again get helped out by my daughter who asks me some questions about this first full year of WUH and my plans for the next.

Thank you to everyone who has listened to Wake Up Heavy, even if it was just one episode! Ultimately that's the point of all this, right? Otherwise I could just sit in front of the computer and talk to the screen about these movies. That would be weird though.

Show notes.

And here is the bonus episode with more discussion from Sam and me.

Subjects discussed: Pittsburgh filming locations, "Murder, She Wrote," Marc Lawrence, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Italian horror, EXORCIST rip-offs, AMITYVILLE sequels, Linda Blair, Tom Atkins, Eli Roth (again), CHILD'S PLAY, "Cinema Sins," Claudio Fragasso, and Amicus.

Before the OTHER bonus episode with Sam here's a super short extra-extra-bonus special episode of me reading my initial viewing notes on UTSL. This one's a little spoilery so be careful.