257: The Shawshank Redemption with Evan Waite
The very funny novelist (Life Wants You Dead), TV writer (Family Guy, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and Stephen King fan Evan Waite joins Vespe this week to talk about The Shawshank Redemption, both the novella and the Frank Darabont adaptation. Is this the movie America needs this holiday season? One that is full of hope even in the face of the worst of the worst authoritarian regimes and sho...
1hr 10m Nov 13, 2024
1hr 10m
256: Live from KingCon: An Interview with Thomas Jane
Thomas Jane has starred in multiple Stephen King movies, like The Mist, Dreamcatcher, and 1922. While he may not be a fan of shoes, he is a massive fan of Stephen King's work, so we talk about his love of King's novels as well as the multiple adaptations he's appeared in, all in front of a live audience at the very first KingCon in Las Vegas. You'll hear Jane's Stephen King origin story, as w...
1hr 9m Nov 06, 2024
1hr 9m
255: Revival with Joe R. Lansdale (ft. Guest Co-Host Stephen Graham Jones)
Joe R. Lansdale (Bubba Ho-tep, The Thicket, Cold In July) joins Vespe and special guest co-host Stephen Graham Jones (The Indian Lake Trilogy, Mongrels) to talk about Stephen King's Revival. Kinda. That was the intent, anyway, but when you get two wonderful and prolific genre authors together the talk will always turn to craft, so while there's plenty of King chatter here, don't expect a deep...
1hr 21m Oct 30, 2024
1hr 21m
254: The Mist with Nate Purkeypile
Video Game Developer and designer Nate Purkeypile comes on The Kingcast to talk about his new game, The Axis Unseen, his years working at Bethesda on titles like Fallout and Elder Scrolls, how a particular Stephen King book helped him through the troubled launch of Fallout 76, and his love of Frank Darabont's adaptation of The Mist. The Axis Unseen, described as a heavy metal horror game, is ...
1hr 8m Oct 23, 2024
1hr 8m
253: Mrs. Todd's Shortcut with Ian McDonald
Screenwriter Ian McDonald (who penned this week's Netflix movie Woman of the Hour starring Anna Kendrick) joins Vespe to discuss one of King's odder short stories: Mrs. Todd's Shortcut. This weird one is about a woman who becomes obsessed with shortcuts who ends up disappearing on one and the old Mainer who was perhaps a little in love with her remembering her all these years later. We talk ...
1hr 4m Oct 16, 2024
1hr 4m
252: Flashback: An Interview with Michael Whelan
Vespe digs deep into the Kingcast Archives and comes up with a 2021 interview Wampler and Vespe conducted with Michael Whelan, the man responsible for defining the look of Stephen King's The Dark Tower. This episode has lived the last 3 years behind a paywall and now you can hear it even if you're not a Patreon subscriber. Whelan is a renowned sci-fi and fantasy artist who was commissioned by ...
1hr 11m Oct 09, 2024
1hr 11m
251: The Lawnmower Man with Flula Borg
Kingcast royalty Flula Borg (Pitch Perfect 2, The Suicide Squad) makes his triumphant return to the show and watches the batshit insane The Lawnmower Man. If you've seen the movie, you know it's a wild one. Problematic? Yes. Entertaining? Kinda. A good adaptation? Absolutely not. You will hear talk about VR murder chimps, Pierce Brosnan's absurdly hairy chest, the "give me your tongue" scene, D...
1hr 7m Oct 02, 2024
1hr 7m
250: Misery with Jason Pargin (ft Guest Co-Host Don Coscarelli)
It's a John Dies At The End reunion as Vespe is joined by director Don Coscarelli and the original book's author, Jason Pargin to break down one of King's best works: Misery. Unlike previous episodes on this title, King's novel is as the forefront this time around as these three gentlemen discuss the novel and talk about the things that work even better than the fantastic Rob Reiner adaptation....
1hr 27m Sep 25, 2024
1hr 27m
249: Taking A Closer Look At King's Female Characters with Emily V. Gordon (ft Guest Co-Host Kate Siegel)
Guest Co-Host Kate Siegel (Midnight Mass, Hush) leads the discussion on King's female characters with Vespe and special guest Emily V. Gordon (The Big Sick). Kate has come up with different categories for all of King's most famous ladies, from Carrie White to Lisey to Annie Wilkes to Beverly Marsh and Jesse Burlingame. The discussion covers a lot of King's work and what it's like being known as...
1hr 21m Sep 18, 2024
1hr 21m
248: The Life of Chuck with Anthony Breznican
Vanity Fair's Anthony Breznican is not only a great writer, he's a major Stephen King nerd. His feature on The Life of Chuck gave us our first insight into Mike Flanagan's adaption, which just triumphantly premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Now Breznican is on the show to talk about some King deep cuts, examine The Life of Chuck as a short story and as a film, and how its pow...
1hr 33m Sep 11, 2024
1hr 33m
247: Revival with JT Mollner (ft. Guest Co-Host Wynter Mitchell)
JT Mollner wrote and directed the very cool indie horror flick Strange Darling, which is out in theaters now, and he also happened to write the screenplay for the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King's The Long Walk. We talk a little bit about The Long Walk and Strange Darling and a lot about Stephen King, with a focus on the absolute banger 2014 novel REVIVAL. This ended up being one of the ...
1hr 30m Sep 04, 2024
1hr 30m
246: 1408 with Mikael Hafstrom
It's only right that the director of one of the better Stephen King adaptations has his moment on The Kingcast. 1408 director Mikael Hafstrom has a new movie out called Slingshot (starring Casey Affleck and Laurence Fishburne) that he views as a sort of cousin to his work on 1408, which provided the perfect excuse to have him come on and reminisce about his experience making 1408. We talk about...
1hr 12m Aug 28, 2024
1hr 12m
245: Duma Key with Laura Lux (ft. Guest Co-Host Zach Dionne)
We're finally tackling Duma Key here at the Kingcast and we brought along two of our most trustworthy friends to help out. Writer and King fanatic Zach Dionne acts as guest co-host and model, streamer, master chef, mother of blind cats, and longtime Kingcast favorite guest Laura Lux returns to talk through this lengthy, complicated book. We fancast a movie version, dive deep into the cruelty th...
1hr 22m Aug 21, 2024
1hr 22m
244: The Running Man with Steven E. de Souza
Our guest this week is the legendary screenwriter Steven E. de Souza, who wrote The Running Man. He was Schwarzenegger's go-to guy, having written Commando before this, and he'd go on to write a little movie by the name of Die Hard. Kingcast favorite Mallory O'Meara (Girly Drinks) sits in the guest co-host seat and helps Vespe interview de Souza about his work with Schwarzenegger, at what poi...
1hr 23m Aug 14, 2024
1hr 23m
243: Maximum Overdrive with Tilman Singer
Cuckoo writer/director Tilman Singer is here this week to talk about Stephen King's wild directorial debut: Maximum Overdrive. We chat about kids getting beaned by Coke cans, the differences between the short story and the movie, King's eye as director, and try to figure out what machine would get us if the world ended up... in Maximum Overdrive.
44m Aug 07, 2024
44m
242: The Long Walk with Burnie Burns
Vespe is joined by Burnie Burns, co-founder of Rooster Teeth and co-host of the current popular podcast Morning Somewhere. While Burnie is famous for his presence in video game-based online entertainment, he also happens to be a big Stephen King fan and agreed to show up and talk about The Long Walk, one of King's best stories that is currently getting its first big screen adaptation. We talk a...
1hr 36m Jul 31, 2024
1hr 36m
241: You Like It Darker with Stephen Graham Jones (ft. guest co-host Neil McRobert)
Listener favorite guest, author Stephen Graham Jones (The Indian Lake Trilogy) makes his triumphant return to The Kingcast to discuss King's most recent short story collection You Like It Darker. They're joined by guest co-host Neil McRobert, the host of the Talking Scared podcast, to go story by story through this new collection. The trio find running themes, point our their favorites and lea...
2hr 37m Jul 24, 2024
2hr 37m
240: The Shining with Danny Lloyd (ft. guest co-host Mike Flanagan)
Danny Torrance himself, Mr. Dan Lloyd, joins Vespe and guest co-host Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep) to talk about his work on Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. While he appeared in a few other things, Lloyd quickly left the Hollywood lifestyle and is now a teacher, but he still made time to come on the show, look back at his fuzzy childhood memories of Kubrick, the late, great Shelley Duvall, Jack N...
1hr 19m Jul 17, 2024
1hr 19m
239: The Shawshank Redemption with Bob Gunton (Special Guest Co-Host Alejandro Brugues)
Guest co-host Alejandro Brugues (Juan of the Dead, Satanic Hispanics) joins Vespe to chat with the wonderful character actor Bob Gunton, the star of his latest film The Inheritance. Bob has a very special Stephen King connection: He played the dastardly Warden Norton in The Shawshank Redemption. Bob goes in-depth on his work in Shawshank, including his working relationship with director Frank...
56m Jul 10, 2024
56m
238: An Ode To Jordy Verrill with Brent Terhune
Today's episode of The Kingcast is a bittersweet one. This marks the very last Scott Wampler hosted episode of the show, which is sad, but it's also kind of fitting that he's leaving us with an episode where he gets to debate the level of redneck Jordy Verrill was with the very funny Brent Terhune, a comedian who turned a lot of heads imitating the worst of the worst angry white guys screaming ...
1hr 4m Jul 03, 2024
1hr 4m
237: Night Shift with Jeff Nichols
Writer/Director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud, Midnight Special) joins Vespe to talk about his new film, The Bikeriders starring Tom Hardy, Jodie Comer, and Austin Butler, as well as the unexpected influence Stephen King's work had on his early work, specifically the badass Michael Shannon vehicle Take Shelter. His chosen topic is Night Shift, but he honed in on one particular short story fro...
56m Jun 26, 2024
56m
236: Pet Sematary with Unearthed & Untold's John Campopiano and Justin White
Celebrating the 35th anniversary of Mary Lambert's Pet Sematary, The Kingcast boys are joined by documentary filmmakers John Campopiano and Justin White who crafted Unearthed & Untold: The Path To Pet Sematary, a comprehensive peek behind the curtain on that film. To further their Stephen King bonafides, Campopiano also directed the recent Pennywise: The Story of IT, which chronicles the behind...
1hr 11m Jun 19, 2024
1hr 11m
235: Holly and Creepshow with Found Footage Fest's Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett
What's a Stephen King podcast to do when they have two guests each wanting to talk about a different King title? Well, talk about two King titles, of course. That's exactly what happened with this episode which sees Wampler and Vespe chatting up Found Footage Fest's two rapscallions, Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, about the cannibalistic old people in Holly and a healthy debate on how long we co...
1hr 17m Jun 12, 2024
1hr 17m
234: Remembering Scott Wampler
A handful of Scott Wampler's nearest and dearest friends gathered together to reminisce about the good time, the not so good times, and the truly unique individual Pop Pop was. Vespe is joined by Mallory O'Meara, Phil Nobile Jr., Daniel Danger, Wynter Mitchell, and Russ Fischer to work through their very deep feelings in a public setting, just as Scott would have wanted.
2hr 35m Jun 05, 2024
2hr 35m
233: It and Carrie with Nell Tiger Free and Arkasha Stevenson
This week brings two guests, the director and the star of the recent (and shockingly good) The First Omen: Arkasha Stevenson and Nell Tiger Free. Both ladies have their quintessential Stephen King adaptation that they loved growing up and they discuss the impact both the 1990 mini-series of IT and the Brian De Palma classic adaptation of Carrie had on them as genre fans and filmmakers. Why is T...
44m May 29, 2024
44m
232: One For The Road with Scott Snyder
Comic book legend and longtime Stephen King super fan Scott Snyder (The Court of Owls Batman arc, American Vampire, Swamp Thing) joins Wampler and Vespe for a lengthy chat about why King is such a gripping writer, with a particular focus on the author's tale of vampire horror, One For The Road. Snyder collaborated with King on the comic book American Vampire and also has tales that encourage us...
1hr 26m May 22, 2024
1hr 26m
231: The Shining with Renny Harlin
We're just as surprised as you are, but our guest this week is Renny Harlin, the insane director behind A Nightmare On Elm Street 4, Cliffhanger, Deep Blue Sea, and the upcoming The Strangers Trilogy, Chapter 1 of which debuts in theaters this coming weekend. Renny joins us to talk about how Stephen King impacted him as a creative and how Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is an all-time favorite. B...
1hr 7m May 15, 2024
1hr 7m
230: Graveyard Shift with Mike P. Nelson
Writer/Director Mike P. Nelson (Wrong Turn, The Domestics, V/H/S/85) joins Wampler and Vespe to chat a bit about the oddball killer rat/bat movie Graveyard Shift as well as the original Stephen King short story that it is based on. This episode is chock full of talk about outrageous Maine accents, a wasted Brad Dourif, late '80s/early '90s nostalgia, and a whole lot of seemingly random Monster ...
1hr 9m May 08, 2024
1hr 9m
229: The Running Man with John Rosman
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 entire...
1hr 23m May 01, 2024
1hr 23m
228: The Langoliers with Elan Gale
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 B...
1hr 12m Apr 24, 2024
1hr 12m
227: Design Your Own Stephen King Video Game with Alyssa Mercante
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. Al...
1hr 19m Apr 17, 2024
1hr 19m
226: Children of the Corn: Genesis with K. Thor Jensen
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 ps...
1hr 27m Apr 10, 2024
1hr 27m
225: The Shining with Keith Gordon
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. ...
2hr 4m Apr 03, 2024
2hr 4m
224: Sleepwalkers with Stephen Graham Jones
Best Selling Author Stephen Graham Jones has a brand new book out called The Angel of Indian Lake that wraps up his Jade Daniels Trilogy and to celebrate he has returned to The Kingcast to discuss the bonkers film Sleepwalkers. Along the way, we talk about how much Hollywood is courting him for an adaptation of this newly minted trilogy, brainstorm a gritty Mr. Ed reboot, debate about the ethic...
1hr 38m Mar 27, 2024
1hr 38m
223: Bag of Bones with Emily V. Gordon
The great writer, producer, and podcaster Emily V. Gordon (The Big Sick, Indoor Kids) returns to The Kingcast to talk about Bag of Bones, a title long demanded by The Kingcast listenership and one filled with chewy topics of conversation. Why is it so scary that the one you love could be taken away in a split second? What could that do to your heart and mind? Why is that tree so sexy? All those...
1hr 24m Mar 20, 2024
1hr 24m
222: 1408 with Jeff Zhang
Film critic and podcaster Jeff Zhang (Strange Harbors) joins Wampler and Vespe to chat about 1408, both the original King short story and the surprisingly good 2007 adaptation starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. We dive into both, decide which of the bazillion attempted endings is the actual best one, figure out if we could live in a place with a bad history, and even touch on the compl...
1hr 32m Mar 13, 2024
1hr 32m
221: The Bachman Books with Jeff Wadlow
Director Jeff Wadlow (Imaginary, Fantasy Island, Cry Wolf) joins Wampler and Vespe to dig into the notorious Bachman Books. Conversation turns from all of our real life imaginary friends to the bleak stories contained in The Bachman Books, including Rage, which King has never put back into printing after a slew of copycat crimes that were allegedly inspired by the actions the lead character tak...
1hr 24m Mar 06, 2024
1hr 24m
220: Ranking Stephen King Cameos with Screen Draft's Clay Keller and Ryan Marker
Are you ready for the podcast crossover event of the century? Well, you damn well should be because The Kingcast boys are welcoming Screen Draft's Clay Keller and Ryan Marker and turning the tables on them. Wampler and Vespe serve as commissioners and it's up to Clay and Ryan to rank the top 7 Stephen King Cameos of all time. What will make the cut? How many King cameos will actually be for mov...
1hr 43m Feb 28, 2024
1hr 43m
219: Dolan's Cadillac with Wynter Mitchell
The Kingcast boys finally dive into arguably the very worst direct adaptation of a Stephen King story: 2009's Dolan's Cadillac starring Christian Slater and American Beauty's Wes Bentley. Joining us is fellow podcaster and Kingcast favorite guest Wynter Mitchell (Tangent Island) who hated the movie even more than we did. Why is this movie so bad? Could a good movie ever be made from this shor...
1hr 19m Feb 21, 2024
1hr 19m
218: Carrie with Lily Sullivan
Evil Dead Rise star Lily Sullivan joins The Kingcast boys to talk about her latest genre outing, a thriller called Monolith, as well as Brian De Palma's Carrie. Lily dives into her own quasi-traumatic upbringing thanks a horror-loving mom, how Stephen King played into that, and, of course, how iconic Carrie is. You'll also get some conspiracy talk, how absolutely terrifying podcasters are, and ...
54m Feb 14, 2024
54m
217: Cujo with Sam Haft
This isn't your typical Cujo conversation this week as we welcome the very talented writer, performer, and singer Sam Haft (Hazbin Hotel, The Living Tombstone) onto the show. He doesn't just come ready to get silly while talking about Cujo, he also created a whole-ass original song for this episode called "Bat Blood," sung from Cujo's point of view after he eats the face off of the Cambers's ne...
1hr 28m Feb 07, 2024
1hr 28m
216: Misery with Barnaby Clay
Horror and music video director Barnaby Clay (The Seeding, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) joins Vespe and Wampler to discuss the parallels between his new movie and Stephen King's Misery, which naturally cascades into a deeper conversation about fan's ownership over art, the addiction themes of the book, and how Rob Reiner assembled a perfect cast for the adaptation. The Seeding is out now on digital and c...
1hr 26m Jan 31, 2024
1hr 26m
215: A Deep Dive Into an Unproduced Screenplay of The Stand with Dave Schilling
There have been many attempts to make The Stand and only two have ever succeeded. One of the early at-bats was by John Boorman's go-to writer Rospo Pallenberg (Excalibur, Exorcist 2: The Heretic) who delivered a very unfortunate screenplay in 1990. The very funny podcaster and writer Dave Schilling(Galaxy Brains, LA Times) joins Vespe and Wampler to beat up this terrible screenplay and try to...
1hr 21m Jan 24, 2024
1hr 21m
214: The Life of Chuck with Charles Soule
Charles Soule, the novelist and comic book writer behind all of your favorite Marvel, DC, and Star Wars books, returns to The Kingcast to dissect Stephen King's novella The Life of Chuck, soon to be released as a major motion picture starring Tom Hiddleston and written and directed by Kingcast favorite filmmaker Mike Flanagan. The trio dive right into the meaty text of The Life of Chuck and p...
1hr 18m Jan 17, 2024
1hr 18m
213: Issa Lopez's Triumphant Return
On the eve of the release of her season of True Detective, longtime Kingcast favorite Issa Lopez (Tigers Are Not Afraid) returns to chat with Wampler and Vespe about the Stephen King influences on her season of True Detective, why she had to be very upfront with nods to Carpenter's The Thing in her season, what miracle workers Jodie Foster and Kali Reis were, embracing sexuality in popular fict...
45m Jan 10, 2024
45m
212: 1922 with Thomas Jane
Thomas Jane makes his triumphant return to The Kingcast stage to talk about his work in 1922. Well, that's the goal anyway, but when you get Thomas Jane on the line the conversation is gonna go where it's gonna go. We may be aiming to talk Stephen King, but you're gonna get chatter involving living in France, some semi-contentious politics discussion, and even an update on the producer/actor's ...
2hr 2m Jan 03, 2024
2hr 2m
211: Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla with Matt Fraction
Matt Fraction (Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Hawkeye) returns to continue his Dark Tower adventure. Every time Matt finishes a new Dark Tower book he checks in with The Kingcast boys to talk about his thoughts on the series. Despite spearheading a giant Godzilla show for Apple TV, Fraction did find some time fo work his way through Book 5 and comes loaded for bear with his thoughts on the book, ...
2hr 7m Dec 27, 2023
2hr 7m
210: A Chat With Carla Gugino
The Kingcast welcomes the great Carla Gugino to the main stage for a lengthy discussion of her work on Gerald's Game and her recent award-nominated turn in Mike Flanagan's The Fall of the House of Usher. Discover Carla's Stephen King origin story, her thoughts on risque material in film and TV, her remembrances of a certain furry cat-eating co-star, what was going through her mind while filming...
1hr 26m Dec 20, 2023
1hr 26m
209: It with Lindsey Beer
Pet Sematary: Bloodlines director Lindsey Beer joins The Kingcast boys to talk a little about her prequel and the iconic, legendary, massive tome known as Stephen King's It. We ask ourselves if It has killed McDonald's famous mascot, which of the Losers Club we relate to the most, just how badass Pam Grier is (both on-screen and in real life), and were stunned, shocked, and appalled by Beer's c...
1hr 5m Dec 13, 2023
1hr 5m
208: Ur with Chuck Tingle
Our favorite saucy, but sweet, author Chuck Tingle (Camp Damascus, Space Raptor Butt Trilogy) returns to The Kingcast to discuss one of King's more obscure short stories: Ur. This one's all about an otherworldly Kindle and serves as something of a dry run for 11.22.63. We talk about that as well as country music (for some damn reason), the ethical question of stealing work done by your clone, w...
1hr 30m Dec 06, 2023
1hr 30m