Literary horror fans of the world, rejoice! Prolific author Stephen King, who has, by our count, written around ten thousand books at the time of writing, has announced his next project. Speaking on The Kingcast, a King-focused (no way!) podcast hosted by Eric Vespe and Scott Wampler, the author revealed his next book will be called Holly. The book is set to center a character who has appeared in a number of King texts before, not least The Outsider, but never as a main protagonist.
Okay, well, it's not his next book per se — that was already announced under the working title of Fairy Tale. But this is very much the next project on the conveyor belt, with King having finished it just recently. The character of Gibney first appeared in King's Mr. Mercedes trilogy, and later appeared as a major supporting character in The Outsider, with major star Cynthia Ervo playing her in the later miniseries adaptation aired by HBO. In King's words:, "[Holly Gibney] was supposed to be a walk-on character and she just kind of stole the book and stole my heart. So, I just finished a novel and it's called "Holly," and it's all her, man."
The reveal comes towards the end of the hour long conversation on The Kingcast — an entertaining listen for any and all King fans, and we'd highly recommend listening to the rest of the series. It marks yet another big project in the ever-expanding King roster across film, TV, and literature directly from the pen of the scary scribbler himself. Few authors have had their works adapted for the screen as many times as King, after all – bar maybe Shakespeare, but hey, we already made that joke.
The next big King project will be Firestarter, which centers on erstwhile Disney star Zac Efron as a dad who'll do anything to protect his super-powered, literally fiery daughter from being caught by a nefarious government agency. Even if that means allowing her to burn down every building on the block, it would seem. The film also stars Sydney Lemmon, Michael Greyeyes, Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley, and Gloria Reuben, with a release date on Peacock set at May 13. Even more excitingly, the score was composed by John Carpenter, who boasts just as strong horror bona fides as King himself. It'll be some picture, that's for sure.