By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The reimagining of the cult-fave sword-and-sorcery/creature feature is going prose.
Encyclopocalypse Publications will release an adaptation of Steven Kostanski’s DEATHSTALKER September 7 as a mass-market paperback and an e-book; an audiobook will arrive later this year. Written by Bret Nelson, “The novelization expands upon the film’s world of monsters, magic, mayhem, and adventure, bringing readers deeper into the wartorn realm of Abraxeon and the dangerous quest that places its reluctant hero at the center of an unplanned adventure after accidentally unleashing a curse upon…himself. Deathstalker must undo the spell before it destroys him… and perhaps the entire kingdom.”
“Like MANBORG and [the FRANKIE FREAKO tie-in] BETRAYAL AND BLACK LACE before it,” Kostanski says, “Bret has gone beyond the confines of my film’s runtime to expand the DEATHSTALKER universe, bringing depth and detail to lore that is only teased on screen. The result is a wacky, exciting, and richly imagined adventure that makes this book a must-read not only for fans of Corman’s franchise but for any fan of sword and sorcery.”
Says producer Andrew Hunt of Raven Banner Entertainment, “Bret understands exactly what makes DEATHSTALKER tick—the pulp energy, the bloodsoaked mayhem, the sense that anything can lunge out of the dark at any moment. He’s written the novelization this film deserves.”
“I grew up on Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, CONAN comic books, and many, many marathons of tabletop dungeon campaigns,” Nelson notes. “Seeing Steven Kostanski’s new version of DEATHSTALKER brought the best of those moments back to me, and I’m very happy to be invited along on this adventure.”
The book also features a foreword by Patton Oswalt, who voices the wizard Doodad in the film. He writes in that intro, “Whooooo! A movie novelization! Movie novelizations were a huge part of being a movie lover in the ’70s and ’80s—especially if you were a fan of genre stuff like horror, sci-fi, slasher and fantasy. Readers of Alan Dean Foster’s beloved novelization of Ridley Scott’s ALIEN, for instance, were privy to the knowledge (never divulged in the film) that the crew of the Nostromo’s food supply was their reconstituted waste materials, processed by—insert future technological advance here—to appear as meat, veggies, and starches. The mind reels.”
“DEATHSTALKER is a classic,” says Encyclopocalypse founder Mark Alan Miller. “Steven Kostanski’s remake created something that honors the original while carving out its own brilliant, twisted identity. Bret expanded Steve’s love letter to Sam Raimi and rubber monsters into one of the best novelizations I’ve ever read. I love this book.”
The paperback and e-book editions of DEATHSTALKER can be pre-ordered at Encyclopocalypse’s website.
