A Good Marriage film

[mae]

http://www.screendaily.com/news/distribution/atlas-bears-stephen-king-thriller-a-good-marriage/5042186.article

Atlas International has added Stephen King adaptation A Good Marriage to its Cannes slate.

Peter Askin will direct the psychological thriller based on a short story from King’s book Full Dark - No Stars, winner of the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Best Collection. Will Battersby produces.

A Good Marriage follows a woman who discovers her husband’s dark secret hiding in their garage. The New York shoot is set to get underway in late summer for a summer 2013 release.

“Everyone at Atlas is very excited to be part of this project and honored by its new association with Stephen King, a true master if there ever was.“ says Philipp Menz, CEO of Atlas International.”

The project is out to cast.

[herbertwest]

I always thought that this story could be turned into a good movie!

[DanishCollector]

King wrote a screenplay for this one, so hopefully that's what they will use.

[Garrell]

Excited about this, was a great story.

[mtdman]

Great story, will make for a good movie.

[jhanic]

This was my favorite story in Full Dark. I just hope they do it justice.

John

[Merlin1958]

This was my favorite story in Full Dark. I just hope they do it justice.

John

My favorite was actually "Fair Extension", but "Good Marriage" was tied for first!!! Either one will be great!!!

[Jean]

Fair Extension was the only one I liked (within reason), but A Good Marriage could definitely make a nice horror film.

[herbertwest]

This was my favorite story in Full Dark. I just hope they do it justice.

John

My favorite was actually "Fair Extension", but "Good Marriage" was tied for first!!! Either one will be great!!!

+1

[beam*seeker]

Interesting, I liked 1924 the best for absolute horror. A Good Marriage did not seem to have the emotional impact the other stories did. A Fair Extension was good also.

[Iwritecode]

Interesting, I liked 1924 the best for absolute horror. A Good Marriage did not seem to have the emotional impact the other stories did. A Fair Extension was good also.

I didn't realize it until I just read your post but when I first read the thread title I was thinking of "1924" and wondering how good of a movie they could possibly make out of it.

Now that I have the correct story in my head, I'm looking forward to it.

I also can't help imagining the main character looking like Kip Dynamite.

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070520050004/uncyclopedia/images/0/04/Kip_Dynamite.jpg

[DanishCollector]

I believe you mean "1922"...that was my favorite from the collection, "Big Driver" being my second.

[Garrell]

Big Driver 1st here.

[mae]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/joan-allen-stephen-king-good-marriage-369547

Joan Allen will star in A Good Marriage, an adaptation of a Stephen King novella.

Peter Askin, who directed the 2007 documentary about the Hollywood Blacklist and McCarthyism titled Trumbo, is on board to helm the thriller and is producing with his Reno Productions partner Will Battersby.

King’s story, which appeared as part of the author’s Full Dark, No Stars short story collection published in 2010, centers on a woman named Darcy who discovers the sinister and gruesome double life that her husband of 25 years and father of their two children has been living. She must now decide how far she is willing to go to maintain the marriage.

Those familiar with the tale know that the role offers plenty to chew on, calling on a range of chops, both figurative and literal (sorry, couldn’t resist).

King wrote the screenplay for the movie, which is being financed by independent equity. Paradigm is handling domestic rights, while Atlas International is selling foreign rights.

King and Askin are old friends, with Askin directing a stage production of Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a musical written by King with music by John Mellencamp. It debuted in Atlanta this year.

Production on Marriage is due to start in New York in mid-October.

The award-winning Allen, repped by ICM and attorney J. Franklin Stewart, most recently reprised her role of CIA director Pam Landy in The Bourne Legacy and was one of the stars of HBO’s Luck.

Askin, who also directed the indie drama Searching for Certainty, is repped by CAA.

[Darkday]

King wrote a screenplay for this one, so hopefully that's what they will use.
I'm not sure about that. Writing screenplays is not one of King's strongest suits.

[Brainslinger]

I can see that story making a good film though.

[mtdman]

Joan Allen is not who I imagined for that role.

[mae]

http://rivertowns.patch.com/articles/stephen-kings-good-marriage-housed-in-hollow



Perhaps you’ve noticed the house on Bellwood, as you round into Philipse Manor alongside the restoration land – the one that looks like it might be out of a Stephen King movie.

This old off-white home, slightly creepy in its emptiness and subtle dilapidation, and yet a real potential gem with that backyard idyllic farm, caught the eye of location scouts. Now there is in fact going to be a Stephen King movie being made right here in the Hollow, “A Good Marriage,” whose title is surely ironic.

“The running joke is that it’s a psychological thriller,” said Village Administrator Anthony Giaccio, “which sounds about right.”

King's novella, adapted into a screenplay by the author and to be turned into a movie by Will Battersby and Peter Askin, is a little darker than that, with a longterm "good" marriage crumbling as the wife (to be played by Joan Allen) discovers her husband may be a serial killer.

The house is already more conspicuous than it used to be, with a huge blue tarp covering its front façade now. Crews will bring the house up to full functionality, renovating the inside (outfitting it with new floors, cabinets, etc.) and painting the outside to prep it for about a month of filming from the end of the May through June.

The house belongs to Historic Hudson Valley (you can tell because it enjoys the same new stretch of farm fencing) which wasn’t using it for anything lately. It used to house offices but has since become too deteriorated. So it’s a win for them to get the house fixed up and a win for the village, said Giaccio.

The village earns $1,000 a day for about 15 days of filming mostly limited to that house. Police get paid extra by the producers for any additional security required. They may make a few shots elsewhere (location TBD) but will mostly be inside the Bellwood walls, Giaccio said.

Sleepy Hollow meanwhile will bask in the cache of having a King movie made here. And we just may win some hours with King himself.

“Our request was that King make an appearance in the village somehow,” Giaccio said. They originally asked for a Halloween-season special visit from the dark-themed bestselling-book machine, but that time of year might be hard with his schedule, his team said. That's okay, said Giaccio, as we do fine on our own for Halloween.

Giaccio said they were “very responsive” to our request. King appears in all his movies and he’ll be around for at least some part of the filming, so it won’t be too much of a stretch to get him to sign some autographs and meet with people at some point.

“Stephen King and Sleepy Hollow were made for each other,” Giaccio said. A good marriage, if you will.

[ChristineB]

So I'm guessing since they are just now starting to shoot this we won't be seeing it this summer. At least I hope they take more then a couple months to edit the movie.

[Bev Vincent]

My reading of the article is that they're still scouting locations and haven't actually started filming yet.

[Bev Vincent]

... a film adaptation of Stephen King’s A Good Marriage will begin filming later this month, with Joan Allen as the star. We haven’t had any additional casting news up until now, but have new information on an actress that will be joining the cast. The Cabin in the Woods and House Of Cards‘ Kristen Connolly is the latest addition to the project and will be playing the daughter of Joan Allen’s character.

http://dailydead.com/casting-news-for-stephen-kings-a-good-marriage/

[Bev Vincent]

Anthony LaPaglia has joined the feature adaptation of Stephen King’s A Good Marriage. The Without A Trace alumni will play Bob Anderson in the film, with Joan Allen as his wife Darcy.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/05/anthony-lapaglia-signs-on-to-a-good-marriage/

[mae]

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Avatar-Stephen-Lang-Joins-Stephen-King-Adaptation-Good-Marriage-37492.html

With CBS airing Under the Dome this summer, and Kimberly Peirce’s Carrie remake coming in October, it will already be a good year for Stephen King fans. And that’s not even taking into account all of the other adaptations that have been announced over the last few weeks.

One of the longer-gestating projects is Peter Askin’s take on King’s A Good Marriage, news on which was strangely absent after Joan Allen (The Bourne Legacy) signed on to the cast last year. That is until last week, when Anthony Lapaglia (Without a Trace) was added as her devious husband. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Avatar’s Stephen Lang has joined the indie film, adding one more role to his already overloaded slate.

The Terra Nova star was last seen in David A. Armstrong’s ensemble crime thriller Pawn, and will be seen all over the place in the coming year. He’s joining Luke Hemsworth in the Australian war drama The 34th Battalion, and he’ll be in the Gina Carano revenge flick In the Blood with Danny Trejo. Also, he’ll head the indie remake of the classic horror tale The Monkey’s Paw. And there is still a handful of other under-the-radar projects he’s starring in. The man is a busy one.

For A Good Marriage - which King adapted from his own novella included in the 2010 collection Full Dark, No Stars - Allen will play a wife who finds out her husband (Lapaglia) has been leading a secret life that may implicate him in a vicious kidnapping. Lang will play a retired investigator from the Maine Attorney General’s office obsessed with getting the case solved. The film will also star Theo Stockman, Pun Bandhu and Timothy J. Cox.

There won’t be any lag time between now and the next bit of news, as production on A Good Marriage began this week.

[Iwritecode]

I don't have a good feeling about this. The whole point of the story is that the wife lived with the husband for decades without ever knowing about his "darker" side. If they chop it down to just one single kidnapping case, it misses the point completely.

Unless that's just a bad description of the film.

[mae]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/american-idiot-actor-joins-stephen-573436

Rising actor Theo Stockman has joined Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia in A Good Marriage, the indie adaptation of Stephen King’s 2010 novella.

The movie, currently in production, is being directed by Peter Askin and sees Allen play a woman named Darcy, who discovers the sinister and gruesome double life that her husband and the father of their two children, played by LaPaglia, has been living.

Stockman is playing their son, a man who made a name for himself in the advertising world and is enjoying his newfound success.

King wrote the screenplay.

Stockman has appeared in shows such as Blue Bloods, Private Practice, CSI, Nurse Jackie and 30 Rock. He also appeared in Broadway productions of American Idiot and Hair.

He is repped by APA and Gregory Russell at Regarding Entertainment.

[Bev Vincent]

SK tweets: Have seen the completed film version of A GOOD MARRIAGE. I thought it was terrific. Of course…I wrote it!

[jhanic]

SK tweets: Have seen the completed film version of A GOOD MARRIAGE. I thought it was terrific. Of course…I wrote it!

Then it HAS to be good!

John

[Bev Vincent]

King writes on FB: We’re giving away some tickets to a screening of my new film “A Good Marriage”. Anyone who likes the Facebook page for the film in the next 48 hours (by March 26th at 12pm) will have their name entered to win: https://www.facebook.com/AGoodMarriage

Two names will be picked out by yours truly, and both will receive two tickets to the cast and crew screening on April 24th in New York City. You have to provide your own transportation to New York but a hotel will be provided for the night as well as a car to the screening for each of the two winners.

[webstar1000]

King writes on FB: We’re giving away some tickets to a screening of my new film “A Good Marriage”. Anyone who likes the Facebook page for the film in the next 48 hours (by March 26th at 12pm) will have their name entered to win: https://www.facebook.com/AGoodMarriage

Two names will be picked out by yours truly, and both will receive two tickets to the cast and crew screening on April 24th in New York City. You have to provide your own transportation to New York but a hotel will be provided for the night as well as a car to the screening for each of the two winners.

LIKED:)

[Bev Vincent]

Steve picks the winners (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=372370446236973&set=vb.327710440702974&type=2&theater)

[CyberGhostface]

I hope its good but SK doesn't have the best track record when it comes to writing adaptations of his own work.

[herbertwest]

The world premier was on April 24th, but I havent seen ANYTHING, any review about it.
And still no news for the release.

Those days, it seem that studios plan things years in advance, but sometimes...
It's like : HORNS. The movie is finished since about a year. Have been shown in the Toronto Film Festival, but wont be released before Halloween 2014.
Or, MERCY. Apparently it's completed and has been sitting on a shelf since about a year or so...

What's happening? Studio create movies and then decide that they have no budget for the distribution / marketing and therefore just keep them aside?

[SutterKane]

In the Case of "Mercy", the problem their lies with the production company. Blumhouse films signed a first look distribution deal with Universal and then overwhelmed them with an abundance of films all at once. Their trying to find time to release and market them all. Theirs one called Mocking Bird, one Called Stretch, another called Not Safe for work,a remake of The Town that Dreaded Sundown and a whole bunch more........In addition to the ones that have come out like The Purge and it's sequel. The producer insists they will all be released at some point but isn't sure which will be in theatres and which will go to VOD.

[mikeC]

The world premier was on April 24th, but I havent seen ANYTHING, any review about it.
And still no news for the release.

I was thinking the same thing. Not even a trailer?!
I think Horns is either really good that they want to wait for a lot of buzz or its terrible and trying to find a spot where it can make some dough bc nothing else is out.

[Bev Vincent]

I guy named Logan L. Masterson won the contest and went to the premiere, but he didn't say anything about the movie on his Facebook page other than that he went.

[Bev Vincent]

The other winner posted this in response to my query on FB: Hi Bev Vincent, the movie was really quite well done in my opinion. It wouldn't make my top ten list, but it was good just the same. It was fairly short as far as King adaptations go, but it kept my full attention throughout. They were not sure yet about the release date, they mentioned September/ October as possibilities, or if not spring 2015.

[mikeC]

Thanks for info Bev.

[Bev Vincent]

Stephen King’s ‘A Good Marriage’ Scares Up U.S. Distribution (http://variety.com/2014/film/news/stephen-king-a-good-marriage-us-distribution-1201216461/)

Screen Media Films has acquired North American rights to thriller “A Good Marriage,” adapted from Stephen King’s short story from the collection “Full Dark, No Stars.”

King wrote the screenplay and Peter Askin directed the film, starring Joan Allen, Anthony LaPaglia, Kristen Connolly and Stephen Lang. Screen Media plans to distribute the film in early October — the start of the Halloween season — with a nationwide theatrical release accompanied by a day-and-date VOD platform release.

LaPaglia and Allen portray a married couple with the wife discovering the horrifying stranger inside her husband while he’s away on a buisiness trip — ending a good marriage.

“I’m delighted that ‘A Good Marriage’ is going to be available to the movie going public very soon, and hope we can scare the hell out of millions of people,” King said. “To me, that’s always an exciting prospect.”

[Randall Flagg]

Excellent! Thanks for the info.

[CyberGhostface]

Is this going to get a wide release? In the past I've only seen VOD releases with smaller release films.

[Bev Vincent]

It says nationwide -- we'll have to wait and see.

[Merlin1958]

Great news. Thanks, Bev!!! You're our STAR!!!

[webstar1000]

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/stephen-king-a-good-marriage-us-distribution-1201216461/?_r=true

[cowboy_ed]

Steve seems real into detective stories these days...

[cowboy_ed]

http://rivertowns.patch.com/articles/stephen-kings-good-marriage-housed-in-hollow



Perhaps you’ve noticed the house on Bellwood, as you round into Philipse Manor alongside the restoration land – the one that looks like it might be out of a Stephen King movie.

This old off-white home, slightly creepy in its emptiness and subtle dilapidation, and yet a real potential gem with that backyard idyllic farm, caught the eye of location scouts. Now there is in fact going to be a Stephen King movie being made right here in the Hollow, “A Good Marriage,” whose title is surely ironic.

“The running joke is that it’s a psychological thriller,” said Village Administrator Anthony Giaccio, “which sounds about right.”

King's novella, adapted into a screenplay by the author and to be turned into a movie by Will Battersby and Peter Askin, is a little darker than that, with a longterm "good" marriage crumbling as the wife (to be played by Joan Allen) discovers her husband may be a serial killer.

The house is already more conspicuous than it used to be, with a huge blue tarp covering its front façade now. Crews will bring the house up to full functionality, renovating the inside (outfitting it with new floors, cabinets, etc.) and painting the outside to prep it for about a month of filming from the end of the May through June.

The house belongs to Historic Hudson Valley (you can tell because it enjoys the same new stretch of farm fencing) which wasn’t using it for anything lately. It used to house offices but has since become too deteriorated. So it’s a win for them to get the house fixed up and a win for the village, said Giaccio.

The village earns $1,000 a day for about 15 days of filming mostly limited to that house. Police get paid extra by the producers for any additional security required. They may make a few shots elsewhere (location TBD) but will mostly be inside the Bellwood walls, Giaccio said.

Sleepy Hollow meanwhile will bask in the cache of having a King movie made here. And we just may win some hours with King himself.

“Our request was that King make an appearance in the village somehow,” Giaccio said. They originally asked for a Halloween-season special visit from the dark-themed bestselling-book machine, but that time of year might be hard with his schedule, his team said. That's okay, said Giaccio, as we do fine on our own for Halloween.

Giaccio said they were “very responsive” to our request. King appears in all his movies and he’ll be around for at least some part of the filming, so it won’t be too much of a stretch to get him to sign some autographs and meet with people at some point.

“Stephen King and Sleepy Hollow were made for each other,” Giaccio said. A good marriage, if you will.



Found it!

https://www.google.com.au/maps/@41.090725,-73.864804,3a,75y,181.39h,90.26t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sLFS_n_b7s2lDLAlj9ejGtg!2e0!6m1 !1e1

[herbertwest]

To be released on october 3rd in the USA :
>>> http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/08/18/stephen-king-a-good-marriage-joan-allen/?hootPostID=79a6d656353b49037180cdc3603a7ebf

http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/i/2014/08/15/good-marriage-poster_612x911.jpg

[Merlin1958]

Awesome!! Thanks for posting!!

[cowboy_ed]

Lord, Steve's name is bigger than the title.

[Merlin1958]

Lord, Steve's name is bigger than the title.


Well, he is the main selling point. Especially for a film based on a short story by, King

[herbertwest]

The trailer will arrive this week

[Bev Vincent]

Here's the trailer (http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/first-official-trailer-poster-stephen-king-adaptation-good-marriage/)

[herbertwest]

thanks !

[Ben Mears]

Here's the trailer (http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/first-official-trailer-poster-stephen-king-adaptation-good-marriage/)

Has potential.

[Danish]

It's looking very good, can't wait to see it;)

[Bev Vincent]

Screen Media Films adaptation of A Good Marriage hits theaters, VOD and iTunes on October 3rd. Those eagerly awaiting the release of the dark and suspenseful thriller can now preorder the HD version on iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/stephen-kings-a-good-marriage/id918631631?ign-mpt=uo=4) for $12.99. ($9.99 - SD)

[CyberGhostface]

A handful of theaters and straight to vod. Shame.

[mae]

http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article2251870.html

Kerri Rawson, the daughter of BTK serial killer Dennis Rader, broke the family’s nine-year silence Thursday and talked about her father’s 10 murders.

An interview by writer Stephen King about the upcoming movie “A Good Marriage” prompted her to break the self-imposed silence, she said.

The movie, adapted from one of King’s short stories, is about a wife who suddenly discovers her husband is a serial killer. Rawson, 36, learned on Wednesday that the movie was inspired by her father and her family.

“He’s exploiting my father’s 10 victims and their families,” she said.

She said she, her brother and her mother didn’t know that her father was BTK until the FBI told her in February 2005, shortly after Dennis Rader’s arrest.

She said her father is where he belongs, in prison. She has never visited him there. “I haven’t been brave enough for that yet,” she said.

“He has said he is sorry, but that means nothing,” she said of her father. “He is not worth all the books and the news stories and all the attention.”

And she criticized King, who gave interviews in recent days saying the novella and movie were inspired by the BTK murders, and how the killer lived for years with a family who had no idea what he was doing. “A Good Marriage” is a story in the collection “Full Dark, No Stars,” which was published in 2010.

King until Wednesday was one of her favorite writers, she said.

“He’s just going to give my father a big head, and he absolutely does not need that,” she said. “Great – now Stephen King is giving my father a big head. Thanks for that. That’s the last thing my dad should get.”

She said King will make money, as she said he always does, only this time from the grief of all the victim families. “How many millions does he already have?” she said.

“Any money King makes off this story should go either to abused children, battered wives, or police,” Rawson said.

She said she’s read at least a dozen Stephen King novels and loved them all but won’t read another. She said her father was also a huge King fan – she worries that King’s books might have influenced some of the bad things her father did in some of his later murders.

“We feel exploited,” she said of her family. “We consider ourselves the 11th victim family. Stephen King has the right to tell a story, but why bring us into it? Why couldn’t he just find inspiration for another good story, but leave out where it all came from?”

Rawson lives in Michigan; she married her husband, Darian, 11 years ago, with Dennis Rader giving her away at the wedding.

She is a stay-at-home mother and a former elementary school teacher; she has two young children, a boy and girl. Dennis Rader knows he has grandchildren, she said, but she has never sent him pictures.

She and her family were hounded by the media after her father’s arrest. They hid, and talked through doors, asking people to go away.

“Oprah called. Diane Sawyer called. I saw my father’s picture on CNN. It was insane,” Rawson said.

She said it hurt to hear that Ken Landwehr died of kidney cancer earlier this year. Landwehr was the Wichita police homicide unit commander who devised the strategy to capture her father after the serial killer resurfaced with taunting messages sent to police and the media in 2004.

Landwehr “and Kelly Otis (a police detective on the BTK task force) were very kind to me and my family,” Rawson said. “They helped us get through it, talked to us with a lot of kindness. I am sure they kept a lot of media crap away from us afterward. And there was a lot of that.”

She’s grateful to Landwehr for two other reasons. He and his task force removed a serial killer from freedom. And they publicly defended the rest of the family, saying in interviews that they were sure the other Raders, including her mother, Paula, did not know what Dennis was doing in the 31 years that he stalked women, killed 10 people and remained free.

In the nine years since her father’s capture in February 2005, a statement she and her mother Paula have heard repeatedly was that Paula knew all along.

“No way could she have known,” Rawson said. “She wouldn’t have raised us with him.”

Otis said she’s right.

“It’s absolutely true; they never knew about it,” Otis said.

Otis, now chief of investigations for the Sedgwick County district attorney, said he thinks it is unfortunate that King is basing the short story on the BTK story.

“Dennis Rader got sexually aroused every time he relived what he did to those victims,” Otis said. “I can absolutely guarantee that that’s what he will do now that he’ll know that King is basing this story on him.”

Katherine Monoghan, a publicist for King, who is scheduled to speak in Wichita on Nov. 14, said King was traveling by air on Thursday and wasn’t available to respond to Rawson’s comments.

But on King’s website he wrote this about the inspiration for his short story, “A Good Marriage”:

“This story came to my mind after reading an article about Dennis Rader, the infamous BTK (bind, torture, and kill) murderer who took the lives of ten people – mostly women, but two of his victims were children – over a period of roughly sixteen years.

“In many cases, he mailed pieces of his victims’ identification to the police. Paula Rader was married to this monster for thirty-four years, and many in the Wichita area, where Rader claimed his victims, refuse to believe that she could live with him and not know what he was doing.

“I did believe – I do believe – and I wrote this story to explore what might happen in such a case if the wife suddenly found out about her husband’s awful hobby.

“I also wrote it to explore the idea that it’s impossible to fully know anyone, even those we love the most.”

A synopsis of King’s story on the website says: “Darcy Anderson learns more about her husband of over twenty years than she would have liked to know when she stumbles literally upon a box under a worktable in their garage.”

Dennis Rader remains in “special management” at El Dorado Correctional Facility, prison records show.

He has been held there since Aug. 19, 2005, according to Kansas Department of Corrections records. His “earliest possible release date” is listed as Feb. 26, 2180, long beyond a human lifetime.

He has received only one disciplinary report in those nine years, for a mail-related violation.

His latest prison mug shot, taken in early 2013, shows a man who looks noticeably older, with a deeply creased forehead and disheveled hair on both sides of the bald top of his head.

Her father is now 69, Rawson said. Her mother is 66, and retired.

Rawson said the FBI came to her door in Michigan in February 2005.

“At first I tried to argue,” she said. “I get a knock on my door at noon (in Michigan). The FBI is telling me my dad is this other person. I didn’t believe it and tried to alibi my dad: ‘What dates are you talking about?’ ‘What time periods are we talking about here?’ I tried, but then quickly found out … there was no other way around it, it was true.

“He was confessing.”

The media hounded her mother, her grandmother, the rest of her family in Wichita. They hounded her in Michigan, she said. They offered friends and relatives money to talk. “It was awful,” she said. “I think my mother and I both suffer from some PTSD from what happened.”

It shattered her and her brother’s lives and emotions, she said. Both were bright children. Her brother, Brian, had been an Eagle scout and was in training to serve in U.S. Navy submarines when Dennis Rader was arrested, she said, noting that “you can’t do anything like that unless you’re really bright.”

Her brother served on Navy submarines from 2004 to 2009, she said. He’s going to college on the GI Bill, she said. She worries that he is struggling.

“He doesn’t have the kids and the family that I have,” she said. “And that’s really all I should say about him.”

She has two degrees, one in education, one in life sciences, from Kansas State University, she said. But they all had to go into hiding. She and her mother sought counseling.

“The hardest thing: Once you find out this horrible stuff about someone you loved and live with, you had to really work through it,” Rawson said.

She said she would never have made it without the strength of her husband, her mother and her Christian faith. “You just decide this is what life gave you,” Rawson said. “And you decide to go on.”

Her mother, who still lives in the Wichita area, is one of her heroes. “She held her head up, kept her life quiet, kept going to church – she is amazing,” she said.

Her own daughter, a child, has begun to ask questions. “She’s realized she’s got these two grandmothers – but where is her grandfather?” Rawson said. “She’s seen our wedding video. My father gave me away at the wedding. What father wouldn’t do that?”

“I didn’t want to lie,” Rawson said. “So I’ve told my daughter he’s in prison. I have not told her why. I told her that her grandpa did bad things. And because it’s sometimes really hard to get through a day, I sometimes tell her that her mom is having a really bad day.

“I know it’s all crazy. Anybody who met my dad, who knew him – to hear that he’s this other thing, this killer. … It is very hard for everyone who knew him to wrap their heads around it.’

The last time she saw her father: Christmas 2004. BTK had resurfaced the previous March. He would be caught two months later, in February 2005.

She can’t bring herself to go see him in prison, she said. But she has written occasionally, “Is it true?”

And her father has occasionally written back.

She accepts none of his explanations for what he did.

In her home, growing up, she loved him.

“He was everything,” Rawson said. “He was just a dad. He taught us about nature. How to fish. How to go camping. How to garden. He taught me a ton. He took us on good vacations. He was pretty Boy Scouty – no swearing.”

In her home in Park City as a child, she said, their father disciplined her and her brother for mistakes – for not picking up their shoes, or for swearing, or for sitting in his favorite chair at the kitchen table. “But,” she said, “he never abused us in any way.”

“He’s just this guy.

“I have never hated him. I was extremely hurt by him I loved him, after all. He was my dad. So I was extremely angry and hurt.

“One of the worst parts: wondering, did he really love us?

“Or was it just a facade?”

In 2012, she said, she stood up in her church (“I am a non-denominational evangelical Christian,” she said). “I told my story to 200 women,” she said.

That brought a measure of relief, though she told the women she’d never forgive her father.

But some time after that, at Christmas time, on the way home from a movie, she decided to forgive her father – to bring some peace to herself, though not necessarily for him. “God gave me that forgiveness,” she said. “My faith is my rock under me.”

She wrote a six-page letter to her dad, explaining that her forgiveness comes with caveats: That she will never understand what he did, or why. That what he did makes no sense.

“No matter what the books or the stories have said, he’s not a monster,” she said. “He’s just a guy who did the worst thing possible, 10 times in 17 years.

“He belongs in prison.

“I’m glad they caught him.

“I cannot imagine being one of the victim families and to endure what they must have gone through.”


Letter from Dennis Rader’s daughter

On Thursday, Kerri Rawson sent a letter titled: “A letter to Stephen King, the media from Dennis Rader’s daughter.”

She included her phone number and e-mail.

The letter from her reads as follows:

To The Eagle, The Wichita TV Media & Mr. Stephen King. My family is done, we are tired. We are not news, we are not a story to be exploited & profited on, to be twisted & retold to your liking whenever you want. Leave us, the families & the community out of it.

My dad is not a monster, that’s elevating him. He’s just a man, who choose to do some of the most horrible things a person can do. Not a monster, a man. A man who took 10 precious lives & tried to destroy countless others. He’s not worth the attention.

My mom is the strongest & bravest woman I know. She doesn’t need her life re-spun in a story or on the big screen. Her life is a true testament of all that is good & right in this world.

My family has tried hard to fight the good fight, to stand on our faith & live out a peaceful life. So let us live that life & please, leave us out of it. Out of the noise & chaos & the ugly & the awful.

Kerri (Rader) Rawson

[jhanic]

I truly feel sorry for the Rader family. It's too bad that they feel the way they do about King's story.

John

[CyberGhostface]

I sympathize with her but I see no reason why King shouldn't use the BTK killer as an inspiration for his film.

I also find it interesting that she broke her silence for this and not the numerous other BTK-related films.

[Randall Flagg]

I sympathize with her but I see no reason why King shouldn't use the BTK killer as an inspiration for his film.

I also find it interesting that she broke her silence for this and not the numerous other BTK-related films.
I concur.

[Ari_Racing]

First review:

http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/review-a-good-marriage-327?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Br!an]

Rawson obviously remains one of her father's victims.

*

On a lighter note, the ebook is now available:

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Good-Marriage/Stephen-King/ (http://books.simonandschuster.com/Good-Marriage/Stephen-King/9781501104428)

Big Driver is also available:

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Big-Driver/Stephen-King/

[stroppygoblin]

I found this interesting: "She said it hurt to hear that Ken Landwehr died of kidney cancer earlier this year. Landwehr was the Wichita police homicide unit commander who devised the strategy to capture her father after the serial killer resurfaced with taunting messages sent to police and the media in 2004.". I wonder how much of this also influenced the character in Mr Mercedes ?

[Br!an]

King responded to Rawson's comments...

I don't think Mr. Rader's daughter has to worry about her father getting a big head; there's nothing glamorous about the portrayal of Bob Anderson in A GOOD MARRIAGE. He's depicted as a banal little man, and none of the murders are shown. As for making millions from the project…not going to happen. AGM is a very small, independently financed feature that is opening in less than two dozen venues. How it does as a video on demand feature film (VOD) is hard to predict, but we don't expect huge returns. The story isn't really about the killer husband at all, but about a brave and determined woman. And while I understand Ms. Rawson's distress, the BTK crimes have already been chronicled in no less than 4 feature films, and there may be more in the future. I grant there is a morbid interest in such crimes and such criminals--there have been at least a hundred films about Jack the Ripper, who claimed far fewer victims--but there's also a need to understand why they happen. That drive to understand is the basis of art, and that's what I strove for in A GOOD MARRIAGE. I maintain that the theme of both the novella and the movie--how some men are able to keep secrets from even their closest loved ones--is valid and deserves exploration.

Stephen King

[mattgreenbean]

I'd rather Stephen King fictionalize my life than any other author. I hope she forgives him.

[herbertwest]

King responded to Rawson's comments...

I don't think Mr. Rader's daughter has to worry about her father getting a big head; there's nothing glamorous about the portrayal of Bob Anderson in A GOOD MARRIAGE. He's depicted as a banal little man, and none of the murders are shown. As for making millions from the project…not going to happen. AGM is a very small, independently financed feature that is opening in less than two dozen venues. How it does as a video on demand feature film (VOD) is hard to predict, but we don't expect huge returns. The story isn't really about the killer husband at all, but about a brave and determined woman. And while I understand Ms. Rawson's distress, the BTK crimes have already been chronicled in no less than 4 feature films, and there may be more in the future. I grant there is a morbid interest in such crimes and such criminals--there have been at least a hundred films about Jack the Ripper, who claimed far fewer victims--but there's also a need to understand why they happen. That drive to understand is the basis of art, and that's what I strove for in A GOOD MARRIAGE. I maintain that the theme of both the novella and the movie--how some men are able to keep secrets from even their closest loved ones--is valid and deserves exploration.

Stephen King

Where was it published/ put?

[Bev Vincent]

Official website

[herbertwest]

I can't find it there (?)

[Bev Vincent]

http://stephenking.com/xf/index.php?threads/btks-daughter-criticizes-sk.4186/page-3#post-232478

[herbertwest]

Ok, so not the official website, but the official forum ;)

[mtdman]

Saw this movie on on demand this weekend. It was underwhelming and awkward. But very true to the story.

[Randall Flagg]

Saw this movie on on demand this weekend. It was underwhelming and awkward. But very true to the story.
Saw it today. The script translated poorly. What was simple in the book looked terribly contrived in the movie. King also wimped out by changing the story about the youth's fantasy to shoot up a school. Instead they wanted to rape girls..
The aging detective worked in the story, but failed in the movie. Perhaps the best thing was the song at the closing credits.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh2kUvMBMlY

[mtdman]

While I like both of the actors that played the main characters in the marriage, I did not buy that they were an awesome, happily married couple. Joan Allen looked too old, imo, and really wasn't believable. And Anthony La Pagllia came off as creepy/slimey. Bob in the book is absolutely normal as can be and boring. And I agree, the story worked in written form, but came off a little corny on the screen. IMO, the movie tried too hard to make them look normal and tried to hard to make us shocked/upset at the reality of who Bob was. Additionally, the detective confrontation/reveal was awkward and handled better in the story. And really, who wouldn't notice some dude stalking your life like that for all those years? Didn't make sense.

Maybe I'm spoiled because I listened to the audio version, but the chick who read that story did an awesome job. She portrayed Darcellen as someone who was simple, shocked, and in denial. The movie was a nice try, but just not believable.

[stroppygoblin]

Watched this last night. I'd agree with previous comments here and rate it 5/10.

Whilst I agree it is pretty true to the original story (apart from the comment RF made), like many other film adaptations of King's work, it loses the inner voice that really expands on the characters thoughts and motives. This invariably translates into extraneous dialogue or pained over acting to convey the thought.

[Ricky]

I enjoyed it, but it definitely wasn't perfect. One of my main criticisms was that Bob comes across as suspicious right from the beginning. It seems like a lot of other people who saw the movie and read the book picked up on that too.

mtdman: I also agree that the detective reveal in the film was handled a bit awkwardly.

[mae]

According to this, A Good marriage will be on Netflix December 29th: http://www.movieinsider.com/m11632/a-good-marriage/

[Jon]

I plan to let the dust settle and watch it in 2015.

I'll let opinions and reviews fade.

[mae]

According to this, A Good marriage will be on Netflix December 29th: http://www.movieinsider.com/m11632/a-good-marriage/

And it's on Netflix now: http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/80014887?trkid=202653