During Comic-Con this summer, authorStephen Kinghelped put on a strange event for a book entitledCharlie The Choo-Choo, which is mentioned in the author’s third novel in hisThe Dark Towerseries,The Waste Lands. TheCharlie The Choo-Choobook didn’t actually exist in real life, until the Comic-Con event, where hundreds of fans showed up to snag one of the 150 copies of this “book,” with the “author” Beryl Evans (played by a Los Angeles actress namedAllison Davies), signing copies for fans. Today we have our first look inside this book, written byStephen Kinghimself, under the “Beryl Evans” pen name.
Entertainment Weekly has the front cover for this book and photos of three of the book’s pages. The illustrations of the book were provided byNed Dameron, who actually provided the illustrations forThe Waste Lands, theDark Towerbook whereCharlie the Choo-Choois mentioned. It remains to be seen if the full book will contain any Easter Eggs for fans leading up toThe Dark Towermovie’s release next year.
InThe Waste Landsbook,Charlie the Choo-Choowas purchased byJake Chambers, played byTom Taylorin the upcoming movie, at The Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind. The book tells the tale of Charlie the Choo-Choo and Engineer Bob. In the book, Charlie is very friendly and dependable, yet Charlie’s smile is often described as being untrustworthy and sinister. InThe Waste Landsnovel, Charlie has been compared to Blaine the Mono.
There is a sequence in the book whereRoland Deschain(Idris Elba) and his ka-tet are passing through Topeka and come across a train that looks exactly like Charlie the Choo-Choo. Jake nearly faints when seeing this train, swearing to the others that the train somehow flashed his lights at him. Whether or not this scene will happen in the movie itself has yet to be determined.
The highly-anticipated movie adaptation ofThe Dark Toweralso starsMatthew McConaugheyas Randall Flagg,Abbey Leeas Tirana,Jackie Earle Haleyas Sayre,Michael Barbierias Timmy andKatheryn Winnickin an unknown role.NickolajArcell} is directing from a script he co-wrote withAkiva Goldsman,Jeff PinknerandAnders Thomas Jensen. Take a look at these first look photos fromStephen King’s kids bookCharlie the Choo-Choo, as we wait for more onThe Dark Tower, and visitEntertainment Weeklyfor the full image gallery.
