This week, filming has begun right here in Franklin Township for a miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story. The selected location for filming is the famed Van Liew-Suydam house located at the intersection of South Middlebush Road and Blackwell Mills Road. While there are no road closures required for the filming, traffic is expected in the area. Please plan accordingly!
The Van Liew-Suydam house, built by Peter Van Liew in the late 1700’s and expanded in 1875 by Joseph Suydam, is a staple of the Franklin Community. “On September 27, 1988, the State of New Jersey sold the house to Franklin Township for $100. The house and property have been leased to the Meadows Foundation, which has restored the house exterior, interior, and barn.” -TheMeadowsFoundation.org
When asked in a Rolling Stone interview how his numerous works rank in his own estimation, King claimed that Lisey’s Story is his best, saying that:
“That one felt like an important book to me because it was about marriage, and I’d never written about that,” King said. “I wanted to talk about two things: One is the secret world that people build inside a marriage, and the other was that even in that intimate world, there’s still things that we don’t know about each other.”
(via Rolling Stone)
“Lisey Debusher Landon lost her husband, Scott, two years ago, after a twenty-five year marriage of the most profound and sometimes frightening intimacy. Scott was an award-winning, bestselling novelist and a very complicated man. Early in their relationship, before they married, Lisey had to learn from him about books and blood and bools. Later, she understood that there was a place Scott went–a place that both terrified and healed him, that could eat him alive or give him the ideas he needed in order to live. Now it’s Lisey’s turn to face Scott’s demons, Lisey’s turn to go to Boo’ya Moon. What begins as a widow’s efforts to sort through the papers of her celebrated husband becomes a nearly fatal journey into the darkness he inhabited. Perhaps King’s most personal and powerful novel, Lisey’s Story is about the wellsprings of creativity, the temptations of madness, and the secret language of love.” -From Goodreads.com
The miniseries is set to be produced by J.J. Abrams, and will be available on Apple TV. A release date has yet to be announced.
Thanks for reading!
-George, FTPL
