An adaptation of Stephen King’s massive post-apocalyptic novel ‘The Stand’ has been in the works for years now, with ‘New Mutants’ director Josh Boone attached to direct. Things seemed to hit a snag in 2016, but now word has surfaced that Boone’s ‘The Stand’ is back in the works and will arrive as a ten-hour miniseries via CBS All Access, the home of ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and Jordan Peele’s upcoming ‘Twilight Zone’ revival. The project had previously been attached to air on Showtime. It was also expected to be eight hours in length but appears to have been expanded. Considering how dense King’s novel is, it could use all the time it can get.
King’s book centers around a world where a flu virus has killed off 99% of humanity. The remaining survivors are divided into two camps– a benevolent group led by the 108 year-old Mother Abigail and the destructive force led by Randal Flagg.
The adaptation was originally intended to be a theatrical film trilogy, with first David Yates attached around 2011, before Ben Affleck took over in 2012. Affleck compared the project to an American ‘Lord of the Rings’ but admitted that the script was proving hard to crack. He eventually gave up in 2014, when Boone was tapped to helm the project. However, Boone immediately scrapped all previous drafts of the script.
“[Those drafts] were not so much where I thought they should be going with it. [They were] much more like a big summer blockbuster. When I thought about The Stand it’s so much about the vast network of characters, and all their problems. It’s kind of a morality play set in post-apocalyptic America. The battle between good and evil is the battle for these peoples’ souls. They make choices which dictate the fate of humanity.”
Boone planned to compress the story into one three-hour movie and even completed a script with that goal in mind. But Warner Brothers decided to go back to a multiple film series.
Now Boone is planning to adapt another project, ‘Revival’ first, before jumping into ‘The Stand’. He is also retooling ‘New Mutants’ which was delayed by roughly a year by 20th Century Fox.
Of course, ‘The Stand’ was already adapted as a TV miniseries back in 1994. That version was eight hours-long and starred Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe and even featured a cameo by King himself.
Check back for updates on this project as more information becomes available.
Source: The Tracking Board
