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Writer and director Josh Boone has been hard at work developing the big screen adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. It looks like the project has expanded into something even more spectacular. According to The Wrap, the post-apocalyptic story will start out as an eight-episode TV miniseries on Showtime.
Warner Bros. and CBS Films are currently in talks with Showtime to make this happen. These eight episodes will lead into the feature film event. This is an ambitious project, and I love that the creative team is taking the adaptation in this direction.
Boone will write and direct the miniseries, and according to insiders, it's expected to start shooting early next year. Last year we learned that the adaptation would play out over the course of four films, so it looks like they opted to take another route, which is completely fine. As long as King's novel gets the epic adaptation it deserves, I'll be happy.
Something similar was being planned with The Dark Tower adaptation when Ron Howard was attached to direct it. It also would have used both film and TV to tell its vast story.
The Stand is one of my favorite stories from King, and I think Boone is the right person for the job to bring it to life. King will also be involved with the adaptation. It tells the story of good vs. evil after a virus wipes out most of the American population. While it features dozens of characters and overlapping storylines running over many years, the struggle boils down to a group of survivors fighting the Antichrist-like character Randall Flagg.
The plan is to have an A-list cast star in the series and films. It was previously rumored that Matthew McConaughey would be taking on the villainous role of Randall Flagg, which I think would be great.
After Boone takes on The Stand, he will take on Fox’s X-Men spinoff film The New Mutants and Universal’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles.
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