Third Adaptation Intriguing Previous Creator

While Stephen King’s novels have often made their way to the screen, his iconic epic The Stand is about to get its third adaptation, and a previous creator is now weighing in on the next version. King’s 1978 novel is set in a post-apocalyptic world in which a deadly pandemic has wiped out 99% of the population, leaving survivors to fend for themselves, all while the mysterious Randall Flagg amasses a powerful following in Las Vegas.

After over a decade of starts and stops on a feature incarnation, The Stand finally made it to the screen with a miniseries adaptation in 1994, which King penned himself and won two Emmys and was nominated for six in total. Efforts to make a movie in the 2010s again evolved into a miniseries, this time developed by Josh Boone and Benjamin Cavell, the latter of whom served as showrunner. Five years after its polarized response, it was revealed that Paramount was teaming with Road House‘s Doug Liman to direct a film version.

In a recent interview with Joe Deckelmeier for ScreenRant to discuss his Colleen Hoover adaptation Regretting YouJosh Boone was asked about his thoughts on the new version of The Stand in the works. The director began by pointing out he “was only able to make the first and last episode” of the 2020 miniseries adaptation, the latter of which was “something I begged” King to write after a previous story in which the author had “an idea for a coda” to give an extra conclusion to the novel involving Frannie being stuck in a well:

I was like, “What the f–k is that about?” So, I wrote him and was like, “I’ve heard you talk about this. Why don’t you write it for us?” I still remember the day that I got that final draft file, and I was like, “I’m the first person to get to read this thing that he wrote!” I’d been a lifelong fan, and he had a very big impact on me when I was a kid. I sent some books to him, and he wrote me a letter when I was younger, and I put him in Stuck in Love, where he cameos as himself.

Boone went on to explain that part of the reason he loved King’s books when he was younger was not only because it was “the voice I wanted to hear the most when I opened a book“, but also because the author’s novels “have so many children characters“something he felt was rare when he was a kid growing up in the ’90s:

Kids read Stephen King books, so he was the biggest influence on me growing up and the biggest influence on me in my adult life. He was just the kindest, best person you could meet. They say, “Don’t meet your heroes,” but they didn’t mean Stephen King.

The creator also reflected on how his adaptation of The Stand originally started as a feature, much like the miniseries before it, in which “a lot of the cast from the movie came with me“including Nat Wolff and Greg Kinnear, describing the list as “friends who I’d wanted to put in stuff but hadn’t“. That list also consisted of behind-the-camera talent, including the show’s editors and composer Nate Walcott:

I did a lot of music work in it, like getting Black Sabbath in the first episode and having Alex Skarsgard whistle the opening to “The Stranger” by Billy Joel. Those are my sprinkles that I put in it, but I got to make such a limited amount of it that I always really wanted to make a three-hour movie, like JFK or something, with that big, sprawling cast, that big sprawling cast.

Boone felt thatthere’s just no way“the 800-plus-page book could be made into a movie, with him and Cavell wanting to”want something different” with the structure of the source material compared to the ’94 miniseries. Their approach, as he explained, was thatjumble the chronology in a way that would make it more surprising“ for fans of the book, even as they told it directly.

In coming back to talking about the new film adaptation, Boone expressed he was “looking forward“to seeing it, specifically praising Liman as he shared”I f—-ng love Doug Liman” and calling the filmmaker bothgreat“and”what a madman“. While acknowledging being curiousto see what anybody does“with King’s novel, he’s particularly intrigued to see”what it’ll be like as a feature“.

Much to Boone’s point above, the biggest point of curiosity about the new Stand adaptation is how it will work as a feature-length movie. Across both prior adaptations, the primary issue that delayed their developments always stemmed from the sheer scope of King’s novel, as everyone from George A. Romero to Harry Potter even David Yates and Steve Kloves tried to find the best way to parse it down to a reasonable theatrical length.

While still in its early days of development, Liman’s The Stand could best benefit from looking at Boone’s previous plans for the novel of turning it into four feature-length films before it became the nine-episode miniseries. One thing King’s fans consistently expect from adaptations of his work are faithful translations of their stories and characters, which only one film would risk betraying.

Additionally, there are some strong examples of movie adaptations being split into multiple parts becoming major hits. Wicked‘s first part was both a critical and commercial smash, while the final two Twilight movies overcame their critical dismissal to be box office hits. Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films are arguably the closest comparison for how Liman and Paramount could adapt The Standgiven the first two split Frank Herbert’s novel in half and pulled in major box office figures.

Regardless of what Liman’s approach ultimately ends up being, the ultimate deciding factor for whether The Stand can be pulled off in a feature-length format is getting King’s seal of approval. There are certainly adaptations in which critics still turned their heads even after King’s endorsement, but with it often being seen as his magnum opus, this and Dark Tower are the two adaptations in which, without praise from the author, will have a hard time succeeding.