Director Josh Boone has been developing an adaptation of Stephen King‘s epic post-apocalyptic novel The Stand since 2014. He’s been developing it for the big screen and at one point we heard that it could have been adapted into four films. Well, according to The Tracking Board he is now developing it as a 10-hour limited series at CBS. The good thing about this is that the story, which is super long, will actually get a proper full adaptation.
Boone was initially hired to write a script for a single film and he ended up turning is a 3-hour long script that everyone, including Stephen King, loved. The studio then asked him if he wanted to make multiple films, to which he said:
“Fuck yes! I loved my script, and I was willing to drop it in an instant because you’re able to do an even truer version that way. So I think we are going to do like four movies. I can’t tell you anything about how we’re going to do them, or what’s going to be in which movie. I’ll just say we are going to do four movies, and we’re going to do The Stand at the highest level you can do it at, with a cast that’s going to blow people’s minds. We’ve already been talking to lots of people, and have people on board in certain roles that people don’t know about. We’re looking to go into production next year, maybe in the spring.”
If he was excited about making multiple films, there’s no doubt the thought of expanding it into a ten-hour story is even more appealing to him.
The last we heard about the film, it was put on hold so that Boone could make an adaptation of Stephen King’s other book, The Revival. There was also talk of developing a miniseries that would lead into the film, but that idea was abandoned. Then it was put in a holding pattern to figure out how they wanted to proceed with it. It sounds like they figured it out!
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.
What do you think about The Stand being adapted into a 10-hour series?