Fleming writes:
Boone told Kevin Smith in his Babble-On podcast (I heard it on Aint It Cool News) that after he boiled down the tale to a single script for a three-hour movie, Warner Bros actually suggested to him a more ambitious plan for what he calls “The Godfather of post-apocalyptic thrillers.” Said Boone: “They asked, would you do this as multiple films. I said f*ck yes. I think we’re going to do four movies. Do The Stand at the highest level you can do it at, with a cast that’s going to blow peoples’ minds. Production in the spring.” Boone said he’s writing that first installment, based on the script he has happily scrapped.I like this line, "Do The Stand at the highest level you can do it at..." YES!
Fleming rightly says, "It all starts with a studio decision maker, one with a spine, saying, yeah, I want to see this." This series of films will take someone with spine. He compares the work to the multi-part adaptation of Tolkien's work.
There are opportunities for visuals from The Stand that rival what Stanley Kubrick put on the screen in King’s The Shining. The depiction of the apocalypse in The Walking Dead, you just know that and other filmed works were informed by some of what King presented in his seminal novel. Stay tuned.Check out the full article at: deadline.com
I find myself with a foot in both the skeptic and (surprisingly) the hopeful camp on this one.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, I still say a four season cable series could be utilize the full narrative potential of the novel for an adaptation.
On the other, I am curious to see whether or not they could actually pull this off.
Back on the skeptic's side, however, I worry they're going to turn King and his story something it never was to begin with (no matter what the title of one of his own essays says); namely, a Brand Name on the lines of countless other sequel geared movies. This was one of the things I was worried would happen to a remake of the Running Man, in a way.
ChrisC
Chris, you should listen to the podcast. Unless Boone is a complete liar (and he doesn't sound like one -- he sounds incredibly genuine), your fears about turning King into something he isn't are completely unfounded.
DeleteI got damn near teary-eyed listening to how much King means to Boone. No joke.
My guesses: movie #1 -- the superflu ravages the country; movie #2 -- the survivors of the flu try to survive the aftermath; movie #3 -- Boulder; movie #4 -- on the road to Las Vegas and The Stand.
ReplyDeleteIt could work. It makes me nervous that they aren't planning to shoot all four at once, though; I'd hate for the first to be a failure, and then the rest never get made.
Other than that concern, though, I find it hard to imagine a better scenario for feature-film versions. I listened to the podcast, and was blown away by how genuine a King fan Boone is. And not just that, but a movie fan in general.
The podcast has tons of naughty language in it, but assuming that doesn't put you off too much, it is WELL worth the time of any King fan.
Took your advice and listened to podcast.
DeleteAs for Boone's helming a four movie deal, well I'm still willing to be hopeful, and I take back that Brand Name concern. Other than that, I still haven't got much to work with or go by for a project that still counts as "In Development".
One interesting thing about the podcast, Kevin Smith and I have only one thing in common, we both grew up in Catholic households, and yet I'll swear I never once encountered any of the kind of products he had growing up. Like I've heard of Davey And Goliath, yet I still have yet to even run across an actual scene of it to this day.
ChrisC