The Stand Will Be An 8 Part Mini-Series

YES! yes yes yes!
Sorry, I'll try not to be excited.
YES!

Jeff Sneider at thewrap.com posted news that The Stand "will take a revolutionary detour to the small screen."  Wait, whats happening?  Warner brothers and CBS are in talks with Showtime to turn the novel into an eight-part miniseries.  But that's not all; it comes to a big massive end with a big screen "big-budget" feature film.

Of course, the miniseries format allows for a bigger story; one more true to the novel.  By going with showtime instead of network TV, the story is more leeway to be a true horror pic than the previous miniseries offering.

Here's the facts as reported by thewrap.com:
Josh Boone will write and direct the miniseries.
The miniseries should start shooting early next year "as one cohesive production."
"Boone is expected to set his sights on several A-listers."
WB will handle the theatrical distribution of the movie.  (Which explains why showtime is involved.)

What was great about the 94 version of The Stand: Gary Sinise, and Rob Lowe.
What was not so great: It was very 90's.  Molly Ringwald.  Television.

The Stand to be FOUR movies

Good news on THE STAND.  Previous ideas  floated that it would be done as a single film; which is, of course, insane.  Mike Fleming at Deadline posted  an article  titled, "Josh Boone Says Warner Bros Will Turn Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ Into Four Films."  

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

Josh Boone Is Making Me Cringe

Does anyone get nervous anytime they see a headline about the upcoming movie, The Stand?  I do.  Because it seems like so many bad decisions have already laid a foundation that cannot support

Tommy Cook at Collider has an interview with director Josh Boone on The Stand.

• Here are the bullet points
• I finished writing the script maybe a month ago. 
• Stephen [King] absolutely loved it.  
• It’s, I think, the first script ever approved by him. (Seriously, Josh?  King WROTE the original screenplay for The Stand.  I doubt YOUR version is the first script he ever approved!)
• It might begin filming in Six to eight months.  Possibly in Spring 2015. 
• [It'll be] a single version movie of The Stand. Three hours. 
• It hews very closely to the novel.  

Wait a minute.  Hold the bullet points.  Three hours. . . close to the novel.  That's not possible.

When asked how he would trim down a story as big as the Stand, Boone gave this answer:

 I just focused on the things that I felt strongly about, that I have strong memories about, that are evocative to me even when I read it now . . . 

. . . I just focussed on the things that were more important to me and felt essential to me and were based in the characters.

So the movie is really, "Josh Boone's favorite parts of The Stand" -- not Stephen King's THE STAND.

Boone goes on to discuss the fact he's an atheist/agnostic.  Frustrating, since for many of us, The Stand is an intensely spiritual book.  We already had a rather flat rendition by Garris; but at least Garris gave the story the room it needed to breath.

Is The Stand a religious novel?  From Stephen King, A Face Among The Masters:

In 2008, King told novelist John Marks in Salon magazine that The Stand was his attempt to give God his due. “Too often, in novels that are speculative, God is a kind of kryptonite, and that’s about all that it is, and it goes back to Dracula, where someone dumps a crucifix in Count Dracula’s face, and he pulls away and runs back into his house. That’s not religion,” King told Marks. “That’s some kind of juju, like a talisman. I wanted to do more than that. I wanted to explore what that means to be able to rise above adversity by faith, because it’s something most of us do every day.” He then said that he wanted The Stand to “be a God trip.” (Stephen King A Face Among The Masters)

King's Fingers Are "Crossed" On The Stand Movie

King talked with Damon Lindelof at insidetv.ew.com on a range of issues, mostly related to Under The Dome.  He assured us that though he did not expect it to be picked up for a second season, the story arc is great.

About The Stand, King said, “When I worked with Mick Garris on the miniseries, it was really sort of a rewarding experience because we had a chance to [focus on] the characters and I think I wrote the entire miniseries just so I could hear Gary Sinise say, ‘Country don’t mean dumb’ … Now I’ve been involved with Josh Boone who did The Fault in Our Stars and he’s working on the screenplay. He’s young and he’s ambitious and he’s totally behind the book and he seems to be doing a great job and seems to have a lot of support behind him from Warner Bros. So I have my fingers crossed, but that’s all that you need to do right? You just cross your fingers and hope.”

MTV Confirms Boone is Directing The Stand

MTV's Kase Wickman posted that rumors Josh Boone might direct the remake of The Stand are indeed true. (mtv.com/news)

Wickman reports that Boone mentioned the film while disussing his upcoming film, "Fault."

“The emotional connection that they have to that book ["Fault"] is so deep I think a lot about,” Boone said. “The reason I can understand that sort of fandom is when I was their age, I loved Stephen King with all of my heart. I wrote him letters when i was a kid, he wrote me back, and sent me some signed books. I put him in my first movie and now I’m adapting and directing ‘The Stand’ for Warner Bros. 

“When I was a kid, his books meant that much to me, so I totally understand the obsession. you have things that root themselves in you. The things that you love as a kid are the hardest to shake. You will always love them.”

Later in the discussion Boone revealed that he has a "gentleman's agreement" with Nat Wolff to give him a role in The Stand.

Josh Boone and Stephen King

picture from hamptonroads.com
Author Stephen King, left, and writer/director Josh Boone
at a recording studio in Florida in April 2012. (Courtesy photo | Josh Boone)

Virginia Beach is celebrating the success of their native son, Josh Boone, who was recently tapped to direct the Stand.  hamptonroads.com noted,

Several Hollywood news outlets - including Variety - have reported that Boone has or will be hired to direct the film version of King's 1978 post-apocalyptic novel "The Stand." 

It's a coup for a young director, visualizing the work of this generation's greatest horror scribe, but not a total surprise. Boone and King have a connection; the author played himself in Boone's feature debut "Stuck in Love.

Josh Boone In Talks To Direct THE STAND

The Hollywood Reporter posted that Josh Boone is in early talks to direct The Stand.  The film is being made by Warner Bros. and CBS Films. Previously Ben Affleck and David Yates had eyed the film.

It has been discussed that the film version of King's epic novel might be a trilogy, since adapting the 1,200 page novel into a 2 or 3 hour movie would seem impossible.

Borys Kit at The Hollywood Reporter writes:

Boone already has a King connection dating back to when he was 12 and King's books were banned in his household. The writer-director has previously recounted how he was forced to rip covers off of Christian books and tape them to King books just so he could slyly read them. The Stand however, faced a cruel fate: His mom found it under his bed and subsequently burned it in the fireplace.

Which says -- she had no idea what The Stand was really about!  I wonder if she'll watch the movie.

Boone, still 12, wrote a moving letter to the author to which he responded by sending the boy a box filled with books, with a letter written in the front covers of the tomes. The act impressed his parents, who then lifted the ban.

It started a lifelong relationship with King, who even played himself in Boone's feature debut, 2012's Stuck in Love, and recently gave Boone permission to adapt Lisey's Story.

The full article is at: www.hollywoodreporter.com