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)

Is The Dome A Permanent Fixture?

Collider gives a great recap of the Comic-Con Under The Dome panel. The panel included Rachelle Lefevre, Alexander Koch, Mike Vogel, Dean Norris, Eddie Cahill and Colin Ford.

Is the show going somewhere?  Or is this Lost?  The article cites Baer as insisting that the show is moving "closer  toward  people getting out  of the dome."  The worrisome part?  He says, "one might get out this season."  ONE?  Suggesting that CBS is going to string this along for another season?  He then said that they have "three to five SEASONS of the show planned out," and that they have a "lot of story to tell."

The producers explained that future episodes will include flashbacks into characters past.  (Great)  "We'll get to come face to face with his father," the article enthusiastically reports.  Here's the problem -- I don't care.  Do you?  I didn't start watching this to get attached to Barbie's father; I came for the Dome.  And that seems to be the one part of the story that they are not at all interested in telling.  Every now and  then the Dome does some neat tricks, but they are doing just about nothing to actually move the story with the Dome forward.

The ray of hope?  The report that Stephen King is "enthusiastic" when they decide to kill off a character is a good sign.  But I'm afraid we viewers are just being strung along with a riddle that doesn't have an answer.

This is interesting, "The writers, he said, call the ceiling of their office “heaven,” with photos of the dearly departed cast members tacked up there – including some viewers don’t even know about yet."  If not a bit creepy.

What do you think of Under the Dome?

For happier news. . .
'Batman v Superman' footage blows minds at Comic Con

Scott Cooper Talks THE STAND

In an interview with Christina Radish at Collider, Scott Cooper shared some of his thoughts on The Stand.  Cooper had been slated to direct the movie, but like many before him, backed out.

What happened with your involvement with The Stand?  Did that just not work out? 

COOPER:  Yeah, I’ve moved on.  It was a great process of connecting with Mr. [Stephen] King.  It’s a great piece, but it’s a tough story to crack in one telling.  It really should probably be told not unlike The Lord of the Rings, so you could really do justice to such a great piece of material.  He’s a great guy and so supportive, but if you’re going to take something on like that, you want to make sure you get it right. 

What happened with your involvement with The Stand?  Did that just not work out?
COOPER:  Yeah, I’ve moved on.  It was a great process of connecting with Mr. [Stephen] King.  It’s a great piece, but it’s a tough story to crack in one telling.  It really should probably be told not unlike The Lord of the Rings, so you could really do justice to such a great piece of material.  He’s a great guy and so supportive, but if you’re going to take something on like that, you want to make sure you get it right. 

Read more at http://collider.com/scott-cooper-out-of-the-furnace-black-mass-interview/#ypZkClbbZuiD4HBa.99

What happened with your involvement with The Stand?  Did that just not work out?
COOPER:  Yeah, I’ve moved on.  It was a great process of connecting with Mr. [Stephen] King.  It’s a great piece, but it’s a tough story to crack in one telling.  It really should probably be told not unlike The Lord of the Rings, so you could really do justice to such a great piece of material.  He’s a great guy and so supportive, but if you’re going to take something on like that, you want to make sure you get it right. 

Read more at http://collider.com/scott-cooper-out-of-the-furnace-black-mass-interview/#ypZkClbbZuiD4HBa.99

Collider Gives Us 25 Awesome Things About The New CARRIE

image credit:collider.com

Collider's Adam Chitwood has an interesting article about the Kimberly Pierce adaptation of Carrie. He discusses how blood drips off the human head and promises, "The new Carrie is a wholly separate adaptation of the novel, infused with modern sensibilities to speak to an entirely new generation."

Chitwood gives us 25 things he gleaned from his visit to the set.  Here are my six favorite notes:

• Kimberly Peirce didn’t want to think of the film as a remake, she saw it as an opportunity to do something different.  She wanted to really develop Chris as a villain.
• Peirce took a page out of King’s book when it came to the film’s tone, as she wanted to balance the horror with humor.
• They had to adapt the Margaret White character for modern day, so instead of making her a simple religious fanatic, they made it clear that she’s almost made a religion of her own.
• The aspiration from the beginning was to make a classic horror movie that has real characters and not just shock scares.
• Moretz describes the film as a darker, more twisted version that focuses on the mother-daughter relationship.
• Julianne Moore didn’t want to play Margaret White as simply a bible-thumping mother, she wanted it to be more substantial.  She went back to the book for inspiration in crafting her take on the character.

Check out all 25 at collider.com