I’ll try to catch my breath here.
My favorite book of all time, Stephen King’s The Stand, may finally be heading to theaters. Warner Bros and CBS Films are working together to bring King’s mammoth tale about the end of the world to the silver screen. Heat Vision, who first broke the story, reports that the companies will co-develop and co-produce the feature. CBS has had the rights for years and only recently decided to move forward with the project, maybe because of the buzz created by Ron Howard’s adaptation of King’s other celebrated work, THE DARK TOWER. CBS began looking for a partner on the film and Warner Bros came calling. The studio beat out both Fox and Sony for the position.
Heat Vision says that the studios will be meeting with directors and writers in the coming weeks to try and set a course for the project. A major decision will have to be made regarding the running time of the film. The Stand is massive, over 1,000 pages in its unabridged form. To do it justice, CBS and Warner Bros might decide to cut it into a couple films. That only makes sense, THE DARK TOWER will be three films and a TV series. Surely THE STAND deserves the same treatment.
I can’t put into words how excited (and nervous) I am about this news. The Stand is a brilliant work of American fiction. Though it may be blasphemous to say so, I think it’s on par with the works of Tolkien in terms of scope and story. Of course, the book has been adapted before. ABC turned it into a mini-series starring Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald and Rob Lowe back in 1994. It wasn’t bad but it definitely wasn’t great. The book has also been turned into a comic series by Marvel (see the picture above).
The Stand tells the story of good versus evil in an abandoned, decimated America. My mind is in overdrive thinking of the possibilities regarding writers, directors and cast members. I just hope that Warner Bros, CBS and whoever they choose to helm the project do it justice. Please, please, please get this right.
I’ve included a brief synopsis of the book below. If you’ve got a spare couple of weeks and some extra time, do yourself a favor and read it.
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death.
And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides — or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail — and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.
