Stephen King’s magnum opus is getting the big-screen treatment.
Warner Bros. and CBS Films are teaming up to produce a big-screen version of “The Stand.”
The companies will co-develop and co-produce the feature film, with CBS having the option to participate in co-financing. Warners will handle worldwide marketing and distribution.
The studios and producers will sit down with writers and directors in the coming weeks in an attempt to find the right take on the material. One thing to be determined is whether to attempt the adaptation in one or multiple movies. King will be involved in some capacity.
The novel has already been adapted a television mini-series in the mid-90’s.
“The Stand” is a story of good vs. evil after a virus wipes out most of the American population. While it features dozens of characters (such as the Trashcan Man and Mother Abigail) and overlapping story lines running over many years, the struggle boils down to a group of survivors fighting the Antichrist-like Randall Flagg.
The novel was originally published in 1978, but by the time it was rereleased in 1990 with King adding and revising portions of the story, it had achieved cult-like status.
Um, why? The miniseries was SO well done. This story is too big even for a 3-hour theatrical release (which studios would never approve as it would mean one less showing per day to milk money off of).
@Arke: Agreed. The story is too big for a single movie for sure and the TV mini-series WAS very well done.
Agree with both posters. First thing I thought when I saw the headline was it would have to be done in multiple movies. Be extremely difficult to pull it off in one movie…maybe impossible (to get everything in). The miniseries did such an excellent job of staying faithful to the book…they’d really have to do something special to even come close.
Oh my. This does not bode well.
To make this into a feature film, they’ll have to cut out some character arcs. And this book is filled with ’em.
It has to be a mini-series to be done right.
Why not just re-do the mini-series? Which doesn’t really need re-doing, but…
Studios keep trying to turn King novels into movies, and they rarely go well. His stories are just better served by mini-series. In this case, I can’t imagine how they’re going to condense a 1000+ page epic into a 2-hour film. It’s insane.
No thanks, mini-series was great. Doubt a 2 hour movie could tell anything well, unless they do in fact decide on multiple movies.
Well I have to be the differing voice in this chat. I did like the mini-series don’t get me wrong, but the special effect were kind of cheesy and the actor playing the Darkman did not evoke much dread or menace.
The only way this could work on the big screen is if they break it into parts so as to give the story the attention it properly deserves. Anything less would take too much away from the story, and as everyone else has said, the mini-series did an outstanding job of telling the story without sacrificing too much from the novel itself.