Stephen King Clarifies Where He Stands on ‘The Stand’

Movies
Posted by MrDisgusting on February 04, 2011 @ 2:13am
Category: Movies / News

News broke on January 31 that Warner Bros. would be creating a big screen version of Stephen King’s 1978 novel The Stand, thus Entertainment Weekly checked in to see what the horror writer had to say about it — especially since the press release stated that King would be involved in some capacity. Should we believe it? Here are ten things EW learned about the project:

“1. No one will be able to top Gary Sinise, who played Stu Redman in the original ABC miniseries. He was perfect. When he says “You don’t know nothing” to the soldiers who are putting him under mandatory quarantine, you believe his contempt completely. My runner-up pick would be Jake Gyllenhaal.
2. I didn’t know anything about the remake until I read about it on the Internet.
3. You absolutely can’t make it as a two-hour movie. If it was a trilogy of films…maybe.
4. Molly Ringwald won’t be playing Fran Goldsmith this time.
5. Rutger Hauer is a little too old to play the Walkin’ Dude, and that’s too bad.
6. People who’ve seen Kubrick’s The Shining dislike the miniseries I wrote (and my amigo Mick Garris directed) even if they haven’t seen it. That’s always annoyed me. But the wheel of karma turns! This time people will probably say, “The miniseries was lots better.” BUT…
7. …historically speaking, movie studios blow the budget on things like this, so maybe it’ll be fun to look at. The dough certainly isn’t going to me, although if it is a trilogy, and if it makes a lot of money, I might be able to buy a chicken dinner at Popeye’s. Great slaw!
8. Molly Ringwald will probably not play the Trashcan Man, either, but Billy Bob Thornton would be cool. Billy Bob’s always cool.
9. They need to write in a lot of heavy-metal for the soundtrack.
10. M-O-O-N, that spells “you probably won’t see this anytime soon.” And when you do, Woody Allen won’t be directing it. Or Molly Ringwald.”

Just as we suspected. The release stated King would be involved in some capacity — probably just so the lot of us didn’t bitch and moan. But seriously, the source material does contradict a plan to make a feature film. And if King was involved, from the looks of above, he’d prefer this be a trilogy instead of a special effects bonanza. Smart man, he’s gonna earn that Popeye’s.

The 1978 “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
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CBS and Warners Team for Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’!

Movies
Posted by MrDisgusting on February 01, 2011 @ 1:57am
Category: Movies / News

George Romero and Warners separately tried in vain to launch a movie adaptation in the 1980s, and a tone-downed version was produced as a six-hour miniseries by ABC in 1994, now Stephen King’s grand opus The Stand is finally getting the big-screen treatment!

Heat Vision reports that Warner Bros. and CBS Films are teaming to adapt the novel, which in many ways set the bar for a generation of post-apocalyptic stories and influenced works ranging from TV’s “Lost” to music group Anthrax. The studios and producers (Mosaic and Roy Lee) 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 1978 “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.