One of the many Stephen King projects currently in development, and we mean MANY, is a new adaptation of The Stand, King’s epic post-apocalyptic novel that was originally published in 1978. We say new adaptation, of course, because The Stand was turned into a television mini-series in 1994. Mick Garris directed the 366 minute adaptation.
Josh Boone (The New Mutants) has actually been working on an adaptation of the novel for a few years, originally set to take the form of a film/potential 4-film franchise. But those plans have changed, it seems, as The Stand is again set to arrive on the small screen. Tracking Board provides the scoop in an article primarily about New Mutants.
They write, “Boone has a full plate once he wraps New Mutants. He’s still attached to direct an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, which we hear is coming together as a ten-hour limited series at CBS All Access.”
A 10-hour adaptation of The Stand would be considerably longer than Garris’ mini-series, which came in at just over 6 hours. That would give Boone more than enough time to do the novel proper justice; and in the wake of last year’s The Dark Tower truncating another King epic and condensing it into one film, that’s sounding like a pretty good idea.
In The Stand, “After a deadly plague kills most of the world’s population, the remaining survivors split into two groups – one led by a benevolent elder and the other by a maleficent being – to face each other in a final battle between good and evil.”