The world already feels like it’s on the brink of doomsday, so we might as well gear up for another round of Captain Trips. The Stand, Stephen King’s doorstop-sized 1978 post-apocalyptic novel, is getting a new adaptation from director Doug Liman—with a twist. Instead of another series following in the footsteps of the 1994 and 2020 versions, this will be instead be a feature film.
This news comes from the Hollywood Reporter, which notes that Liman is aboard to direct and produce, but “the project will now head to writers to pen an adaptation of what is King’s longest work, with a page count of 1,152. It will instantly become one of the hottest writing assignments in town.”
Not to mention one of the most stressful writing assignments in recent memory, considering “sources say that Liman and the studio have a particular take and that the feature would be a one-off, not a multi-movie endeavor.” Given The Stand‘s sprawling story, extremely long list of characters, and status as a fan-favorite among King’s list of titles, that feels like a potentially tricky endeavor.
The 2020 miniseries, which starred Alexander Skarsgård as the sinister Randall Flagg and Whoopi Goldberg as force for good Mother Abagail, had the eerie synergy of arriving at the height of the pandemic. It even had a new ending written by King himself. But it ultimately left us underwhelmed and came up short compared to the earlier miniseries, not to mention the book itself.
As THR points out, Liman won’t be the first filmmaker to attempt to make The Stand into a feature. Perhaps his “particular take” will involve an approach other than attempting to compress the entire story into a 2-hour movie. That really feels like the only way to go if you can’t spread the story across multiple episodes. Trashcan Man origin story, perhaps?
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