Ten-hour miniseries of The Stand on CBS All Access

[Ari_Racing]

LOL...this was a shocker:

http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news...medium=twitter

[Merlin1958]

Oh well, and on we go!!!

[Joe315]

PG or PG 13?! It needs to be an R rated movie.

[mae]

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/171...universe.jhtml

Hollywood has been desperately looking for the next incarnation of the Marvel movie universe, a series of interconnected movies that lead to some giant conclusion. Reportedly Warner Brothers is attempting this with their DC Comics-based movies, and FOX wants to get in the game with the "X-Men" movies and the upcoming "Fantastic Four" reboot. But if you're looking for a truly original way to create a new, unique movie universe, look no further than novelist Stephen King.

The idea started tickling our brains after MTV News talked to writer/director Scott Cooper about his upcoming adaptation of King novel "The Stand." Unfortunately, since we broke that news it was announced that Cooper has since left the project. Though we're disappointed to see the talented director leave, this does create an opportunity for Warner Brothers to embrace the project in a whole new way.

In "The Stand," the enigmatic, potentially demonic Randall Flagg represents everything bad about the post-apocalyptic world of the book. He's an important figure in the novel, a commanding presence, and most importantly Flagg doesn't appear in just "The Stand." In fact, Flagg makes a brief appearance in King's "Hearts In Atlantis," as well as his fantasy novel "Eyes of the Dragon."

But the kicker is that Flagg is the main bad guy throughout King's epic "Dark Tower" series, popping in and out throughout history to torture protagonist Roland Deschain on his quest for the titular building. In these books it's revealed that Flagg has the ability to jump through dimensions, taking many names, and appearing in many different times and places.

This mega-story has allowed King to weave together nearly every other book and short story he's ever written, from the connective locations of Castle Rock and Derry, to little touches like a lost child's shoe in "Pet Sematary" showing up years later in an entirely different novel.

So imagine this for a moment. Rather than Samuel L. Jackson's heroic S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury showing up at the end of every Marvel movie, teasing an ultimate "Avengers" team-up; instead one could have the villainous Randall Flagg popping in and out of a connected King universe of movies. Supporting this idea, Flagg's first appearance in a King novel was "The Stand," so kicking things off with the end-of-the-world adaptation makes a certain amount of sense. Release several other standalone King adaptations, have them all lead up to an epic series of "Dark Tower" films, and you could create something completely unique.

There are two potentially gigantic problems with this, of course. The first is the amount of time an actor playing Flagg would need to spend on the role. The easy answer is that with a few exceptions, Flagg only makes cameo appearances in the books. And where he does make a major appearance, he's often wearing a different face by using magic. You could have whoever is chosen play the role, sure. Or you could cast other actors, with a brief flash of the main actor late in the movie. Think Tom Hiddleston's "impersonations" in "Thor: The Dark World" and you have the gist.

The second problem is rights. And normally this would be a concern, except most of King's properties (or at least the ones involving Flagg) are all at Warner Brothers. The studio recently passed on a "Dark Tower" adaptation, and previously made a version of "Hearts in Atlantis" without the Flagg character, but that doesn't mean they couldn't reboot both with a strong plan. Warner Brothers also has a remake of King's "It" in the works, which has strong connections to the world of "The Dark Tower," as well as Flagg.

The only adaptations currently in the works that aren't at Warner Brothers are a remake of "Pet Semetary" (at Paramount), "Firestarter" (at Universal), "11/22/63" (optioned by Jonathan Demme, without a studio as of yet), and most crucially "Eyes of the Dragon," which is currently being developed at SyFy.

Still, with several novels already optioned, and numerous others ranging from "The Talisman" and its sequel "Black House," to paired novels "Desperation" and "The Regulators" all having strong ties to Flagg and the "Dark Tower" universe, there's a lot of material to work from.

It may be a pipe dream. It may be too big for any studio to handle. But if someone was to take a chance on creating a unique horror/fantasy universe on screen, it just might be the idea that truly takes what Marvel started to the next level.

[Iwritecode]

In fact, Flagg makes a brief appearance in King's "Hearts In Atlantis,"

Why don't I remember this?

[Bev Vincent]

It's subtle.

[Iwritecode]

It's subtle.

I had to check Wiki. Now I remember.

[mae]

http://www.iamrogue.com/news/movie-n...the-stand.html

Will Paul Greengrass be the guy to finally make The Stand into the epic motion picture event that Warner Bros. and CBS Films are dreaming of?

Too early to say with any authority.

Apparently, though, he's at the top of the directorial wishlist to tackle Stephen King's humdinger of a novel.

In 2011, when Warner Bros. first starting cooking up The Stand, King himself cheekily declared of the film, "you probably won’t see this anytime soon." So far he's been right, but that's not due to a lack of effort on the studio's part. Coming off of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, David Yates was courted to stare the Dark Man in the eye, with Steve Kloves (screenwriter of all but one Potter movie) writing.

After Yates and Kloves amicably broke up with The Stand, the adaptation started going steady with director Ben Affleck. While Affleck was working on Argo, David Kajganich signed on to write the screenplay. Eventually, studio favorite Affleck followed Yates down Not-Directing-The-Stand Ave.

Scott Cooper, the Crazy Heart director whose Out of the Furnace opens December 6th, took over in Affleck's stead, but just last week we learned that Cooper has also left the film in his rear-view mirror.

So with the director's chair again in need of a qualified butt to fill it, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting (from Hollywood) that candidates include Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips), Cary Fukunaga (Jane Eyre), Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners), and Daniel Espinosa (Safe House). Badass Digest singles out Greengrass as the current number one choice.

Greengrass would no doubt make a fascinating The Stand. The director of white-knuckle fact-based dramas like Bloody Sunday and United 97 is best known for overseeing The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Almost a decade ago, he was on board to direct Watchmen before Warner Bros. even got a hold of it, and he's frequently on the wishlist for would-be spectacles like Cleopatra starring Angelina Jolie. He's been keen on Memphis, a chronicle of the last several months in Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, for several years now and even has Forest Whitaker on board to star. But we don't know what the status of that project is at this point.

The reason for the most recent directorial departure isn't clear, but it seems that there are some basic uncertainties regarding this adaptation, such as the rating and whether or not to condense the sprawling source material into one film.

This second concern is far from trifling. As an unabridged mass-market paperback, King's novel is 1,141 pages long. Awash in religious themes and supernatural flourishes, the story begins when a routine kerfuffle unleashes a highly infectious disease that initially looks like a common cold but leaves infected dead just in days. Attempting to cover up such biological warfare, the military adds horror upon horror but the infection, known as Captain Trips or Superflu, leaves the vast majority of the population dead inside of weeks. What follows is a ground-level view following as survivors make their way from all corners. The heroes, driven by dreams of saintly centenarian Mother Abigail, assemble in Colorado, where they attempt to reconstitute something like civilization in the Boulder Free Zone. In Las Vegas, meanwhile, survivors with a less idealistic bent are drawn to Randall Flagg, aka the Dark Man, the Walkin' Dude, and the Hardcase, a grinning, denim-wearing, skin-walking manifestation of evil.

The Stand is a truly huge story, one that follows sundry characters on journeys across a freshly deserted America. Despite the breadth of the storytelling, however, King's novel stays smartly human scale, almost entirely eschewing the type of big barn-burning action sequences that so often draw studios to material like this.

After he opted out of The Stand, Yates nailed down some of the difficulty inherent in turning the book into a big budget movie, saying, "Stephen King really puts you into these people’s lives, and you see the world from a very intimate human level, which normally is something I love. But we felt this pressure to make these super tentpole movies with this material, and the things that you get in Potter—which are these extraordinary episodes of action—they didn’t exist in the material, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to deliver the kind of movie that ultimately the studio was hoping to get from this material. I could see making a miniseries from it, a really interesting, intricate, layered, enjoyable long-burn of a miniseries, I could see that, but what was missing for me were the big movie moments in the material, the big set pieces.”

Yates is on to something there. After he and George Romero spent much of the go-go Eighties trying to get a feature adaptation going, King wrote and executive produced a six-hour ABC miniseries directed by Mick Garris back in 1994. It's the only post-apocalyptic epic you'll ever see that includes Molly Ringwald mourning the loss of her father and indeed the world entire by listening to Crowded House. Probably.

[Bev Vincent]

Josh Boone may be the next director to attempt to take on a feature version of Stephen King’s post-apocalyptic novel “The Stand” for Warner Bros. and CBS Films.

Boone is in early talks to helm the film, which previously had Scott Cooper, Ben Affleck and David Yates attached.

Boone directed Fox’s “The Fault In Our Stars,” which stars Shailene Woodley and will be released on June 6. He has a long relationship with King and his feature debut “Stuck in Love” included King’s voice.

The Stand won't be his first brush with King, however, since he's also currently attached to direct a movie version of King's smaller-scale Lisey's Story. Will he stay with that and do The Stand, or end up passing on one for the other? The discussions are ongoing and Warners has not commented so far.

Warner Bros. and CBS Films set up “The Stand” in 2011 with Mosaic and Roy Lee attached to develop and produce. CBS has the option to participate on the financing and Warners will handle worldwide marketing and distribution.

>>> Source

[Bev Vincent]

According to Up & Comers: Nat Wolff will star in Josh Boone’s adaptation of “The Stand.” Apaprently this will be a single R-rated film.

[herbertwest]

He confirmed to me that he has been hired to write and direct it as a 3h film.

[Randall Flagg]

According to Up & Comers: Nat Wolff will star in Josh Boone’s adaptation of “The Stand.” Apaprently this will be a single R-rated film.

Which character?

[Bev Vincent]

The article didn't specify. He's young -- maybe Larry Underwood.

[Randall Flagg]

It would be hard to imagine him as RF.

[Bev Vincent]

Yeah, or Stu Redman. Harold Lauder, maybe.

[mtdman]

Making it as a single movie, even at 3h long, is going to leave out a lot of stuff. IMO why bother doing it if you can't do it right? Should at least be a 2 parter.

[webstar1000]

Making it as a single movie, even at 3h long, is going to leave out a lot of stuff. IMO why bother doing it if you can't do it right? Should at least be a 2 parter.

Should be split into three parts. Like a trilogy.... filmed at once... release on each year for three years... THAT is how you do it. A good cast and script and you would have a winner...

[mikeC]

According to Up & Comers: Nat Wolff will star in Josh Boone’s adaptation of “The Stand.” Apaprently this will be a single R-rated film.

Which character?

Looks like they might be making up characters:

"He tells THR that he's writing a part specifically for Wolff, making this the third project the duo will have worked on together."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...t-wolff-701980

[DanishFan]

He could perhaps be playing The Kid? Maybe the screenwriter modelled The Kid after Nat Wolff?

[CyberGhostface]

According to Up & Comers: Nat Wolff will star in Josh Boone’s adaptation of “The Stand.” Apaprently this will be a single R-rated film.

A single film? What's the point? King himself wasn't able to fit the story in two films.

[Joe315]

Making it as a single movie, even at 3h long, is going to leave out a lot of stuff. IMO why bother doing it if you can't do it right? Should at least be a 2 parter.

Should be split into three parts. Like a trilogy.... filmed at once... release on each year for three years... THAT is how you do it. A good cast and script and you would have a winner...

Where's Peter Jackson when you need him? He turned the Hobbit into three, so he could probably turn the Stand into a six part epic.

[Jon]

I pray for better casting.

[Merlin1958]

Making it as a single movie, even at 3h long, is going to leave out a lot of stuff. IMO why bother doing it if you can't do it right? Should at least be a 2 parter.

Should be split into three parts. Like a trilogy.... filmed at once... release on each year for three years... THAT is how you do it. A good cast and script and you would have a winner...

Where's Peter Jackson when you need him? He turned the Hobbit into three, so he could probably turn the Stand into a six part epic.

While I understand what you are saying, I don't feel it is fair to a degree. Jackson, is incorporating material from the LOTR appendices to flesh out "The Hobbit" films. I personally think he has done an admirable job of staying as true to the source material, large as it is, as possible.

I do agree though that he and, Ms. Boyens may be the right people for the job at hand in regards to "The Stand".

[webstar1000]

Jackson would be amazing to do this.

[skyofcrack]

I'd like to see Jackson tackle The Dark Tower.