Have we mentioned that we are ridiculously excited about the upcoming TV mini-series based on Stephen King’s The Stand? I think we might have mentioned that once or a million times. The CBS All Access series was only recently announced but fans of the book have been clamoring for any news tied to it. We’ve waited so long for a faithful adaptation, CBS! Don’t let us down!
Well, hey, we actually have some news about the series. It’s not big news but we will take what we can get right now. In an interview on Mick Garris’s podcast, Stephen King himself spoke briefly of the upcoming 10-episode event. Here’s his major quote about what CBS and director Josh Boone have in mind:
“I like Josh Boone’s work. I actually worked with him on his first feature (2012’s Stuck in Love). I couldn’t act in it, which is what he wanted me to do, so I had to be an audio thing. And then he did The Fault in Our Stars, which I thought showed his grasp of the medium. I like him a lot. I like his reach, his ambition for it.
But, really, the thing I’m mostly excited about is, first of all, we’ve got two more hours to tell the story and, second, we’re free of all those things that held us back with The Stand — that is to say, not only is the budget bigger, even if you equalize the two eras, we’re [more free] in terms of language and in terms of violence in a way that we weren’t with the original Stand. CBS All Access would really like this to work, I think, and they put a lot of muscle behind it, so I’m hopeful, but it’s early days yet. The casting isn’t complete. The casting isn’t complete. My… son Owen has written some of the scripts and they’re terrific, so it’s good”
There’s some juicy bits to that quote above. First of all, King mentions that the casting isn’t complete, which leads me to believe that casting has started — they’re just not done. That’s reassuring! Casting is much further in the process than we’ve ever gotten before.
The more interesting piece of the quote is in regards to King’s son, Owen. King says that Owen has written some of the scripts, which is great news. Owen is a talented novelist in his own right. In fact, Stephen and Owen wrote a book together, Sleeping Beauties, which is also getting the small screen treatment over at AMC. So he’s a successful writer that any TV series would be lucky to have. It’s also kind of heartwarming that Stephen King’s son is penning some of the scripts. Keep it in the family, Stephen.
This also suggests that Stephen himself will have a less hands-on approach with the show. The original mini-series on ABC was completely written by King. While that’s not a bad idea — it is his baby after all — I always felt that having an entire writer’s room for this project was probably best. Let other writers dive into the source material, explore themes and character and plot, especially since they have ten episodes to fill.
You can expect that we will be getting more, bigger news on The Stand soon but right now the biggest news is this: it’s definitely still happening. That’s the best news of all.
Source: EW