Josh Boone, producer and writer and director on the new CBS All Access adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, has been doing some press for his film The New Mutants. As you know, The New Mutants has been delayed more times than the second coming of Christ so most of the questions Boone has been fielding are related to the delays and the rumored reshoots and working with Marvel and yada, yada, yada.
But some are using this opportunity as a chance to ask him about The Stand. People are incredibly curious about the 10-episode series, especially since we live in a world that will make the post-apocalyptic setting even more eerie and frightening. And many King fans are curious about just how hard Boone and company’s series will go. The only adaptation of The Stand was often quite toothless and felt like an almost family-friendly version of the source material. That’s a damn shame because King’s book is unquestionably and unapologetically dark and violent and brutal.
Boone revealed that 1) The Stand will stay loyal to the adult themes and content and 2) it will be heavily influenced by the works of early Steven Spielberg and 90s-era Oliver Stone. Now, that’s a combination I didn’t expect to influence The Stand but the more I think about it, the more I like it.
Here’s Boone (via Slashfilm)
[We] thought about like Close Encounters and the way those Spielberg movies felt in the ‘70s, and crazy Oliver Stone movies in the ‘90s. Kind of merging those things to tell this epic, dark fantasy. I think it’ll be really cool. The main thing we have going for us that the original didn’t have going for it is that we can really do it at a really high level in terms of the R-rated content and things like that which just weren’t possible then.
The Spielberg-Stone connection is actually pretty appropriate. At the end of the day, The Stand is a fantasy novel and much of Spielberg’s early output had a strong element of fantasy and whimsy. So that fits. As for Stone, his 90s era movies were violent and bleak and even a bit psychedelic at times, all of which would fit in the Randall Flagg-centered elements of The Stand. The introduction of one of the central characters, Lloyd, feels right at home in a Stone film actually. I like the inspirations cited by Boone.
Of course I also really like to hear that the mini-series will be decidedly R-rated, that’s a relief to fans of the book. This new adaptation has spent years in development and King die-hards have been cautiously optimistic about it the entire time but have also been nervous that this would be another neutered version of The Stand. Boone knows how to get the heart rates for King aficionados racing.
There has been some speculation that The Stand will be delayed until 2021 because of…you know, everything. CBS hasn’t said anything on the matter yet, still claiming that the mini-series will debut in 2020. I suppose if that is really true then we will get some sort of concrete confirmation in the next couple months. Don’t be shocked if this thing gets delayed. I hope it doesn’t, I am dying to see more of this fella:
