http://deadline.com/2014/11/the-stand-stephen-king-josh-boone-four-films-1201291709/


While I'll file this under "I'll believe it when I see a preview in theaters", it will be interesting to follow.

Not sure it is deserving of a 4-film release based on a profits standpoint... You can do that with a classic like LoTR or something that is fresh like Hunger Games... But this is a 35-year old story that for the most part hasn't been read by non-SK readers.

The content is definitely there for 4, but I just don't see the anticipation/demand for it at the box office unless Part 1 absolutely floors people.

Josh Boone directing doesn't really help the cause either. He's proven he's capable of directing a good movie, but a 4-film massive horror/scifi/drama? That's a hefty challenge with very few skins on the wall. Though I guess to be fair, Mick Garris had two duds in Critters 2 and Sleepwalkers to his name before directing the 6-hour 1994 miniseries that fell under the "eh that wasn't too bad for a miniseries" category.

But yay I can hate the ending in a third format now!

The great thing is that you can go see the first three and pretend the fourth never happens!

I love the book. This is a terrible idea. The fourth movie would cause riots, assuming the first three were successful.

King's had 35 years, maybe he's come up with a better ending by now.

The more King books I read the more I hate reading them. Not because they are bad or poorly written, but because of the endings. They ****ING SUCK. I mean seriously what the hell is he thinking???

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The more King books I read the more I hate reading them. Not because they are bad or poorly written, but because of the endings. They ****ING SUCK. I mean seriously what the hell is he thinking???

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This is my issue with his books as well.

11/22/63's ending was decent.

I almost added that book as an exception to the bad ending rule. 11/22/63 is my favorite king book.

There's been plenty that have ended decently... The Dark Tower, The Shining and Salem's Lot just off the top of my head. I want to say I was satisfied by the ending of Desperation, but I can't remember for sure.

But when you churn through 1000+ pages and the ending is a stinker, you tend to remember it (The Stand, It, Under the Dome).

Mr Mercedes and joyland had a good ending. So did Lisey's story and Duma key. Also, the shining and Dr. Sleep.

just curious, but what is it about his endings that y'all don't enjoy? I haven't read SK in quite a few years, but I always liked his stuff.

Under the dome was one of those "Seriously?!" endings. As for the stand, there was no point for the remaining couple hundred pages (the journey to las Vegas).

King will write himself into a corner and go Deus ex Machina on you. In the Stand it was a literal Deus ex Machina. I agree that occassionally he avoids it and has a good ending. The Shining is brilliant and I thought Dr. Sleep was very well done (though not as scary as a lot of his work).

I won't waste money on four films.

I was a little more excited when Ben Affleck was set to direct, but whatever.

The Stand is probably one of my favorite books of all time, even with the ending. I agree it's a hard sell and the first segment will need to be amazing. Think a lot of the success will be in the casting. The miniseries did a lot wrong, but the casting was pretty good for the most part (Flagg and Fran aside).

11/22/63 would make a pretty good movie if done right.

Matthew mcconaughey is set to play Randall flagg

So four films of Cadillac commercial MM?

Miniseries did a lot of stuff wrong, but the intro was absolute nails:

And I retract what I said previously about The Stand being the best King miniseries to-date (though the competition is pretty slim).

I thought the 2004 version of Salem's Lot with Rob Lowe was excellent.

Really glad that if they're going to do this they're going to make it into multiple movies. When they initially said they were only giving it one I couldn't wrap my mind around how terrible that would be for any of us who have read the book. Or even seen the miniseries back in the 90's.

Like others have said, I'm really looking forward to the first three of these.

Not sure what to think of the Stand as four movies. Seems like a huge money grab and not sure how they would make the ending work.


My favorite King books all had better endings, Dark Tower, Eyes of the Dragon and Pet Sematary.

I think there's certainly enough material for 4 movies. The miniseries with commercials ran for what, probably 6 hours? And they cut out quite a bit of stuff. If it's done right the initial outbreak could easily fill movie 1 by itself.

As a random comment, some of my favorite chapters of the book were where he'd devote a few pages to random people across the country who weren't actually major characters, just to give an idea of the scope of what was going on. Especially the chapter about the second wave of deaths among plague survivors who died because society wasn't there to help them in various situations anymore.

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Miniseries did a lot of stuff wrong, but the intro was absolute nails:

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The part of that miniseries that I still remember the most is the use of BOC's "Don't Fear the Reaper". Perhaps the best song choice in any film ever.

I'm looking forward to the idea of a multi film treatment of The Stand just so we can see everything fleshed out and handled without having to rush past the details. But I do wonder how they are going to break it up into four separate plots and films successfully. First film to cover the initial plague and everyone's survival stories? Second to cover everyone coming together in the Midwest? Third to cover the Rockies and the fourth to cover the trip to Vegas?

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As a random comment, some of my favorite chapters of the book were where he'd devote a few pages to random people across the country who weren't actually major characters, just to give an idea of the scope of what was going on. Especially the chapter about the second wave of deaths among plague survivors who died because society wasn't there to help them in various situations anymore.

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I think there's certainly enough material for 4 movies. The miniseries with commercials ran for what, probably 6 hours? And they cut out quite a bit of stuff. If it's done right the initial outbreak could easily fill movie 1 by itself.

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There's definitely enough material -- they had to cram everything just to get it into 6 hours of miniseries. In the miniseries the outbreak is basically established in the first 30 minutes. Hell, the whole army/Ed-Harris plotline could have taken up an hour+ -- instead it was done in about 5 minutes. Ditto the CDC.
The content is there, it's just whether it can all be done well.

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As a random comment, some of my favorite chapters of the book were where he'd devote a few pages to random people across the country who weren't actually major characters, just to give an idea of the scope of what was going on. Especially the chapter about the second wave of deaths among plague survivors who died because society wasn't there to help them in various situations anymore.

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If you asked me the one part of the book that stands out the most to me after all these years (it's been 15+ since I read it), it was the couple of paragraphs about the boy who survived and worked on his family's farm and was sustaining himself, until he fell off of the barn loft and broke his arm and died due to infection.

Just looked up that chapter and found the whole thing online. The one that always stuck with me was the kid who fell into the hole.

http://www.freebestbook.net/Vampires/the_stand_1/38.html

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The more King books I read the more I hate reading them. Not because they are bad or poorly written, but because of the endings. They ****ING SUCK. I mean seriously what the hell is he thinking???

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I figure he's some sort of story telling savant who writes 8 hours a day in a sort of stream of consciousness way without really planning anything out. He bangs out 1200 pages and then goes "oh **** what now? " and decides to wrap it up with an atomic bomb, a surrealist crayon artist, or a pre-teen gangbanging.

His short stories are awesome though.

would rather see a big-screen version of IT - Tim Curry scared the piss outta me - instead of the Stand, which I really liked, but can't imagine as 4 movies.


I hope they never make the Dark Tower. DOn't want to see my favorite books ruined by Hollywood.

Question about the Dark Tower: I made it through book 1, and am about 1/3 of the way through book 2. I'm thoroughly in "WTF is going on and why should I care" land. Does this get better? Is this one of those things where you have to slog through a slow start to get to the good stuff?

it gets better, but it's far from my favorite king stuff.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/24/matthew-mcconaughey-the-stand-stephen-king-adaptation

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Matthew McConaughey is tipped to take the role of villainous Randall Flagg in The Stand, a Hollywood franchise based on the 1978 Stephen King
novel

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I don't know what to think of this casting decision, if true. His latest performances, like True Detective, show me that he has the ability to play the part if they can give him the look. Still, there's just something that seems a little off about him playing Flagg if you've read the novel. I'm curious to see who they get to play Redman.

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Question about the Dark Tower: I made it through book 1, and am about 1/3 of the way through book 2. I'm thoroughly in "WTF is going on and why should I care" land. Does this get better? Is this one of those things where you have to slog through a slow start to get to the good stuff?

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2&3 are regarded as the best books, although I love them all. 4 is heart-breaking. 5 gets trippy, 6 should have been part of 7 and 7 is awesome.

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Question about the Dark Tower: I made it through book 1, and am about 1/3 of the way through book 2. I'm thoroughly in "WTF is going on and why should I care" land. Does this get better? Is this one of those things where you have to slog through a slow start to get to the good stuff?

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I was feeling the same way at that point when I read it, but the second half of book two gets much better and is one of the highlights of the entire series.

That said, it's a very odd series. Written over so many years, some of the books hardly feel they belong together.

It took me a few years to get through Drawing of the Three... Kept putting it down and never picking it back up.

After I finished it though, I finished 3/4/5/6/7 in a very short time.