In the wake of two television miniseries’, one in 1994 from director Mick Garris and the second from CBS All Access in 2020, Stephen King’s post-apocalyptic epic The Stand is now headed to the big screen for the very first time. The news was first reported by Variety tonight.
Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow, Road House) is currently attached to direct King’s The Stand for Paramount Pictures, according to Variety’s report tonight.
The outlet notes, “The project does not yet have a script, however, so development may take some time as Liman and the studio winnow King’s novel — which runs 1,153 pages in its unabridged version — into a single movie. But the studio sees the movie as a priority and is moving forward aggressively to make it happen.”
The Stand is Stephen King’s vision of a world decimated by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil. The fate of mankind rests on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail and a handful of survivors. Their worst nightmares are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the Dark Man.
King’s epic novel was originally published back in 1978. In addition to the two aforementioned small screen adaptations, The Stand also spawned a series of comics from Marvel Comics.
A feature adaptation of The Stand has been attempted at several points in time, with filmmakers including George A. Romero and David Yates attached to unmade iterations.
“The Stand” (2020)