When it comes to news out of the world of Stephen King from this past week, there is no question as to what was the biggest headline. It has been announced that director Doug Liman has been tapped by Paramount Pictures to spearhead what would be the first film adaptation of The Stand – source material that has already inspired a pair of miniseries (the first in 1994 and the other just five years ago in 2020). The plan is to make just a single movie, not attempting a duology like Andy Muschietti’s IT and IT: Chapter Two, and the search is on for a writer to pen the script. But I think I can save everybody a lot of time, money, and effort: it is not possible to make a proper feature-length adaptation of The Stand, and Hollywood should stop trying.
My thoughts on this particular subject lead this week’s edition of The King Beat, but it’s not a solo headline thanks to Stephen King contributing to The New York Times’ reflection on cinema in the first 25 years of the 21st century. The takes are hot, so without further ado, let’s dig in!
It’s Not Possible To Make A Single Feature Film Adaptation Of Stephen King’s The Stand, And I Don’t Know Why Hollywood Keeps Trying
In 1982, George A. Romero and Stephen King teamed up to make what would become the first anthology based on King’s work: Creepshow. As a screenwriter, King adapted a couple of his own short stories and created three quick original spooky treats, and as director, Romero aesthetically leaned into the love he shared with his collaborator for old school horror comics like Tales From The Crypt, The Vault Of Horror and The Haunt Of Fear. It was a passion project for the duo… but it was also a means to an end: their real hope, according to author Scott Von Doviak’s Stephen King Films FAQ, was to garner enough industry clout so that they could have proper financial resources and creative control to make a movie based on his pandemic epic The Stand.
If you know your King history, you know that things didn’t work out as planned. It’s not that Creepshow wasn’t a success (nearly quadrupling its budget at the box office), but the author was never able to crack a proper way to adapt the novel. Making trims and cuts didn’t work out as hoped, and decades before Andy Muschietti’s IT and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, he even attempted a duology approach. It wasn’t until King saw director Tommy Lee Wallace’s IT in 1990 that he recognized the potential in approaching the story as a network miniseries, and a medium change was initiated (with Mick Garris ultimately taking the helm instead of George A. Romero).
But did the blend of Stephen King’s failure to make a feature and his successful job making a miniseries dissuade Hollywood from killing the dream of a Stand movie? Hell no. Ben Affleck, Scott Cooper, and David Yates share a bond in that they are all filmmakers who were attached to an incarnation that never made it out of development, and Josh Boone even ended up navigating the same route as King: he first became attached to direct a film in February 2014, and the project pivoted to the small screen a little less than a year-and-a-half later (first it was going to be on cable, and then it ended up being one of the first CBS All Access originals in late 2020).
Even putting aside the fact that we are less than a decade removed from that miniseries, I can’t fathom any reason why anyone thinks at this point in cinema history why a movie based on Stephen King’s The Stand is necessary – and more importantly, I don’t think it’s actually possible.
The principal issue is that the Stephen King novel is defined by its spellbinding scope – and while there are many things that are magical about film as a storytelling medium, one of its great hindrances is its limited narrative real estate. It’s true that movies are now longer on average than they’ve ever been before, but it’s still rare for a wide release to eclipse 180 minutes. A proper feature version of The Stand would need all that time and much, much more.
We’re talking about a novel that not only depicts a plague that wipes out the vast majority of humanity, but features a dozen or so protagonists and antagonists– following the characters on treks across the United States in preparation for a showdown between the forces of Good and the forces of Evil. Without wholly changing the story (and if they do that, what’s the point of calling it an adaptation?), the only option that filmmakers have at their disposal in trimming the material is cutting and combining characters… but those creative decisions are far from easy, as all of the main players have key roles to play, and their arcs are intertwined. If it’s not following the full journeys of Abagail Freemantle, Stu Redman, Frannie Goldsmith, Nick Andros, Tom Cullen, Nadine Cross, Glen Bateman, Larry Underwood, Harold Lauder, Lloyd Henreid, The Trashcan Man and, of course, Randall Flagg, it’s not The Stand.
The good news? I am firmly of the belief that this will end in a pleasant intersection of “shouldn’t happen” and “won’t happen.” I think most Stephen King fans would agree that we have not yet seen a perfect adaptation of the book, but if that perfect adaptation is made one day, it won’t be a solitary feature; it will be a limited series that takes the exact approach that Mike Flanagan is taking with The Dark Tower: just do the book. This new development with Doug Liman may eventually evolve into that, but in lieu of that transpiring, I await the day that headlines arrive saying that this feature effort is not happening.
Stephen King’s Picks For The 10 Best Movies Of The 21st Century And How To Watch Them
What are the best movies of the 21st century so far? That’s an exceptionally tough question, both because 25 years is a long time and because there have been many phenomenal films released during that time. I would personally be hard pressed to provide my own list without viewing it as a fluid list… but the good news is that you’re not here to read my list! You’re here to check out Stephen King’s opinion.
The New York Times has published a sprawling feature taking a look back at the last quarter century of movies and highlighting the titles that are the best of the best, and part of the effort includes contributions from a variety of filmmakers, actors and creatives who created their own personal Top 10s. On the list of folks who participated is the great Stephen King. The lists are in alphabetical order instead of being ranked, but you can scope out his picks (and learn about where you can watch them) below.
Black Hawk Down
Directed by Ridley Scott, the film tells the true story of a Black Hawk helicopter being shot down behind enemy lines during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1992. It’s currently available to stream with a Netflix subscription.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, director Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain is based on the short story by Annie Proux and follows a pair of American cowboys (Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal) who carry on a secret affair. Those with an Amazon Prime Video subscription can watch it with a few clicks.
Children Of Men
Children Of Men, the acclaimed film from director Alfonso Cuaron, is set in a future where women have stopped having children and an activist (Clive Owen) finds himself working to protect the last pregnant woman on the planet. The movie isn’t currently streaming, but it is available for digital rental and purchase from all major online outlets.
Million Dollar Baby
Clint Eastwood’s Oscar drama won Hilary Swank her second Academy Award – the actress playing a female boxer who rises to prominence before a tragic accident preemptively ends her career. While not currently in any streaming libraries, it is widely available for digital rental and purchase.
No Country For Old Men
One of three winners of the Academy Awards’ Best Picture prize on this list, No Country For Old Men is Joel and Ethan Coen’s adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy book of the same name – centering on a hunter (Josh Brolin) who finds a satchel of drug money and finds himself hunted by a deadly assassin (Javier Bardem). You could be watching the movie right this instant if you have a Paramount+ subscription.
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
One of two Coen brothers movies on Stephen King’s list (the only filmmakers represented twice), O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a delightful spin on Homer’s The Odyssey, following a trio of hapless fugitives (George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson, and John Turturro) as they go on an epic journey for fortune, freedom, and redemption. It’s not streaming, but it is currently available for rental and purchase online
Oppenheimer
In case you’ve forgotten in the time since the craze of Barbenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Oscar winner Cillian Murphy) and his effort to try and beat the Nazis in a race to create the world’s first atomic bomb. The epic is presently included for Peacock subscribers.
The Departed
The only Martin Scorsese movie to win Best Picture at the Oscars, The Departed is a gangster feature set in Boston that follows the journey of an undercover cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) investigating the Irish mafia while a mole for the criminal organization (Matt Damon) infiltrates the Massachusetts State Police. It’s not streaming, but digital rental and purchase options are plentiful.
The Rule Of Jenny Pen
You didn’t really expect Stephen King’s list of the 10 best 21st century films to not include any horror, did you? Now available with a Shudder subscription, James Ashcroft’s The Rule Of Jenny Pen stars Geoffrey Rush as a judge who is forced to live in a rest home following a stroke and finds himself tortured by a power-tripping fellow resident (John Lithgow).
Train To Busan
A second horror title to finish the list – and a selection from outside Hollywood. Yeon Sang-ho’s Train To Busan is a South Korean zombie movie that sees passengers on a high speed rail try to survive as the titular city is overrun by the undead. It’s presently available to stream on Netflix.
If you need a recommendation of something to watch this weekend, that’s not a bad list to work from!
That wraps up this edition of The King Beat, but there is never a dull week that goes by in the world of Stephen King, and I’ll be back here on CinemaBlend next Thursday with perspective on all of the big news, and developments. In the meantime, you can learn all about the long history of King adaptations with my series Adapting Stephen King, or make efforts to spiff up your personal King library with my guide on how to build the ultimate Stephen King collection.