Fans of Stephen King's epic apocalyptic tale THE STAND have been waiting for a big-screen adaptation a long time, and now we're closer than ever to getting it. Director Josh Boone (THE FAULT IN OUR STARS) will be helming the adaptation, which he recently shared would be a "three-hour, R-rated version with an amazing A-list cast across the board". There is even a rumor going around that "True Detective" star Matthew McConaughey is being sought to star as the villain Randall Flagg.
It seems that Boone and Warner Bros. are aiming high for THE STAND, and now we've gotten some updates from the director himself on the status of the film, including King’s reaction to the finished screenplay, when he hopes to start filming, how closely it will stick to the novel, and what he had to excise from the 1000 page book for the film adaptation
Speaking with Collider, Boone shared that the script is finished, stating…
I finished writing the script maybe a month ago. Stephen [King] absolutely loved it. It’s, I think, the first script ever approved by him. [It'll be] a single version movie of The Stand. Three hours. It hews very closely to the novel.
Boone went on to share…
“It’s not a book where you have to generate new material and make it work for a movie. He writes so cinematically and his characters are so sharply drawn, you don’t have to change much… I just made it work within the confines of what a single film can be.”
Considering that THE STAND is such a massive tome with a lot of story to tell, Boone explains how he decided what to excise in order for it to remain within the 3-hour running time. Boone says…
“The Stand is about so many things – you could make ten to fifteen different movies and focus on a different aspect of it… I just focused on the things that I felt strongly about, that I have strong memories about, that are evocative to me even when I read it now.”
As for when we should expect cameras to begin rolling, Boone shares…
“It takes a long time to prep a film like that. Six to eight months. I don’t imagine we would shoot the movie until next spring at the earliest, and we’re still early in the process. I’m still meeting actors and having budget meetings and all that.”
Excited yet? I know I am! More on THE STAND as we hear it!