Stephen King teases new adaptations of The Stand and Salem’s Lot

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

There's been at least one Stephen King adaptation, either on television or as a feature-film, almost every year for decades, but this past year has seen quite a few high-profile King projects, including THE DARK TOWER, IT, 1922, and GERALD'S GAME. Largely based on the astounding success of IT, there's already been several new Stephen King-related projects put into development, and according to King himself while he spoke with Vulture, two of those projects may be new adaptations of "The Stand" and "Salem's Lot."

There’s talk about doing The Stand as an extended TV series, possibly for Showtime or CBS All Access, and there’s been some interest in developing Salem’s Lot as a feature, probably because people are saying, “Well, we took an old miniseries called It and turned it into a phenomenon, so maybe we can do it with something else.” Nothing succeeds like excess!

Obviously this is in no way a guarentee that these new adaptations will see the light of day, I'd imagine that there's always interest in adapting Stephen King stories, but it'd be great if we were on the verge of a new Stephen King renaissance.

"Salem's Lot" has already been adapted twice for television, first in 1979 with Starsky & Hutch's David Soul, and again in 2004 with Rob Lowe. After years of attempting to transform "The Stand" into a feature-film only to find the project falling apart at the last moment, Stephen King finally got the chance with a four episode mini-series in 1994, but rumours of a feature-film continued. Warner Bros. and CBS Films began developing THE STAND into a multi-movie franchise over six years ago, but had trouble getting it off the ground, with directors such as David Yates (FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM), Ben Affleck (ARGO), and Scott Cooper (HOSTILES) attached to the project at various points before leaving. Josh Boone (NEW MUTANTS) was most recently set to write and direct THE STAND, which would also include an eight-part mini-series, but that project was later put on hold. Can't catch a break.

If you had to choose between The Stand and Salem's Lot, which would you rather see receive a new adaptation?