THE NEW MUTANTS director Josh Boone is at the helm of a new mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's epic novel The Stand (you can pick up a copy of the novel HERE), and I'm very anxious to see what Boone's version of the story is going to be like. The Mick Garris-directed mini-series we got back in 1994 (purchase that HERE) had a huge impact on my childhood; I became Stand obsessed for a while, watched that mini-series repeatedly, and have read King's novel a couple times. The Stand is an important one to me, and I'm hoping to be blown away by this new mini-series.
The Stand is being made for the CBS All Access streaming service, and while we still don't know exactly when we can expect to see the show, we now have something of a ballpark estimate. Reports from the Television Critics Association press tour say that The Stand will be available to watch on CBS All Access in the fourth quarter of 2020. Sometime in the October – December range, we'll have our chance to experience King's apocalyptic vision play out all over again.
King's story has the following synopsis:
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides — or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail — and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.
The new mini-series adaptation stars James Marsden as Stu Redman, Amber Heard as Nadine Cross, Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abagail, Greg Kinnear as Glen Bateman, Odessa Young as Frannie Goldsmith, Henry Zaga as Nick Andros, Jovan Adepo as Larry Underwood, Owen Teague as Harold Lauder, Brad William Henke as Tom Cullen, Nat Wolff as Lloyd Henreid, Katherine McNamara as Julie Lawry, Hamish Linklater as Dr. Ellis, Eion Bailey as Teddy Weizak, Daniel Sunjata as Cobb, Heather Graham as Rita Blakemoor, Alexander Skarsgard as Randall Flagg, and Natalie Martinez and Marilyn Manson in unspecified roles.
The scripts for the ten episodes have been written by Boone, Benjamin Cavell, Jill Killington, and King's son Owen King. Stephen King has also written a new ending for the story that will go beyond the events of the book and make up a substantial part of the final episode.
The Stand is being produced by CBS Television Studios. Boone and Cavell are executive producing the show with Roy Lee, Jimmy Miller, and Richard P. Rubinstein. Will Weiske and Miri Yoon are co-executive producers, and Knate Lee, Jill Killington, and Owen King are producers.