Stephen King’s The Stand to be made into a feature film

By Ryan Fleming February 1, 2011

It is shaping up to be a good year for Stephen King—well, at least it is shaping up to be a profitable year for the writer, whether or not it is good may depend on the quality of the upcoming projects that bare his name. With Ron Howard and Universal passionately pushing The Dark Tower experience, CBS and Warner Bros want in on the action, and the studios are teaming up to bring The Stand to the big screen.

No cast or crew have yet been hired, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, deals between the studios have been signed so this project seems to be on the fast track. Knowing the fickle nature of Hollywood, that could change at any time, but things appear to be on track.

Originally published in 1978 (then re-released in 1990 with King’s revisions), The Stand is story divided into three parts. The first section focuses on a virus that wipes out over 99-percent of the world. The survivors are wide spread and make up an odd collection of people from all walks of life. The second section involves the various paths each surviving character takes, as they are drawn to either a God-fearing woman in Nebraska, or to “the Dark Man” in Las Vegas. The third section sets the stage for a fight between good and evil, as the two remaining forces confront each other.

This isn’t the first Hollywood rodeo for The Stand. Several attempts have been made over the years to bring the novel to the big screen, but all have failed. A six hour ABC mini-series aired in 1994, and while it was generally well received, it was massively toned down (by King himself) for network TV.

With a tome of nearly 900 pages that spans the end of the world and beyond, it seems possible that the novel will follow Hollywood’s new love of breaking up a single property into multiple pieces (see the final Harry Potter film, The Hobbit, the last Twilight book, etc). Expect cast and crew announcements to be released in the next few months.

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