Josh Boone Talks Adapting Stephen King's "The Stand"

On the stump for tomorrow's "The Fault in Our Stars", director Josh Boone spoke to Vulture about his plans for the film adaptation of author Stephen King's "The Stand".

The 1152-page novel, first published in 1978 and then revised in 1990, is divided into three parts and begins with a pandemic that leads to the death of an estimated 99.4% of the world’s human population. The book chronicles the cross-country odysseys undertaken by survivors who are drawn to Boulder, Colo., and Las Vegas, where they end up fighting the Antichrist-like Randall Flagg.

 

Boone is the latest to hover around the project after the departure of "Crazy Heart" and "Out Of The Furnace" director Scott Cooper. Cooper vacated the job over "creative differences," after conning on to re-write "The Invasion" and "Blood Creek" scribe David Kajganich's draft--and direct the project earlier this year after Ben Affleck dropped out. Kajganich has also worked on the screenplay for the long thought of-feature film adaptation of King's It. David Yates and Steve Kloves, who worked on the Potter series together attached to the project. Paul Greengrass was even rumored in the mix at one point to put the story on film

Jimmy Miller and Roy Lee are still slated to produce.

There was that six-hour mini-series adaptation in 1994 while Marvel produced an acclaimed Comic Book adaptation.

Boone says:

"We're gonna do one three-hour, R-rated version with an amazing A-list cast across the board. Every single one of those characters will be somebody you recognize and somebody you relate to. And it's gonna be awesome. I'm really excited. It's the most exciting thing I've ever got to do in my entire life. If 12-year-old me had ever known that one day I'd be doing this, to even just go back and look at that kid, I'd be like, Keep doing what you're doing! It's just crazy. I've met so many actors over the years, and like, when I met Stephen King, I hugged him with tears in my eyes. He meant that much to me when I was young. I still say everything I learned about writing I learned from Stephen King. I don't read screenplays. I don't read screenplay how-to books. It's always just, establish the character. Establish the character."

The  six-hour mini-series was very good but even that was missing out on some key elements. A three-hour film will have to cut out some major characters and subplots.

Still Boone told THR recently that he's writing a part specifically for "Stars" co-star Nat Wolff, making this the third project the duo will have worked on together following "Stars" and the upcoming film adaptation of author John Green's book "Paper Towns"