Stephen King's 'The Stand' to Begin with 8-Part Miniseries
Fri, June 5, 2015 
Hot on the heels of news that Nikolaj Arcel will write and direct The Dark Tower comes another big announcement for Stephen King fans everywhere. The famed author's other long in-development feature film adaptation - The Stand - will now reportedly begin with an 8-part television miniseries for Showtime, partnering with Warner Bros. and CBS Films.
Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) will both write and direct the limited series event before moving onto the feature film (which Warners will distribute). Boone was announced to be taking on the project last year and it looked as if he would do a three-hour, standalone film. However, it now seems that Boone will be able to cover more of King's epic novel by starting off with eight, 1-hour episodes, culminating with a big-budget feature film. This is indeed great news and is unprecedented in terms of a film adaptation.
The miniseries is expected to attract big A-list talent with Matthew McConaughey heavily rumored to be taking on the role of Antichrist figure Randall Flagg as well as Boone's The Fault in Our Stars actor, Nat Wolff, being eyed for a role. With the success of HBO's True Detective last year, many Hollywood superstars are now more open than ever to doing a limited series, especially with writing quality as high as The Stand.
For those unfamiliar, The Stand tells an epic saga of good vs. evil after a deadly virus wipes out most of the world's population with a group of survivors fighting against Flagg and his followers.
While it's important to note that nothing is set in stone yet, multiple sources are reporting the ambitious, multi-platform deal is in the works with high-level meetings taking place next week involving Boone, Stephen King himself, as well as execs from Warner Bros., Showtime and CBS Films. Production is expected to get underway early next year.
If things are finalized (which I think they will be), this certainly gives great hope to King's other epic, The Dark Tower, which has been trying for years to do this blend of both TV and film to tell such a massive story.
We will definitely keep you posted on all things involved in this project as it becomes available.
Source: The Wrap
Reader Comments (4)
It's all 19...
Interesting 'Dark Tower' reference.
Opinion: Is that a '19' Roland is making with his revolver and rose?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/54/Thedarktower7.jpg
I think we're meant to interpret things as we want to see them. That being said,I don't see the 19 in that unless it's more symbolic and indicative of a larger idea. I feel like King would've made it slightly more overt if that were the case
I'll have to take your word for it there. I'm certainly no King expert while you sound like you've read quite a lot of his work. I might have to familiarize myself with his books, especially if I'm going to watch/go see 'The Dark Tower' and 'The Stand' when they come out.