The 'Fault in Our Stars' helmer teases that he will 'do 'The Stand' at the highest level' with a cast 'that's going to blow people's minds.'
- Nov 21, 2014
AceShowbiz - The upcoming big-screen adaptation of Stephen King's post-apocalyptic novel "The Stand" is going to kickstart a new franchise for Warner Bros., the home of blockbuster series like "Harry Potter" and "The Hobbit". In an interview with Kevin Smith for the actor's Hollywood Babble-On podcast, Josh Boone revealed he would adapt the book into four films.
The director said it was the studio's idea to do multiple films for the novel. "I sold them on a single, three hour movie. I went and got King sold on it, everybody's really excited," he said of his initial pitch. "I told the story non-linear and that was the way I was able to compress that book and get everything into that script."
"You open with Mother Abigail dying and sending the guys off, and then you jump back in time ... So what happened is the script gets finished, I write it in like five months, everybody loves it, King loves it, $87 million is what it was budgeted at, really expensive for a horror drama that doesn't have set pieces."
Then, WB proposed a more ambitious plan for the project. "They came back and said, 'Would you do it as multiple films?' and I said, 'F**k yes!' I loved my script, and I was willing to drop it in an instant because you're able to do an even truer version that way," Boone recalled as quoted by SlashFilm.
"So I think we are going to do like four movies. I can't tell you anything about how we're going to do them, or what's going to be in which movie. I'll just say we are going to do four movies, and we're going to do 'The Stand' at the highest level you can do it at, with a cast that's going to blow people's minds. We've already been talking to lots of people, and have people on board in certain roles that people don't know about. We're looking to go into production next year, maybe in the spring."
Set during the time when population is wiped out by a deadly virus, the apocalyptic story was once turned into a TV miniseries starring Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald and Rob Lowe. No cast has been announced for the upcoming movie, but Matthew McConaughey is reportedly eyed to star in it.
