The big-screen adaptation of Stephen King's epic novel, The Stand, has been a long and protracted process, but according to director Josh Boone, the wait will be well-rewarded, with not one but four films in the pipeline.
Speaking on Kevin Smith's Hollywood Babble-On podcast, Boone explains how Warner reacted to his initial script draft, and how they returned with an unexpected proposal…
"I sold them on a single, three hour movie," says Boone. "I went and got [Stephen] King sold on it, everybody’s really excited…I told the story non-linear and that was the way I was able to compress that book and get everything into that script."
"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…"
“They came back and said 'would you do it as multiple films?' and I said, 'Fuck 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. 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."
While studios are often keen to stretch a property out across as many sequels as possible, The Stand is a book that would definitely benefit from the extra runtime. Time to start getting excited...
