Well, what a year for a new adaptation of Stephen King’s 1978 apocalyptic pandemic doorstopper, hey? Cometh the plague, cometh the ten episode event miniseries, I guess.
This is, of course, not the first time The Stand, one of King’s most popular and weighty (literally) books, has made it to the small screen. Nicest guy in horror Mick Garris ushered it to television back in ’94, shepherding a cast headed by Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald through King’s tale of the ultimate battle between good and evil in an America stripped bare by a deadly contagion (this is, uh, getting a bit weird to type, guys…).
Garris’ effort, which is worth your time, clocked in at about six hours, but this time out King’s tree-killing tome (1,152 pages in the unexpurgated 1990 edition) is getting about 10, although I’m struggling to remember what was cut from Garris’s version that might require more in-depth examination – perhaps the Kid will finally get his day in the sun?
The new version of The Stand also boasts a killer cast, including James Marsden, Amber Heard, Greg Kinnear, Whoopi Goldberg, Marilyn freakin’ Manson, Australia’s own Odessa Young, Ramone lookalike Owen Teague, and – crucially – Alexander Skarsgård, brother to Pennywise himself, as King’s avatar of ultimate evil, Randall Flagg.
It is being honchoed by The Fault in Our Stars director Josh Boone, whose latest film, The New Mutants, is apparently absolute pants (although I’ve yet to see it and, frankly, it seems to be a victim of circumstance more than anything else), so that might give you pause, but hey – the teaser looks good, yeah?
The Stand premieres on CBS All Access in the US on December 17, and will surely show up locally around the same time. My money would be on Amazon.
