Josh Boone on a Series of The Stand Movies

Earlier this year it was revealed that Josh Boone will direct the film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, in addition to re-writing the script. The fervent Stephen King fan initially said The Stand would be a three-hour movie, but in a recent interview he revealed that he's collaborating with Warner Bros. to do a four-film adaptation and also discussed the layout of his first script for the scrapped three-hour movie.

Earlier this week, Josh Boone was interviewed by Kevin Smith on episode #000 of his Hollywood Babble-On podcast, discussing his experience helming The Fault in Our Stars and the status of Warner Bros.' The Stand adaptation. Here's what Boone had to say about his initial script for a three-hour film adaptation of The Stand (via /Film) *Spoiler Warning* The fourth sentence in the paragraph below contains a spoiler for those who haven't read the book / seen the miniseries:

"I really wanted to do an A-list actor, really grounded, credible version of the movie. I sold them on that and they hired me…I sold them on a single, three hour movie. 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. 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."

Here's what Boone had to say about The Stand adaptation switching from a one-film version to a four-film version and production potentially beginning on the first movie next spring (via /Film):

"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."

We reported in May that actor Nat Wolff (Stuck in Love, in which Stephen King makes a voice cameo), a constant collaborator of Boone’s, will be in The Stand, with Boone writing a part specifically with the actor in mind. At this time, no other casting announcements have been made. The Stand adaptation is Boone’s second big screen project based on Stephen King’s work, as he is also set to make an adaptation of another novel of King’s, Lisey’s Story.

We’ll keep Daily Dead readers updated on further developing details of this much-anticipated adaptation of one of King’s most celebrated novels. For those that haven’t read the book or watched the miniseries, here is a brief synopsis:

“The Stand is a story of good vs. evil after a virus wipes out most of the American population. While it features dozens of characters (such as the Trashcan Man and Mother Abigail) and overlapping story lines running over many years, the struggle boils down to a group of survivors fighting the Antichrist-like Randall Flagg.”