Back in January of 2011, Warner Bros. Pictures and CBS Films announced plans to produce a big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s post-apocalyptic epic The Stand, with the likes of David Yates (Harry Potter), Ben Affleck (Argo) and Scott Cooper (Hostiles) linked to the director’s chair before Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) officially signed on in 2014.
Boone subsequently revealed that the project had been envisioned both as a single three-hour film, and a four-part franchise, before producer Roy Lee announced in 2016 that plans had been put on hold while they try “to figure out how to best make the movie.”
Boone since moved on to direct the X-Men spinoff The New Mutants, which is about to undergo significant reshoots having been pushed back once again to August 2019. However, it seems he remains attached to The Stand, which The Tracking Board suggests is now “coming together as a ten-hour limited series at CBS All Access”.
The first miniseries adaptation back in 1994 clocked in at six hours, so a ten-hour running time would certainly provide Boone with the opportunity to do the book justice rather than trying to truncate the story a la The Dark Tower. However, assuming Boone remains involved with The New Mutants despite the reported creative differences with Fox, it would seem that fans still facing a lengthy wait for this latest adaptation of King’s novel.
