Paramount Lands Director For Third Adaptation Of Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’
In a breaking story by the Hollywood Reporter, Paramount Pictures has announced that Doug Liman is set to direct their upcoming feature adaptation of Stephen King’s epic 1978 novel, The Stand. Liman will also be serving as a producer, along with his collaborator on 2017’s American Made, Tyler Thompson of Cross Creek Pictures. The next step is to script out that mammoth of a story (1,152 pages!), but a word slinger hasn’t been assigned to that duty just yet. In a world that refuses to move on, it was only a matter of time before they’d reboot the apocalypse.
The story is about a deadly super flu virus called “Captain Trips” that leaks from a military facility, and wipes out 99.4% of the world’s population. The few remaining survivors split into two factions with the righteous folk gathering to Mother Abigail in her Free Zone community, while the sinners head to the domain of The Walking Dude (a.k.a. Randall Flagg) in Las Vegas, and setting up the final battle between good and evil. Many consider it to be Stephen King’s best novel, and it has certainly left some lingering side effects in pop culture, which includes inspiring the music of heavy metal icons, Metallica and Anthrax.
In 1994, it was adapted into a four-part miniseries by ABC that starred Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Jamey Sheridan, and Rob Lowe as a deaf/mute named Nick. Aside from being watered down by network standards and practices, the miniseries was well-received by viewers, and it even won two Emmy awards. The next miniseries came in 2020 that starred Cyclops from X-Men 1-3 (James Marsden), Alexander Skarsgård, Amber Heard, and Whoopi Goldberg, but don’t worry…I didn’t watch it either.
RELATED: Rabid Fans Howl With Rage As Netflix Sets To Adapt Stephen King’s Classic, ‘Cujo’
Doug Liman broke into the film scene with his 1994 black comedy, Getting In, but it was his 1996 indie flick, Swingers, that launched his career. Since then, he’s been making a name for himself with films such as Go (1999), The Bourne Identity (2002), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Jumper (2008), and the very underrated Edge of Tomorrow (2014).
It’s hard to imagine that there’s a person alive today who hasn’t heard of Stephen King, but that’s not counting third-world countries. He received his big break when his 1974 debut novel, Carrie, was adapted into a film by director Brian De Palma in 1976. Since then, adaptations of his work have been made, remade, and re-remade. To the point where King could publish his grocery list, and it would become a bestseller. Some of the better adaptations are the aforementioned Carrie, The Shining (1980), Cujo (1983), Pet Sematary (1989), The Dead Zone (1983), Misery (1990), The Green Mile (1999), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and there’s no forgetting the classic Stand By Me from 1986. In between writing stories, he can be found ranting over on the X platform, or at least what’s left of him.
The 1994 miniseries is for sale on Prime, and that other one is available to stream on Paramount+, but only if you insist. Below is a song by Anthrax that was inspired by Stephen King’s Walking Dude:
NEXT: Final ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Trailer Reveals The Thing’s New Beard
More About:Movie News