The works of horror novelist Stephen King have proven notoriously difficult to adapt to film. The most famous, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, is beloved by many but not the author himself. Warner Bros and CBS Films will give Josh Boone a chance to break through with an adaptation of The Stand. Boone is currently finishing up a YA adaptation for Fox of The Fault in Our Stars, scheduled to release on June 6.
In The Stand, a weaponized strain of the influenza virus kills off almost the entire human population. The story focuses on two groups of survivors living in the former United States. One lives in Boulder, Colorado as a democracy under spiritual leader “Mother” Abigail Freemantle, while the other in Las Vegas is a dictatorship under Randall Flagg. The two societies inevitably find themselves in conflict and Abigail’s followers send a small group to spy on Flagg and prevent war.
While Boone has little directorial experience, he has been a lifelong fan of Stephen King’s work. Despite his parents banning King’s novels from his childhood home, Boone would hide the books inside the covers of permitted material and read them in secret. When his mother burned his copy of The Stand, Boone, then 12 years old, wrote to Stephen King and received a box full of new books. Boone announced in September that he will also direct an adaptation of Lisey’s Story, another King novel.
The Stand will be produced by Jimmy Miller and Roy Lee. No release date has been announced.
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