Decades Of Failed Attempts Aren't Stopping A New Go At Making A Movie Based On Stephen King's The Stand

Directors have been trying and failing for many, many years to make a movie based on Stephen King's The Stand. Back in the 1980s, King and George A. Romero actually made their anthology film Creepshow as a means of getting enough clout to adapt the pandemic epic as a feature... but that strategy didn't pan out as hoped. The book has been adapted twice as miniseries, but the list of filmmakers who tried and failed to turn the story into a blockbuster includes Ben Affleck, Scott Cooper, David Yates, and Josh Boone.

It's very clearly a tough mountain to climb... but that's not stopping director Doug Liman from attempting the hike.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount Pictures is ignoring the fact that the last miniseries adaptation of The Stand was released just five years ago, as the studio has tapped the director of The Bourne Identity and Edge Of Tomorrow to try and make the first movie based on the Stephen King novel. The trade says that screenwriters have not yet been hired for the gig, but there is expectation that there will be a lot of pitches proffered.

Paramount appears to be investing in the pop culture stalwart that is Stephen King. The studio is also behind the upcoming King movie The Running Man, directed by Edgar Wright and starring Glen Powell and Josh Brolin.

What's perhaps most shocking about this news is that there is confirmation that this effort will apparently not result in an epic two-parter. While that strategy proved successful when director Andy Muschietti brought IT to the big screen for the first time (following the beloved 1990 miniseries starring Tim Curry), sources say that there is a vision in play to make just a single film. This was the same strategy that was taken for Gary Dauberman's Salem's Lot after that book proved terrifically difficult to adapt as anything other than a miniseries (and like The Stand, it had been twice previously adapted for that medium).

Exactly how Doug Liman will accomplish this mission is a significant mystery, as there is simply far too much story in the sprawling epic to fit neatly into two hours (three at most). The most recent adaptation, the 2020 miniseries produced for Paramount+ nee CBS All Access, is eight-and-a-half hours long (including credits) and even it makes significant cuts in bringing Stephen King's work to life. I'm not wholly sure it can be done without gutting the source material and severely limiting the scope... and if that's going to happen, what's the point of making the film?

Time will tell if the Stand movie actually gets made (if I'm being totally honest, my bet would be that it doesn't), but in the meantime, you can stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for all of the biggest updates about the project. And for a weekly rundown of all the biggest news out of the world of Stephen King, check out my column The King Beat, which runs here on CinemaBlend every Thursday.