Nolan Fans

This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides — or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail — and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.

King previously expressed his skepticism about the idea of The Stand working as a feature film, but the indication is that Warner Bros. hopes to cover the story over the course of at least two, hopefully three, separate movies. A trilogy seems likes the most obvious fit, seeing how King’s original novel is even divided up into three sections or “shorter books.”

The first portion of The Stand chronicles the emergence of a human-devised superflu virus referred to as either “Project Blue” or “Captain Trips” and the subsequent breakdown of human society worldwide – something that occurs largely off-screen in most post-apocalyptic thrillers (see: 28 Days Later, I Am Legend, etc). The second section of the novel follows various groups of human survivors as they rally around two different figures, in the form of the kindly Abagail Freemantle and a wicked supernatural being called Randall Flaggs. Naturally, in the third section of The Stand, the two camps clash in the “ultimate” battle of good vs. evil.

With Universal having recently canceled its ambitious adaptation of King’s Dark Tower series, there is good reason to wonder if Warner Bros. is really prepared to commit to a three-movie take on The Stand. However, the latter isn’t nearly as major an undertaking as the Dark Tower project, which was attempting to tie in both multiple film and TV adaptations of King’s source material.

Warner Bros has chosen Ben Affleck to adapt and direct The Stand, Stephen King’s apocalyptic mammoth book. Affleck has become a cornerstone director for the studio, but this would be his greatest challenge yet. Even King has been reticent about the idea of making a feature of his book, which previously was turned into a miniseries. With The Town and Gone Baby Gone, Affleck has shown the grit necessary to handle such an unforgettable tale. It’s early days, but the studio loves Affleck, who’s now directing Argo.

Vader182 wrote:Is this a joke?

-Vader