Doug Liman to Direct ‘The Stand’ Adaptation

Preview:

• Doug Liman in developing an adaptation of ‘The Stand.’
• Stephen King’s 1987 tale is considered among his best.
• Paramount Pictures is backing the new movie project.

There are certain things you can count on in life. The changing of the seasons. The tides of the sea. A studio or filmmaker deciding to adapt a Stephen King story.

Yes, the prolific horror writer’s back catalogue is in the spotlight yet again as Doug Liman –– he of ‘Swingers’, ‘The Bourne Identity’ and most recently, the ‘Road House’ update –– is on board to handle one of King’s most famous tales, ‘The Stand’.

Paramount Pictures is, per The Hollywood Reporter, teaming up with the director to adapt the novel into a movie, bringing to the big screen something that has previously been miniseries.

Related Article: Doug Liman says He and Tom Cruise Still Talk About ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ Sequel

What’s the story of ‘The Stand’?

(L to R) Jovan Adepo and James Marsden in the CBS All Access series ‘The Stand.’ Photo: Robert Falconer/CBS ©2020 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The book, first published in 1978 then revised in 1990, is a bar-setting literary genre offering that has long influenced pop culture and inspired many other takes on post-apocalyptic narratives across different media.

An ambitious story of good vs. evil, it takes place in an America after a virus wipes out most of the population and follows dozens of characters in overlapping storylines running over many years. And while readers root for the characters such as the Trashcan Man and Mother Abigail, the final showdown came down to a group of survivors fighting the Antichrist-like Randall Flagg in the wasteland known as Las Vegas.

‘The Stand’ has, as mentioned above been adapted twice as a miniseries, once in 1994 and again in 2020 (pretty sure no one was really ready to watch it as Covid initially gripped the world), and as comic by Marvel Comics.

There’s a reason it has primarily been made into miniseries form: the book is King’s longest work, with a whopping page count of 1,152.

The history of people trying to adapt it into a movie is a litany of different filmmakers, none of whom got it over the finishing line: directors including George A. Romero, David Yates to Ben Affleck and Josh Boone  (the latter ended up involved with the 2020 miniseries) have tried to tackle the material, and Warner Bros. and CBS Films partnered on developing it in the 2010s.

Now Paramount, working with Liman and producer Tyler Thompson of Cross Creek Pictures (who previously helped the director shoot Tom Cruise effort ‘American Made’ for Universal) are meeting with writers to develop Liman’s particular take –– described by THR’s sources as a one-movie idea rather than trying to launch a franchise –– into script form.

What else is Doug Liman developing?

(L to R) Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Hong Chau and director Doug Liman from Apple Original Films’ “The Instigators” make an appearance at View Boston. Photo: Marion Curtis / Starpix for Apple Original Films.

Liman is a real genre-hopper who hates being tied down to one sort of movie, and he has several other plates spinning right now.

Right now, he’s shooting ‘Everest’, which stars Ewan McGregor as British mountain climber George Mallory, the explorer who made multiple attempts to scale the titular peak throughout the 1920s.

And then there’s ‘Deeper’ in development, an underwater supernatural thriller that is being targeted for Cruise and Ana de Armas (because as the latest ‘Mission: Impossible’ movie can attest, Cruise loves spending time underwater).

The director keeps talking about the potential for another Cruise reunion –– a sequel to sci-fi ‘Edge of Tomorrow,’ though despite the tantalizing prospect, it remains just out of reach.

Then we have the big maybes, such as a movie that could be shot on the International Space Station, starring –– you guessed it! –– one Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, a new movie adaptation of ‘The Saint’ TV show and a variety of others.

That’s not even getting into his list as a producer, but to document all of those would take probably about the same word count as ‘The Stand’.

When will ‘The Stand’ be on screens?

While Liman is a director who can get movies made, even the fact that it has a studio attached is no guarantee that this will either move quickly or even reach screens.

Add to that the fact that the movie doesn’t have a writer aboard yet, let alone a cast, and we’d expect to be waiting a couple of years for this one. So, er, stand still for now?

(L to R) Whoopi Goldberg in the CBS All Access series ‘The Stand.’ Photo: Robert Falconer/CBS ©2020 CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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