Stephen King's The Stand Series Might Head To CBS All Access

According to an interview on IGN they going to have a new "coda" written by Stephen King himself.

 

So it can be like the multiple different endings of "The Shining"? Well, it'll give fans more to debate, so I suppose that's a win.

I kind of agree with an above poster that watching the world disintegrate is in some ways the most compelling part of the story. With the original miniseries I think it could be argued that part 2, the immediately afterward, was the lame-duck portion, but that the first and last parts were ultimately most interesting.

But that's often how "quest" stories work in general. The characters actually questing aren't as exciting as the set-up for the quest or the conclusion.

 

As a fan of the book and the 1994 miniseries, I like what I'm seeing! Alexander Skarsgaard was my favorite part of True Blood, and it looks like his Randall Flagg will be a scarier version than Jamey Sheridan's, who was just kinda goofy (not sure how I feel about Skarsgaard not rocking a mullet, which is a trend Flagg adheres to, along with the head to toe denim )

I'll be curious to see who they cast as Trash Can Man. I see they cast Brad Dourif's daughter, Fiona, as the Rat Woman. She was creepy in The Purge series. I'm also interested to hear what "Baby Can You Dig Your Man?" is going to sound like in this new series.

 

I read the book for the first time last Halloween. My reaction was 'Book 1' showing the apocalypse itself was one of the best things I've ever read, especially in that genre. 'Book 2' with the survivors coming together was kind of interesting but nowhere near as well written and 'book 3' was an absolute joke of a 'finale' that made it feel like I'd just been wasting my time. Stephen King cannot write endings to save his life. (See also the Dark Tower series...)

 

Will they include The Kid? (if you've read the book you know who The Kid is)
It's too bad they aren't doing this on Netflix or HBO where they could do a true treatment of the book. I love the original mini series but because it was made for network TV there were things that could not be included. I suspect that will be the case also with CBS All Access.

I don't know if goofy is the right word. I thought Sheriden was great as Flagg. He played it more like an unstable lunatic. You were never quite sure what he was going to do next. To me that's pretty damn scary.

It's going to be hard not to compare this version with the original mini series version

 

That's the kind of thing that worked back in the '90s, but would make it almost impossible to him seriously today. Unless they were going to go for a he looks goofy when you first see him, but is actually really terrifying thing with the character. That doesn't really seem to fit the tone they're going for with this though.

 

New trailer

I'm really starting to think this might be the first non-Trek CBS All Access Original I check out.

 

Apparently, this version will start out with the world already devastated by the Virus and most of Humanity dead and we'll see what happened in flashbacks?

 

Ah, the LOST approach. Heh.

 

I wonder if they intentionally didn't focus on the fact that this apocalypse was caused by an out of control virus?

 

That would really bug me (no pun intended), as one of the main themes of the book is whether man can do better.

 

Sure, showing a world already empty is much cheaper but also disappointing because how it happens is by far the most interesting part.

 

I can understand the desire to skip over the spread of the flu and the collapse of civilization simply because the previous TV adaptation of this story already did it.

 

Entertainment Weekly has announced that Ezra Miller is playing Trashcan Man. Definitely sounds like an interesting character.

 

Darn...I was really hoping it would be Marilyn Manson...

 

Since it would have been written before the pandemic happened, I'd say no. Indeed, even since the pandemic, Stephen King has said no one is worried about the story content hitting too close to home since the surge in popularity of movies like Outbreak or Contagion proves people don't seem to be bothered that much by art imitating life.

 

They addressed that in the article, they were going to have Manson play another character, The Kid, who only appeared in the longer version, but in the end they decided they didn't really have room for him in series. It seems a bit odd to me that they were going to hire a 51 year old to play a character called "The Kid", but I guess that ended up being a nonissue since they didn't go through with it.

 

...are you saying they cut The Kid from this version too?

 

Given that The Kid expunged from the book (and his reinclusion in the extended edition) doesn't seem to add that much to the story behind a bit of exposition on Trash Can Man's background.

Maybe a 51y,o actor would be a bit too old for the role, but for some reason I got the impression he wasn't that young but then again haven't ready the book recently.

 

Well, one reason to watch the new miniseries, for some of us, is the opportunity to see things we enjoyed from the book that were cut from the original miniseries. In that sense, The Kid being cut from this release also is disappointing.