Stephen King's The Stand Series Might Head To CBS All Access
- Thread starter Dream
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I think Ezra got some flack for how he portrayed the Trashcan Man in a stereotypical "Mentally Challenged" way who looked like he slobbered over everything and was constantly mumbling stuff and giggling.
Trashcan Man was a Deeply Disturbed character in the novel, but it was more in how he loved burning and blowing up stuff. He could talk and interact with people. He came off as manic more than anything.
A theory is that someone figured that since this is King's Lord of the Rings, that meant Trashcan should act more like Gollum.
Me, I'm just a little upset that they made Flagg's New Vegas into some crazy Apocalypse Anarchy place where people ran around naked and having sex and generally acted like barbarians. The book had them as a super organized place that outlawed drugs and debauchery like that. It was King's commentary on how Fascism might look orderly and efficient on the surface but in truth it's self-destructive and inevitably going to collapse on itself.
Trashcan Man was a Deeply Disturbed character in the novel, but it was more in how he loved burning and blowing up stuff. He could talk and interact with people. He came off as manic more than anything.
A theory is that someone figured that since this is King's Lord of the Rings, that meant Trashcan should act more like Gollum.
Me, I'm just a little upset that they made Flagg's New Vegas into some crazy Apocalypse Anarchy place where people ran around naked and having sex and generally acted like barbarians. The book had them as a super organized place that outlawed drugs and debauchery like that. It was King's commentary on how Fascism might look orderly and efficient on the surface but in truth it's self-destructive and inevitably going to collapse on itself.
in some ways it was closer to the book but overall the 1994 mini-series was way better.
Interesting that you should say this. Last year I rewatched the original miniseries (I tried to watch appropriate segments on the day they are stated to have occurred), and that coupled with my recollections of the novel makes me wonder how many of the people killed in Vegas weren't so much 'evil' as 'lost' or 'flawed'. We know there are people who abandon Flagg, and we know that he kills drug users, who it could be argued need treatment, not crucifixion. I can't help wondering how many of the people there weren't entirely beyond redemption.
The were was minor character in Las Vegas (forgotten the name - was friends with Julie Lawry) I think was more swept along by events than anything who would probably fit into that category.
others were probably drawn by the notion of law and order (drogan - flagg's chief of police would fit that category).
There was one of Flagg's Inner Circle who protested the whole crucifixion thing of the Boulder folk and Flagg fried him on the spot for that. Lloyd himself was depicted in the book as conflicted buy he thought he couldn't turn his back on the guy who saved him.
Nadine felt like she was literally born to be Flagg's wife and mother to his kid and had no say in anything but she finally found the strength to defy him at the end.
It all seems to indicate that no one at New Vegas was wholly evil and it all came down to choice and strength of will/conviction.
Not terribly fair of God to Nuke them all, but I guess God was in an Old Testament mood.
Ferrer was honestly too old for the character. Lloyd IS supposed to come off as a younger fellow never treated with respect by anyone who is also considered to be dull-witted and a school dropout.
Been a while since i read the book.
Still a vast improvement on the character we got this time around.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. All I know is I liked Alexander Skarsgard's Flagg and wish we'd seen more of him (although with his haircut and beard he reminded me looks wise of a love child between Ace Ventura Pet Detective and Charlie from It's Always Sunny 
). I wouldn't mind seeing this same group of creative people do an adaptation of The Dark Tower series with Skarsgard returning as Marten Broadcloak/Randall Flagg as they seemed to stick pretty close to the source material while providing their own take on it.
). I wouldn't mind seeing this same group of creative people do an adaptation of The Dark Tower series with Skarsgard returning as Marten Broadcloak/Randall Flagg as they seemed to stick pretty close to the source material while providing their own take on it.
That's one thing I forgot to point out in my original post. Apparently the show's producers are a bunch of puritanical holier-than-thou types who equate sex/kink/bdsm with 'evil.' I know a lot of people who are into that, and the last thing I'd describe them as is evil. Heck, if I was given the choice to go to either Boulder or Vegas, I'd probably pick Vegas too. Of course, people were also getting their heads chopped off with chain saws and being crucified on telephone poles for no real good reason, which would have made me vomit before booking ass out of there. But in this over-the-top caricature of the Sin City, everyone seems just fine with that, right down to the black lady in the DMV-like office checking people in and casually telling her henchman to throw Tom Cullen into a slave pit, as if this was her normal job before Captain Trips. Really?! Everyone there is just dandy living in a community where there is outright slavery, random killing, and gladiatorial combat to the death as long as they can fuck out in the open?
Agreed, and much better casted. The 1994 will always be the vesion for me, dispite some changes from the book. Mick Garris did a great job with it considering it was more restricted being on broadcast TV.
Now I didn’t mind the latter. Flagg lost his mojo.
Trashcan Man was to be his replacement.
What I would have done is have Trashcan start off insipid, but see an evil gleam in his eye. Visually, he is falling apart...more skeletal from the radiation.
But in truth, he would be more potent.
I imagine him in the Vegas desert, a CGI cadaver based on figures from The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. He walks with a traffic cone type warhead with those black metal bandings used to make Slim-Jims...now embedded deep into what once was flesh
He approaches like something from Bethmoora. His mouth drops open, and the words hiss out without him speaking:
“My life...FOR YOU!”
The bands break—shatter. He falls apart.
The warhead lands base first, pointing to the sky. Flagg looks up and screams. Heroes flee: “Don’t look back”
Flagg looks down, and the warhead now stands on its point. Waiting to be nailed home. Flagg is seized by winds.
The “camera” zooms back-back-back. A faint arm from the sky seems to come into view to hammer the nail as it were...then the flash.
I loved the book years ago (read both the original and the unabridged at different times). Thought the 90's miniseries was 'OK'. I was barely able to sit through this latest version. It was just bad, and it struck me that it would have been nonsensical to someone who didn't already know the story. My personal .02.