Last fall, director Josh Boone promised big things for this adaptation of Stephen King‘s epic "The Stand." "I think we are going to do like four movies. I can’t tell you anything about how we’re going to do them, or what’s going to be in which movie," he said. "I’ll just say we are going to do four movies, and we’re going to do ‘The Stand’ at the highest level you can do it at, with a cast that’s going to blow people’s minds," he continued. While that’s not quite the game plan now, Warner Bros. still wants to bring the scale that the project deserves.
The Wrap reports that in addition to a single R-rated feature film, it will be preceded by an eight-part miniseries on Showtime. This is so Boone can cover even more from King’s expansive book, which chronicles the battle between good and evil after a viral apocalypse devastates much of the population. This isn’t surprising given that in the same aforementioned interview, Boone revealed Warner Bros. is gung ho about expanding "The Stand."
READ MORE: Director Josh Boone Says ‘The Stand’ Will Have "A Cast That Blows People’s Minds"
"I sold them on a single, three hour movie. I went and got [Stephen] King sold on it, everybody’s really excited… So what happened is the script gets finished, I write it in like five months, everybody loves it, King loves it, $87 million is what it was budgeted at, really expensive for a horror drama that doesn’t have set pieces," he explained. "They came back and said, ‘would you do it as multiple films?’ and I said, ‘Fuck yes!’ I loved my script, and I was willing to drop it in an instant because you’re able to do an even truer version that way."
"The Stand" miniseries aims to shoot in the early part of 2016, and the plan is to target A-list talent, "True Detective" style, for the massive project. It’s a big gamble by Warner Bros., but certainly a fascinating one. And with "The Dark Tower" starting back up at Sony, it won’t be the only King project spreading the thrills to both the big and small screens.