A few weeks ago we reported on possible future movies for Harry Potter director David Yates. One of those possibilities was the long-gestating adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, which Warner is working on. Now Hitfix is reporting that the studio is busy finalising a deal for Yates to helm a multi-film take on the book.
Not only that, but it’s turning into a Potter reunion as they also want screenwriter Steve Kloves (who wrote all but one of the Hogwarts movies) to come on-board to write The Stand. The book has defied attempts to adapt it for the big screen ever since it was published (although a TV mini-series did emerge), largely because there’s way too much material for a single movie, but its multi-strand marrative makes it tough to turn it into a film series that would work.
As Potter has been a singular phenomenon, which has been able to survive over eight films, it therefore makes sense that Warner would want some of that magic for a book that is much-loved, but has defeated endless attempts to get it into cinemas. If anyone can turns King’s tale into scripts that will work, Kloves and Yates are a good choice.
Although impossible to boil down to a simple plot, The Stand’s over-arcing premise sees a plague known as Captain Trips wiping out pretty much everyone in the world. The survivors then begin sharing a dream of a strange, evil figure, and slowly come together to try and defeat the anti-Christ like Randall Flaggs. It’s basically good vs. evil told on a massive, apocalytic scale.