[TV] New version of Stephen King's THE STAND

[Holman]

Has anyone mentioned this yet? I've seen no news.

CBS All Access is going to do a new miniseries--and a new vision--of THE STAND. I'm really happy that Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) is involved, along with a boatload of other talented people.

[hepcat]

Oh goody, a 27th retelling of the same story!

[$iljanus]

Oh goody, a 27th retelling of the same story!

And you get to pay for the privilege with yet another streaming service!

[Daehawk]

Me and Donna loved the 1994 miniseries. Hard to accept its 25 years ago. And Donna is gone. Sure felt like 15 years before I looked. Blue Oyster Cult's Dont Fear the Reaper is still in my head because of that tv movie series lol. Wish she was here to share the new one with me. I dont think Ill bother.

[tjg_marantz]

Can't wait! Love the 94 one. I could see it go multiple seasons as well.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

[Jeff V]

Oh goody, a 27th retelling of the same story!

And you get to pay for the privilege with yet another streaming service!

Or not and simply treat this as fake news.

[Exodor]

Oh goody, a 27th retelling of the same story!

And you get to pay for the privilege with yet another streaming service!

Or not and simply treat this as fake news.

Or just pay the $10 a month or whatever and watch Star Trek also.

[hepcat]

I just subscribe while Star Trek is airing. I still enjoy it quite a bit. And it seems like this second season is really trying to get back to its Star Trek roots in many ways.

[em2nought]

Wow, was that really way back in 1994? I think they'll have a hard time beating that version in my book.

[Daehawk]

Yes to both. It is hard to take that much time is gone. Seems like a yesterday to me at times Must not cry ...sigh.

[Jeff V]

Oh goody, a 27th retelling of the same story!

And you get to pay for the privilege with yet another streaming service!

Or not and simply treat this as fake news.

Or just pay the $10 a month or whatever and watch Star Trek also.

You are spreading more fake news. Quit it.

[Torfish]

I'm actually re-reading The Stand right now. I would love to see this, but I refuse to pay for another service. Not doing it. Disappointed.

[JCC]

I liked the 1994 version although it was a mix of very good and very bad acting. And of course there's no getting around the fact that the Stand has a shitty ending. Still, a great book that (despite the ending) I have read many times. I even slogged through the "unabridged" version once (which is valuable as proof that authors need editors) .

[msteelers]

I'm excited for this. I loved both the miniseries and the book.

It also helps that I have my brother's CBS All Access login.

[Isgrimnur]

King doesn’t know how to write a decent ending.

[ImLawBoy]

King doesn’t know how to write a decent ending.

Sure he does. The Shining is good. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption was great (and was ruined in the movie!). There are quite a few good endings sprinkled among his books. Sadly, there are quite a few duds, too (and I say this as a huge King fan).

[hepcat]

I have to agree that he can't write an ending to save his life. Most of his books end in a "power of love" battle. I liked him a great deal when I was younger, but as I got older I began to see what I considered some serious flaws in his writing.

[Jaymann]

King doesn’t know how to write a decent ending.

Sure he does. The Shining is good. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption was great (and was ruined in the movie!). There are quite a few good endings sprinkled among his books. Sadly, there are quite a few duds, too (and I say this as a huge King fan).

Can you please give a spoiler on how the book ended differently for Shawshank.

[TheMix]

I haven't read the book, but I did some reading on this last time it came up.

I believe that:

Spoiler:

The book ends with Red on the bus. It's about hope. The movie ruins that by actually showing us him connecting with Andy on the beach. It removes the hope.

[Jaymann]

Ha, I thought that seemed a little fishy.

[em2nought]

Editing out my R&P dig regarding The Stand. LOL

On Shawshank they should have had an alternate ending where the tin box contained a box of bullets with however many were used to kill the wife and lover missing.

[JCC]

As someone who read the novella MANY times before the movie came out, I disagree wholeheartedly. I loved the movie taking things one step further and showing the reunion. I get teary almost everytime I see it. LOVE it. How in the world does his hope being realized ruin the theme of hope?!

Anyway, yes King has some good endings, but most of his endings are sub par. I still get mad when I think about the last Dark Tower book. (Really the last 2.01 books. From the very end of book 5 it basically sucks.) I would be totally fine with King saying "I screwed up the end of Dark Tower, I am just going to have a do over for the last 3 books."

I liked the ends of Salem's Lot, Pet Sematary, The Shining, The Talisman (maybe Peter Straub wrote it!), It (I know most people hate the ending, but I don't mind it), Tommyknockers, .... that may be it. The rest suck. There are some (many?) King books I haven't read. I actually think he's better at ending his short stories, or maybe my expectations are lower... Anyway I digress...

Hope the new Stand turns out OK, but I am not sure if I will ever see it since it's on what I pretty much consider TV Purgatory.

[ImLawBoy]

As someone who read the novella MANY times before the movie came out, I disagree wholeheartedly. I loved the movie taking things one step further and showing the reunion. I get teary almost everytime I see it. LOVE it. How in the world does his hope being realized ruin the theme of hope?!

I have two major issues with the ending.

First, it's spoon feeding the audience a happy ending. It's the kind of ending that people regularly disparage Spielberg for. Now, that's a lesser sin in my book (I'll often defend Spielberg's happy endings), but I just don't think it's necessary here.

Second, and more importantly, is that thematically, it betrays the whole point of the story. What is important, and what keeps Andy and Red going in prison, is hope. It's not the realization of whatever they're hoping for - that's secondary at best. They can keep going because they have hope. Red succeeds in the end of the story because of his hope. Meeting up with Andy completely undercuts that message, because it's now about fulfillment instead of just hope.

This has been your regular installment of ImLawBoy Rails in Futility Against the Ending of The Shawshank Redemption.

[JCC]

(shrugs) Sorry, I emphatically disagree. But, opinions are like assholes - everyone's got one.

[hepcat]

First, it's spoon feeding the audience a happy ending. It's the kind of ending that people regularly disparage Spielberg for. Now, that's a lesser sin in my book (I'll often defend Spielberg's happy endings), but I just don't think it's necessary here.

This. The story is about hope. Giving the audience a definitive conclusion removes that hope and replaces it with certainty. That's too easy and just lazy.

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

It may be thematically inconsistent but it delivers so well emotionally. It wasn’t sappy (imo), it was just a moment of unvarnished joy after a movie of sadness and occasional horror.

[YellowKing]

M-O-O-N that spells reboot.

I'm looking forward to it. IT and (hopefully) the upcoming PET SEMATARY remakes are putting some of the scary back in King's work, so I can dig it (baby, can you dig your man? He's a righteous man).

[Smoove_B]

Still one of my favorite (mostly) stand alone King books and one I've read at least twice. I liked the prior TV adaptation, though I know it was far from perfect. That being said, after The Dome, I have little faith in a network TV version of this show, even one on a "premium subscription" version. Why no HBO? Why no Amazon? Netflix? Expectations are low and I'll have to figure out a way to watch that doesn't involve paying CBS a fee, because that's absurd.

[Smoove_B]

Alexander Skarsgard will be Randall Flagg:

James Marsden (Stu Redman), Amber Heard (Nadine Cross), Odessa Young (Frannie Goldsmith), and Henry Zaga (Nick Andros)) have already been confirmed to star in the 10-episode adaptation of King’s apocalyptic epic, while The View host Whoopi Goldberg confirmed Collider’s earlier scoop that she will play Mother Abagail.

[Buatha]

No worse ending than the Dark Tower series. So, not only does (if I remember correctly...it's been years) he ask you to stop reading when Roland reaches the Tower, he then compares you wanting to continue to the part he seems to have reluctantly wrote as a crappy orgasm...and seems to criticize the reader for needing a conclusion.

I was like, dude, I have read this series...waiting years for the first 4...then re-reading again when they started up again with Wolves of Calla. Yes, I wanted to see the ultimate outcome and being an asshole toward me because I wanted to see the conclusion of what's inside the Tower. Eff you, pal.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Speaking of endings, I read a recent interview with King where he stated that he's changing the ending of The Stand in the new reboot because he wants it to be

Spoiler:

happier.

[Smoove_B]

Stuff

Ok, but Eric Northman is going to be Randall Flagg.

[$iljanus]

Alexander Skarsgard will be Randall Flagg:

James Marsden (Stu Redman), Amber Heard (Nadine Cross), Odessa Young (Frannie Goldsmith), and Henry Zaga (Nick Andros)) have already been confirmed to star in the 10-episode adaptation of King’s apocalyptic epic, while The View host Whoopi Goldberg confirmed Collider’s earlier scoop that she will play Mother Abagail.

Awesome! They should have a show with all the Skarsgårds. Either it will be the best thing ever to come to television or all of existence will be sucked into a singularity if they ever appeared on the screen together.

[Smoove_B]

Some production stills from the new version being shared in Vanity Fair

Didn't realize Heather Graham was in it.

It’s hard to know what our world will feel like when The Stand begins its nine-episode run, but the coronavirus crisis has only intensified interest in movies like Contagion and Outbreak. The show had to wrap production four days early in March when COVID-19 began to shut down North America, but, as of now, CBS All Access plans to proceed with the release. “It was very surreal, obviously, to start to realize that there was a creeping pandemic the way there was at the beginning of our show,” Cavell says.

Of note:

It will be available on CBS All Access with no release date yet specified.

[Daehawk]

Pass. No interest. The 1994 one was amazingly good and I dont need a new fancy pants version.

[Smoove_B]

Ok, but Eric Northman is going to be Randall Flagg

[Holman]

I rewatched the 1994 version recently.

It... seems much more like a 90s TV movie now.

TV has just gotten so much better. This one could still be a dud, but the production values will almost certainly be much higher.

[YellowKing]

The only bit of casting I'm not thrilled about is Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abigail. It's the equivalent of casting Morgan Freeman as a "wise magical black man." I don't really have anything against Whoopi, per se, it just lacks imagination.

[Z-Corn]

Didn't realize Heather Graham was in it.

Ok, but Eric Northman is going to be Randall Flagg

Two posts in a row that made my boner knock the phone out of my hands!

[Smoove_B]

I aim to please.