There has been recent talk that a remake to The Stand has been giving the go ahead to become a major motion picture. Those of us, who remember the epic television miniseries, brought to life by Mick Garris; Stephen King’s go to man for his novel adaptations, do so with fondness and admiration. They are considerably worried that a Hollywood treatment of this quintessential story of the struggle between good and evil will fall into a familiar formula and lose its important characterisation. We are not the only ones with our doubts, Stephen King has also expressed his disdain for the project, humorously listing the reasons why this movie adaptation wont work and why he will have a considerable lesser involvement in the project.
1. No one will be able to top Gary Sinise, who played Stu Redman in the original ABC miniseries. He was perfect. When he says “You don’t know nothing” to the soldiers who are putting him under mandatory quarantine, you believe his contempt completely. My runner-up pick would be Jake Gyllenhaal.
2. I didn’t know anything about the remake until I read about it on the Internet.
3. You absolutely can’t make it as a two-hour movie. If it was a trilogy of films…maybe.
4. Molly Ringwald won’t be playing Fran Goldsmith this time.
5. Rutger Hauer is a little too old to play the Walkin’ Dude, and that’s too bad.
6. People who’ve seen Kubrick’s The Shining dislike the miniseries I wrote (and my amigo Mick Garris directed) even if they haven’t seen it. That’s always annoyed me. But the wheel of karma turns! This time people will probably say, “The miniseries was lots better.” BUT…
7. …historically speaking, movie studios blow the budget on things like this, so maybe it’ll be fun to look at. The dough certainly isn’t going to me, although if it is a trilogy, and if it makes a lot of money, I might be able to buy a chicken dinner at Popeye’s. Great slaw!
8. Molly Ringwald will probably not play the Trashcan Man, either, but Billy Bob Thornton would be cool. Billy Bob’s always cool.
9. They need to write in a lot of heavy-metal for the soundtrack.
10. M-O-O-N, that spells “you probably won’t see this anytime soon.” And when you do, Woody Allen won’t be directing it. Or Molly Ringwald.
Everything about that list is tongue in cheek but I defiantly agree with its message, The Stand was made as a Television mini series because the source material is far too large to be condensed into a two-hour film without losing its integrity. I also agree that in Stephen King’s eyes the casting in the original miniseries was a perfect reflection of the characters that he created and if you can’t trust the King with his own work then you should reevaluate your motives. Jake Gyllenhaal is an interesting choice and King seems to be thinking about how this movie could reflect contemporary society but in the end he remains skeptical that it is at all do-able.
Accessreel.com would love to hear what you think about the remake going ahead and Stephen King’s recommendation of Jake Gyllenhaal as Stu Redman and his insistence of Molly Ringwald being somehow involved. Who else could play the walking dude other than a young Rutger Hauer? A smooth talking Sam Rockwell perhaps?
The Stand remake is currently in development stage and is slated for a 2013 release.
