It’s like Christmas Day constantly ever since CBS announced it was allowing Josh Boone to create his 10-episode series of Stephen King’s The Stand. The source material is King’s best work and most deserving of a faithful adaptation. To see that project be helmed by a King aficionado like Boone gives us more faith and excitement.
And now that project is officially moving forward, with filming set to begin this September in Vancouver and then wrap up the following March. That means we will be getting more casting news soon, hopefully including the reveal of who will play the ultimate bad guy, Randall Flagg.
A fun note found in Production Weekly is the working title used for the project. As many know, movie and TV sets often use alternative titles for productions to keep things hush hush and deter fans from invading the set. They’re often cute little references that only die-hard fans or crew members would understand. For example, Christopher Nolan famously included his son’s name in some of the Dark Knight working titles. It seems that The Stand’s working title references another pop culture icon: Bruce Springsteen.
Production Weekly notes that the working title for The Stand is currently “Radio Nowhere”. If you’re not a Springsteen fan (I’m sorry) you wouldn’t know that “Radio Nowhere” is a track from Springsteen’s album Magic. It’s a suitable title for Boone’s series because a reoccurring line in the song is “Is there anybody alive out there?” I don’t have to tell you how that fits the plot of The Stand. It’s actually a line that Springsteen has used for decades in concert as a way to hype up the audience. I don’t know if you’ve heard but the guy is something of a performer.
“Radio Nowhere” is also an appropriate title for the production because Springsteen has other ties to King’s epic book. A quote from his “Jungleland” opens the novel (and features a line about making an honest “stand” in a way that likely influenced King’s title) and the character of Larry Underwood seems somewhat influenced by Springsteen. In fact King himself has said in the past that he would love for Underwood to be played by the Boss if he ever transitioned into acting. Of course that was back in the 1980s when Springsteen (and King) was much younger.
This news is just another reminder that we have some serious King fans running this show. If they pay this much attention to the working title, you can only imagine what sort of dedication they give the series itself.