There has been a lot of speculation about the CBS All Access adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand — especially since the COVID-19 pandemic began. There has been questions about casting and direction and the usual stuff that happens with big adaptations. But lately the focus has shifted to how audiences will react to a series about a global outbreak that kills billions and brings about the apocalypse. Is that something people want to see right now? Is that something that will hit a little too close to home?
CBS doesn’t think so because they are moving full speed ahead with the limited series, still set to hit your TV by the end of 2020. To show just how serious they are, they released a slew of images from the series to Vanity Fair. They also released a whole lot of quotes from the show runners that gives a much better idea of how this adaptation will differ form the 90s ABC mini-series and how it will also be different from the original masterwork novel. I dig into all that information below.
But first, some pictures! Up above you have Jovan Adepo and Heather Graham as Larry Underwood and Rita Blakemoor, respectively. Underwood is one the main characters of the novel, an on-the-rise rock star whose entire existence is upended when the disease known as Captain Trips decimates society. In the image above he and Blakemoor are trying to escape New York City which proves to be easier said than done. The image posted up top is great. It feels cinematic, large. It definitely feels like something more at home in a big screen film and not a made-for-TV series and that is a huge relief. Plus I like Underwood’s style. I can dig that man.
Below are a bunch of images including some of Frannie (Odessa Young), Harold Lauder (Owen Teague), Mother Abagail (Whoopi Goldberg) and Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgård). All of the images show scenes lifted straight from the novel and all feel pretty spot-on. Again, a huge relief.
(Click on any image in this article to enlarge. All courtesy of Vanity Fair)
So the pictures are showing us just what we want to see. I am very satisfied with Flagg’s look, for example. And Harold, while not an obese kid, definitely looks the part. All of this looks great. But I do have some concerns.
The Vanity Fair piece reveals that the show will toy with the chronology of the novel. The first episode of The Stand will start after the virus has already struck and the series will show the world when the pandemic hit via flashbacks. That is a pretty radical change from the novel. Show runner Ben Cavell tells VF, “What does the apocalypse look like from the ground where you can’t see what’s happening other places, you can’t see what’s happening to other people, you can only see your subjective experience?”
I understand why they made the change, it will allow for more story and an even flow of the plot. But I can’t deny that I am a little bummed that the first, say, three or four episodes of the series won’t be showcasing the end of the world. That is a major part of the book and it’s quite an experience to be inundated with so much destruction and death all at once. But I shouldn’t panic, it’s not like they’re cutting out the end of the world, they’re just splicing it up and giving it to us via little bites. I am sure the show runners know what they are doing.
Speaking of show runners, that brings me to my other main concern. Josh Boone, the man behind The Fault In Our Stars and the supposedly-real movie The New Mutants, is hardly mentioned in the Vanity Fair article. It is mentioned that he directed the first episode of The Stand but he isn’t referenced beyond that. Ben Cavell and Taylor Elmore (both solid dudes, don’t get me wrong) are titled show runners and Boone is not. That is a bummer since Boone has been the driving force behind this adaptation for years. He was attached to the project when it was a movie series, when it was a movie and TV series and finally when it was the CBS All Access series that it is now. He was supposed to be the one guiding this entire endeavor and I trusted him based on his enthusiasm and love of King and The Stand. It now seems like his role has been minimized, something I have been hearing for awhile. I am not sure what exactly is going on there but the fact that he doesn’t appear in this VF piece and his title has apparently been changed suggests that there was something of a shake-up behind the scenes. I trusted in Boone and I am hopeful that Cavell and Elmore will bring the same sort of passion that he had.
I’ll leave you with my favorite image from the Vanity Fair piece, of Alexander Skarsgård as Flagg. I like this shot. It feels modern but also classic and I am becoming increasingly excited to see Skarsgård‘s take on the character. This is a part that needs to be nailed and what I am reading about Skarsgård really makes me intrigued. Here’s Elmore on Flagg. Tell me this doesn’t sound like a perfect realization of the character.
“Flagg is so beautiful, he is absolutely a lion-like God figure. With perfect hair and…and also, there’s a softness to Alex’s performance that I think is fascinating. Alex just plays it where you feel not only sympathy for this character, but you hopefully understand why it’s so easy for people to gravitate toward him. He’s just magnetic, he’s just absolutely fascinating to watch.”
The Stand hits CBS All Access later this year.