A couple of projects adapted from the work of horror novelist Stephen King have been announced in the last 24 hours. I’ll begin with a report from HitFix, confirming last night what most speculated, that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 helmer David Yates would again reteam with Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves for an adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Stand” for Warner Bros.
The project was first announced back in February when Warner Bros and CBS Films teamed to pick up the rights to the novel at which time the plan was to meet with writers and directors. The post-apocalyptic tale was last adapted for television by way of a six-hour ABC mini-series in 1994, which is currently available on Netflix Instant Play and stars Rob Lowe, Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald. The story tells of a plague that ravages the world, leaving behind only a few survivors, and the battle of good and evil that plays out in the aftermath. That, however, is a massive over-simplification of the 1,000+ page tome.
Yates’ name was first mentioned mid-July, at which time he was also considering an Al Capone origin story called Cicero, which he’d been developing with Tom Hardy (Inception) attached to play the lead role. He appears to have made his choice.
Bringing on Kloves is also a good move as he has become quite seasoned at taking lengthy novels and turning them into feature-sized scripts. It will be curious, however, to see if the plan is to turn this into just one movie or break it up into multiple features. HitFix says the plan is to turn it into a “multi-movie version” of the novel, but that is something I will only believe once it’s officially announced and production begins.
With the recent demise of The Dark Tower, I can’t help but wonder if this will have as hard a time getting the greenlight. Certainly having the duo behind one of the biggest franchises in movie history doesn’t hurt.
In other King news, Variety reports Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) has optioned feature film rights to Stephen King’s upcoming novel “11/22/63” and is set to write, direct and produce the adaptation. The soon-to-be-published book follows Jake Epping, a 35-year-old high school English teacher from Maine who travels back in time to try and prevent President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
The film is currently without a distributor, but Demme is aiming to start shooting in fall 2012. “11/22/63” will hit book stands on November 8.
