Josh Boone Says 'The Stand' Will Be R-Rated and 3-Hours Long

While his first film Stuck in Love came and went with little fanfare, Josh Boone is going to make a serious impact with The Fault In Our Stars (my review here) this weekend. Landing that gig has opened up a lot of doors, and one of those was taking the helm for an adaptation of Stephen King's epic novel, The Stand. It's had more than a fair amount of difficulties, with Ben Affleck, Scott Cooper, and David Yates all dropping out after after signing on. But a bigger issue is figuring out how to condense King's extensive story for the screen while keeping it accessible for all audiences. While on tour promoting The Fault In Our Stars, Boone was asked about his plans for The Stand....

"We’re gonna do one three-hour, R-rated version with an amazing A-list cast across the board. Every single one of those characters will be somebody you recognize and somebody you relate to. And it’s gonna be awesome."

While a multi-part TV series would probably be the best approach, this is a decent alternative assuming Warner Bros. signs off on it. They may be a little concerned about that runtime no matter how many A-list stars are cast in it. Cloud Atlas was three hours long and had all the stars in the world, but look how it turned out. Of course, that book wasn't nearly as well known as The Stand, and Boone has a lot more heat on him than The Wachowskis did at the time. [Vulture]