Doug Liman to Tackle Stephen King Epic ‘The Stand’ For Paramount

Paramount Pictures and Doug Liman are taking a stand. The Stand, as a matter of fact.

via: Variety

Filmmaker Doug Liman is attached to direct a feature film of the post-apocalyptic bestseller for Paramount Pictures, with Cross Creek Pictures’ Tyler Thompson on board to produce. The project does not yet have a script, however, so development may take some time as Liman and the studio winnow King’s novel — which runs 1,153 pages in its 1990 unabridged version — into a single movie. But the studio sees the movie as a priority and is moving forward aggressively to make it happen.

“The Stand,” first published in 1978, was previously adapted as a television miniseries for ABC in 1994, starring Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, Ruby Dee and Laura San Giacomo; and again for Paramount+ (née CBS All Access) in 2020, starring James Marsden, Odessa Young, Alexander Skarsgard, Whoopi Goldberg and Amber Heard. However, the story’s epic scope — using the backdrop of a cataclysmic influenza pandemic that wipes out 99.4% of humanity to tell a sprawling story of good versus evil over many years — has stymied previous efforts to adapt “The Stand” into a movie. Ben Affleck, Scott Cooper, David Yates and Josh Boone are among the filmmakers who’ve been attached, and then unattached, to make the film.

Remarkably, this will be Paramount’s first project with Liman, who most recently helmed projects for streamers Apple TV+ (“The Instigators”) and Amazon Prime Video (“Road House”). The director last worked with Thompson on the 2017 Tom Cruise caper “American Made,” a follow-up from his 2014 sci-fi epic with Cruise, “Edge of Tomorrow.”

The Hollywood Reporter first broke the news of Liman’s involvement.