As both groups grow in numbers, conflict becomes inevitable as a showdown looms between good and evil.Įven beyond its scale, The Stand isn’t an easy story to adapt, as it incorporates a wide array of characters and narrative themes into one massive piece. But Abigail isn’t the only one making nighttime visits, as they also see visions of the demonic Randall Flagg (Jamey Sheridan), who is rebuilding a civilization of his own in what used to be Las Vegas with the help of survivors like small-time criminal Lloyd (Miguell Ferrer) and pyromaniac Trashcan Man (Matt Frewer).

They and others are compelled in their dreams by centenarian and God’s spokeswoman Mother Abigail (Ruby Dee) to find her in Nebraska and try to rebuild civilization in Boulder, Colorado.

Among the few immune are Stu (Gary Sinise), Frannie (Molly Ringwald), Nick (Rob Lowe), and Larry (Adam Storke). When the military accidentally releases a weaponized strain of influenza known as “Captain Trips,” they wipe out over 99% of the population in a matter of weeks. For obvious reasons, King struggled to condense such a sprawling story into a feature-length script, but he was hesitant to go the television route because, as he pointed out, “You can't have the end of the world brought to you by Charmin toilet tissue.” Eventually, however, he realized a miniseries was the only way to come close to capturing everything from the book, and that’s even considering he chose to adapt the original 1978 version of his novel rather than the thousand-plus page behemoth he re-released in 1990.Īny way you slice it, there’s a lot going on in terms of story. The story of getting The Stand from page to screen is about as long as the book itself, starting with initial attempts to produce a feature film directed by George A. The first of which was a bold undertaking in bringing one of King’s biggest, most epic tales to the screen: ABC’s 1994 production of The Stand. Apart from being a great movie, Sleepwalkers also kicked off a creative relationship between Garris and Stephen King, as Garris would go on to adapt not one, but two of King’s books into miniseries in an era when “event television” was still a thing. But he did so with style, producing work that tiptoed deftly between dark and fun in films like the bizarre, campy, incestuous feline flick Sleepwalkers. As a talented director in his own right, Garris had the unenviable task of holding down the fort in what many deem to be horror’s “rebuilding years” of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Mick Garris has long been a champion of horror, developing platforms for icons in the genre through series like Masters of Horror and the Post Mortem podcast.

Stephen king the stand 1994