The Stand is such an awesome book that I’m somewhat interested in a remake, but I’m not optimistic, for the following reasons:

– Gary Sinise *is* Stu Redman – he plays the part absolutely flawlessly and I can’t imagine anyone else in the role. Trying to get another actor to play Stu is borderline heresy. Ditto for Rob Lowe as Nick Andros and Matt Frewer as Trashcan Man.

– Condensing such a long and complex story into anything less than 4 hours will just be a clusterfuck. If they wanted to make it *longer* than the original, I’d be into that.

The Shining remake was horrible. It didn’t touch the original in terms of suspense, terror, cinematography, music, acting, etc. The only thing I can say about the remake that you point out is that it is closer to the source material. But ultimately that becomes irrelevant when everything else about the remake was inferior to the original. I read the book and loved it, but Kubrick absolutely nailed the transition to the screen whereas the remake failed. Regarding The Stand as a movie, I think it could work, but because the novel is so huge, I think another miniseries, preferably done on HBO would be a better fit.

Way I understand the pitch is that It will be like two or three films taken from the book.

While I will always be fond of the Kubrick version and its iconic images and scenes, the remade miniseries was far better in my view. Perhaps it was due to King writing the teleplay for the miniseries- and thus being closer to the source material. I found The Shining miniseries to have better character development, more suspense, and more surreal. Did I miss blood rapids gushing down hallways, and steadicam (which that and steadiglide I am a huge fan of as far as cinematography goes)? “Here’s Johnny!”? Yes, I suppose so. But I got so much more in return and I have to confess I love both versions.

It’s too bad they’re going for the remake… I’d rather see the Dome adapted. Great book.