I love Stephen King. Whether you know me or not, you’ll quickly learn how much he’s impacted me as a writer and a reader. I love his tireless ability to just keep going and I can only hope to one day feel a little of what that would feel like. But then he’d tell me to stop saying feel and describe it instead, show, don’t tell.
When worlds collide
Early last year I downloaded The Stand on Audible, mostly because it was around 45 hours long and I figured it was a great use of my one monthly audible credit. I was also still doing my masters in Creative Writing and there was a different assessment coming up. I had to write an actual essay comparing writers or various works of a writer (you can tell the assignment itself had little impact on me) however, I knew The Stand would be a great book to dissect. I ranted and raved about the book to anyone who would listen, and even some who wouldn’t and I felt vindicated that someone else recognised just how easily civilisation could crumble, and how rampant a virus could spread. This was also confirmed with the film Contagion which I saw around the same time. Chilling, isn’t it? I can remember quite clearly conversations I had with others who insisted that none of it was possible, that no virus could have that effect and there’s no such thing as zombies, the T-Virus or Captain Tripps. So now all those naysayers are quiet a year later when we’re all living in it! I will concede though, that Mr King himself, did state that Covid-19 is nowhere near as bad as Captain Tripps in The Stand as that killed 99.999% of the population, whereas Covid-19 is ’eminently survivable’.
The Remake
Back in 1994 there was a mini-series adaptation of The Stand, which has pretty good reviews online and I spoke to a few people who’ve watched it since. I’ve been tempted to buy it, but then we started living a very slow opening scene of it. Then, a couple of days ago I received a notification online that there was already a remake in the works prior to lockdown but it’ll still be going ahead once we’re all back up and running again. There’s an insanely A-list cast involved, Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abigail, Alexander Skarsgård as Randall Flagg plus rumours of Marilyn Manson as Trashcan Man (and he’s recorded a cover of ‘The End’ by The Doors, with Shooter Jennings of all people!).
Who else is excited for this?
e x
