Original The Stand Director Shares Excitement for New Series, Confirms Cameo

Filmmaker Mick Garris has brought to life a number of iconic Stephen King stories, including Sleepwalkers, Bag of Bones, and The Shining miniseries, with one of his most popular projects being his take on The Stand from 1994. Josh Boone is developing a new take on that narrative, which could see Garris wanting to distance himself from such an endeavor due to already having put his stamp on the story, only for Garris to recently detail just how excited he is personally to view the experience as a fan of the material, while also noting that fans can expect to see him make an appearance at some point in the project.

"I'm excited about it and I'm tangentially involved, in that I have a non-speaking cameo in it, unless I'm on the virtual editing room floor," Garris confirmed to ComicBook.com. "But Josh is a great guy. We've known each other for a while. He's very respectful of what we've done, and I'm excited because they're not limiting themselves to the book. They're making a lot of changes. So that could be potential death, or it could be really thrilling, to, all these years later, make it something that's compelling and pertinent to a 2020 audience."

The landscape of television has changed drastically over the years, with streaming services delivering viewers content whose production value rivals anything you'd see in a theater. In addition to the scope and scale of the new miniseries being larger, King himself wrote the final episode of the series, which includes adding an all-new epilogue.

"Josh is a very talented guy who loves King's work," the filmmaker detailed. "King himself wrote the final episode, and his son, Owen, was on the writing staff of the series. So I think there's a lot of respect there, but King has given his approval for them to take the source material, because it's already been done once very faithfully to the book, as faithfully as you can adapt film and literature, being two very separate and distinct media. But King wrote our miniseries, and we made as close an approximation to the book as it's possible to do and keep it a compelling film project."

He added, "I can't wait to see it. I love the idea that it's happening anew and it will be really interesting to see how it is perceived, because it's on CBS All Access, which does not have the most gigantic audience at this point because it's another one of these pay streaming devices. But I'm excited to see what happens."

Earlier this year, the project was on pace to land on CBS All Access by the end of the year, with fans uncertain how the coronavirus pandemic will impact the project's completion. Mick Garris' new book, These Evil Things We Do, is available in paperback and Kindle from Amazon. Signed copies are available from Dark Delicacies and Overlook Connection. You can also check out Garris' podcast, Post Mortem, in which he interviews prominent figures in the world of horror.

Are you looking forward to the new The Stand? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

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