New Writer For Affleck’s The Stand
David Kajganich takes a crack at King
It’s a job that’s passed through the hands of George Romero and Steve Kloves, but now another writer has undertaken the mammoth task of adapting The Stand for the screen. David Kajganich is wrestling Stephen King’s blockbuster novel into movie shape as we speak, under the watchful eye of director Ben Affleck.
Set after an American super-flu virus has wiped out most of the world’s population, The Stand sees a King-typical band of mismatched survivors trying to establish a peacenik new society under the aegis of earth-mother Abigail Freemantle. The existence of another group however, led by King‘s recurring antichrist Randal Flagg, means conflict – the stand of the title – is brewing.
First published in 1978, The Stand was always epic in size and scope, but was re-issued in 1990 in an “author’s cut” that was even longer. Mick Garris directed a six-hour TV miniseries in 1994, starring Gary Sinise and Rob Lowe.
Kajganich has previous experience writing pandemics, since he was responsible for the beleaguered Bodysnatchers remake The Invasion in 2007. Unsurprisingly, it’s not that gig that’s scored him The Stand, but an as-yet unproduced screenplay for Stephen King‘s similarly whopping It, which impressed Affleck so much that he had to sleep with the lights on so Pennywise couldn’t get him.*
Steve Zaillian Planning Timecrimes
And musing A Thousand Splendid Suns
David Cronenberg was rumoured for a while to be behind Timecrimes, until he categorically told the world that he isn’t. And now it turns out that screenwriter Steve Zaillian is eyeing Timecrimes for himself, for one of his occasional forays away from his word-processor and behind the camera.
The film is an English-language remake of the Spanish Los Cronoscrimenes, which involves a hapless man named Hector getting into paradoxical hot water via a time machine in a laboratory near his home. Think Back To The Future 2, Triangle, and Primer, and you’re on the right lines.
“We have to cast it, but it’s a tricky one,” says Zaillian, who is yet to one-hundred-percent commit himself to the project. “I’d want to make it really low budget. I think part of its appeal is that it’s kind of a low budget thriller, but it’s hard to get that made without a major actor. I’d like to make it for $10m so the trick is to find the right actor that doesn’t suddenly push the budget up into to $20m or $30m. It’s one of the rare opportunities where you have four characters, two locations; why do you need to spend that much money? This is a story that you wouldn’t want to tell any differently, and it happens to be an economical way to go.”
Elsewhere in the same Coming Soon interview, Zaillian gives a brief update on A Thousand Splended Suns, the mooted adaptation of Khaled Hosseini‘s novel. Rather than taking his Girl With The Dragon Tattoo approach, “where I had no qualms about setting it in Sweden but the people would be speaking in English”, Zaillian wants Suns to be an entirely Middle Eastern affair.
“I think it would be more distinctive if it was made indigenously,” he says. “I want this to be done by a Middle Eastern director with Middle Eastern actors, maybe even in Farsi.
Expendables 2 Will Be PG-13
Chuck Norris commands it!
Chuck Norris is a man credited with many special abilities. Now it appears he also has the power to convince producers that all-action sequels to R-Rated movies boasting lots of ‘80s action stars should be PG-13 and avoid naughty language. Because that’s what he’s managed with The Expendables 2.
It all started more as a rumour flung around the ‘net at the speed of gossip thanks to fan website Expendables Premiere picking up comments Norris made in a Polish magazine interview. “In Expendables 2, there was a lot of vulgar dialogue in the screenplay,” he explains. “For this reason, many young people wouldn’t be able to watch this. But I don’t play in movies like this. Due to that I said I won’t be a part of that if the hardcore language is not erased. Producers accepted my conditions and the movie will be classified in the category of PG-13.” We’re pretty sure he meant to say “I don’t play in movies like this now.” What about The Delta Force? Hellbound? The Cutter? The Missing In Action trilogy? We could go on…
Now, though, Sylvester Stallone has reached out to Ain’t It Cool news to confirm the rating. Still, he seems convinced it’ll be great even if everyone walks about calling each other melon farmers. “The film is fantastic with Van Damme turning in an inspired performance… Our final battle is one for the ages. The PG-13 rumour is true, but before your readers pass judgement, trust me when I say this film is LARGE in every way and delivers on every level. This movie touches on many emotions that we want to share with the broadest audience possible, BUT, fear not, this Barbeque of Grand scale Ass Bashing will not leave anyone hungry…”
The proof, of course, will be in the overly muscled pudding, which will arrive later this year. And if you think this means it’ll be a sanitised explode-o-thon, chances are we’ll get an unexpurgated version on DVD, full of all the muddy funsters you can handle. Check out the teaser below.
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Expendables 2 Will Be PG-13