Let's Talk Stephen King Remakes! The Stand!

[Mrs_C]

So I have spoken about IT. I found this wee nugget also

www.movieweb.com/news/stephen-king-talks-the-stand-remake

So this looks like it is not going to happen anytime soon. But what if it did?

I thought I would give you my version of a Dream Cast and again like before share with me your thoughts and offer your own dream casts.

Again sticking to major characters cos there are farrrrr too many but if I have missed any character you like feel free to offer a good casting!

Mother Abigail

Supposed to be 111 in the book old black woman who is the leader of gods children. There is not many old black actresses so a Benjamin Button job is going to have to be carried out. So who better than our resident Booker T look-a-like?



Obviously!

Stuart Redman
A quiet cowboy type, been around the block a few times. I always put him late 30's early 40's and Gary Sinse was a good choice for the TV show but I think that



would be awesome. Can not imagine anyone else with a southern accent that would suit this part better. Plus I quite fancy him. (understatement)

Frances (Frannie) Goldsmith

Imagine her to be girl next door and possibly blonde or red head. Early 20's cos she is college age. Molly Ringwald sucked bigtime and I need someone who is tough but pretty. Miss Stone will do nicely.



Harold Lauder

Greasy spotty fat 16 year old who is love with Franny. But there is no way she would ever be his even if he was quite literally the last man on the planet. So Young Riley Griffiths of the recent Super * is maybe slightly young for this part but could play 16 I think and they can ugly him up a little so he isn't so cute.



Glen Bateman

Supposed to be late 50's early 60's retired and enjoying life after the plague (he didn't much care for people) so I thought since he has already starred in a King adaptation why the hell not.



Nick Andros

Young deaf-mute. Early 20's reasonably good looking but wise. So he is cute and wouldn't have to speak except in dream sequences so he doesn't have to use that terrible American accent too much.



Tom Cullen

Blonde and 'mildly retarded' aged at late 30's early 40's and befriends Nick. Now I really would like DiCaprio to have another stab at playing a retard but that is never going to happen so what about Seth Rogan? If he can play it straight it could be a good move. At 29 he is a bit on the young side but make up is a wonderful thing.



Ralph Brentner

Mid-west farmer aged late 40's easy going bumbling kind of a guy. A kind hearted man with strong morals.


Perfect!

Larry Underwood

Young singer (22-25) who had just found success and is an asshole. But during the story he changes into a kind, loyal, Strong man. Oh and he is good looking hmmmm



Oh and he can sing.

Nadine Cross

Teacher considerably older thank Larry perhaps a gap of 15 years. Pretty but never lost Virginity and is saving it for 'the dark man' Long dark hair which eventually turns white. How about Michelle Forbes of True Blood & Dexter Fame?



Lloyd Henreid

Serial Criminal. Starts off by entering a 3 state killing spree with his friend Poke before being arrested, Poke killed and the dark man finally finds him starving in jail.



Yeah it's Eddy Furlong. Once upon a time I quite fancied him. Now? Not so much but he is about as fucked up looking as a criminal could get plus he can act (American history x) & he would probably work for drugs. (joking obvs.)

" The Trashcan Man"

Now for Trashy the actor has to be good (as he must be nuts), in his 40's and who better to do it justice than



Not obvious either. IO think he would be amazing.

Finally for Randall Flagg/ The Dark man. In the book he is supposed to be quite young as Dayna (who is herself in her 30s) mentions he is younger than her. He has also gotta have some star power as he is effectively the star of the film. So who better than



Almost the same clothes, grow his hair long and give him a bit of scarring and he is perfect. Also he can act and he is around the right age.

OK guys your turn

[trashcanman]

I thought you were going to say Oprah for Mother Abigail. A lot of people see her that way, although she's not nearly old enough (makeup?). Boo to Ringwald hate! I don't know if I could stomach Timberlake and Patterson in the same film, and I don't think they could be cast without producers trying to turn the film into a tween flick on principle alone. Man, that pic of Forbes is beastly, but recalling her performance in TB I agree she'd be an awesome Nadine. I always felt like the worst non-CG thing about the miniseries was the portrayal of Trashcan Man as some kind of mental retard. I never got that impression from the book. Dude was SOCIALLY retarded, but aside from pyromania, he seemed to have little problem speaking and thinking straight. Love to see Downey give it a shot, though I feel he may be too charming for his own good to pull it off. I actually think it might be a great actual facetime role for Andy Serkis. Trash is, after all, Stephen King's Gollum. LOVE your pick for Redman. Wonder about Rogen, though. Feels like he'd go "full retard" if you know what I mean. I will never say no to Bruce Campbell in any role, ever. All in all, I think your cast has a very interesting quality to it with a mix of young, hot actors and old-school veterans. Something for everyone, really.

[Mrs_C]

I see your point about the 'tween' thing, however JT is a pretty good actor from what I saw of him in the Social Network and even the way he played it seemed to fit the character of Larry. Pattinson would maybe relish the chance to shed his Twilight tween typecast and given the right director (Sam Raimi or Tim Burton maybe?) I think it could work.

You know I actually considered Serkis for Trashy but was unsure on whether he could act in front of the camera as well as he does in front of a green screen. I had also considered Brad douriff but felt he was a bit old for the part. But I do love RDJ. But I get where you are coming from with that one.

What do you think of Andrew Garfield for Flagg? It was a bit of a wild card but thought it might work.

[InvisibleWolfMan]

You know, the biggest problem I ever really had with THE STAND (both edited and complete and uncut books AND the TV mini-series) was the second half. You know, right from the time they are "rebuilding" all the way up to the final showdown. It gets slow and lame...almost to suicidal degrees. And that's just in the books! And American TV standards being what they've been...well, let's just leave it at that in concerns to how it played out on TV.

I see this being able to be accomplished in better terms if it was a one shot series on a cable network (Showtime, HBO...etc., etc.) that plays out over a season of no less than 13 1-hour long episodes. Do it justice and take the time to streamline it better than King normally does while allowing some of his craziness to remain in there. It's rare to get that kind of balance when doing it for something that will last only 2 hours. I should know, I've been reading King since I was 7...starting with FIRESTARTER.

[trashcanman]

I agree that a cable series would be the best way to go, as long as they don't let the side characters' stories get out of hand to the point where the narrative barely resembles the source material like they have with True Blood. I don't know if Garfield could be menacing enough to play the Devil's representative on Earth, but I haven't seen much of his stuff so I'm not opposed to the idea. Serkis did great as pre-ring Smeagol briefly at the start of ROTK, but I do wonder what his voice would bring to the role. It's kind of hard not to picture him doing Gollum's voice, ya know? And that would be just....no. I wonder how he'd do playing a character like Trash.

[Mrs_C]

Hahaha I just wrote most of your points on the IT thread D'oh!

Serkis' voice would be fine I think he is the master of voices as that is all he really has to act with. I mean he pulled Ape voice off. He did play Hare in Burke & Hare and also Bill Sykes in an adaptation of Oliver Twist but I have seen neither so couldn't really comment on the whole bad guy acting thing. Plus Burke & Hare was meant to be atrocious and nothing like the old Edinburgh tale that we know and love in Scotland (the robbed graves and sold the corpses to doctors for money)it was made into a comedy caper and I think you can guess how well that worked out in the UK.

I like True Blood and I know the show differs alot from the books (which I am just about to start reading) so yeah the focus would need to be on the main 7 characters, the 3 spies, mother Abigail, The 2 betrayers, The main bad guys, Trashy and Flagg. Though I would like to see an appearance of Rita meeting Larry and not smooshing the Rita and Nadine story arc together.

Also a bit more of Joe and his evolution into the Leo character complete with Nadine mom and Lucy mom that would make it a harder hit when Nadine finally betrays them all.

That said I think there needs to be more time spent on the journeys they ALL make to Hemford Home & Boulder, they seemed to skip alot of that in the TV series and they could maybe do like a lost thing where they spend the first 3 episodes focusing on the characters individually while the plague breaks out and then an episode dedicated to each group getting to their destination before finally spending the last part of the season organizing the spies, dealing with betrayal and then making the trip across to Las Vegas.

[Mrs_C]

Also read Firestarter and loved the book, movie not so much. It was Okaaaay but could have been better.

[trashcanman]

True Blood actually stayed pretty close to the first book, and the additions of extra plotlines actually made it far superior for the first season. But the problem is that after establishing separate storylines for what were always minor characters in the books (Tara, Lafayette, Jason, etc) and even inventing some new characters, they had to keep making up new places to take these characters that barely appear in the other books, and as a result some of the storylines are just way loopy and unnecessary. And holy shit have they made the whole fairy thing LAME. Claudine is arguably one of the coolest characters in the novels and when she showed up in season 3, all I could say was "Really? That's her?".

Back on topic, I need to watch the Stand mini again, but since I've subscribed to Marvel's comic remake of it, I've decided to finish that instead. Could be a while. Hell, these movies may be out before the comic ends.

[trashcanman]

News incoming for this one: www.aintitcool.com/node/51690


I can't say that I've seen much of Affleck's directing work, but as long as he respects the source material and stays BEHIND the camera, I don;t really have any complaints. Anyone else care to weigh in?

[The Curmudgeon]

I am Nerding out right now...