Stephen King’s The Stand has been on a long, circuitous route to its eventual release. Once planned as a movie directed by The New Mutants‘ Josh Boone, they failed to find a way to capture King’s epic tome on the big screen. It was a move to CBS All Access a couple of years ago that finally brought the pieces together, and now we know to look forward to The Stand arriving this holiday season as a miniseries.
Variety reports The Stand will hit CBS All Access on December 17th, as a 10-episode miniseries event. Boone is still on board as director of the opening and closing episode, the latter featuring a brand new ending penned by King himself.
Sadly, The Stand is proving all-too-timely, as the post-apocalyptic battle of good vs. evil takes place after a pandemic has wiped out most of humanity. The series stars Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abigail, with Alexander Skarsgård as her nemesis, The Man in Black. The rest of the cast includes James Marsden, Odessa Young, Jovan Adepo, Amber Heard, Owen Teague, Henry Zaga, Brad William Henke, Irene Bedard, Nat Wolff, Eion Bailey, Heather Graham, Katherine McNamara, Fiona Dourif, Natalie Martinez, Hamish Linklater, Daniel Sunjata, and Greg Kinnear.