Josh Boone Adapting Stephen King’s Revival; The Stand Put on Hold
Writer/director Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) was recently tapped to bring Stephen King’s The Stand to the big screen, and today we’ve got an update on the long-gestating project. Unfortunately, it won’t be Boone’s next film, but there’s a good reason for that. Read on!
Per Deadline, Boone will next be directing an adaptation of Stephen King’s 2014 novel Revival, based on a King-approved script that he has already penned. Boone and producer Michael De Luca have submitted the script to Universal.
Revival is about a charismatic preacher who loses his faith when his wife and child are killed in a tragic accident. Unhinged from the religion that grounded and gave him a conscience, the preacher becomes ruthless in his experimentation into the healing but dangerous power of electrical current, positioning him to act as God-like faith healer and opening a terrifying Pandora’s Box. Intertwined with the preacher is a young man with demons of his own, who has benefited from the preacher’s talents and becomes a reluctant accomplice to his deadly obsession.
“When I read Revival, I was like, man, did [Stephen King] write this for me?” said Boone. “I’d been on both sides of that pendulum. I call myself a non-believer, now, and when I moved to LA, it was like Neo being pulled out of The Matrix. Oh, my god, none of that stuff is true! But it was what I’d been taught and what I believed in since childhood. I believed in the devil, in Jesus, and even now as a non-believer, I’m still fascinated by that world and Revival is the scariest thing he’s written since Pet Sematary. He tricks you, drawing you in gently, with that narrator’s voice and a long time span that reminds you of The Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile, and then he pulls that rug from under you in that last act and you’re like, oh my god, what have I gotten myself into?”
Boone hopes to direct Revival this year, and he’s determined to follow it up with The Stand. The script for the latter is written and he says the cast is practically set, with verbal commitments at the moment. Warner Bros’ option has run its course, and the project has reverted back to CBS Films.
“I still intend to make The Stand, but I need more time,” Boone noted.
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