The big screen version of The Stand has gone through a number of iterations, with everyone from Ben Affleck to Ron Howard at one point or another attached to direct the length Stephen King novel. The latest filmmaker to find himself attempting to tackle the film is writer/director Josh Boone (The Fault in our Stars).

According to Boone, his take on the property will be spread out over four movies, a risky decision when you consider the fact that it may not even get a sequel if the first instalment disappoints at the box office!

However, this is a decision which has been made by Warner Bros., the studio responsible for the Harry Potter, Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies, so you have to imagine that they have a solid plan in place.

“I sold them on a single, three hour movie,” Boone told  Kevin Smith’s Hollywood Babble-On Podcast about his original vision for The Stand. “I went and got [Stephen] King sold on it, everybody’s really excited. I told the story non-linear and that was the way I was able to compress that book and get everything into that script. You open with Mother Abigail dying and sending the guys off, and then you jump back in time. So what happened is the script gets finished, I write it in like five months, everybody loves it, King loves it, $87 million is what it was budgeted at, really expensive for a horror drama that doesn’t have set pieces.”

“They came back and said ‘Would you do it as multiple films?’ and I said ‘F**k yes!'” Boone added when asked what changed. “I loved my script, and I was willing to drop it in an instant because you’re able to do an even truer version that way. So I think we are going to do like four movies. I can’t tell you anything about how we’re going to do them, or what’s going to be in which movie. I’ll just say we are going to do four movies.”

“We’re going to do The Stand at the highest level you can do it at, with a cast that’s going to blow people’s minds. We’ve already been talking to lots of people, and have people on board in certain roles that people don’t know about. We’re looking to go into production next year, maybe in the spring,” he revealed.

There’s obviously a lot of interesting new information to take in here, and the fact that Boone is being given the chance to adapt The Stand in a way which does the book justice is obviously very exciting indeed. Being given Stephen King’s approval is a big deal too, especially as the author has been highly critical of the big screen adaptations of his work over the years (like a lot of readers, he’s not a big fan of The Shining).

With any luck, we’ll hear about casting soon as that will be a good sign that The Stand is really happening!