THE STAND Boss on Stephen King’s Impact on the CBS All Access Adaptation

When THE STAND executive producer Benjamin Cavell set out to adapt Stephen King’s iconic novel by the same name, he had a lot to work with.

First released in 1978, there was also an expanded version of the story released in 1990. (There was also a 1994 miniseries and a mid-2000s graphic novel.)

“We are an adaptation of the extended version,” Cavell told reporters during a recent press conference. “Of course you know we had to make some decisions to include or not include some things that are in the extended version, but we are an adaptation of [that].”

King has had a mixed relationship with adaptations of his stories, sometimes supportive, other times less so. But he was so in on CBS All Access’ THE STAND—whose cast includes James Marsden, Whoopi Goldberg, Amber Heard, Greg Kinnear, Odessa Young, and Alexander Skarsgård —he actually penned a new ending for the story that will be revealed in the show’s ninth episode.

“He wrote a coda; that is that is our ninth episode and I really don’t want to say much about that, because it’s going to be completely new to the entire audience,” Cavell said. “But [what] I…will say about it is that the the big reason that he wanted to do the coda—and we’re so honored that he trusted us with it—[is] the thing that he had been thinking about for 30 years is that, look, Frannie [played by Odessa Young in this version] doesn’t go on the stand in the book…She can’t walk across the mountains to confront the Darkman but it always ate at him that she wasn’t there—as one of the heroes of the book, she was never given her stand. So what I will say about the coda is that it is his attempt to give her her stand.”

Outside of the final episode, “King read every draft and signed off on every draft of every script,” Cavell shared. “Owen King was in the writers room with us and wrote on a number of the scripts. Stephen King is obviously an artist and a storyteller and therefore understands that for this to be done righteously, he couldn’t micromanage it, and didn’t want to. He trusted our vision and wanted us to make the show we were making.”

But it was invaluable “to have him be sort of vetting every script by reading it and had an open line of communication with me,” he continued. “Stephen and I just would email back and forth about drafts. He was vetting all the changes we made to characters and the development of them in real time.”

THE STAND, Thursdays, CBS All Access

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• THE STAND: Eion Bailey, Katherine McNamara, and Hamish Linklater Join CBS All Access Series
• THE STAND Adds James Marsden, Amber Heard, and More to CBS All Access Show
• THE STAND: CBS All Access Orders Adaptation of Stephen King Novel

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