The Stand’s apocalypse will be long and R-rated, like apocalypses should be

By Sean O'Neal | June 6, 2014 | 5:24pm

Aux Features Film

As The Fault In Our Stars director Josh Boone relaxes in a jacuzzi filled with America’s boiling tears, it’s but a brief respite from working on his next movie about people adorably struggling through disease: The Stand, the adaptation of Stephen King’s epic novel that Boone recently signed on to take over from Scott Cooper (who in turn took over from Ben Affleck). And while Cooper’s departure was rumored to stem from a difference of opinion with Warner Bros., over whether the collapse of civilization might occasionally provoke a few swear words—and Warners believed there was no reason the apocalypse can’t be family-friendly—Boone tells Vulture that’s not true. This Armageddon will be for adults.

“We’re gonna do one three-hour, R-rated version with an amazing A-list cast across the board,” Boone promises, rejecting not only those earlier reports that The Stand would aim for PG-13 territory, but also the suggestion that it would take two movies to cover all 823 to 1,152 pages of King’s book, depending on whether he tacked on any more chapters today. And while we’re not yet sure what A-listers will fill those roles—alongside Fault star Nat Wolff, that is—you can now rest assured they won’t be greeting grisly, plague-ridden corpses with any sanitized, Molly Ringwald TV movie exclamations. This time, M-O-O-N spells motherfucker.