Stephen KIng's "The Stand", particularlyi its television adaptation.

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the most unbelievable part of the novel is a rock star named "Larry Underwood" having a hit called "Baby, Can You Dig Your Man?"

he's a righteous man

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 22 April 2019 23:57 (five years ago) link

subtext is obviously "Baby, Can You Dig Your (Trashcan) Man"

Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 22 April 2019 23:58 (five years ago) link

DIGYOMAN

☮ (peace, man), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 11:21 (five years ago) link

you like that happy crappy?

valet doberman (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 14:22 (five years ago) link

that brown sound sure do get around.

☮ (peace, man), Tuesday, 23 April 2019 14:57 (five years ago) link

one year passes...

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/05/stephen-kings-the-stand-exclusive-first-look

This has been remade, to be released in December. Most of this article just lays out who the characters are. Whoopi Goldberg is playing Mother Abigail and mentions that “I’ve been fighting with not making her the Magic Negro because she’s complicated.” Also, Larry Underwood is portrayed by Jovan Adepo, a black actor. No word yet on how they will update Baby, Can You Dig Your Man.

peace, man, Wednesday, 26 August 2020 13:23 (three years ago) link

The timing of this is kind of amazing and I’m actually surprised they didn’t try and bring the release forward a bit - even though the pandemic part fades from the story and is really scene-setting for the supernatural post-apocalyptic stuff, if this is any good at all it could be huge

agent brodie canks (wins), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 14:49 (three years ago) link

Oh dear lord no not now.

Matt DC, Wednesday, 26 August 2020 14:51 (three years ago) link

Whoopi Goldberg is playing Mother Abigail and mentions that “I’ve been fighting with not making her the Magic Negro because she’s complicated.”

Seems hard given this character is almost the purest example of the trope ever put to the page.

No word yet on how they will update Baby, Can You Dig Your Man.

No updates needed, he's a righteous man

Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 14:52 (three years ago) link

Newer adaptations of king’s bid novels are very keen to preempt common complaints and it never seems to result in better films

Speaking of which, king himself has apparently written the last episode and given it a new ending to replace the hated hand of god comes down and pokes a nuke sequence

agent brodie canks (wins), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 15:14 (three years ago) link

That scene is hated? I can't deny it comes out of nowhere but it's so much a part of my experience of the novel that I can't imagine a version not having it. Like, I neither hate it nor love it, it just seems like part of what The Stand IS.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 15:16 (three years ago) link

It’s one that comes up when people discuss the conventional wisdom that King sucks at endings - there is definitely something very lazy about it, if mother Abigail is the purest example of a magical negro then this is surely the purest example of deus ex machina

agent brodie canks (wins), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 15:33 (three years ago) link

I think I simultaneously understand (and even understood reading it as a kid) that it's a cheap ending, while being unable to imagine it any other way. That said, I have a lot of faith in El Rey and if he's writing a new ending I believe he has something that will feel right.

Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 15:37 (three years ago) link

I have a degree of affection for King's 'let's say...Moe' endings. I know what to expect generally and am pleasantly surprised when he sticks the landing.

the secret of sucess is to know all rules ...and brake them (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 15:40 (three years ago) link

...and then everyone in The Boulder Free Zone went down into the sewers and had sex with Frannie. The End.

Orson Well Yeah (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 15:51 (three years ago) link

Interesting that one of his best Big Book Endings, 11-22-63, came from a suggestion from Joe Hill

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 27 August 2020 11:17 (three years ago) link

Good casting - I always like Marsden, the John Barrowman Who Can Act, Kinnear and Skarsgard both seem like good fits for their roles too. Plus bonus points for not casting Michael Sheen, who must never play an American again

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 27 August 2020 11:23 (three years ago) link

“We love old people. We just do,” said Goldberg. “On top of everything else they have been, and seen, and have different ideas and are probably trying to lead us in a good way.

hm this has not been my experience of the last 6 months.

turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Thursday, 27 August 2020 16:36 (three years ago) link

Everyone sure looks well-dressed for this apocalypse.

american primitive stylophone (zchyrs), Thursday, 27 August 2020 17:38 (three years ago) link

I am really attached to Jamey Sheridan's denim-clad, grinning Boomer Flagg, but I'll try my best to accept Skarsgard, who is ofc a good actor.

american primitive stylophone (zchyrs), Thursday, 27 August 2020 17:44 (three years ago) link

Sheridans face is enormous

agent brodie canks (wins), Thursday, 27 August 2020 17:45 (three years ago) link

Like they make this latex demon face for him later and it just looks like his face

agent brodie canks (wins), Thursday, 27 August 2020 17:46 (three years ago) link

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d2/fe/14/d2fe143bbf358271a6f11ee8519ac594.jpg

How is this not a makeup effect

agent brodie canks (wins), Thursday, 27 August 2020 17:47 (three years ago) link

Seriously! Dude's face is inherently demonic

american primitive stylophone (zchyrs), Thursday, 27 August 2020 17:48 (three years ago) link

three months pass...

i have too much hope invested in this.

I bet "Baby can You Dig Your Man" will be a JOhn Mayer-esque piece

Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Sunday, 6 December 2020 16:38 (three years ago) link

Yeah, I’m probably too stoked for this as well. I just started rereading the book for the third time in anticipation, but I’m not sure I’ll finish it.

Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Sunday, 6 December 2020 16:58 (three years ago) link

I only ever got through it the once in full, but it was worthwhile. I was screaming for a retry at the miniseries for years after I couldn't take Parker Lewis and Molly Ringwald in their roles. please don't fuggitup.

the version I read was the expanded version, so I never had the experience of reading the original edit to compare it to.

Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Sunday, 6 December 2020 17:00 (three years ago) link

My one read was the expanded. If I get around to rereading it it’s gonna be the standard text (which one is currently in print?)

covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 6 December 2020 20:12 (three years ago) link

AFAIK only the expanded is in print, but I’m sure you could pick up the original used for cheap. I’ve read both, and felt the expanded one really added nothing but length. And a minor character who’s like juvenile delinquent Elvis in a hot rod.

Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Sunday, 6 December 2020 22:05 (three years ago) link

The Kid. I love love love the chapters with him and trashcan man together. But other expanded material was less salutary. Especially the coda.

covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 6 December 2020 22:13 (three years ago) link

There’s all the weird cultural ephemera updates too, like adding references to Madonna and Deathrace 2000 arcade game that seemed pointless to me.

Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Sunday, 6 December 2020 22:22 (three years ago) link

I do hope they use 'Don't Fear the Reaper' some place in the new version, as that song was so perfect in the title sequence in the original.

earlnash, Sunday, 6 December 2020 22:24 (three years ago) link

Thinking about it, I would LOVE to hear a Cliff Martinez do an arrangement of 'Don't Fear the Reaper' in his style say ala "Solaris" soundtrack.

earlnash, Sunday, 6 December 2020 22:26 (three years ago) link

we'll get Burt Stanton's "Grim Reapah burbbhrbhbbhbburbbb"

Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Sunday, 6 December 2020 22:28 (three years ago) link

James Marsden should only do comedy or comedy-adjacent roles imo

I like the extended version. In for a penny, etc. Still much less of a commitment than The Dark Tower

Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 7 December 2020 00:03 (three years ago) link

Starting in the middle of the story sounds like a really weird and bad thing to do

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-reviews/stand-stephen-king-cbs-all-access-review-1102209/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

nate woolls, Thursday, 17 December 2020 04:26 (three years ago) link

Whuuuuut

I'd read something about an overabundance of flashbacks but I just assumed they meant flashbacks to the pre-Trips lives of the characters.

I...think I might not actually be interested in this now?

You will notice a small sink where your sofa once was. (Old Lunch), Thursday, 17 December 2020 04:48 (three years ago) link

Like...THE UNFOLDING OF THE PLAGUE IS THE BEST PART OF THE BOOK, you numbnuts creatives.

You will notice a small sink where your sofa once was. (Old Lunch), Thursday, 17 December 2020 04:50 (three years ago) link

THE UNFOLDING OF THE PLAGUE IS THE BEST PART OF THE BOOK

tied with the downfall of Harold Lauder, but basically yes, this restructuring sounds like a lousy idea

Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 17 December 2020 05:28 (three years ago) link

I still remember my crushing disappointment after the book switched from a grand, sweeping narrative about the spread of the plague and the ruin of modernity to a people sitting around planning a strategy for a town hall meeting

thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Thursday, 17 December 2020 05:35 (three years ago) link

The book sorta flashes forward and back throughout, IIRC. When I was reading it in 2007-ish, I remember thinking, "Oh that's why the Lost guys keep mentioning it".

But yeah, given that "normality is slowly and imperceptibly invaded by chaos" is one of King's main motifs, it's weird to junk that.

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 17 December 2020 11:30 (three years ago) link

X-post is OTM, though. Once they're all gathered in Boulder, most of the best parts of the book are done.

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 17 December 2020 11:31 (three years ago) link

I think King thought the same, though? Wasn't he, like, "fuck it, if I blow up the blind guy, it'll juice the novel a little"?

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 17 December 2020 11:32 (three years ago) link

Godfuckingdammit

Been waiting for this for years and they're gonna junk the best part of the book.

Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Thursday, 17 December 2020 12:37 (three years ago) link

Might as well be 9 episodes of a Larry Underwood concert

Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Thursday, 17 December 2020 12:38 (three years ago) link

This is making me a little IA, I think because I had been planning to avoid it, as seemingly every King adaptation since The Mist has been a turd, but then the hype was starting to get to me and I was like 'y'know, it'll at least be better than the original miniseries.' But now I'm not so sure of that.

Pretty much every shitty King movie is shitty because the shitty hacks making it think they know better than King how to make his stories work. Good luck with that, ya goofballs.

You will notice a small sink where your sofa once was. (Old Lunch), Thursday, 17 December 2020 13:11 (three years ago) link

The Outsider was alright, at least for the first half

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 17 December 2020 13:17 (three years ago) link

For all of its early 90s cheese, for all of what it gets wrong and bad, I actually love the original mini series. Some of the casting is absolutely pitch perfect and there's no way I can disconnect the TV versions from my mental image of the characters. Maybe some of it is nostalgia as I used to rewatch it a lot as a teen, but I do still think it has a lot going for it... it really does take it's time and not rush things, the score is lovely too

Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Thursday, 17 December 2020 13:18 (three years ago) link

plus it has both Don't Fear The Reaper AND Don't Dream It's Over.

Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Thursday, 17 December 2020 13:20 (three years ago) link

Oh right, The Outsider was indeed good. How soon I forget.

I'm sure there are others that are dece but high-profile stuff like The Dark Tower and the It remake really stick in my craw.

You will notice a small sink where your sofa once was. (Old Lunch), Thursday, 17 December 2020 13:21 (three years ago) link


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