During our previous chat, you posited a theory I quite liked: That Mother Abagail and the Dark Man are actually talking to the same entity, not separate ones. But the things that we were really interested in with Flagg is, for one thing, we didn't want to make him evil, with a capital E, and we certainly didn't want to make the people following him uncomplicatedly evil. But I can also see how it would be considered unnecessary, story-wise. I like that. It's always a struggle. This is a project that has been in development for a very long time, as a feature film and now as a miniseries. Here he was, making a limited series for CBS All Access out of Stephen King's famed pandemic epic just as a real-life virus was spreading. Then you entirely cut out Stuart Redman (James Marsden) and Tom Cullen's (Brad William Henke) journey back to Boulder. How was that modernization process? King had told us early on that he had this coda that he had been planning for 30 years. But it doesn't have to. This gives humanity its best possible chance at moving forward in peace for a protracted period of time. That's probably a question for King himself. The thing that we didn't want under any circumstances was that sort of Monty Python cartoon hand out of the sky. CS Interview: Showrunner/co-creator Benjamin Cavell on The StandAhead of the series’ debut on the streaming platform, ComingSoon.net got the opportunity to chat with showrunner, co-creator and executive producer Benjamin Cavell (SEAL Team) to discuss his work adapting Stephen King’s The Stand into the miniseries, which premiered on CBS All Access today!RELATED: Ezra Miller … Sam Stone is a 10th level pop culture guru living just outside of Washington, DC who knows an unreasonable amount about The Beatles. One of the things I loved about King is there isn't this notion that that evil can just be sort of vanquished in one stroke. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? This is his attempt to give Frannie her stand; that's the reason for the coda. All the latest gaming news, game reviews and trailers. I have a nine-hour feature; I don't know how you do it otherwise, so that was incredibly exciting, obviously. And also having Owen there in the writers room with us writing episodes and as a producer on the show and having Stephen King reading all the drafts, it made us feel very safe and protected in terms of we could really go at this and make this our own and know that if we ever start venturing too far left field, there'll always be somebody to pull us back; not that ever had to or that they ever wanted to. Benjamin Cavell: I guess I started reading Stephen King at the time everyone—at least everyone I knew—did, when you were just becoming teenagers. And he decided he wanted to trust us to tell this coda that he had been planning. You had Owen King in the writers room and you do have that coda written by King closing out the miniseries that he's been thinking about for a long time. During our interview, Cavell discussed the decision to restructure the storytelling approach for this new nine-episode limited series event, and the challenges that … Every decision we tested. And I guess I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about getting in Alexander Skarsgård's naked butt in the very last minute of your limited series. The Losers’ Club podcast (which is always excellent) has an hour long interview with showrunner Benjamin Cavell, talking about his history as a Stephen King fan, the genesis of the series, and a teensy bit about the “Coda” episode penned by the master himself. I'm glad you mentioned the Hand of God. What else do you need? KEEP READING: The Stand: James Marsden on Playing the Apocalypse's Hero. It's also true that we have the enormous advantage of having just a whole slew really special actors; each of them were really committed to doing this, pulling this off and doing right by the iconic character they were playing. That's just the kind of thing we spent finding in the writers room, in the writing itself or in the editing. That medium is the only way to do The Stand righteously. I wanted to have him completely naked except for his boots. The wheel keeps turning and keeps coming around and the command is always the same. December 24, 2020 by Marisa Roffman Filed under The Stand. And you think of how he groomed Nadine since she was 12 when he first started contacting her. > Benjamin Cavell interview. Especially headed King's coda. You don't want to turn off anybody's passion, it's what we're here for! After numerous attempts to adapt the novel as a feature film, CBS All Access has launched a nine-episode miniseries following the two rival communities that rise in the wake of a devastating contagion that decimates the world. But as you say, it's unnecessary and seems a little beside the point. RELATED: The Stand: Odessa Young on Finding Inner Light at the End of the World. You were saying during the roundtable that by taking a nonlinear approach, you're differentiating yourself from previous versions of the story and other contagion narratives. How did you come up with breaks for flashbacks, flash-forwards and episode breaks? I just felt like there was much more consequence in him defying Flagg in front of his people who are obsessed with this charismatic authoritarian strongman – which is a figure that has been ascendant in our recent history and how they're fearful of looking weak in front of their audience. The only reason I can’t give it 5 stars is because Hilliard Guess is a horrible interviewer. Recapping The Stand: "The House of the Dead". Hannibal has something like 12 minutes of screen time in The Silence of the Lambs? If you sort of look at it in the right way, and you're willing to kind of make the leap, it really does look like fingers outstretched. Covering the hottest movie and TV topics that fans want. It really makes you emotionally earn the payoff of Stu and Frannie's reunion. As you said, Taylor and I cut our teeth working closely with actors and we both feel that is the way to get the best work is to hire really smart, committed actors and welcome them into the process to collaborate with them in developing their characters. In a roundtable interview attended by CBR, executive producers Benjamin Cavell and Taylor Elmore discussed adapting the novel as a nine-episode television miniseries, what parts of the novel they found painful to omit from the adaptation and updating certain … because we wanted to do everything possible to make that happen. Benjamin Cavell, Writer: Justified. Randall Flagg may be the best character King ever created; he's shown up in a lot of King's work. I'm trying to think of something that ends differently on screen than it does on the page. That's just inspiring, and if you can't be inspired by being part of that, you're in the wrong business. And yes, I don't know that there is a right. The question was what comes between the Hand of God and that moment. and Josh Boone was doing it as a feature. Interviews, News, Podcasts, Television. 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I think it's brilliant and you're right: Flagg does show up in a lot of King's work and he's also a character I feel like has been ripped off in a lot of people's work and in a lot of performances. It might feel just a little too perfect that the new adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand — a CBS All Access miniseries event from creators Josh Boone and Benjamin Cavell — is … Below, showrunner Benjamin Cavell takes our burning post-Stand questions. With Flagg, he takes you a little at a time and now he's in your head. Benjamin Cavell answers our questions about the final two episodes of the CBS All Access adaptation of Stephen King's epic thriller. And finally, the hosts are joined by Benjamin Cavell, who talks about the struggles of adapting the story and the pressure of trying to stay faithful to King’s words, while also changing some things up in the process. By murdering this guy in front of everybody it starts to weaken him. The Stand premieres on Dec. 17 on CBS All Access. It also always bothered me that in the book Glen dies in this private moment Lloyd and Flagg (Skarsgård). These guys are going to confront Flagg, but there is still a society in Boulder that is ongoing. There's so many things to say about Alexander's performance. It was really important to make Flagg seem like, for much of the time we spent talking about it, a potentially viable alternative to Mother Abagail. They set up the conditions necessary for Flagg to ultimately be – I hesitate to use the word "defeat" – but vanquished. Benjamin Cavell is a writer and producer, known for Justified (2010), Homeland (2011) and SEAL Team (2017). For me, I always kind of wince a bit while reading it in the book. Our big touchstone was this photograph from the Hubble telescope called the Pillars of Creation, which is like very distant Nebula, but is naturally occurring. Part of this is also a testament to Nat Wolff and his commitment and willingness to work with us on crafting an arc for that character. My feeling had always been, when I brought in Taylor to shepherd this through production, we talked about this and were totally on the same page, that Flagg really is -- at least early in the book -- the shark in Jaws; a little bit, frankly, like Hannibal Lecter. No signup or install needed. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. I appreciate that so much as a viewer and it's not done out of anything except that's what I love to watch. Even if you disagree, how annoyed can you be if they're bringing all this passion and floating all these ideas that might not fit into the particular story you're telling? THE STAND Boss on Stephen King’s Impact on the CBS All Access Adaptation. Tucker Gates, who directed our second episode, did a phenomenal job. He's very aware that Frannie is one of the real protagonists in the book, in some ways the main protagonist of the book, and she never gets her stand, she never gets to participate in that. The final two episodes of CBS All Access's adaptation of The Stand had some radically different changes from Stephen King's novel. Was there any discussion surrounding that move? From Glen Bateman's courtroom trial to the Hand of God's creeping destruction of New Vegas, to the all-new Frannie-in-a-well drama (penned by King himself), to Alexander Skarsgård's's butt shot, there's a lot to talk about. Emmy ® and WGA-nominated writer, producer and showrunner Benjamin Cavell began his television career with the critically acclaimed FX Network show Justified.For his work on the series, Cavell won a George Foster Peabody Award and received a WGA-Award nomination, and his episode “The Life Inside” was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America. That scene with Larry (Jovan Adepo) where she's almost disappointed that he doesn't see the truth as she understands it. (Spoiler alert for the finale, which streamed Feb. 11). It's quite beautiful the way he did it. But your take is very much in line with mine. I was most curious how you were going to handle the Hand of God. The Pitch: Based on Stephen King’s 1978 novel, The Stand is an apocalyptic epic that sees 99.4% of the world’s population decimated by a lethal strain of government-stamped influenza. BENJAMIN CAVELL: The scene in the book is very memorable, but we had some questions about it. io9 talks to cast and crew from CBS All Access' new limited series adaptation of Stephen King's classic horror novel The Stand ahead of its premiere on December 17. Stephen King is in. That, frankly, is what set this experience apart from is that everybody who was involved in this show felt a responsibility to do right by it, to do right by this book that means so much to so many fans and means so much to all of us. I don't know how you do it as a feature. When asked during an interview with Collide r if what they knew for sure they could change versus what from the book the had to get exactly right, Cavell … And Josh had been developing it as a feature and he's the first to say he's a filmmaker and not a showrunner so we knew that he was going to direct our premiere and finale -- which turned out to be King's coda -- and those are the two Josh is an executive producer on, so he could focus on his two-hour fan feature that he's been dreaming of for all these years. How did your involvement come about with it? That's a fun piece of King mythology. You always have to constantly have to stand up to this because, because evil doesn't go away. It's the kind of digression that you're willing to take in a novel, but I don't know after the climactic action for a series, to do this journey, where the question is, "Are they going to make it back?" And she's the person Mother Abigail (Whoopi Goldberg) chose to be in charge. The Stand showrunner Benjamin Cavell talks about bringing Stephen King's novel to CBS All Access and working with the writer on a new coda to the story.