CBS All Access’ The Stand series begins to enlist its ensemble cast
Collider is reporting that the first pieces of the ensemble cast for CBS All Access’ The Stand, based on the iconic book by Stephen King, is currently in negotiations with the streaming service.
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James Marsden (Westworld) is in advanced negotiations to play Stu Redman, a Texan who is the first man discovered to be immune to the Captain Trips virus that has ravaged the planet. He eventually becomes a leader in a community known as the Free Zone and is tasked with confronting the evil Randall Flagg. Amber Heard (Aquaman) is in negotiations to play Nadine Cross, a private school teacher and a virgin who believes she has a unique destiny to be by Flagg’s side.
Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost) is in negotiations to play Mother Abagail, who is immune to the superflu and leads the ‘good’ survivors of the plague toward Boulder, Colorado. She also claims to be a prophet of God. Ruby Dee originated the character in the miniseries. Oscar nominee Greg Kinnear (As Good as It Gets) is in negotiations to play Glen Bateman, an arthritis-afflicted professor who joins Stu on his journey to meet Mother Abagail.
Odessa Young (Assassination Nation) is in advanced negotiations to play Frannie Goldsmith, a pregnant woman who leaves her devastated community with a man named Harold Lauder, but ends up falling in love with Stu, much to Harold’s chagrin. Henry Zaga (The New Mutants) will play Nick Andros, a young, deaf-mute grifter who wears an eye patch for most of King’s book.
The 10 episode series from writers Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars, The New Mutants) and Ben Cavell (SEAL Team), reveals that this is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after, a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides — or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail — and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.
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Boone, who has been developing the project for years, will also direct the series for CBS Television Studios. Boone, Roy Lee, Jimmy Miller, Richard P. Rubinstein, and Cavell will executive produce. Will Weiske and Miri Yoon will co-executive produce with Owen King serving as producer.