Slowly but surely, The Stand miniseries that was previously announced for CBS All Access is coming together. It was initially revealed in January that the streaming service was getting in the Stephen King business by producing a new adaptation of the author's epic novel, with Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) set to head up the project. Now, King himself has provided an encouraging update on the project's status.

Stephen King rarely appears on podcasts, but he did recently. During the course of the conversation, he was asked about The Stand and where it's at currently. King had nothing but kind words to say about Josh Boone and also revealed that they're going to be able to do a much more free and faithful adaptation this time around, thanks to CBS putting the resources behind it in order to make that possible. Here's what King had to say.

"I like Josh Boone's work. I actually worked with him on his first feature (2012's Stuck in Love). I couldn't act in it, which is what he wanted me to do, so I had to be an audio thing. And then he did The Fault in Our Stars, which I thought showed his grasp of the medium. I like him a lot. I like his reach, his ambition for it. But, really, the thing I'm mostly excited about is, first of all, we've got two more hours to tell the story and, second, we're free of all those things that held us back with The Stand, that is to say, not only is the budget bigger, even if you equalize the two eras, we're [more free] in terms of language and in terms of violence in a way that we weren't with the original Stand. CBS All Access would really like this to work, I think, and they put a lot of muscle behind it, so I'm hopeful, but it's early days yet. The casting isn't complete. My... son Owen has written some of the scripts and they're terrific, so it's good."

That all sounds rather promising. The Stand was originally published in 1978 and remains one of Stephen King's most beloved works. It was previously adapted on ABC in 1994. As the author mentions, that particular adaptation was limited by what they were able to do on network television, in addition to budgetary constraints and other hurdles that got in the way of maximizing its potential. It sounds very much like things will be different this time around.

There are few things hotter than Stephen King right now in the entertainment landscape, what with IT becoming the highest-grossing horror movie ever and IT: Chapter Two on the way later this year, to go along with other new adaptations like Pet Sematary and a host of others on the way. CBS All Access is fighting to get a leg up in the streaming game like everyone else. To do that requires premium content. Done right, The Stand would certainly qualify.

The 10-episode series does not yet have a premiere date. As King says, it's still early days, unfortunately. We'll be sure to keep you posted as further details on the project are made available. For more with King, check out the latest episode of the Post Mortem Podcast.