Very excited for this news. I was completely shut off on the idea of fitting The Stand into 1 movie.
The issue I have... is whether or not the material will lend itself to be split up in quarters with enough "action" to warrant an entire movie? Where will the cutoffs be and are there good/natural cut off points? Can they pull this off with staying true to the source material? Im not worried about me and you... its John Q and Jane Q American. Will they sit through an entire movie with a lot of the plot consisting of Nick and Tom riding bikes across the midwest and the backstory and present preparations of Mother Abigail? Along with the first days of getting set up at Hemmingford Home and moving to Boulder. There are slogging parts of the story. I love every word of it... but to get the hook into others to justify the $$$?
I have said it before. This would be ultimate if it were presented on HBO or Showtime as (2) 10 episode series. That way you can have the 'slow' episodes without the pressure of giving the audience their complete money's worth.
The current way the writers of Game of Thrones have worked this problem would work for The Stand. They are not concerned with doing "Season Four = Book Four" but instead weaving the action together to make sense. This works well for "the Qs", but the Constant Reader's complaint would be "but this hasn't happened yet in the book, how can that now be happening?". Either way, this is exciting news IMHO and I can't wait!