By Earlier this year, we reported that Harry Potter team Steve Cloves and David Yates were going to adapt Stephen King’s apocalyptic opus The Stand. Well, a package just arrived to spew hot, angry egg all over our faces. Deadline has just received word that Warner Brothers has chosen Ben Affleck to write and direct the adaptation. Affleck is riding higher than he ever has, as both of his directorial outings have been critical darlings. No word has been given about Yates and Cloves’s status with the project, though I would say it’s safe to assume that their deal fell apart in late stages, hence their sudden, unannounced departure.
I’m psyched to see what Ben Affleck can do with such a MASSIVE project. He’s got the ability to make The Stand as dark and disturbing as it needs to be, but I wonder what he’ll do with a project with such an epic scope. Obviously, thanks to Jenika’s mad photoshop skills, we already know that Affleck himself is perfect to play the evil Randall Flagg. Now let’s get Bruce Springsteen to come in and play Larry Underwood. I always pictured him when I read the book.
[Via Deadline]