The Town director Ben Affleck has been tapped by Warner Brothers to adapt and direct Stephen King’s The Stand according to reports from the always reliable Deadline. Although he has yet to officially accept the offer (per Collider), Affleck is apparently the newest helmer attached for the difficult task. Previously, David Yates of Harry Potter fame was rumored to be taking on The Stand with writer Steve Kloves.
Meanwhile, details on whether movie heads plan to adapt The Stand into a franchise isn’t clear. Currently Affleck, who also gained notoriety for his work with Gone Baby Gone, is working on the movie Argo with writers George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Chris Terrio. The movie takes place “during the 1979 hostage crisis in Tehran”, where “a CIA operative and a Hollywood makeup artist create a fake movie project as an attempt to smuggle a handful of Americans-in-hiding out of Iran.” Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Super 8’s Kyle Chandler, and Affleck himself are all on board. Is Affleck the right director for The Stand? Let us know what you think below, and get the full synopsis on The Stand below.
“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.”
