Ben Affleck hired to adapt/direct Stephen King's The Stand

[retablo]

From Deadline Hollywood:

"Warner Bros has chosen Ben Affleck to adapt and direct The Stand, Stephen King’s apocalyptic mammoth book. Affleck has become a cornerstone director for the studio, but this would be his greatest challenge yet. Even King has been reticent about the idea of making a feature of his book, which previously was turned into a miniseries. With The Town and Gone Baby Gone, Affleck has shown the grit necessary to handle such an unforgettable tale. It’s early days, but the studio loves Affleck, who’s now directing Argo."

http://www.deadline.com/2011/10/ben-...ake-the-stand/

[Taipan]

I like Affleck as a director, but the book will need to be condensed to make the time slot. If they make the movie with a "inspired by The Stand" tag, then it could work. I don't see this working out....

[CYMBOL]

It would have to be a trilogy, or a 3 hour movie.

The mini series was just awful.

Also, some things need to be changed. Trash can man was always a bit silly to me. They need to find the right angle for certain characters, on screen, they come off a bit ridiculous.

I'll have to go watch The Town to see what I think of his directing.

I saw that David Yates had been on the running, that could have been cool. He certainly knows how to make epics with a large cast.

Guess we will see how this turns out. This will make or break Affleck as a director.

[42041]

This will be a thankless job. I don't see how a movie could be made without gutting much of the book, and then you'll have a bunch of people whining about it not being faithful.

[Belloche]

I've got nothing against Affleck as a director, but if I'm Warner Bros with a boatload of cash to make a Stephen King adaptation the first person I call is Frank Darabont.

[Belloche]

Originally Posted by CYMBOL

The mini series was just awful.

It's not perfect, but given the limitations of network television at the time and budget, I thought they did a fine job. They couldn't have found a better Stu Redman than Gary Sinise. Now Molly Ringwald .......

[octagon]

Originally Posted by CYMBOL

It would have to be a trilogy, or a 3 hour movie.

The mini series was just awful.

Also, some things need to be changed. Trash can man was always a bit silly to me. They need to find the right angle for certain characters, on screen, they come off a bit ridiculous.

I'll have to go watch The Town to see what I think of his directing.

I saw that David Yates had been on the running, that could have been cool. He certainly knows how to make epics with a large cast.

Guess we will see how this turns out. This will make or break Affleck as a director.

No, it won't. Gone Baby Gone and The Town were more than solid enough to establish him as a legitimate director. This could certainly further cement that but if it flops, it flops. He'll be fine (esp considering how difficult King epics have proven in the past...there's a lot of built in slack for the screenwriters/director there).

I hope this gets off the ground, though. It's been years (*cough* decades) since I've read the book but I'd be interested to see what he can do with it.

[MondoRick]

Back in the '70s George Romero was planning a version of The Stand. That's still the version I'd like to see Would much rather see Frank Darabont take it on than Affleck, I honestly don't see that he has the experience to take on such an epic piece.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Belloche

I've got nothing against Affleck as a director, but if I'm Warner Bros with a boatload of cash to make a Stephen King adaptation the first person I call is Frank Darabont.

Agreed. Affleck is great, but Darabont "gets" King.

[Taipan]

Durabont should have been their first choice, and perhaps he was? Who knows with tinsel town.

[Dotpattern]

Originally Posted by Belloche

I've got nothing against Affleck as a director, but if I'm Warner Bros with a boatload of cash to make a Stephen King adaptation the first person I call is Frank Darabont.

Who says they didn't?

[BladeRunner2007]

Did this project die? If they ever make another adaption of the novel I wanna see Eva Green as Nadine Cross and Jared Leto as Larry Underwood.

[donzo29]

Originally Posted by BladeRunner2007

Did this project die? If they ever make another adaption of the novel I wanna see Eva Green as Nadine Cross and Jared Leto as Larry Underwood.

IMDB has this listed as "in development" with Josh Boone listed as the director now. That is all I know.
https://pro-labs.imdb.com/title/tt18...t_indev_fmake1

[Darth Marcus]

Holy thread resurrection, Batman!

Here's what's listed on Wikipedia regarding the development:

In January 2011, it was announced that Warner Bros. and CBS Films will be developing a feature-length film adaptation of The Stand. There is currently no official release date. In July 2011, it was reported that the film may be a trilogy, and that David Yates is considering directing. On August 10, Warner Bros. finalized the deal for Yates and Harry Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves to re-team for a multi-movie version of The Stand. However, in October 2011, it was reported that both Yates and Kloves had left the project because Yates felt it would work better as a miniseries, and that actor/director Ben Affleck was Warner Bros.' new choice for the project. In August 2013, it was reported that Affleck had left the project for the role as Batman and Scott Cooper was in talks to rewrite and direct. Cooper later dropped out of the project over creative differences with the studio.

[cussyeah]

Affleck and Cooper were interesting choices to me. I want to say hiring Josh Boone is an outside the box move judging by his 2 credits (neither of which I've seen, though I've read Fault in Our Stars), but the guys before them never directed anything like the Stand either. I predict this might change hands again before we see this movie.

[SilentNight]

with the success of stuff like True Blood, American Horror Story, Hannibal, Walking Dead I cannot imagine a season long (at least) mini-series wouldn't be the best plan for this.

I just read the extended version novel and it immediately became the best book I've ever read (with Kings own IT and Salem's Lot running second and third) and then I got through the first 90 minutes of the TV mini series by Mick Garris who hasn't done anything good, EVER. It was absolutely terrible on every level. At least IT from Tommy Lee Wallace has a polished "movie" feel to the butchered IT mini-series but The Stand felt like a shot on low grade video movie that was more 80's than a lot of 80's movies even were (Stand was a 90's movie).

While I can't see this working even in a 3 hour version, a season long mini series would do it justice and with how far we've come with TV series and the amount of language, violence and sex they could easily make this R rated stuff which is most certainly should be.

[Kryptonic]

There's no way to do The Stand in a single film and do it justice. It's like trying to squeeze Lord of the Rings into a single film. It doesn't work. It either needs a trilogy of three-hour R-rated films or a 10 episode mini-series on HBO.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by SilentNight

I just read the extended version novel and it immediately became the best book I've ever read (with Kings own IT and Salem's Lot running second and third) ...

We basically have the same top three King books, albeit in a different order. My favourite is It, followed by The Stand and 'Salem's Lot.

[BladeRunner2007]

Originally Posted by Kryptonic

There's no way to do The Stand in a single film and do it justice. It's like trying to squeeze Lord of the Rings into a single film. It doesn't work. It either needs a trilogy of three-hour R-rated films or a 10 episode mini-series on HBO.

The middle part of the novel is too long and too much talking imo. Would make for a very boring 2nd movie in a possible trilogy.

[SilentNight]

Originally Posted by BladeRunner2007

The middle part of the novel is too long and too much talking imo. Would make for a very boring 2nd movie in a possible trilogy.

I agree to an extent. Once they start settling into the town before the big showdown in Vegas things get slow. However, I have all the Marvel graphic novels and they did a really good job of keeping things interesting during those slower parts. Using those as a blue print would be great for a trilogy or mini series.

and dallywhitty, that's great! It and Stand are so close it's almost hard for me to pick one but I loved the epic feel of Stand. Especially when things were going to hell in the beginning. Salem's Lot is King at his early years best with such great descriptions of small time life. Something he revisited in Needful Things although I didn't like that near as much as Salem's Lot. In fact, Needful Things was kind of a mess if you ask me.