Stephen King’s The Stand has been making waves this last week, as Deadline reports the actor-turned-director Ben Affleck is Warner Bros.’ choice for adapting the
iconic 1978 novel to the big screen.
Efforts to bring the novel to theaters have been around almost as
long as the novel itself, with years of development hell through the '80s resulting
in a near three-hour script attached to George A. Romero, which looked promising
until Warner Bros. up and scrapped the project. Talk of reviving the post-apocalyptic
epic started early this year, when "Harry Potter" helmer David Yates was rumored to be onboard as director
for a three-part film deal.
Affleck made a cool mint for the Warners with last year’s The Town, a feat the studio hopes to repeat with Argo, a retelling of the 1979 Tehran hostage crisis that Affleck is currently shooting. And if that weren’t enough, word has also come out that Affleck is wanted to direct the life story of notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger. Like The Stand, Warner Bros. is set to distribute the biopic, with Matt Damon set to star as the crime-lord-turned-FBI-informant whose exploits provided the framework for Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed crime-drama The Departed. No word yet on which project is taking precedence, but considering that there are at least two other Bulger films being prepped by different studios, "Stand" fans may have to be kept waiting just a little while longer.