Ben Affleck to Direct Stephen King Adaptation The Stand

Color me excited! As a big fan of Stephen King, I'm more than happy with the popularity his work is currently enjoying in Hollywood. Under the Dome may become a Showtime series. A new version of Carrie is being written. Jonathan Demme bought the rights to King's upcoming novel 11/22/63. And, as announced in January, The Stand is getting a film adaptation, possibly a trilogy.

And now Warner Brothers Pictures has supposedly hired Ben Affleck to helm the film (or three). Harry Potter director David Yates was supposedly close to cutting a deal, but with this new news coming down the pipeline, that deal apparently never went through. Yates wouldn't have been a bad choice, especially considering he directed the dark and gloomy end chapters of Harry Potter, but I'm a fan of Affleck and his directing. I've only seen Gone Baby Gone and The Town (he also directed two shorts), but he did a phenomenal job with them. I'm not one of those people who hates him as an actor, I think he's got a lot of talent, but I definitely prefer him behind the camera as opposed to in front of it.

Of course, this won't be the first time King's post apocalyptic novel has been adapted into live action. In 1994, a six-hour miniseries was released starring Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe, and others.