Ben Affleck Hires David Kajganich To Adapt Stephen King's The Stand
Kajganich wrote a failed 'It' adaptation at Warner Bros but gets a second stab at King's work with the famous post-apocalyptic novel.
According to Vulture, Ben Affleck has accepted Warner Bros's offer to direct their blockbuster adaptation of Stephen King's 1,100 page apocalyptic 1978 novel The Stand, replacing Harry Potter director David Yates. A firm offer went out to Affleck in October and I believe this is the first time we've heard that he accepted. They say Affleck has hired screenwriter David Kajganich to adapt King's famous tome. Kajganich wrote Blood Creek and The Invasion (a botched 2007 remake of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers) but likely came to Affleck and WB's attention because of his unproduced adaptation of King's 'It', a similarly epic horror novel that is not easy to adapt into a film but has obviously impressed. That project has been in the works since 2009 however and is believed to have been dropped by WB but presumably not because of Kajganich's quality of work. The Stand is a post-apocalyptic novel where a plague nicknamed Captain Trips has caused mass devastation to the planet, wiping out almost everyone. The novel focuses on the rag-tag group of survivors who share dreams of a mysterious evil being and they team-up, forming a community, to try and rid them of it. Its an awesome novel and birthed a pretty cool mini-series in the 90s with Gary Sinise but it was always limited by its medium and with a big scale budget and someone as resourceful as Affleck, the possibilites are truly endless. Last we heard Warner Bros were planning a multi-film adaptation. Affleck will be busy on his third feature as director 'Argo' until at least late-summer so don't expect any casting news for at least half a year as Kajganich works on the script. Though we just so happened to have given our casting choices HERE.