Stephen King's THE STAND to Be Directed by Scott Cooper
(Image: Marvel Comics' Adaptation of The Stand)
Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper is looking to direct the big screen adaptation of Stephen King's epic novel The Stand. Ben Affleck was attached to it for awhile but had to drop out because he became unavailable when he took on the role of Batman in Zack Snyder's Batman Vs. Superman film. Personally, I wish Affleck would have stuck with directing The Stand. I actually like him better as a director than I do as an actor.
The Stand is one of my favorite stories from King, and it tells the story of good vs. evil after a virus wipes out most of the American population. While it features dozens of characters (such as the Trashcan Man and Mother Abigail) and overlapping story lines running over many years, the struggle boils down to a group of survivors fighting the Antichrist-like Randall Flagg.
Cooper seems like a talented director. His next film to be released is the revenge thriller Out of the Furnace, which stars Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, and Zoe Saldana. The Stand would definitely be a big undertaking for a director who has only made smaller films, but that might also make him the right guy for the job, because he seems to know how to tell a good story with great character development.
I'm just glad the studio still plans of moving forward with this project. It has the potential to be an epic movie. It would probably be even better if they did it as a trilogy, but I doubt that will happen.
Via: THR