Ben Affleck & 'The Stand': Director Having 'Hard Time' With Stephen King Adaptation

In October of 2011, Deadline.com reported that Ben Affleck was Warner Bros. top choice to direct an adaptation of Stephen King's "The Stand." The news was somewhat shocking in those pre-"Argo" days, if only because some two months earlier, HitFix reported that "Harry Potter" director David Yates was going to take on the project. (Yates never did; instead, he's working on a "Tarzan" adaptation for the studio.)

In January, Vulture reported that David Kajganich ("Invasion") was hired to adapt "The Stand," but precious little has been heard from the Free Zone since, but in a new interview with GQ, Affleck revealed that the film isn't near production just yet.

"Right now we're having a very hard time," he said. "But I like the idea -- it's like 'The Lord of the Rings' in America. And it's about how we would reinvent ourselves as a society. If we started all over again, what would we do?"

While he waits for "The Stand" to get into shape, Affleck is certainly keeping himself busy. He signed up to direct an adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel "Live By Night" in October; that film will probably be his next feature. He's also still working on a script with Matt Damon about mobster Whitey Bulger.

"My guess is honestly, [it'll be] the movie after next," Affleck told The Playlist about the mob movie. "I'll probably find something that's in better shape to do next until we got that one ready, and then we'll go ahead and fire that one up. [...] We're in the process writing it, the script is not ready yet, it needs a lot more work."

For more on Affleck, head over to GQ.

[via GQ]

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/ben-affleck-the-stand_n_2143718.html

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